It is hard to believe that we are now one third of the way through our southern African journey. This translates as approximately 1700 k’s of walking and cycling through the varied and often spectacular landscapes of Namibia and now, the wooded and largely uninhabited...
It took us 27 days and 1,490 km to pass through Namibia. And as it so often happens on long journeys, individual days tend to merge the passage of time. As we left the Dobe border post for the Okavango wetlands in Botswana, recollections of those first steps as we...
The TRACKS team were due to cross the border into western Botswana today, 27 May, at remote Dobe and to meet PJ Besterlink, old friend and conservation “giant” of Botswana. As the Logistics Manager for the expedition, when I had heard nothing from the team by 6 pm I...
Home alone after an intense busy stressful intimate people-filled period of the first 12 days of the Tracks of Giants project – it is difficult to settle. Responsibility for the logistics of the expedition have, for the last year, weighed heavily on my sleep...
18th May 2012 – Eighteen days and 880 kms later, its rest day at Andersons Camp in the Ongava Concession that lies adjacent to the Okaukuejo Gate of Etosha National Park. Thanks to Mike Wassing, Lious Nortje and all the staff at Wilderness Safaris for providing this...
Hiking up the Horuseb Valley, across the Skeleton Coast, was a lifetime experience. As we turned inland from the coast we saw our first elephant spoor (tracks), those of a large bull that had walked to the coast, turned, and ambled all the way back up the valley. We...
I have been to the tiny dusty village of Puros a number of times, but never had this collection of drab tin and pre-fab dwellings been such a welcome sight. Lying on the edge of the Hoarusib River that splits the true Namib Desert from the pre-Namib and Escarpment to...
1 May 2012 wake-up call at 0500 – it was very dark and damp on the little promontory of Rocky Point, jutting into the Atlantic Ocean on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast. After years of discussion, an announcement of intention during WILD9 (Mexico, 2009), and two years of...
30 April, at the base camp in Purros, NW Namibia– We packed for the first 5 days which would be a Wilderness Leadership School type wilderness trail, or trek, that would launch TRACKS on the coast of Namibia, headed east for 5 months to the Indian Ocean. Packed and...
After meetings in Washington DC in late April, everything was focused on gathering exit speed in the US to head to NW Namibia to join the team members assembling from all points of the compass to launch the Tracks of Giants expedition. As I departed the US on 25...
