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namibia

Quick Stopover (The Interlude)

By Carolyn Chon

August 24^th, 2019

smell you later, purros.

Before I move on to Etosha, here's a quick post on a one night pit-stop at a pleasant campsite called Hoada.

I left Purros perhaps 5-10mins after my new found friends left. As I made my way out, just as I suspected, I got lost and was making wrong turns around the area. Even tyre tracks couldn't guide me out this time, as there were so many!

Thankfully, my guide spotted the little lost Asian girl and helped lead the way.

This time round, I made sure I took more photos of the landscape on my way out. All the shots below are from my phone - plenty of drive-bys. Just look at how wide and epic the landscape is!

the highlight of the drive

was seeing this parent and child in the desert!

The campers told me that before they got to Purros, they free-camp somewhere and woke up to giraffes foraging around them and I remember thinking, oh how lucky! So, I'd like to pretend that these two giraffes I spotted were the same ones they saw. Pretend being the key word here.

I passed by Palmwag on my way to Hoada, and had to stop at the veterinary check point again. This time, I had to step out of the car, open up my trunk, they'd go inside the back and opened up my tiny fridge, which I barely used. Think I only had orange juice and Snicker bars inside. Then, I opened up my luggage for them to look through as well.

Though I already knew the answer to my question, I asked them anyway on what do they usually look for. Rhino horn, tusks and diamonds too. One of them asked if I had any with me, to which I said yes and proceeded to point out the tattoo of the Bornean/Sumatran Rhino I had on my leg. I also told them, that we too have rhinos and we too are saying goodbye to them.

I had to sign out, just as I signed in when I entered the area, and they went oooh Malaysia. They didn't know where it was, until I mentioned our dear-somehow-more-popular than us neighbours.

I also asked them if they've had many Malaysians pass through, to which they said no.

Singapore? No.

China? TOO MANY! Haha.

Hoada campsite

After my exchange of pleasantries and farewells with the security, I made my way East to Hoada, passing through a mountainous drive on Grootberg Pass. As much as I wanted to take photos while passing through, I didn't because the roads were more narrow and the roads more windy than what I was used to over there so far.

I reached Hoada not too long after and was greeted by a very jovial and friendly person. He told me where to go to get to my tent, and told me there's a bar on top of the rocks behind the reception, aptly named Sunset Bar as it provided a nice vantage point to watch the sunset.

While I did hang out at the bar for a bit, I was getting hungry and was in desperate need for a good shower, I went back to my camp before the sun said good night. I'm a newbie with night time long-exposure shots, so please pardon these amateur photos. The one you see with the tent, was taken in the shower/toilet area which was open, which I really loved.

breakfast is served!

Next morning, as I packed up and got ready to leave, there was a pleasant surprise waiting for me on the tiny verandah. Inside this green box was my breakfast.

Hot water in the flask. Sachets of coffee, tea and sugar. An orange, and I think it was either bread or cookies wrapped in the brown cloth. Now, bear in mind, I still had not stock up on food and was still on that liquid diet, so this was definitely something wonderful to wake up to. Especially, when I wasn't expecting ANY FOOD at all from them.