We had seen amazing wildlife documentaries and photos from the Kalahari desert and the Okavanga delta. So we had to experience it for ourselves. 

That's how 6 Icelanders end up in an Exodus truck in Namibia with no luggage.

Fortunately the luggage arrived only hours after us because the first night brought frost in this winter wonderland below the equator.

Our first sight was the Okavanga delta, only to be fully appreciated from the air. This little 7 seater gives a good overview but in fact doesn't do it justice. To get the idea, you need a good satellite picture.

The delta is a seasonal river. It stems from the mountains in Angloa and flows into the Kalahari desert in the north-western part of Botswana. There it brings life to the desert for a part of the year until the water has all disappeared and the desert takes over again.

The rains in Angola start in October and around the turn of the year the Okavanga starts flowing into Botswana. It continues to flow until end of July. By then, the delta covers over 16000 sq km of land.

We also got a chance to experience it close up and personal.  In a mokoro we glided into the midst of it all to camp out for a night.

The camping site was unbelievably beautiful. An English teacher once taught me that to know how to spell bEAUty you need to remember "Elephants Are Ugly". I want to maintain she had never seen elephants. And certainly never watched them from her campsite.

In a casual stroll around our campsite we observed elephants, wildebeests, zebras and other animals. We were very close to the animals. Close inspection will reveal our travel companion Árni in the background in the photo above.

Tsodilo hills are the only discrepancy in the flatlands around the Okavango Delta. For thousands of years the San people of Kalahari believed the hills to be the source of life. The resting place for the dead. They made paintings on the rock surface to appeal to higher powers which are still visible today. Some are believed to be more than 24 000 years old.

This is the handsome group of Icelanders that took this brilliant tour with Exodus around Namibia and Bostwana.

Clockwise from right: Árni, Magga Dora, Halldora, Herborg, Hjalmar and Hlynur. 

Mahango game reserve in the Caprivi strip of Namibia served as a warm up for Etosha in this trip.  A little game drive to check out all the gear and build up suspense.

The baobab tree is remarkable. It is deciduous, sheds it leaves in the dry season. About 2 weeks before it rains the leaves appear again to drink in the water.

The oryx is one of the most beautiful antilopes with its masked face and majestic antlers. It also makes a very nice steak.

Etosha national park in north Namibia is dominated by the Etosha pan which is a saline lake for a fleeting moment in summer. The rest of the year it is a dead pan whose saline residues are carried south from the pan to enrich the soil far south.

Because of lack of water flowing in the region the animals seek out waterholes to get water. This makes for excellent viewing for tourists.

On the way to Swakopmund on the Atlantic coast, we met some desert elephants on the road. They live in Namibia and roam around but are rarely seen close to human constructions. The small family of elephants therefore drew deserved attention.  Cars stopped and the family was photographed from all angles.

Spitzkoppe was a stunning surprise. We were not prepared for its glorious beauty.

The granite ridge stands up to 1784 meters above sea level. It towers over the flatlands of the desert. As the desert moves to the sea the surface of the ridge is constantly being polished which makes the surface very smooth.  It also creates weird formation in the rock based on how the wind blows around creaks and crevices.

When we arrived the coloring of the ridge was intensified by the setting sun. Everything took on a warm shade of orange.

The morning after we climbed up into the mountain as the sun was rising and again we witnessed the deep yellow orange of the mountains as the sun moved up above the horizon.

The Atlantic coast of Namibia is separated from the mainland by a strip of empty desert. This is the idea we had of a desert before we came. Not a living organism in sight. We had learned that this was a gross oversimplification.

That didn't overshadow the fact that this makes for an absolutely magnificent landscape.

We drove into the desert on quadbikes with guides and had fun and enjoyed the view.

On the road we stopped by a small tourist shop to admire the local handicraft and this amazing national costume.

Here it becomes very obvious that Namibia was visited by Northern European colonialists in the late 1800 that had a specific Victorian way of dress. Only here it has survived the twists and turns of fashion with the Herero women of Namibia.

The pictures can only tell half the story - if you have a few minutes you should watch the video compilation that Herborg created.

Walvis Bay is one of only two harbors on the west coast of Africa from Luanda in Angola down to Cape Town.  This is such an important harbor that when Namibia got their independence in 1991 South Africa retained Walvis Bay until 1995. 

We took a cruise out on to the bay to watch bottle- nose dolphins. Pelicans accompanied us out of the harbor where we stumbled upon a hump- back whale and her calf. The reef also sported a colony of seals. Excellent trip topped with fresh oysters and champagne.

The last excursion of our trip was to Sossusvlei. In this part of the desert where the Tsauchab River occasionally flows into the desert and brings it to life. The river forms a lake on Sossusvlei. The clay of the lake bed fosters egg from shrimps that spring to live in just days after the river arrives. Soon afterwards flamingos and other birds arrive.

This happens on average every 7-8 years or so.  Last in 1997.

Deadvlei is a lakebed that the desert has closed off from the flow of the river. The clay and trees still await the water and have been for 400 years.

Here we climb dune 45 - named for it's place in the row of dunes from the Atlantic. 

The dunes of the Namib desert are fixtures, they are not formed and disappear. They move and grow but are counted as the same dune.

The last night by the Rehoboth reservoir we wished we could stay longer.

This was an excellent trip but we wanted to do the full circle again so that we could better drink in the glory of the Kalahari desert. Maybe there will be a better opportunity next time.

(cc) Attribution

Margrét Dóra Ragnarsdóttir and Hjálmar Gíslason