1- The start of the journey

Tedious. That's what defines our flight. Of course there are much longer and much worse flights, I won't deny it, but for my short travel experience... the worst of all without a doubt.

A total of 29 hours of travel from the departure of our plane from Madrid to Windhoek, passing through Doha and Johannesburg. In its favor, I will say that Qatar Airways flights are made enjoyable because of the movies they offer you, and the almost continuous flow of food, although in my opinion much of that effort should go in more comfortable seats.

Incredible the arrival to Qatar with the cameras of the airplane, seeing all the islands and luxury buildings... But the worst thing of all was the stopover in Johannesburg, because they cancelled our initial flight and the new one was delayed a few more hours, making the wait of more than 6 hours of stopover, with accumulated tiredness of two flights.

But finally we arrived in Windhoek, where I had problems to enter because they did not want to give me the visa for 3 months of stay, because they said it was too long. An exasperating experience because I didn't understand very well the English of the man who was attending me who also seemed quite irritated with my decision to be there for 3 months.

He didn't value all the places and things that are to see in the country. But finally, they let me in, seeing that my companions were following the way without obstacles.

And my companions were a quaint team: Germán, a friend from Master's, from Malaga and a lover of herps; the one who was going to be my budy in Namibian field. The second component was Adri, another biologist friend from Malaga, expert in GIS (a science that relates biology with maps), who would accompany us for the first month. And finally, Paco, my TFM supervisor: another Andalusian traveler, a researcher who decided to join and help us launch this adventure.

And the fifth of the expedition was waiting for us there; Viktor, our colleague in Prague, who is doing a PhD with leopards in Namibia. Our adventure began. Three Andalusians, a Slovak and a Charro (person from Salamanca) in Namibia. The joke tells itself.

We spent the first four days in Windhoek so that everyone could solve some paperwork, and also enjoy the capital.

Viktor was in charge of everything, he had gone to pick us up by car so he made things easier for us...and as always, the first thing we did was to change some money into the local coin so that we could move around without worries or so that someone could spend it on souvenirs and food.

And then we went to the AirBnB that Viktor had booked, and then to what would become our iconic restaurant in the city, Joe's Beerhouse. There I was able to try meat from local animals.

I had already tasted eland in Prague, but here I could try the crocodile, with its chicken and fish flavour, according to the piece you took... and also the "Bushman sosatie", a skewer with springbok, orix, kudu and zebra meat... and chicken, yes, chicken. They have that skewer and instead of putting ostrich meat or guinea fowl, which you even see on the road, they put chicken ... the only logic failure of the restaurant.

Among my favorites were kudu and zebra. Delicious, and local beer was also very good. In addition to the site, that was also very impresive and beautifully decorated.

And for dessert... that day I wouldn't discover it, but in the following days I put on the list of fixed orders the Malva pudding, a small apricot cake that was also delicious.

From left to right: Bushman sosatie, crocodile with spinach, restaurant decoration and malva pudding.

But let's change the subject and leave the food aside. We also did other things apart from eating in those days.

The first day we visited the National Museum of Namibia. In it they told the atrocities of apartheid racial segregation, and in general the history tinged with blood and suffering that has undoubtedly marked the country.

Another day we visited the botanical garden. Unfortunately, with the drought and the fact that August is the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere... it was not at its best.

Welswitschia mirabilis, the plant that I wanted to see so much was without a single leaf. But already in these first days I could see plenty of birds that left me totally surprised. Birds very different from the European ones, like grey go-away bird, sunbirds, colorful starlings that shone in the sun... and the guineafowls, that thing similar to a hen with a strange protuberance in the head like parabolic antenna and that a priori seems calm, but do not bother them because they have bad temper.

From left to right: Welswitschia mirabilis, Euphorbia virosa, dusky sunbird (Cinnyris fuscus), white-backed mousebird (Colius colius), helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris).

Other animals also appeared in the botanical garden such as the rock agama (Agama planiceps) with bright colors that certainly took all my attention, and dassie (Procavia capensis), a small mammal that looks like a giant fat hamster , perhaps with dumb appearance, that surprises with atypical agility for a furry meatball. But more than his agility, it is astonishing that he is really more related to elephants.

And it wasn't the only thing we visited... Among our several visits to Joe's Beerhouse, we visited the city centre, although it doesn't have the historic buildings we are used to in European cities, there were charming areas.

From left to right: Christ Church (lutheran), Gibeon meteorite, and sunset from aerial view from Windhoek.

And one day we did a Safari.

We entered with the car and a small map indicating the main road, a walking route and an accessible route for 4x4.

We were carrying a 2x4 but the man in charge of the entrance told us that it depended on the skills of the driver.

And Viktor, after a year doing his PhD on the farm driving on difficult roads, full of sand, stones and slopes, felt with the guts to do it.

And so it was that we entered the 4x4 pathway and saw a jackal as soon as we arrived, passing by like a shadow. And only a few meters later, our skilled eyes trained with the years and with a great desire to see animals, were able to see giraffes in the distance.

And we continued along the way, hoping to get closer to them or any animal in the area. But the advance was becoming more and more complicated until we reached a difficult area, between a downward slope with a huge stone and an ascending one with a lot of sand and holes...we got stuck. We managed to get the car out of the sand with a jack, digging and putting elements to facilitate the grip, but the car could not climb the hill.

After a couple of hours of several attempts and putting stones, sticks and car mats on the road, we decided that we had to find another solution. But Viktor didn't have any service, and neither the park phone number, as it didn't appear on the sheets we had been given.

So we decided to try something else, as taking the car out ourselves didn't seem like a solution. Viktor and Adri went looking for service while we waited with the car in case someone came looking for us. And although they took a while to find the way we were, in the end they managed to find us and get the car out without problems.

It turned out that the road we were on did not appear on the map and was not the 4x4 road, which was a little further ahead. We got to that 4x4 road and this time we did it without problems, and we could see a female warthog with all her offspring, eating grass kneeling on the front legs.

We could also see some kudus in the distance, and just a few meters from the car a few wildebeest lying enjoying the shade.

Our initial plan was to go on another safari in the afternoon, as this one was cheap and small and the car ride did not offer much more. But Okakuya, the other safari, was already full. That's why we decided to do the "9 km" route that could be done on foot.

And I say nine but they were really more, although we didn't mind at all because we could see a lot of animals, from baboons a few meters away (something that disturbed a little, because they can be really dangerous), kudus drinking, springbok, Trachylepis (lizards we like), ducks, mongooses, rollers, a Rupell parrot ... In short, it was well worthwhile.

From left to right: White-tailed shrike (Lanioturdus torquatus), white-browed sparrow-weaver (Plocepasser mahali), springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), short-toed rock thrush (Monticola brevipes), giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis angolensis), blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), female rock agama (Agama planiceps), chacma baboon (Papio ursinus).

And after these experiences and the fun, it was time to start thinking about what we had come to do... look for reptiles.