Desert landscape of Damaraland

The story starts on a rather cold morning at home in North Yorkshire on Friday 1st November 2019. The culmination of months’ worth of planning had now translated into sheer excitement and anticipation of the next 17 days. Having been incredibly fortunate to travel to rainforests in Costa Rica and Madagascar, I was keen to explore the opposite end of the spectrum; desert. I was travelling to Namibia with my parents; now more akin to best friends than parents (I had to grow up at some point!). They had visited previously in November 2017 and had shared stories of amazing experiences. They also had the added advantage of knowing our driver and tour guide for the trip, Siggi, having met him in 2017. Our itinerary was somewhat different to their previous trip, incorporating new destinations and, hopefully, new animals into the mix. For me everything was new, and I was eager to get there. Our first flight was a short one hour hop from Manchester to Schiphol in Amsterdam (we flew via KLM - great airline!) and a long six hour wait before our connecting journey to Windhoek in Namibia. Beer and G’n’T was the tonic during the wait - you’ve got to pass the time somehow!