Namibia day 16 - departing Okonjima

And just like that our Namibian adventure is over. It has been an exciting whirlwind of 16 days in 8 different locations filled with incredible bird life, wild animals, fascinating geology, vibrant sunrises and sunsets and a jaw dropping night sky that I never get to see in Europe. The whole country is so clean and litter free. Wide open spaces and big skies, a perfect destination for both landscape and wildlife photography. What a trip it has been, and to think I was never that keen to come here, it was Gavin who asked me to book on that photography trip all those months ago to come here. We have travelled about 3500 km (about 2185 miles) and met some wonderful people. Impressively most Namibians we spoke to speak more than one language, usually English, Afrikaans, German and a few African languages. Our ranger at Okonjima spoke six languages. 

It has also been great having Tommy with us. He has loved this trip and is delighted with his (approximately) 130 bird sightings as he is very into bird life. He has delighted the staff wherever we go as he is always very polite and respectful to them, he asks thoughtful questions and is keen to learn from the rangers. We all would love to come back, particularly Tommy who hopes to come back with Inca and do a camping trip, as this country has great camping options and camping sites. 

Toni was an excellent guide and her knowledge of birds was unsurpassed, I have never met anyone who knows birds as well as she does. We all learnt so much from her. 

It was another early start this morning, we were all packed up and  at breakfast by 7am. There was no time for photos this morning other than a few shots as we drove out of the Okonjima reserve - this one of the oryx is fitting as it is the national animal of Namibia. The extra is the sunset from last night. I am going to miss these African sunsets. 

Okonjima is only a 3.5 hour drive back to Windhoek so we got to the airport in good time. The flight was delayed by an hour and then we had the frustration of going through the airport at Johannesburg again - arrive at international arrivals, got through passport control (it took one hour) then check in for out flight to London and go through another passport control again, which thankfully only took 10 minutes. Two unnecessary passport stamps in my passport when I was only transiting through the airport. We are now sitting in the lounge waiting for our flight which is only at 9.30pm tonight. The lounge is full of the Lyon rugby squad, such huge lads!

It will be good to see Xena again, and to finally unpack. I have been living out of a suitcase for the past 17 nights, thank goodness for those packing cubes which made this easier than it usually is. Despite my careful planning I only wore about 25% of what I packed, shorts and T shirts and none of the warmer clothing I had packed as it was much hotter than expected, and we were able to use laundry services in most of our locations.