When we drove South-East from Etosha to the Waterberg Plateau, the fauna changed markedly. The area around the “water mountain” receives much more precipitation and thus can support larger trees than most of the rest of the country. Waterberg is a holy mountain for some of the Namibian tribes, so we did literally follow historic tracks. A bit further on the way to Windhoek, we even went back much further in time to the dinosaur era!

NWR Waterberg Resort

Apparently this is a good climate for warthogs. We spotted so many of them on the roadside that we eventually stopped counting. Some of them even inhabited our campground. 🙂

Other guests at NWR Waterberg Resort Campsite were a hen with her chicks, colorful birds, and the usual baboons. The cleanliness of the campsite, and especially of the surrounding bushes definitely leaves some room for improvement, but the beautiful panorama of the Waterberg made up for it.

Waterberg is a good resort for hiking. You can climb up all the way to the plateau; under the careful watch of the baboons that inhabit the cliffs. If you book a guide beforehand, you can even continue into a usually restricted area and watch out for rhinos.

After finishing the Waterberg hike, we directly continued with the “Ant Hill Hike” and the “Aloe Vera Slope”. Both of them provide what they promise: Large termite hills and Aloe plants that are more than hundred years old. We had always thought that Aloe is a small plant, so we were amazed that they can actually grow into a 2-3m high, tree-like structure!

Neither hike takes a lot of time. The view from the plateau and the Aloe plant were truly memorable, so we’d definitely recommend to do these hikes!

Otjiwa Safari Lodge

Our second stop in the Waterberg area was the campsite of Otjiwa Safari Lodge, which claims to be “Namibia’s oldest game farm”. It features a large lake, two waterholes – one near the campsite, one directly next to the large pool – and other amenities such as fast and reliable wi-fi. We’re personally not a fan of large game hunting – other than for food or lifestock control – but still we really enjoyed our last night of camping.

After a beautiful sunset and a relaxed last night in our 4×4, we gave our remaining food to our campsite neighbors. Seems that we indeed were lucky not to have a flat tyre during our entire trip – they told us that they had two already, and were happy that we could help with a hydraulic tyre pump… We took a last snapshot of a colorful bird that occurs frequently near Waterberg and hit the road again.

On the Dinosaur Tracks

We had more than enough time to drive to Windhoek, so we luckily decided to do some detours. If you don’t follow the main road, it turns out that many of the other roads pass through private game reserves. In other words – more chances to see cool animals! We spotted giraffes, baboons, lots of antelopes… and some of the tracks at the game reserves even had names like “hippo drive” or “crocodile detour”; so with a bit more planning we possibly could have crossed these animals off our bucket list as well.

Our real destination were the petrified dinosaur tracks near Kalkfeld, though. If you’re fascinated by archaeology, you should do this detour. Svenja was a bit less impressed than me, but didn’t mind either. There are three sets of dinosaur tracks at the site, two smaller tracks and a very large one. None of them are easy to spot at first, so the search makes it feel a bit more “Indiana Jones”-like.

OUR TRAVEL ROUTE FOR THE ENTIRE TRIP

If you want to learn what else we experienced in Namibia, check out our travel route for the entire trip – including reviews of the most exciting places!

• Last Stop: Etosha
• Next Stop: Windhoek
• Overview: Our entire route