Saving the World

With the COP21 having recently come to an end, and some sort of agreement actually being signed, I believe it is safe to say that there is a growing concern for our world and how we can possibly make it live a bit longer. There are obviously a number of people, organizations and even governments that are thoroughly committed to doing something about it. Some obvious names for each could be Elon Musk, IUCN and Costa Rica. I find it quite amazing that a country today is able to subsist fully on natural energy, and although it is not possible for many, they should look to Costa Rica for inspiration.

The thing that bothers me with these big eco meetings is that you have the two biggest polluters, USA and China, not really doing all that much. To a certain extent I can still forgive China, as their rise to power has been recent and sudden, and they actually seem to be taking it all quite seriously this time. USA on the other hand will always continue to disappoint. They have been the biggest polluter for so long, yet do nothing to change things.

Well, I have found the solution for the USA. The primary source of CO2 pollution is obviously the burning of fossil fuel, and Americans just love their cars. Granted, they do not necessarily have the same public transport system as one might find in Europe or some of the major Asian cities, but why must they continue to drive such huge gas guzzlers? The reason for this is that, well apart from being big (and I suppose the obesity issue could be another nice post), their cars are cheap and fuel is cheaper. As a European it is really frustrating to see the prices charged in the US for cars, motorcycle and fuel.

Let’s start with fuel. Looking at the global prices at the pump early December 2015, we find that in the US a liter costs $ 0.61 on average and in the UK $ 1.62 on average. It is a pretty nice comparison, as you can see that a person in England will be paying a liter of petrol $1 more than their American cousin. That is something like 165% more. This price difference is not the result of it costing the English that much more to extract the oil and refine the oil, no it is purely down to taxes. In fact, if we look at the two prices again, the actual product makes up the same cost, and so that extra dollar they pay in England is simply taxes.

So to start really making an impact on the pollution in the US, they should begin to tax the petrol in the same way as they do in Europe. Sure, it will hurt the consumer in the beginning, and people will have to make some pretty quick adjustments, but the country would also considerably increase their tax income. In 2014 there were 518 billion liters of petrol sold in the US. If a $1 tax was to be added per liter, obviously the consumption would see a rapid decrease, but even at half that amount it would imply an income of $ 250 billion in new tax revenues. That is not an insignificant amount, and it could be used to help out industries that might suffer from this change in consumption. The emissions figures would also drop considerably, which is really what we would like to achieve.

But things don’t have to end with this, even though it would be a huge step in the right direction. As much as there is a huge discrepancy between petrol prices in the US and the rest of the world, there is an equally large one in the vehicle pricing. However here the reason for the difference in pricing is not purely down to taxes as it was for fuel, it is also very much the case that manufacturers set much lower prices in the US to ensure that they sell. The competition has driven prices way down meaning that profit per unit is much lower there than in Europe. It sometimes even goes to the point of selling units at a loss simply to stay in the market, which is then offset by ever rising prices in Europe. It has become very much a case of Europe subsidizing part of the US vehicle market. So not only does Europe pay a much higher price for fuel, but they also then pay to subsidize the US vehicle market.

So what is he actual situation like? Well it is fairly hard to make direct comparisons from one market to another, but since we compared US and UK petrol prices let’s try and compare vehicles between these two markets to at least get an idea. An indicator would be the average new car price for 2014, which was $ 33’560 in the US and $ 43’770 in the UK. That is basically $ 10’000 more per vehicle in the UK! Granted, there will be models with a much smaller difference, but there will also be models with a much bigger difference. In fact, if we also looked at motorcycle prices we would find difference equal in $ terms, but what would equate to 100% higher prices in the UK.

Just like with petrol, imagine then if we priced cars in the US the same as in Europe by simply adding a $10’000 tax to each car sold. Since in 2014 there were 7’935’161 passenger cars sold in the US, that would result in an additional $ 79 billion of additional tax income. Again, as with the petrol consumption, this added cost would no doubt drive down sales, but there should still be something like an added $ 50 billion. Keep in mind also that there would be a sudden interest in getting considerably more economical cars, there might actually be an increase in new car sales.

I know this is all impossible, but taking these two simple actions would actually result in some huge improvements on many levels.

• Instant decrease in pollution
• Accelerated development of electric and other zero emissions vehicles, as well as other fuel economic cars.
• Sudden new market around electric vehicles
• Huge increase of new tax income of some $ 300 billion/year which could be spent on

o    Improve public transport

o    Develop alternative energy sources

o    Provide aid to economies suffering from drop in traditional car sales

Instead of being last in the class, the USA could suddenly become the global leader in the development of alternative energy solutions, and convincingly join in the effort of reducing pollution for the future.

So, sounds like a win-win all around to me!

Reality Check or I Told You So

In checking the news the last few days, I have come across some articles about the stock price of GoPro. In case anybody reads this blog, and I can fully understand that not many do especially considering how long it has been since I posted something new on here, you may remember that during the summer  of 2014 I posted two articles about the GoPro IPO. I was making obvious references to the fact that the market had lost touch with reality, and that there was some absurd hype driving the price to unrealistic levels. The IPO was done at $24, and I had been saying that perhaps $ 12 would have been a more realistic value at the time.

Well, here is an article posted on Money Morning. Looks like their Chief Investment Strategist now agrees as he claims the stock not to be worth more than $ 15:

Why the GoPro Stock Price Dropped 17% This Week

(Nasdaq: GPRO)

By KYLE ANDERSON, Associate Editor, Money Morning • @KyleAndersonMM • October 30, 2015

The GoPro stock price was down another2% in early trading this morning (Friday). GoPro Inc. (Nasdaq: GPRO) stock has now dropped 16.7% from Wednesday's closing price after the company missed on top and bottom line estimates for Q3 earnings. On Wednesday, GoPro reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.13 on revenue of $400.3 million. Those fell short of estimates of $0.29 per share on revenue of $433.6 million.

The company also revised Q4 earnings down from previous estimates. GoPro now expects earnings per share between $0.35 and $0.45 for Q4. That's down from previous estimates near $0.82 per share.

Revenue is also expected to be dismal in Q4, between $500 and $550 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters previously called for $690 million. After the lackluster earnings report, the GoPro stock price is now hovering just above $25. That means the stock has fallen more than 63% in the last year. And while some investors may consider buying into GoPro stock at this low price, we do not recommend buying shares of GPRO.

In fact, Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald says GoPro stock isn't worth more than $15 per share. And the rise we saw in the GoPro stock price to a high of $98.47 in October 2014 was nothing more than media-fueled speculation.

"Driven by hype and very clever investment banking, stocks that are breathlessly celebrated by Wall Street often have terrible fundamentals and little or no promise of ever enriching anybody except their founders and early VC investors," Fitz-Gerald said. "Yet they rise like a rocket after their initial public offering, luring millions of investors to their financial demise."

And while we recommend keeping GoPro stock out of your portfolio, there is still a way for investors to profit from the GoPro stock price at today's levels.

Sometimes it is nice to say “I told you so!”…..

No more Mr. Nice Guy!

I believe it is painfully obvious that I have not really been posting to this blog on a very regular basis. Much of that is really down to the purpose of the blog, you know the whole “Anger Management” thing, and so a lack of posting is actually a good thing! It means that I am not particularly angry, and to top things off, when I have been posting it has mostly been positive stuff like that whole Namibia trip. Well, positive and some reminiscing too.

The whole reminiscing thing is obviously related to the fact that I am not getting any younger. I think that all of us when young look to older people and wonder why they are always so bitter. I know that I certainly had thoughts like that, and others along the lines of that I would not be like that when I got older. Well, having turned 50 this year that makes me ancient in the eyes of the kid I once was! And the sad reality is that I find myself complaining a lot.

I can try and justify this bitching on the fact that the things I bitch about are actually really annoying, but when I think about it I am sure that kids of today see me as some bitter old man as well. Trying to rationalize things, this general dissatisfaction probably comes from the fact that the older you get, the more things you have seen. Your patience has worn out somehow, which would obviously imply that we are somehow given a limited amount of patience for our lifespan. When it is gone, it is gone. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

But seriously though, the fact that I bitch about cellphones, and more particularly the addicted cellphone users, is because these are really, really annoying!  No seriously! I hate those guys!

A friend of mine just got this new BMW with all the cool options. She was telling me about the security systems it has, such as warnings when you start drifting to another lane, or intelligent cruise control etc. Basically the car can almost entirely drive itself. This might seem as a good thing, with all the passive security etc., but I see it ultimately as a bad thing. As the old angry guy, I will say that people today should perhaps first learn how to drive properly, and then fucking pay attention when they are driving! You do not type text messages or surf the web on your smartphone when you are driving a car! The fact that all this new technology they are putting in cars is actually helping the texting idiots is therefore a bad thing! The more driver aids they put in, the more people will do other things than drive their cars when they are on the road. And then when they have an accident, it is not so bad because they have all those airbags and crumple zones built in to their cars to ensure they don’t get hurt.

The problem is, sometimes these idiots also hit other innocent road users. As a motorcycle rider I obviously feel particularly vulnerable. Some will tell me then to stop riding because it is becoming too dangerous. Okay, so just because people are being idiots, and getting worse, I should deprive myself of something I love to do just so that the said idiot does not injure or kill me. Well I don’t agree! I have always adopted very defensive riding, going under the assumption that all other road users are idiots. This way when somebody does something unexpected and stupid, I am prepared for it and can avoid an accident. What bothers me these days is that more often than not the other road user is an idiot! Seriously, as I ride to work, I can very easily see in to the cars as I pass them on the highway. Today we are approaching 50% of drivers doing something on their smartphone while they are driving.

You see them usually already some ways off. The first telltale sign is what I call drifting. The car is gently moving around in its lane as a result of the driver focusing not on the road but the screen of their phone. As they glimpse up on the road from time to time they will adjust their trajectory, and then begin moving to the side again as soon as their eyes wander back to the phone. If they were alone on the road I really would not care what they do. The problem is that, with the number of commuters having increased considerably here over the years, this behavior is common on congested two-lane highways where they drive around 100kmh staying just a couple of meters behind the car in front of them. Even if fully concentrated on their driving it would be impossible for them to avoid contact should the car in front brake suddenly, so imagine the result while looking on their phone.

So, there are accidents on these highways on a daily basis as a result of it all. And what does this do the already congested traffic? Well, accidents have always caused traffic jams because people love to look at the misfortune of others. Today this behavior is accentuated by the same sort of idiots that have caused the accidents in the first place wanting to take pictures with their phones as they creep by the wreckages. I suppose, given the relatively recent craze of selfies (yes, I will be posting a rant about these soon!), people will begin to stop their cars next to an accident so that they can take a selfie of themselves in front of a crashed car.

If feeling like this makes me an angry old man, then so be it! The irony of all this is that part of my job constitutes coming up with and developing new mobile applications. Imagine that, maybe one of these days as I ride along, an idiot will crash in to me because he was using an app I helped make. Would that then be like suicide by proxy?

Meanwhile, back in China...

It seems as if the recent and rapid fall of the Chinese stock markets has gotten a number of prominent financial experts to take notice of what I have been getting at for some time. Certainly the drop in the markets, resulting from a substantial slowing of the growth and coupled with the immaturity of the markets, has been significant and required some firm intervention from the government. However, as some are commenting recently, the big threat is not a dropping stock market but rather the corporate debt in China. Here are some comments from an article I read this morning:

Fast debt growth, opacity of risk and pricing, and very high debt-to-GDP are a hazardous mix, S&P said. It took an unprecedented series of measures to arrest the fall in China’s stock markets, which are worth over US$8 trillion.

Tackling corporate debt may make that seem like child’s play. “Managing the debt market is probably more dangerous than the stock market as the scale of the debt market is bigger and ... the moral hazard is a significant issue,” said Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst David Cui. Reuters

We have all been reading about the troubles in Greece recently, and the never ending discussions between the creditors and the Greek government to find some solution. As much as we all know that the only real way to solve the problem there is at least a partial debt write-off, they keep coming to agreements for ever more financial aid packages that only serve the purpose of reimbursing older debt. Each time the amount increases due to the interest being charged on the debt, and so Greece just keeps slipping further and further down as they implement austerity measures that keeps them from any hope of economic growth. Well, to paraphrase a Swiss banker from back in the 90’s, that is just peanuts in comparison to what is happening in China.

Clearly there is concern for Greece today, but the actual impact on the rest of the world is insignificant. There may be some spill-over to other Mediterranean economies, but ultimately the world will go on without a sneeze even if Greece sinks completely. China is a whole different story. Since the 2008 global economic crisis initiated by the sub-prime debt issues in the US, much of the recovery has been the result of the massive growth in China. Not only has this helped China itself as well as the countries around it, but as China has become a consumption society much like the US and Europe it has subsequently become the driving force behind global economic growth. World leaders will tip-toe around human rights issue with China so as to not upset them and lose out on juicy economic deals. There is no hiding the fact that the Chinese are also very much enjoying the situation where they have become the center of the global economy.

As their economy has begun to show signs of weakness, there has been no holding back in trying to promote further growth, and so the corporate debt grows and grows through ever more opaque shadow banking solutions. There is now concern on the stock markets in China that is currently worth $8 trillion. The corporate debt is estimate at twice that: $16 trillion. It is expected to grow to $29 trillion in the next five years!

I suppose there is some comfort to the fact that I am now beginning to see articles on a fairly regular basis highlighting the dangers of the Chinese economy. I just hope it is not too late that the world notices, and no matter what is done now the possible Chinese economy collapse is going to hurt more than anything we have seen in the last 30 years.

March 23rd 2015, Old Traders Lodge, Erindi Game Park to Windhoek Airport

We get to sleep an extra hour this morning since we are not planning any sort of game drive today. There is ample time to get to the airport, but since the road conditions can always be a bit of a surprise, and we are expecting to spend some time with Avis when we return the car. So we have our breakfast, and close up our bags.

It is difficult to leave here because of this really is an amazing game park with very friendly and pleasant staff. Obviously the amazing experience from the day before adds to it all, and so it is with heavy hearts that we go to check out at the reception. I think that chances are pretty good that we will be back here some day, and then for longer than two nights! I can certainly imagine spending 5 days here relaxing and going on game drives and walks.

For the last time on this trip we load up our car and are about to set off. Myriam hears from another couple that there is some difficulty in getting out of the park because the heavy rain from the night before has rendered part of the road very muddy. They have an ordinary 2 wheel drive sedan, which does seem a bit foolish out here, and I am confident that our car will get us out without difficulty.

At first the trail is fine, and we can drive at a reasonable speed. Seeing as we really have no hope of seeing anything spectacular this late morning, I decide to push on. Suddenly Myriam tells me to stop, and it turns out she has spotted a magnificent pygmy owl! This is the first time we have ever seen one, and it certainly is not something you find regularly.

Soon after this, we come across an elephant in the middle of the road. Not wanting to irritate it, I hold back and let the elephant slowly move away from the road. I guess he was there to say bye to us…

Thinking that the concerns about the road condition had been exaggerated, we suddenly come across a first difficulty. There is a major puddle to be crossed, which does look fairly deep. So I switch the car to low gear and lock the differential just to be sure that I don’t get stuck. We get through easily, and continue on our way. Then we get to a second puddle, and this one is more like a pond! Since I can see some tracks leading in to it, that seem to emerge on the other side, I figure I am not the first one here, and again switch to low gear and lock the diff.

We slowly go through with the water level creeping gradually higher. Sure, it is not like we get water up to the hood, but it does get pretty seriously deep in the middle. Our car has not trouble getting through this either, but it is obvious that a regular car would never have been able to get out. This incident alone confirms the fact that if you are to drive around Namibia you need a proper jeep unless you want to risk missing your flight home.

This does turn out to be the last difficulty that we are to encounter. Having exited the Erindi Game Park, we soon reach the paved highway that will take us all the way to Windhoek airport. It is a Monday, and so the closer we get to Windhoek, the more traffic we see. This is a huge change from the rest of the trip though, as over the last 10 days we have rarely encountered other vehicles. Even though it is not like there is a traffic jam, I still miss the lonely dirt roads of the rest of the trip.

Eventually we arrive at the airport, earlier than what we had planned for. There has not been a single issue on the way here either on the road or from the car, and so we will now be spending a few hours until our flight leaves. The first thing is to return the car, which goes smoothly. The attendant lets us know that everything is in order and we can proceed to the Avis desk for the final invoice.

A rather lengthy discussion ensues at the counter as we do wish to get to the bottom of the fact that not only was our car never replaced during the trip, but we did not hear from Avis at all. Since it had seemed like such a serious issue when picking it up that we would exceed the mileage for the service, we figured an explanation was in order. Obviously one could not be had, but we did manage to obtain a bit of a discount on the rental.

One thing is certain though; we had made the right choice in car. The Toyota Fortuner is essentially a Toyota HiLux, one of the most solid cars ever built, with an SUV body. This allows for extra comfort and space, while obtaining proper ground clearance and a suspension to make the lengthy gravel roads quite pleasant to drive on. The fact that it was a diesel with an extra big gas tank giving it an autonomy of over 800km ensured that we never had to worry about running out of gas, and even though we didn’t need it I felt reassured to have chosen a second spare tire.

After having spent a few hours in the airport doing some last minute shopping, it is finally time to board our plane to Johannesburg. After getting settled in the plane, an imposing couple board together with what seems to be a body guard and take the seats right behind us. As we overhear people addressing them as “your excellency”, we obviously become curious as to who this couple might be. Myriam is able to find out a bit later that it is a former president of Ghana, and after checking the internet it turns out to be Jerry Rawlings and his wife. He had initially led an unsuccessful coup d’état in Ghana in 1979, and after having been in prison and actually sentenced to death, he was released and eventually became elected as president in 1981. He remained president until 2001, and he currently serves as the African Union envoy to Somalia.

We then had a short stop-over in Joburg, where we ended up running around a bit to find a suitable lounge, and then finally got to settle in for the long flight home. Although this had been an amazing vacation, it certainly was nice to get home to our cats the following morning.

March 22nd 2015, Old Traders Lodge, Erindi Game Park

The morning game drives here at Erindi leave at 6:30. So, they propose a light breakfast at 6:00, and then you can come back and have a proper breakfast after the drive typically just after 9:00. Given how excited we are about doing this first drive here, we quickly have something to eat and coffee, and then show up at the jeep a good five minutes early. This way we are the first to arrive and so can choose the best seats.

We are told to go to car 3, and that our guide will be Ully. We go to the car, and are advised to sit in the first row. Ully shows up together with a trainee guide called Kenneth. We start chatting with them as a big group of English finally show up and fill out the rest of the car.  Ah well, we certainly will not be alone on this drive, but then again that is not really a problem. The only thing that bothers me is that we have to sit three per row, and so I end up in the middle. Not ideal for taking photos. There is then a bit of confusion as a guide comes up to ask us if we were not supposed to be on the cheetah walk. Back in January when I had been doing all the bookings, I had seen that they offered to do a morning walk to see cheetahs, and had asked to sign up for this. However, since they had told me that it was impossible to confirm this, I had assumed that nothing had been done about it. We had also decided that due to the heat as well as the fact it would be a 4 hour walk, we would not do it and go on the drive instead. Well, there was no problem in the end though, and we were able to stay on the drive.

Before driving away, we are asked what animals we would like to see. Obviously Myriam and I say “Cheetah and wild dogs!!”. A lady next to us then says she also wants to see elephants, which strikes us as a bit curious given that there are several elephants to be seen all around the camp. It is not like you need to go on a game drive to see them here, but to each his own we figure.

We right away head to a place where there seems to have been a kill the previous night. I think the guides have been tipped off that there might still be lions or hyenas around, but it seems as if we have arrived a bit too late. The place has been cleaned, and we search the area for a little bit with no luck.

Instead we then head to pretty much the opposite side of the park in an effort to find cheetahs. The cool thing about these private game parks is that the various guides are obviously giving tips to each other over their CB radios, and they can drive everywhere. Unlike national parks, they don’t need to stick to the trails, and so when they catch the trace of an animal they can get really close.

We keep driving and driving, but we do not see much. There is the occasional nice bird, giraffe and perhaps a few waterbucks. Other than the distinct ring they have on their rear, it really strikes me this time how much they actually look like reindeer. Beautiful animals.

Finally it seems as though another car has found where a cheetah mom and her two adolescents is resting, and we head right there. It is not long until we find Iaccomina and her “babies” Shandy and Savannah taking it easy. It is such an incredible sight, and we are lucky to get to spend quite some time with them, and end up taking far too many pictures.

Eventually it really is time to head back to camp, and there is a bit of a way to go. Our guide radios back to camp to ask that they wait for us to arrive with the breakfast, and there is also one guest in our car who is to be checking out this morning that will certainly need a late check-out! Luckily they are also able to take some short-cuts so that we get back a bit before 9:30.

As soon as we get back to the camp, we all head for breakfast. It is amazing how going on an early game drive can open your appetite, and we enjoy having your typical English breakfast. Unfortunately arriving last to the buffet means there are no more croissants…

What we do get though is an elephant and hippo show in the water. We have never before seen elephants actually swim and play in the water!

Since we have some free time after lunch, we decide to give the inside of our car a bit of a clean-up. Driving around on dusty roads for days with the windows open has left it well covered with dust, and we want to try and avoid any issues when we return it.

Having thought about what we want to do in the afternoon, we finally decide to go on the regular game drive. We had been contemplating going on a tracking tour. A tracking tour is one when you actually accompany a couple of guides as they drive around to track certain animals. This means that there are no comfort frills with this, and you can’t really ask to stop and look at other animals. As they said they might track wild dogs we had figured this would work for us, but they have also pretty much promised we will see wild dogs on the regular drive.

The afternoon drive is set to leave at 16:30, and again we show up a bit earlier. As we wait for the others to arrive, we chat a bit with Ully and Kenneth. Time goes by, and I start to get a bit upset because the rest of the group is obviously late. I always figure that for events like these you should be on time if for nothing else then out of respect for the other participants. Ully goes away for a bit, and then comes back to explain that the English group has decided not to join the drive because the weather is looking as if it might rain! Seriously, you come all the way here and then decide to sit in your cabin because you might get a bit wet! That’s when he tells me that as a result we will actually do a tracking drive, and I just need to go to the reception to change my booking.

I go to do this, and am given an invoice for CHF 20 for this drive! It turns out that these tracking drives are much cheaper because they do not include any drinks and stuff, and basically you are just on a working ride along. I figure that as long as we find the wild dogs, who cares!

I get back to our jeep, and we set off for what will turn out to be the experience of a lifetime.  As soon as we pass the gates of the camp, they start to try and find a trace of the wild dogs with their antenna. However, with the rain and thunder in the distance, it is a bit difficult for them to get a good read. So, we drive around a bit looking for tracks and testing the antenna from time to time.

There is another jeep on a regular game drive that is trailing us hoping to benefit from what we find. We leave them for a bit and head off in a different direction. Suddenly our guides point to where the pack of dogs is resting! Finally, after twenty years we are there with the wild dogs!!

We drive up right next to them, and the cameras are growing hot. Emotions run high, and we both shed some tears from the joy of just being there with these wonderful animals. Ully explains that the group consists of 15 dogs today. However, a number of years ago they had a pack of 18 dogs. One night during a thunder storm, that pack had been taking shelter under a tree, and lightning struck killing all but two of the pack. As luck would have it, it was a male and a female that survived, and they are the two that have now created this new pack of 15.

It turns out that unlike the cheetahs from the morning, they have not given any names to the dogs. So, we decide to call the two “parents” Lucky One (as the lucky one surviving the lightning) and Lucky Too! We will have to write to them some day to see if they actually kept those names, but for us that is what they are now called.

We get to spend quite some time alone observing the dogs, and then eventually our guide radios the location to the other jeep that soon shows up. We then head off to find some other animals, possibly some lions.

The drive continues until we suddenly come across a small group of rhinos. When they see us they begin running away. Ully decides to follow them as he wants to get a confirmed identification of which rhinos these are. So, for a while we go on a high-speed pursuit of four rhinos through the savannah! The rhinos win though, and it soon becomes obvious that we have lost them.

As we have determined that Ully and Kenneth are also interested in birds, we happen to mention that we had seen a fish eagle the other day in Etosha. Ully tells us he knows there is one here, and he sets off for a waterhole nearby to try and find it. We are not lucky with the eagle, but we get to see some more animals up close. It is all a bit surreal, and the electricity in the air probably has something to do with the atmosphere being a bit intense.

As the sun starts to get low in the sky, we head up to the top of a hill in the middle of the game park. Up here we meet up with the other jeep, and our guides tell us we are going to have some sun-downers as well. Since they had all the drinks and snacks packed in the jeep anyway, we might as well use it! So we pull up next to the other jeep, and get out to have something to drink.

All around us you can see the rain pouring, and the light with the sun setting is simply extraordinary. It feels like being in a dream, and for the second time of the evening my eyes begin to well up. We stand around talking casually with our guides, and Kenneth explains that he is a Himba and Ully, or rather Ulrich, is a Herero who’s grandfather was German. It is a wonderful moment as we get to learn a bit more about these two wonderful guys, and we ask a member from the other car to take a picture of the four of us to remember this moment by.

The sun eventually settles, and we start heading down from the hill thinking that it is time to go back to camp. That’s when they ask us if we are okay to keep going some more! We say something like we will kill them if they don’t keep going! So, since it is full dark by now, Kenneth gets out two spot lights so that we can continue spotting in the dark. We are soon on our way again through the night, as the rain begins to fall on us as well. The whole thing is just incredible, and we both sit there trying to spot animals in the dark with huge grins on our faces. Ully turns around to ask if we are fine, probably worrying that we might be uncomfortable, but is reassured by our smiles.

Although we don’t end up seeing much more wildlife for the rest of the drive, this is simply one of the absolute best moments of our lives. Given that this is our last game drive of this vacation, it simply can’t end on a better note. As we get back to camp, we don’t want it to end, but know that it has to. We have this tingling feeling all over, and it is with great emotions that we hug our guides goodbye.

After leaving our camera gear at our bungalow, we head over to the restaurant for dinner. We still have these silly grins, and when we see the English group at a table in the middle of the restaurant we are tempted to go up and thank them for cancelling their drive! We don’t do it though, and when Myriam sees a huge group of elephants arrive at the dam, she instead goes to them to let them know their elephants are there. They are ecstatic, and Myriam and I share a silent laugh as we think “if only they knew…”.

We end the evening by arranging our bags so as to be ready for the departure tomorrow. Sleep comes quickly when we finally get to bed, and I can imagine that we will be dreaming about this day for quite a number of nights in the future. This night instead I sleep deeply, and really do not hear much of the rainstorm outside.

March 21st 2015, Namutoni to Old Traders Lodge, Erindi Game Park

We were really not unhappy to leave the Namutoni Camp after just one night. Granted, it does get a bit tiring to keep having to pack and re-pack your stuff almost every day, but this camp really did not make you want to stay on. As much as both Dolomite and Okaukuejo were nice, and it was pleasant to sit around your cabin taking in the views, at Namutoni you really did not want to sit around outside your cabin. Other than the fact that it all looked like a dump site, it was also all the bugs and stuff crawling around. So, we put our luggage back in to the car and drove to the restaurant for breakfast.

Already the previous night the steak we had at the restaurant was actually really good, and this morning they had some seriously good croissants. The proper, loaded with butter French style croissants! Since we had a long drive in front of us, and we really didn’t feel like stopping to eat on the way, we stuffed some croissants and fruit in a bag for the road as well.

On the way to the gate out of Etosha, we headed back on a small loop for our last little game drive here. Even though the night before we had seen a dik-dik we still wanted to see one in daylight. It did not take us long before we came across one of the little beauties.

There were a number of giraffes around, as well as some grey louries a.k.a go-away birds. At one point we spotted a springbok carcass in a tree, a typical food storage for a leopard. As the carcass looked reasonably fresh, we had a very close look to see if we were able to spot one more leopard. But it was not to be this morning.

Suddenly a huge group of striped mongoose cross the road in front of us!

We exited through the Von Lindequist Gate on the east of Etosha, after over five days having completely covered the park from west to east. It truly is an amazing game park with all kinds of landscapes. The only thing that is a bit unfortunate is the poor quality of the Namutoni Camp given that this eastern part of the park is probably the most interesting one. For any future visit I suppose it would be worth investigating camps situated just outside the park, or the considerably more expensive luxury camp situated a bit north of Namutoni.

The road leaving the park is properly paved, and it then gets even better. This is one of the only paved roads in Namibia, and is the main road leading eventually to Windhoek. Going is good, with very little traffic, and the road pretty straight. The only thing is to remain vigilant all the time to any possible wildlife at the side of the road, and you are often reminded of the risks by the various warthog, antelope and other cow warning signs. I notice on more than one occasion that the warthog warning is not to be taken lightly as they are quite common along the side of the road. What does surprise me though is the considerable lack of roadkill that I see, and I am happy to also avoid hitting anything.

The road to Erindi takes us through some more important cities of Namibia, the first being Tsumeb. We have no need for stopping, and push on until we reach Otavi. Here we decide to stop to stretch our legs, use the bathroom and perhaps buy some cold drinks. The place we stop at looks like your typical truck-stop, and there is a fair bit of activity going on here. I don’t want to fill up with gas yet as I have more than enough left, and have decided to fill the car at the last place I can before heading to Erindi.

We are quickly back on the road, and heading towards Otjiwarongo. The further south we get, the greener the surrounding gets. There has been some recent rain, and judging by the clouds in the sky it is likely it will rain again. This would actually be a nice thing as it would wash some of the dust from the car which is really starting to look “well-travelled”! However, other than the occasional drop, we don’t get wet.

Otjiwarongo turns out to be a quaint village with clear German influence like witnessed in Swakopmund. Actually, it is a bit of a mix between some old colonial German look and something from the US west. The street names however are all German. We stop at a service station and fill up on diesel. Filling up in Namibia is a more pleasant experience than back home first of all because the diesel costs something like 80 centimes a litre, and the attendant is happy to wash all the windows and even the car lights for a small tip. I am sure if I paid him 2 francs he would wash the entire car!

We are soon driving the last distance to Erindi, and progress continues to be as good as it has been all day. It is a nice change to see the kilometres go by as quickly as they do, after having spent the last five days driving at 10 to 20 kmh. Suddenly I see the sign for the turn-off to Erindi! The paved road ends, and we are back on a bright red sand trail again.

As always, the dirt road is very good, although the red sand here makes it a bit more slippery than previously. What makes this part difficult though is the number of little birds that keep flying right in front of the car. I do notice that a number of them have obviously been hit by earlier cars, and I hope that I manage to avoid them all. We also notice quite a number of much larger vultures on the trees next to the road, and just miss out on a great photo with some five of them in the same tree. As I stop the car, they all decide to fly away…

At the gate to the game park, the guard explains how we drive to get to the Old Traders Lodge. We have something like 40 km to do in the park, which at first does not seem like too much. However we soon discover that the road is not in such good shape, and for the most part is like a washboard. The problem with this is you need to carry some speed to try and smooth things out, but we want to go slow in order to check out the animals. It becomes a bit of a struggle to try and make things reasonably smooth, and so I spend quite some time checking the road surface rather than spotting animals.

Myriam as always does a good job spotting though. We find that the landscape is typical of cheetah land, and reminds us of where we saw a cheetah mom with five cubs all those years ago in the Serengeti. However, in spite of looking carefully, we don't see any.

Arriving at the lodge we do see a huge elephant, almost greeting us there. The place looks very well organized, and I go to complete the check-in. We look to sign up for a night-drive that very night if possible, but we are told that a night drive is charged a fixed CHF 200 regardless of how many people join. It turns out nobody else has signed up, and so we would have to pay the full fee if we want to go. We let them know that we will go if at least another couple signs up.

We unload the car, and settle down in our cabin for a rest. As there is afternoon cake and coffee being served at the restaurant, we head over there to check it out. The place is beautiful, with a huge terrace overlooking a dam. The deep water is populated by hippos and crocodiles, and as we sit and watch for a while, the place is visited by your regular giraffes and various antelopes.

Later for dinner it becomes clear that there will be no night drive that evening, which is actually not such a bad thing. We are quite tired from the long day on the road, and getting up at 5 every day for a week is taking its toll. There is also a bit of a storm blowing. So after dinner we head back for a reasonably early evening, after having been able to benefit a bit from the wifi coverage at the restaurant.

March 20th 2015, Okaukuejo to Namutoni, Etosha

Having gotten all our stuff packed in the car, we did the check-out before heading for breakfast. We figured this would save some time as there would likely be a bit of a check-out rush after breakfast.

As we then had a fair distance to cover this day, and we knew already there was not a lot to be seen in the nearby places, we set off at a pretty swift pace. With the wide open spaces, it was possible to spot animals from afar, and so speed was less of an issue.

At one point, we took a road that lead right up to the shores of the salt lake. The view was truly impressive, with what looked like a beach landscape and a white sea. This is a huge salt lake, and it appears that during heavy rains certainly the part we were at becomes fully flooded. Not so now, even though we had seen a number of thunderstorms in the area the night before.

Having not seen any yet on this trip, we then finally came across our first secretary bird. Right nearby there was another of lilac breasted roller followed by a purple roller.

Getting close to Namutoni, Myriam spots a small group of lions resting under a lone tree. They are looking very lazy as usual with lions at this time of the day, and so we decide to leave them to their nap. We do see some more wonderful birds as well.

We decided to push on so as to get to the new camp and check-in because time was going by pretty fast. We completed the formalities, and signed up for a night drive again. Although the camp looked quite nice at the entrance, getting to the bungalow area produced a different site.

The place literally looked like a dump site. There was some sort of tall fencing around the bungalows, but it had collapsed at some places. Getting the car to our bungalow proved difficult as there was no real road to it, and after a bit of a struggle we did manage. There were broken concrete pipes all over the place, with termites and other bugs crawling around.

Luckily once inside the bungalow things got a bit better. The room was clean, and there was a functioning air-conditioner and a fridge. However the way things had been designed and installed really left you thinking. There was no door or curtain leading to the bathroom and toilet. The double sink looked nice at first, until you realized that the faucets were so low you couldn't quite get your hands under them. Then the bathtub was sunk down in to the floor, and there were two shower heads above it that you could change the spray on…if you could reach them! They were well over two meters up! It was all kind of funny though, and since everything inside was clean it didn’t really bother us. Besides, we were only staying for one night.

There was still time for another quick drive, and we had seen at the sighting book at the entrance that there had been several leopard sightings recently. We noted the spots and headed straight for the first one just minutes outside the camp.

This was at a very nice natural waterhole, and we closely scrutinized the area. No leopard. Oh well, it was time to go for the second spot, but just as we were driving out I spotted an amazing paradise wydah. This is one of those birds you always see in bird books but never expect to see for real. Well here she was!!

At the next waterhole we stopped again to check out the scene. There were a couple of jackals by the water, and a few springboks and stuff. I thought I noticed something in the bushes in the distance, and upon zooming in with my camera it was confirmed as our first leopard!

I set the car up for a perfect view and switched the engine off, as we expected to sit here for a while. The leopard was looking towards the water, and we thought he might get up to get a drink and maybe make a lunge for a springbok. It didn’t take long before he did get up and walk to the water.

The view was incredible, as by the time he was by the water he really was not far from us. The jackals were all howling their warnings, and the leopard seemed a bit annoyed and too lazy to do anything else. After a drink, he headed back towards the bushes.

We followed him for a while longer, together with an English couple in another car, but in the end we lost track of him in the bushes.

Near to the camp we saw a couple of cars stopped at the side of the road. We headed there to see what was going on, and saw a group of three lions relaxing beneath a tree. Time for some quick photos, and then it was back to camp for some dinner before our night drive.

Arriving at the camp, I decided to fill the car. The following day would be the longest drive of the whole trip, and although I knew there would be a few service stations on the way, it was better to be safe than sorry. I saw that they accepted credit cards, which is unusual in Namibia as most service stations are cash only, and so I decided to pay by card so as to save the cash for when there is no alternative. The attendant first got out one remote machine, and I put my card in and entered the pin code. He then told me that machine wasn’t working properly, and got out a second one and completed the transaction.

I didn’t think anything really about this until two days later. In a shop I tried to pay with my card, and the transaction was refused. At the same time I received an sms from Swisscard informing me to contact them. Since I had a mobile phone connection, I called them right away. It turns out there had been several illicit cash withdrawals done with my card, and they had blocked it.  That was when it hit me that the attendant in the service station had made a copy and recorded my pin code with the first machine. This information must then have been sent to accomplices in Windhoek who had right away begun withdrawing as much cash as possible from ATM machines.

Luckily the card had been blocked quickly, and the illicit transactions are taken care of by MasterCard, but you can never be too careful. After some research on the internet, this seems to be a scam that is becoming quite common, and in Namibia is run by a Nigerian gang.

After getting fuel and resting a short bit in our cabin, we got all our gear together, with jackets and all, and went to have dinner. The thing is we wanted to be ready as quickly as possible for the night drive, and with the camp being pretty big the restaurant was half way between our cabin and the gate.

There was just another couple joining the night drive, so we were able to get comfortable in the jeep. It was warmer than the other night, but it was really nice to put our jackets on nevertheless. We headed first towards the Etosha exit gate, and turn off towards a nice trail that went past a big waterhole. The name of the trail is Dik-Dik trail, and indeed we soon got to see a tiny dik-dik. Getting to the waterhole, we saw right away a spotted hyena and asked the guide to stop. He was more interested in following a black rhino just a bit further up, which was fine especially as we then got to have a good look at the hyena as well.

Unlike the night drive we had done from Okaukuejo, this time there was a driver and a guide, and so they were perhaps a bit more efficient in spotting animals. So, after visiting this first waterhole, we headed towards the area we had seen the lions earlier in the day. There were some in the same spot as before, but we also saw another lion over on the other side of the road. What was interesting here is that there was a hyena calmly walking towards the lion, and she did not seem to have noticed the lion. Given that these two are enemies, we stayed still expecting to see some action.

The hyena then noticed the lion, but about then another lion had shown up, and the hyena was in between the two. After a short while of assessing the situation, the hyena then came towards us instead, and walked right up to the jeep! She was so close we could have easily touched her, but that would probably not have been such a good idea. She then turns around, and suddenly heads straight for one of the two lions! This hyena certainly does not seem scared of anything, because she would really be in a lot of trouble if the two lions decide to attack. In the end, she probably thought the better of it, and heads of in another direction.

We continue on a bit further, and meet up with the leopard from earlier in the day. This time he is stalking some springboks, and we stop to watch how things play out. There is a sort of intimacy when observing things on a night drive, because the darkness makes you feel somehow in a closed space with the animal. We are all very quiet while we observe the leopard, and you even try to breath calmly in order to make as little noise as possible. As the leopard creeps closer, suddenly the stillness of the night is broken by another car arriving. The noise and the lights end up scaring the springboks, and so the leopard decides to call it quits. 

Since it is close to 23:00, our guides decide to head back to the camp. As we get there, we quickly make our way back to our cabin, and stumble in to bed.