Southern Road Trip - Part V

As we drove back to Aus for a night in another hotel (couldn't get into Eagles Nest twice sadly) we saw the "wild desert horses of Aus". Took us ages to find them with comedy spots of 'the wild cows of Aus' and  ;the wild ostriches of Aus' first. There are several versions of how they arrived to come here, but I believe the most likely is that when the German troops were stationed in the area during an incident thousands of horses escaped, they have lived off the sparse vegetation ever since and have been assisted with water by the local people in the area.

Most were quite shy.

But this fella we had to move off the road, mum looked a little nervous when he put his head through the window of the car!!

"Horses make a landscape look beautiful." - Alice Walker 

After a night in Aus, at a hotel that was better than we thought it would be ...

"The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us." - Francois de La Rochefoucauld

... we headed to my organisations winery, via a strange little hotel in the middle of nowhere called Helmeringhausen where they have these strange haybale characters outside.

"I'm odd looking. Sometimes I think I look like a funny muppet." - Angelina Jolie

We drove through to Maltahohe and had lunch there - the worst meal ever! Supposed to be goulash, but just dodgy pieces of lamb on rice. From Maltahohe the gravel roads are pretty bad and there are some interesting passages before you reach the place, we were just beginning to think we were lost as we rounded the corner and there it was.

After a night relaxing, showing mum around the fountains and vineyards and catching up with people we headed to Gocheganas, a stunning spa lodge just on the way back to Windhoek. We had an amazing massage and some nice relaxation time in the wellness centre - not to mention the amazing beds!



It had some pretty twisty roads on the way up to the lodge itself. The rooms have great views and at 3pm we headed out on a game drive.We saw 11 of their 14 rhino, including a very young calf.

Mum feeding a baby.

They also had giraffe.

"Love is like a rhino, short - sighted, but always willing to find a way" - Anon

Mama and klein calf.

Rhino at sunset.

One of those super sunsets

You are supposed to be able to see the rhino between us, but I had the wrong lens on!
We reluctantly parted from the lodge on the last day of our holidays and headed into town to stay with friends. We had a lovely meal at NICE (Namibian Institute of Culinery Education - a training facility for the hospitality industry). I showed mum the meteorite statue , bits of meteor that had rained down.



After a bit of shopping we headed back for dinner at the farm and a Sunday relax at the lodge before mum had to join the real world back in the UK and leave me here in Africa.

"The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent." - Erich Fromm 

"A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them."- Victor Hugo 

"I always feel that I have two duties to perform with a parting guest:  one, to see that he doesn't forget anything that is his; the other, to see that he doesn't take anything that is mine." - Alfred North Whitehead

[In this instance I think I managed to send mum home a lot lighter in the suitcase than she arrived - thank you!]