Tsumeb to Dolomite Camp in Etosha.

I woke up a little early and a bit apprehensive as to what the mechanic was going to find so I arrived at the Toyota dealers at 06:30 making me the first in line which was just as well since the line was rather long by the time the dealer actually opened.
To cut a long story short ... don't buy pirate parts.  When I had JDS Auto service my car and skim and replace the drum brakes at the rear, they replaced the brake pads with pirate parts instead of the toyota spares. Very annoying since they have now proved to be defective and it has cost us the better part of a day as well as a lot of worry and tension that I really didn't need.

On the bright side we found a wonderful campsite so we had a really great afternoon, evening and night and the ablutions, to Caron's delight, wouldn't be out of place in a 5 star hotel.  I arrived back at the campsite at 09:45 from the dealer which I thought was pretty reasonable timing to get the car repaired, re-packed the car because I had unpacked the entire car to take it to the dealer and by 10:30 we were off. I spent the first couple of hours monitoring the tyre temperatures closely and was relieved to find that they really had sorted the problem out.  Both wheels rose in temperature in unison with the side of the car to the sun being a few degrees warmer.

From Tsumeb we drove through Otavi and then onto Otjiwanrowgo where we stopped to pick up some last minute shopping, visit the chemist and grab a cup of coffee before heading north up to Kamanjab where we filled up with fuel and had to pay cash which may be a problem because we seem to be endlessly short of cash and I really hope that the park accepts card ... otherwise we are in big trouble.

We finally arrived at the Dolomite camp at 18:00 almost on the dot, parked in the parking lot and were collected by a buggy which ferried us up to reception and then on to our room.  Another 7:30 of driving and just short of 2500km in total from home to here.

What a place, it has to be experienced oneself but it is simply magnificent being perched up on a ridge over looking the plains which stretch as far as the eye can see.  The view is particularly awesome with a glass of wine in one's hand.

On our way in I commented on how often the dark hued bushes just taller than the surrounding vegetation looked just like an elephant.  Having just arrived and looking out over the plains I pointed out two bushes which looked just like elephants and jokingly called them elephant bushes when Caron informed me that they really were elephants.  So now we have faux elephant bushes ... which means that they are elephants after all.

Supper is a fixed menu so you eat what you are given and, aside from the price, the food isn't bad at all.  I don't think that they are going to win any culinary awards but it was pretty good fare.  Before supper we got some drinks from the bar and went down to the pool deck to savour the last rays of the setting sun ... and the G&T of course.