The ego has landed.

This is the only entry I'll dedicate to Shrek, the guy who joined our trip half-way through, but it's warranted. 

He's not an unpleasant person but a week cooped up with him has been a challenge. 

It's no exaggeration to say I've never met such an extraordinary (for all the wrong reasons) man. His loudness and verbal dioreah, self-centredness, shameless self-publicity and failure to recognise the needs of others has driven me to near distraction.

He's also a dreadful photographer. Terrible. That's not a reason to dislike someone but he relentlessly and noisily shoots everything, everything, he sees. (By his own calculations he's taken 6000 snaps in 21 days). He also thinks he's good and so, unfortunately, insists in sharing his mediocrity. 

It's got to the point where had I spotted a pride of lions doing a song and dance routine, I wouldn't mention it for the fuss he'd make.

But he's one of those rare individuals that it's impossible to insult or offend; he has the hide of a war-torn rhinoceros. 

So why the venom? Because in Etosha, for three days, he managed to ruin just about every wildlife encounter we had.

And the dunes from the air...

... a slightly hair-raising flight in an airborne hairdryer.

Halfway through the two and a half hour trip, dense sea fog quickly closed in around us; unable to see anything and with basic equipment in front of him, the pilot had to climb quickly to get above it. 

All the while Shrek, sat next to me, behaved like an orangutan on speed - limbs and cameras everywhere. Grrr.

Oh, and it was about 50 degrees inside the plane. 

Nice flight though.

Sossusvlei, Namibia's famous dunes.

I think these shots speak for themselves.

"Feed me, Seymour"

Looking like something out of 'Little Shop of Horrors', this big bundle of wind-torn leaves lying on the ground is actually one of the world's oldest and most unusual plants.

Growing only in Namibia in a very desolate and harsh area of desert 30-40 km inland from the coast, Welwitschia mirabilis has been around a VERY long time and has stamina: the oldest specimens are around 2000 years old. It is thought to be the evolutionary link between conifers and flowering plants.

It's unique in the plant kingdom, consisting of a tap root up to 30m deep and just two leathery leaves that grow slowly and continuously throughout its life from a low stem.

It's a bug's life.

A fair percentage of our planet's insect life seems to call Africa home. It is EVERYWHERE, in all shapes and three sizes: large, extra large and gigantic.

All the lodges have been clean but insects still rule the roost in every nook and cranny. Look closely, that twig on your windowsill may not be what it seems.

Hammerstein Lodge was plagued with huge, aggressive red wasps. Passing under a tree I was stung three times in quick succession. Like a red-hot needle being jabbed into my skin, I got away pronto as they release a pheromone telling their mates to do the same.

The upside of this abundant fauna is the amazing sound it makes at dusk and all through the night - and which for me is so much a part of Africa. It sends me off to sleep and makes it worth the price of being bitten or stung now and again...

Karen Blixen, eat your heart out.

Until now I thought I'd seen the best of what this country has to offer, but then we reached Grootberg Lodge. Charly had said it was his favourite spot on the tour and I now understand why.

 

You climb up through the Grootberg Pass to get here, higher and higher until a simple stone and timber hut is reached on the right. The car is parked and you and your luggage travel the last leg by 4x4. This pulls up outside a beautiful, low-built stone and thatched building with 12 chalets scattered either side, each of which is perched on the rim of the Grootberg plateaux.

I am sat on my veranda gazing out across a vast, wide and sparsely vegetated valley, the floor of which is a kilometre or two below and home to elephants, rhino, zebra and leopard. The only sounds are the wind, birds, insects and, occasionally, baboons on the cliffs. It is one of the most extraordinary and beautiful places I've ever seen.

Frankly, it was worth nine hours on the road with the, by now, unbelievably irritating Shrek, to reach a place as special as this. 

It is so tranquil here.