Namibia Day 9b - Ai AIba Lodge

Namibia 2021

EVENING AT THE AI AIBA LODGE

DAY 9b : SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 05, 2021

After the rock paintings, it was time to head to our new lodge for the night which was the Au Auva Rock Painting Lodge at the base of the Erongo formation.

The Erongo Mountain are remains of a collapsing volcanic structure. Around 180 million years ago with the Gondwana-supercontinent (Africa, South America and Antarctica) split, there was extensive volcanic activity in the area for the next 60 million years. So much lava flowed out from the Erongo Mountain region that the surface collapsed, leaving the Erongo granite as a ring surrounding the collapsed center that you can see in the satellite capture on this page.

To help sustain the wildlife and to support ‘sustainable hunting’ in the area, a number of land owners in 1998 formed the Erongo Mountain Rhino Sanctuary Trust.

The lodge was located in the this private nature conservancy. Once again, the lodge was the best so far, fitting into the area with very natural construction (loved the high woven grass ceilings). It was beautiful and very comfortable. And as we were getting used to during this trip, the staff make us feel right at home.

We did have a guided hike up to a lookout point above the lodge to watch the sunset. Of course, the guide supplied sundowners (drinks and tons of snacks) which just kept making things better and better. After we hiked back down, it was time for dinner. The main restaurant room was beautiful and the food again was fantastic.

After dinner, our Namibia guide assisted me in some additional night sky photography. While not quite as dramatic as in the dunes, the night sky was still amazing.

We did have some wildlife visit both during our earlier hike and down by a waterhole that we could view from the main lodge. My favorite was this cute little bunny that came out to see what we were pointing the camera at up in the sky. He stuck around for quite a while.

The only negatives from this lodge were 1) it was still too cold to enjoy the pool (life is so tough :) ) and 2) we were only staying there for one night. We would have really enjoyed another night or two. But Namibia is a big country with a lot to see so one night it was to be.

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