Desert trekking
Trip Start
Jun 25, 2006
1
49
127
Trip End
Aug 01, 2007
Uis,
Namibia
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Another long dusty drive over miles of dirt roads brought us south into the fringes of the Namib Desert to the peak of Spitzkoppe. The landscape here is incredible. Spitzkoppe is a huge set of enormous granite rocks poking up from a huge flat desert plain. Certainly the most beautiful campsite I have ever stayed at! We did some hiking through the surreal landscape and got a lot of great photos as the sun got low on the horizon. It reminded me a bit of the American Southwest.
Like many of the great places we've been in Africa, there were hardly any people here. The distances out here are so great, and the amenities so few that not many get out this far into the bush. A shame really considering that it really doesn't take much more than a 4x4 vehicle and some camping gear. We certainly are enjoying the solitude, and I doubt we would have made it here had we been traveling on our own.
From here we are heading west until we get to the Atlantic Ocean!
She Said:
Spitzkoppe is a "must see" if you are traveling through Southern Africa. The landscape is stunning, and it was so fun camping out in the middle of all of these strange rock formations! Even with the lack of facilities! And the weather was absolutely perfect... bright blue skies, cool breezes to counter the hot climate, and a very long sunset. Late in the afternoon, our shadows on the rocks were really tall, and we had a good time taking funny shadow pictures with the other members of our group. Early the next morning, Todd and I went out for a hike before breakfast. After about 45 minutes, we realized that we had been walking alongside leopard paw prints the whole time. We decided to believe that the leopards were more scared of us than we were of them (not sure if that is true, but it made me feel better). We climbed up to the top of a giant boulder and took in the scenery for a while.... It felt like we were on another planet!
Our whole hike back, my eyes were watering constantly. Turns out, I scratched my cornea (dust under my contacts), and my eyes started getting incredibly sensitive to light. After a few hours it was so bad that I ended up wearing a sleep mask during the entire day to block out the light, and Todd was my helpful guide dog. Thankfully, there were others on the trip that have had the exact same problem and already had the appropriate eye drops. We also have a nurse and a pharmacist in our group, so there is lots of qualified medical advice.
