Namibia - Deutschland in the Desert?
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2005
1
37
58
Trip End
Dec 27, 2005
Cape Town,
South Africa
Tuesday, July 5, 2005
01 Fish River Canyon - Sunset
. Trust me, though seeing how many times you can listen to Alan Jackson's Greatest Hits in one day sounds like a funny way to pass the time, it has been none to result in divorce or in other cases the intense urge to jerk the steering wheel to drive off a cliff. Country music, like anything (or perhaps MORE than other things to be honest), should be enjoyed (suffered?) in moderation. Don't ask me how I ended up with one CD and why it was Alan Jackson (I won't admit to anything).Namibia is an amazing country to be on your own in. It is a country of around 850,000 sq. Kilometers and only 1.8 Million People. This means that you have huge wide open spaces with no one around - in southern and central Namibia where we were especially because only 7% of the population lives there. You can find yourself not passing another car for an hour on main roads. The towns you pass are more likely to be little more than places to get gas and a drink. The biggest town we visited, Keetsmanshoop (what a name eh?), had about 17,000 people (14,000 of which must have worked at all the gas stations they had). In the south, apart from the landscapes, wildlife and heat, it was hard to get the feeling you were in Africa. Being colonized by Germany, everything has a German sounding name and there are lots of people of German decent who run most of the businesses in towns (and in one case Hemminghausen actually own it - the gas station, hotel, coffee house, museum and general store - right between nowhere and the end of the earth)
02 Open Road - Lots of it in Namibia
. I even got to practice my German with an old Guy who emigrated in 1951 from Leipzig, Germany. I also got some decent Liverwurst and cold beer. Though my favorite food was the "Biltong" (Jerky) - Namibians seem to dry all kinds of meat. Along the road there were little stands selling everything from ostrich, Oryx (Gemsbok), Kudu, Springbok - all wild game found in the surrounding hills. I have to say, the stuff is very good and sticks to your ribs on a long hike. V liked the kind spiced with Peri-Peri which is a spicy African sauce that makes your eyes water.We drove our white Ford Icon north and first stopped in Hobas on the Fish River Canyon(to be returned to the rental agency brown from dust and dirt, and small green "racing stripes" on the side from that one big green oil barrel that I didn't see backing up - thank you sir for encouraging me to get the "super-cover" insurance policy - setting a man lose in the open desert with zero deductible is a recipe for disaster as any economist will tell you - Zero culpability? Drive by feel became my motto). Fish River Canyon is a mini Grand Canyon way out in the scrub desert in southern Namibia. Once we left the tarmac road just over the border, we were on the gravel tarred roads. These roads are actually excellent, you can drive a rental car 120km an hour on them easily as they are wide, flat, and I didn't hit a single pothole the entire trip
03 Naukluft Hike - Before the Dead Zebra
. The government keeps them well graded, which means I made better time on them than I do on I-5 (I'm not kidding). You just have to remember not to jerk the wheel too much or try to brake fast (Please God, let wild game remember that my hood is very hard and cross after I pass) and you can keep the gas pedal to the floor (the shrieks from co-passenger(s) will subside as they exhaust themselves - much like a newborn baby). One German guy even told me these roads were much better for tires - they don't wear out as fast as on paved roads- though I think its because some of the time due to speed and small hills, you aren't actually touching the surface on these things thus reducing friction and wear.Fish River canyon was a beautiful sight, but if you've seen the Grand Canyon, a little small. I thought it was kinda cute compared to the Grand Canyon and told one hiker there that - he didn't take it too well giving me some speech about it (Fish river Canyon) being the second longest canyon in the world and you can't compare the two(sorry, you can and I did). It was a beautiful sunset and sunrise. V and I didn't get much sleep that first night adjusting to camping life - plus I forced her to wake an hour before the sun, not V's favorite. We'd bought a tent, sleeping bags, and really, really thin foam mats thinking we could save some money camping. You forget how much gear you actually need to successfully camp. We later bought a pot which I became very good at using on top of a couple rocks and a small fire - I didn't want to buy a gas stove - I'd learned to cook on an open fire from Kemal, my guide on our camel trek in the Rajasthan Desert. Aside from the slight singing of my eyebrows due to the grease fire, he woulda been proud of the bratwurst I fried up (aside from them being pork). What do they say about cheapness being the mother of invention?
After visiting the amazing vistas of the Canyon, we headed north towards Namib Naukluft National Park where we were going to visit the huge sand red sand dunes
04 Yeah, I made it up the Canyon - Barely
. We almost ran out of gas only once, though I maintain that after the light comes on, you have plenty left, no worries. Then, due to some residual uneasiness at our gas situation, my co-pilot got us heading in the wrong direction which we discovered 100 miles later after it started getting dark. A nice lady saw us looking confused at a remote intersection and she stopped to help us out. No worries, we were 20 KM from the campsite we wanted to be at a couple days later so we adjusted our schedule and headed to the Naukluft National Park. One website has the following to say about The Naukluft National Park:
"The vegetation of the Naukluft complex has been classified as Semi-desert savanna. The following mammals are likely to be seen: steenbok, springbok, Oryx, kudu, mountain zebra, dassie rat, chacma baboon, rock dassie, and klipspringer. Up to 200 bird species have been recorded in the area."
It is a huge part of the 50,000 sq. kilometers that make up the Namib Naukluft National Park and encompasses a lot of mountains and river canyons which are extremely dry this time of year. We were coming here to do a 17km day hike through the canyons and to the top of one of the mountains (hills?) up to 1,900 meters. We set off at dawn the next morning (much to V's delight) and decided to do the hike in the opposite direction from recommended (mainly because we only found one end of the trail and were too lazy that early to find the opposite end. So that you could find your way through the river canyons, hills, and open savanna, the park was nice enough to paint yellow footprints on rocks along the way, the problem was, that when you were going the opposite direction, these footprints were often on the reverse side of the rocks from those facing you and thus we often had to hunt these things down or walk backwards
05 Love that Biltong
. It is dry, parched country, with huge rocks and scrub brush and the trail is often not very obvious. We got lost a few times misdirected down false paths - but it was a good challenge. We had brought about 4 liters of water (purification tablets) and a lot of food with us, good clothing, lighters, and flashlights with us so we were feeling pretty safe). I felt safe until I ran into that dead Zebra while searching for the lost trail, yet again. I guess I showed my unease, because V wanted to know what was wrong. I don't mind the sight of a dead Zebra (I've eaten them, they taste good), but this one was pretty mauled, and something other than the sun had killed this poor beast. The question was, is it still around? Anyway, we hightailed it outta there having found the trail, then headed up to the summit of the mountain, had a terrific view of the very lively valleys and plains around us as well as the sand dunes beyond. You can see such great distances in the winter air down here - it really isn't so hot and the air is actually crisp and dry. We also saw lots of life, small ground animals and klipspringers (mini deer) as well as bugs and lizards.
Down the other side of the mountain, we found ourselves following the dry river beds again through the red rock canyons
Get away from my car!
. About half way through we ran out of water (stupid yes, but who knew you'd need that much water in a desert?) The nearest water was the pools a few Kilometers from our camp on the circle route. We made it there thirsty, but not dangerously low, those iodine tablets taste like crap but the water was cool. It was there that I saw all the big cat prints around the watering holes (along with the hooves of deer and zebra - but they like grass so I don't care about them). It was getting late in the day and we were tired and that's when cats wake up hungry. Makes me a bit nervous going through all those trees along the pools of water.At one point we passed a family of about 7 going the opposite direction - they looked like they were out for an afternoon stroll - not much water, clothing etc and had a toddler with them - it was going to just start getting steep and climbing over the cliffs, boulders, and scrub was not easy. They asked about water, I said it is very far (they hadn't even reached their half way point) I thought they'd turn around, but they didn't.
We made it back to camp late in the day, exhausted, but glad to find out that we had hot water in the showers - nice! I talked to one of the rangers about the Zebra and the cat prints I saw
I got the fire started, no worries
. I showed him a picture I took and he confirmed that they were both from Leopards. He said they don't hassle the hikers though - Uh Huh. We got back to camp, made a fire and had an evening cocktail V a little Vodka and Juice and I a little Johnny Walker (We've got to keep a certain level of civility you know) and were enjoying a relaxing time in camp. We later noticed 3 of the kids from the family we saw on the trail return. An hour and a half later after it was dark, the rest of the team hadn't returned. In that dark night, you couldn't see anything especially in those canyons. We took the kids up to the ranger station and the rangers went looking for them. They found them down in a canyon and returned with the family an hour later. Man were the kids scared for a while. I guess the older women were not that fit and fell apart half way through and then it got dark and they decided they couldn't go on. Lucky the kids made it back before them and were able to get help. Gotta be prepared that's for sure. Really nice folks though we ran into them a few days later in the dunes up North. The next day we headed to Sesriem where the Namib Desert Park started as we wanted to see the Giant Red Sand Dunes which are actually in the middle of the huge dune and scrub desert that begins on the Atlantic Ocean and goes way inland and stretches almost the entire coastline of Namibia. Sesriem is where you can camp and drive into the dunes on a gravel road to some beautiful dunes. We spent two days visiting the area and climbing dunes. I am still dumping red sand out of my boots. The desert here is full of wild life that live off of the grasses in pan that stretches from Sesriem to Sossusvlei, 60 kilometers into the Dunes. It is a wild place to visit. We saw a fox, Oryx, lots of beetles and bugs, lizards, and the footprints of all sorts of animals
Look out Below
. We climbed up Dunes that were 100 meters high to watch the sunset then enjoyed the run down the steep slopes. There are some amazing photography opportunities here.We then headed south to Luederitz, a small town of about 12,000 people on the Atlantic Ocean. It is an old town, one of the first German Settlements in 1880 and survives mainly due to the nearby Diamond mines and tourists. It is funny being in such a German town in the middle of Africa. Its clean, neat, organized and most of the town's architecture even today, retains that Teutonic style. Walking around you pass the "Turnhalle", "Lesehalle", "Kegelbahn" and all the streets are German names. People still speak German a bit and they have an old Protestant Church in town with stain glass windows given by Kaiser Wilhelm the II to the town as a gift. The guy who owned the Backpacker where we stayed was half German and told us a lot about Namibia now and then. We had a good time hanging out and checking out the desolate coastline. They even have an old ghost town nearby that was built and abandoned after the mines were empty. Now the dunes surrounding the town are slowly enveloping the old town streets. We even checked out the "wild horses" which were actually some old nags that must have escaped 100 years ago and now just live there off the grass (and licking the salt off of tourist cars - seriously, they were biting my car - I laughed - Its a rental - Super Cover all the way baby)
Susavlei - Namib Desert
.After 2 days we decided it was time to head back to Cape Town. We'd planned on doing the trip in two days. Half way through, we thought we might as well try for Cape Town. We had run into a nasty storm and didn't feel like camping and I was feeling good. It was spooky driving through this storm as I have never seen so much lightening and we were driving over flat prairie land quite a bit. It was a long 1,350 Kilometers (850 miles from Luederitz to Cape Town, but we left at dawn, I had a couple bags of Oryx Biltong and Alan Jackson to keep me company (in fact, he never left me alone).
Yesterday, we kept the car and drove down the cape to see Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. Cape Town is such an amazing city, located in an amazing place. They have done a great job of protecting a great deal of wild country around the city and the cape reserve is beautiful. Flanked by the Indian and the Atlantic, it is covered in plants found nowhere else in the world. We spent the day hiking onto the Cape of Good Hope and along the beaches to a wreck of an old WWII American Liberty Ship that ran aground avoiding German torpedoes. We saw a troop of Baboons (Matt, I swore at them for you), ostrich, gazelle, turtles, lizards, and some really ugly British tourists. We also stopped to check out a colony of African (also known as Jack Ass) Penguins that settled on a nice beach near a town. As we parked the car, we smelled them before we saw them. Cute, but they stink, I'd be ticked if I was one of the house owners nearby that have to put up with these little tourist attractions. Seriously, the things are disgusting little beasts. But Virginie finds them cute and cuddly (though they smell like fish - a taxi driver I had here once told me he ate one and it wasn't good - I can imagine).
We are heading east along the Garden Route here in South Africa Next. Gonna make our way up to Mozambique. I'll keep you posted. I'm off to go back to our Backpacker to fry up some Ostrich Burgers I picked up - wish me luck.
