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Published: February 3rd 2007
Animal Resue
We saved this little fella from certain death by picking him up just as he was about to cross the motorway on footAfter nearly three weeks in Cape Town, it was time to hit the road again. Namibia was the destination and we hijacked some Capetonians to keep us company - in the form of Claire and Mark having a holiday before Mark left for London. This also meant we got to travel in Claire’s air-conditioned car in a country where temperatures regularly top 40 degrees and there is little or no public transport - result!
Namibia is an interesting place. Formally a German colony called South-West Africa it is the driest country in Africa - in the south it had not rained since last March! It also very sparsely populated; a population of only 1.8 Million people over 825000 sq km (that’s 2 people for every sq km). The Lonely Planet told us that it was custom in Namibia to wave when you passed another car, we didn’t really take in the importance of that until one 8 hr journey when we only saw two.
The first stop on our tour was a day canoeing on the Orange River. It was two to a boat and a very scenic 4 hours was spent paddling and swimming in the river. Although
Road Trip
Namibia is so full of nothing you wouldn't believe. We spent hours and hours travelling without seeing any sign of civilisation. not all of us were paddling! Due to the injury, Marissa had the privilege of sitting back at the front of the boat and letting me do all the hard work. We then made our way North stopping at various sights of interest on the way. This included a stop at the disappointing Luderitz - described as a 19th Century Bavarian village. I have to say that if this is accurate, please keep me away from 19th Century Bavaria! It wasn’t all bad, staying here allowed us to visit the (ghost) town of Kolmanskop. This was a diamond mining town set up after WW1 when the diamond rush set in. It was promptly abandoned in the 50s when a more lucrative source of the gems was found elsewhere. All the buildings remain standing but with the dunes blowing through them.
One of the problems with the timing of our big trip was that it was taking us away from the UK during the time of most of our friends 30th birthdays. This blow was softened by being able to be with Claire for hers - which was probably the highlight of this part of the trip. By then we
Everybody say cheese
I think the camel wins the biggest smile award! were staying at a lodge in a small town called Solitaire - which was apparently the inspiration for the movie Baghdad Café. I say a town, it was really just our lodge and a gas station come shop/bar/restaurant which sold fabulous home baked bread and apfelstrudel. It was an early start, as we wanted to climb the famous red dunes of Sesriem before it got to hot. The red sand (caused by the iron present in them rusting) really led to a spectacular sight; I’ll let the pictures do the talking. We were at the top of the dunes by 7am to see the early morning sun and eat a picnic breakfast before running down again. This was followed by an afternoon around the pool and a desert walk at sunset.
The final stop with Claire and Mark was Namibia’s second city Swakopmund. Another piece of Europe in Africa and a town with an oddly mild climate for a seaside resort. Particularly odd, as a 10 minute drive inland would see the temperature double. We spent 4 nights here doing all sorts of fun activities: Sandboarding on the dunes, Camel rides complete with head dress, watching the turtles
and sharks being fed at the aquarium and a desert Safari. This safari was conducted by Nambia’s answer to Steve Irwin. A passionate eco warrior that explained how the constant cloud (he called it “life giving mist) that covered the town was able to fund a large desert ecosystem. During the tour he found us all sorts of critters hiding in the scrub and sand including a Gecko, a Chameleon, a Skink and a Sidewinding Adder. My highlight was him leaping out of the Landover and chasing a Lizard across the dunes in order to bring it back for some photos!
This Week Likes:
*Namibian Beer - you can always trust the Germans when it comes to lager.
*Namibian Meat - we ate a lot of Steak in our 10 day trip, a selection of beef, kudo, gemsbok and eland. All superb, but more popular with the boys. Marissa and Claire were craving fish and salads within a few days.
*Lie down Sand boarding. You go headfirst down the dunes on a bendy tray. I managed to get air and clock up 73kmph on the speed gun!
*Finding out we had secured some voluntary work back in
Sandboarding
James gets some air - well kinda! Cape Town. We will be heading back there for the whole of Feb.
This Weeks Dislikes:
*Marissa missing out on the sandboarding.
*The long stretches of dirt road driving that caused the car to judder and the CD to skip. This lost us valuable audiobook time.
*Ivan’s cold that slowly infected us all, taking us down one by one
Who is Tony Blair? OK own up? The comment on the last post has us foxed. Not only do the Met want to speak to you, but we wouldn't mind a word too. Suspects include Jon Blackstaffe and Jim Hurrell ...
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Ivan
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infectiousness
hi gang, i'm so sorry my cold infected you all... it was a killer as i remember! just on my way back from snowboarding... not much snow but still managed to bash my face up by coming off a jump sideways ;) happy travels, ivan