6 degrees of Nothing

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Sorry this has taken so long to get written.
I have been waiting on my editor to get back to me, but she has decided that work is more important than travel blogs... uggh.
Anyway, here is my version of the events in Namibia. I'm sure my editor will chime in some time with her version.

Namibia is the only place I’ve ever been that makes “Nothing” seem like so much. I have pretty much been driving around the desert for the last two weeks, seeing “nothing.” This has been the most interesting “nothing” I’ve ever seen. And while one might think that all “nothing” is the same. It really isn’t.




The terrain in Namibia seemed to be constantly changing. Yet it always seemed to go on forever, and be desolate. Sometimes it would be hilly/mountainous and sometimes flat. Sometimes there would be scrub brush, sometimes sand, sometimes dunes, sometimes rock, sometimes gravel. Around every corner we looked we would say… “Wow the nothing goes on forever, and yet is always different.” Yes, I have Robert Earl Keen in my head.




Let me dispel the idea that Namibia isn’t beautiful. It is spectacular, and that is the amazing part. I know my words can’t do it justice. Hopefully, the pictures will but probably not. The dunes at Sossusvlei are amazing. We spent several sunrises and sunsets just sitting atop the dunes and watching the colors. The desolation of the skeleton coast is so complete one can’t be helped but stand in awe as one watches the waves of the Atlantic Ocean break on the nothingness. Spitzkoppe is large group of red rocks that rise from the desert plain. Camped here, I could easily have been in AZ or UT.




The Save the Rhino Trust is a story in and of itself. Stuck in the middle of nowhere is this Save the Rhino Trust camp. To get there we had to drive down this road, to which the quote was “This could be Mordor?” There was absolutely no vegetation as far as we could see. But we couldn’t see far because we were hemmed in on all sides by hills of jagged rock. We were wondering if maybe it shouldn’t be “Save the Humans Trust.” When we got to the camp, we were enchanted by the look of it. We asked about the rhinos and were told that there we no rhinos. We were told if we wanted to see rhinos we had to go someplace else. The place name escapes me, but the lady could just say it was far away. After many more questions it turns out that the trust does have rhinos we just can’t see them now because there are with their babies… Oh well, it was an adventure getting out here.




But I’ve sort of gotten ahead of myself. This trip was another Danielle and Farrell adventure. We were joined this time by Ty, who is Danielle’s workmate. Since there were three of us, we decided to rent a 4x4 “camper.” By “camper” I mean it had pop up tents on top of the vehicle. This is the coolest thing ever. All day we would drive around and at night just sleep on top of the car.




Driving in Namibia is loads of fun. There are 2 types of roads, paved and gravel. I guess 3 if you count dirt track across the desert as a type of road. The truck was great. The only problem was at the top of the pass. It didn’t want to start after lunch. After opening the hood I found out that the radiator cap was off and it was out of water. My mind sort of panicked as I’m filling the radiator completely. It didn’t help that D kept asking “Is it supposed to take that much water? Don’t they normally, just add one liter at at time? Should we be putting something besides water in?” My mind is going, “Please don’t be locked up, please don’t be locked up, please don’t be locked up.” Before you think I am an idiot, I never got a hot engine warning on the car, and it started fine.




It is interesting the Namibia is still very German. It hasn't been a German colony since WWI. But the German influence is very effident in Windhoek and Swakopmund, the two biggest cities. I've been told that Swakopmund could almost be a city in German if you didn't know better. Both cities could easily be Anytown USA or Anytown Europe without any effort. I found it interesting that the guy that rented the truck to us had a very strong German accent. He is 4th generation Namibian, but still has a German accent. Not sure what I expected, maybe a S. African accent, after all until 1990 Namibia was part of S. Africa.




Well that pretty much sums up my impressions of Namibia. Now for some specific stories of what happened.

As I mentioned we rented a 4x4 truck to take us around the first week. This was awesome. The guy renting the truck to us told us the best way to get to Sossusvlei. It involved one of the steepest roads in Namibia. By our guess it was 1:4.5 grade. So steep that while the road was gravel, the downhill had to be paved in sections to keep it on the hillside.


The camping at Sossusvlei probably provided the most unexpected adventure of the trip. I got to do some actual 4x4 driving across soft sand to get out to the Soussvlei dune. Climbing up the dunes was incredible hard work. However, coming down was, Wahoo! Like running down a hill of fresh powder. You could just run in leaps and bounds. It felt like I was on the moon. Both mornings at Soussvlei we woke before the dawn to go and see sunrise over the dunes. I will admit on the 2nd morning I was cursing my alarm clock, but it was well worth it.

The 2nd night at Sossusvlei was full of adventure. Running around the campground was some for of wild dog. We think it might have been an Aardwolf, a type of hyena but not sure. D and Ty had gone up to take their showers. Before going myself, I looked out our food, in a solid plastic box, with a lid sitting on the table with an iron frying pan sitting on the lid. I decided the canned goods were safe and I went to take a shower as well. On the way back from the shower I see this girl with a headlamp coming towards me, as she passes I realize that it is D... who I had heard leave showers a few minutes ago. So I call out, "D?" I've never seen anyone so excited to see me. She had gotten lost and had actually walked all the way out of the campsite to the main gate of the park and then come back. We are still not sure how she did this since our campsite and main gate are mostly opposite directions and she was coming from the direction of our camp when I saw her. After getting her turned around, and then myself turned around for a bit, we ran into Ty and all made our way back to camp. At camp we found the food bin on the ground. The only thing missing was the box of unopened cornflakes. The whole rest of that night D was convinced that the wild dog was stalking her for some trangression and was going to be around every corner. Now I guess, I've actually lied here, because several nights later we found out that something else was missing, our cooking oil. D still swears that the dog would not have taken the cooking oil. After all "cooking oil and cornflakes don't go together."

The next day we had planned to drive to Brandberg but decided to stop in Swakopmund. D told me later she knew I was tired when the guy said it would be N20 to park and I didn't even argue. In Swak we had a great time. We went sandboarding, awesome, awesome time. D and I did stand-up sandboarding, on snowboards, while Ty did the lying down, on 1/4 boards. D and I also got to try lying down as well and we managed to hit speeds of 50-70km/h as we came speeding down the sand dune. I had enough momentum to catch air and almost go down another dune. D was so out of control that she hit her head on the board and broke her sunglasses. Another clothing/gear sacrifice for D. I wish I could show you the video from this adventure, maybe someday.

In Swak we also picked up Toby. Toby was a German traveller that we met. He didn't have any plans. So D wrote him 2 a page letter telling him he could join us the next day as we went to Brandberg and then we would give him a ride back to Windhoek on Sunday. Even though we said we were going to Brandberg to see the rock paintings we never made it. Base, one of the Chameleon Safari guides told us to "stalk them" some more and go to Spitzkoppe. The "stalking" was the funny party. Since leaving Windhoek we have seen and camped with the same Chameleon Safari groups, even passing them on the road as we drove. It had become a huge joke among both groups. Ok, maybe you just have to be there for it to be funny.

We were all very impressed with the rock formations around Spitzkoppe, and not so impressed with the rock art in the regions. I think it was for this reason that we skipped Brandberg the next day and made the epic journey to the "Rhino" camp. Since there were no rhino's we continued our journey down to the coast and camped on the beach.

While we spent all of our time in a desert country/area the weather differences were amazing. In Sossusvlei we recorded 40C in the shade one afternoon. It was always around 30C in the morning when I woke up. In Swakopmund and on the skeleton coast the days might have gotten up to 25C but at night I think it got down to 16C at night. Being near the cold Atlantic there was always a moist, wet, cold wind blowing in. Weird to be looking west into the Atlantic.


After the girls left I decided to take a 3 day tour to Etosha National Park. My goal was to see rhinos and baby animals. It being the wet season I originally planned on skipping Etosha and seeing rhino’s elsewhere but I heard that all the animals had their babies so I decided to try the tour. Not a great tour. We did see lions, twice, which is a treat. And I saw 3 rhinos at the watering hole at night. They light up the watering holes in camp so that you can sit at night and watch the animals. Unfortunately, it rained while we were there so there was plenty of water elsewhere for the animals to drink. The other real downside for me was 3 solid days in a car driving around. I’ve learned that I’m not good at tours, or game drives. Several months ago when I first heard the term "game drive", I thought it was like an old fashion deer hunt. We drive around chasing game to the hunters. Nope, we just drive around looking for animals to look at and oogle over. We did see lots of springboks with babies, wildebeests with babies, zebras with young, giraffes with young. So it wasn’t a total loss.



Well that sums up the trip. By the time this gets posted I will have completed a 19 hour bus ride and be in Cape Town. I'm finally going to be in one of the 2 cities that were the original endpoints of my Istanbul to Capetown idea, only 18 months after quitting my job. Not to shabby, hey?


Click here to really see what Namibia is like-- more pictures

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Comments

[Smitty]

Sand Surfing
Farrell, Sand Surfing? That really sounds fun.

[Brian]

awesome desert shots
Mike - fantastic shots, I always wanted to visit the Skeleton coast ..