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Published: August 23rd 2006
Dead Vlei
These trees weren't petrified but were 3000 years old...and still standing.At the outset of this blog I have to say how proud I am of Katherine and her recovery from surgery. Despite a bit of snivelling before and after the operation (from both of us), she was out of the hospital in under 48 hours proudly displaying a dozen or so stitches in three holes in her belly. We stayed in Windhoek for the next day and treated ourselves to a night at the “Roof of Africa” - the most expensive place in the budget section of our Lonely Planet (nothing is too good for my gal). We had a fantastic little room with a lovely bougainvillea covered balcony where I lounged for most of the day while K slept. Too stingy for the restaurant, we smuggled our cooking gear into the room and cooked up a massive serving of pasta, which K laced heavily with red wine, voltaren and panadol so to ensure a good nights sleep. I was in heaven as the late movie was The Matrix (which I think, more than anything, spurred K on to believing that she was recovered enough to make tracks the next day).
Back on the Road
We backtracked several hundred kilometres
One Appendix as Promised
K, still looking a bit dazed and confused, proudly displaying the offending organ. north to rejoin our planned Namibia itinerary (which we’d trimmed of some of the more intensive walking options). First off was the Petrified Forest near Twyfelfontein. I must admit that I expected to see some trees sticking out of the ground rather than bits of cracked, half buried “wood”, but that is my own naivety coming through - the stuff was 250 million years old after all. Our guide around the Petrified Forest was a bit of a card. He pointed out various (unpetrified) bushes from which local woman could make a perfume that would “make a hundred men want to talk to her and maybe more”. He then mused in what we took to be a rare display of feminine insight, that maybe making such a perfume would be more trouble than it was worth for any woman.
From the Petrified Forest we moved onto the petroglyphs of Twyfelfontein where ancient desert dwelling nomads had carved pictures into the rocks (no penises, but there was some penguins and a seal, so they must have got around a bit). The woman guiding us around told us that there were desert elephants in the region, which we were quite disbelieving
Petroglyphs
Spot the lion... of since we thought elephants would need to live off something more than sand and rocks. We woke up the next morning to find elephant footprints right through the middle of the campsite, and a tree pushed over onto some Italian people’s tent - yet no one had heard or seen anything (oddly enough including the Italians in the tent). Stealthy things these desert elephants. We must stop being so distrusting of our guides when it comes to matters of wild animals.
After the desert we got a true taste of desolation as we drove south down the infamous Skeleton Coast towards Swakopmund. The place is so barren and inhospitable that it might as well be on the moon. Sailors considered it better to die at sea than to be shipwrecked here, and the combination of rocky shore and foggy weather meant that plenty of people over the centuries got the chance to dwell on their fates. The atmosphere of utter despair and isolation was only slightly ruined by the Beast which has developed a hole in its muffler and now sounds like a Lancaster Bomber.
We had to detour from Swakopmund back into Windhoek so K could
have a post operation check up and have her stitches removed. I was keen to give it a go with my Leatherman but K was having none of it (fair enough I suppose, since I’m a little squeamish when it comes to blood being on the wrong side of a body). K got an all clear and we got presented with the hospital bill. For those of you interested the cost of getting an emergency laparoscopy and appendectomy in Namibia with two nights of luxury accommodation thrown in is approximately 6,000 kiwi dollars. Not sure how that stacks up internationally but we were happy enough with the service and of course the outcome. The limit on our insurance policy is 10,000,000 kiwi dollars of medical expenses, so god knows what you have to have removed to get up to that. Here’s hoping we never find out.
Race Against the Sun
The next stop on our zigzag across Namibia was the mighty sand dunes of Sesriem. Apparently these are Namibia’s number one tourist attraction. Not sure how people figure that - not that they weren’t impressive, just that there is so much incredible stuff here that it is hard to
Namibian Sunset
Hard to do the landscape justice, but we think that this is a pretty good effort. single one thing out. The drive to the dunes was brilliant. We’d charted a route across the back roads through some spectacular mountain passes and the most amazing scenery. Namibia has had a lot of rain this year and the lands are covered with plains of yellow grasses that sweep up to purple mountains or blood red sand dunes. On our way to the dunes we stopped at Solitaire which apparently makes the best apple pie in Africa, which is saying something because due to the German influence in Namibia they are bakers of wicked breads and pastries. The Beast had another moment while we were ordering pie - some guys in the next car noticed that our front suspension had lost its bottom bolt and it was just hanging in its bracket. I think I am becoming immune to car problems. Things like this would have stressed me out before the trip but now its like “Engine only held in by a plastic twisty you say? Well there’s a surprise”. Happily we managed to scrounge a bolt that I think came off a bed or something which seemed to do the trick and it was all fixed up before
Namibian Sunrise
Andrew on top of dune, having well earned rest from pre-dawn rally driving. we’d finished our pie. It may not be a “Toyota approved part”, but then that part fell off, didn’t it? The pie was damn good and we had to have two pieces.
Visiting the dunes was a bit of an experience. Everyone wants to be there for the sunrise, which happens at about 6.15am, and we were no exception. The thing is that the nearest campsite from the dunes is at the gates of the national park some 60 kilometres away. The gates open at 5.30am and the speed limit is 60 kmph. Now, given that it takes 10 or 15 minutes to climb high enough on the dunes for a decent view you can work out at what speeds people hurtle down the road to get there in time. The race mentality is heightened by the ticket check at the gate which means cars go through singularly, staggered every minute or so. I think we can safely say that the Beast hit one of its top speeds for the trip screaming down a desert road in the dark, which is madness really given that there were plenty of springbok and other animals around and the road is unfenced.
Namibian Sunrise II
Katherine on top of dune, having well earned rest from pre-dawn rally driving. The Lancaster Bomber impression probably got things off the road well in advance of us. K did well climbing up the dunes, but forwent running back down them.
The Zen of African Travel
Our penultimate Namibian stop was Luderitz, a kooky little German style village stuck on a rugged rocky stretch of coast and protected by a fleet of bulldozers which are locked in a constant battle with encroaching sand dunes. The area is famous for its diamonds, which were discovered in the early 1900’s nearby. Apparently they initially “mined” them by crawling on the ground and picking them up. Doing this by moonlight was especially easy we were told. Each worker averaged about 400 karats of diamonds a day this way - crazy! In Luderitz we meet up with a couple of fellow independent travellers who were also nearing the end of their African travels. Mark, a South African who had been working in London and was now travelling home overland on his motorcycle, and Hakto, an Estonian who’d driven down to Namibia in his Landrover (we were very jealous of his stylish Italian roof top tent which was deployed and retracted by simply turning a little handle).
Ghost Town
View from the sitting room in the accountants house in the now deserted diamond mining town of Kolmanskop, on the outskirts of Luderitz. Over a few beers we worked out the zen of African travel. Those in cars envy the freedom and openness of travel on a motorbike as in cars they feel a little insulated from their surrounds. Those on motorbikes feel a bit fraudulent, because travel would be so much more “real” and close to the locals if they were on a bicycle. Those on bicycles yearn for the true freedom of being on foot. And those on foot wish like hell they had a car.
After Luderitz we started back for Cape Town, stopping for our final night in Namibia at Fish River Canon - spectacular to look at but we’ll have to come back some time to do the four day hike through the bottom of it.
Now we are back in Cape Town and are beginning the re-humanizing process with showers tonight and hair cuts tomorrow morning!
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Dennis Aston
non-member comment
Leatherman
Well we knew that you would have to mention that at some time. I thought that you may have had to use it on the beast first rather than threatening Katherine with it. Hope you are both well