Namibia part 2 – Truckin’ Through the Rains

For the next 15 days, we were on our own. We said goodbye to our friends in Windhoek and picked up a diesel truck with a rooftop tent for a Sara and Dave 4x4 campin’ rough ridin’ honeymoon. That tent was the most cushy camping we’ve ever done. Why don’t they have them in the States? Why? So much better (and cheaper) than gigantic motor homes. You just fold it out, climb up the ladder, and –instant, comfy, critter-free sleep! First stop was the apricot sand dunes of the west. That place, around Sossusvlei, was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been on earth. You drive to the base of the dunes on a sandy track, and can hike off into them. It’s absolutely quiet, and no one was there. Amazingly, ostriches and springbok seem to get on just fine, but we didn’t see a drop of water anywhere. Depressions known as vleis hold white, cracked areas of mud and 500 year old dead trees. It’s a very spiritual place, no matter what your belief. On our last night there, we climbed to the top of a dune (not as easy as it looks!) and saw an incredible sunset over the dunes and mountains. All around were dry river courses cut into the dry plains below. The Namib is one of the world’s oldest deserts, and it certainly looks it.

We left the dunes behind to go to the Skeleton Coast area and Damaraland, via Swakopmund, a coastal town that looks like a little bit of Germany plopped down in Africa (for those of you unfamiliar with Namibia’s history, it was a German colony for a while, though taken away after WWI and then annexed by South Africa, only gaining independence in 1989. The people also suffered apartheid-style restrictions during those years.). On the inhospitable coast, yearly rainfall is measured in millimeters, if at all, and large, dun-colored desert dunes meet the sea. But the sea life is abundant, and we saw dolphins and seals galore, including an even smellier seal colony than the one in South Africa. I actually had to tie a bandana over my nose to not breathe the stink in through my mouth! But boy those seal babies were cute…

In Damaraland, we saw 6000-year old rock paintings, beautiful animal images of penguins, lions, ostriches and others, painted by the ancestors of the Damara and San people that proved they ranged from the sea to the rainy river areas. We also managed to see the desert elephants! They are notoriously elusive, but we actually saw them from a gravel road. We had picked up two village girls and were giving them a ride to the next town, and they saw them first and pointed them out. The elephants were hanging out in a dry riverbed, after having knocked down all the fences in the vicinity (I don’t think there’s a single fence in Africa that can truly defeat a full grown elephant). We were very excited, but the girls had a different reaction: “Those are stupid elephants! Very naughty!” They might be destructive, but we were excited to see them, since it had just started to rain in the area, and the elephants would soon vanish into the bush, becoming almost impossible to spot until the dry season.

Once we left the dry desert and the desolate coast, the rains really arrived. We were on our way to the Caprivi region, which receives most of Namibia’s rainfall, and is inhabited by people who have more in common culturally with the people of Zambia, Angola, and Botswana. Cross the veterinary control line into the north of the country, and suddenly there are thatched villages and sustenance farms everywhere. It is also much poorer, though the culture seems more traditional and vibrant. We stayed at a camp where we ditched the tent for a night and slept in a treehouse, where we could hear people singing along the Okavango River, and hippos bellowing at dusk. The place had a toilet called “the throne” which looked out over the riverbed. Imagine doing your business, then a hippo surfaces near you – that pretty much captures the area.

We headed south into Botswana, which was a very easy border crossing, for a quick glimpse of the Okavango Delta, which dries up in the sands of the Kalahari desert rather than emptying to the sea. It’s famed for its wildlife, and maze of waterways filled with lilies, crocodiles, and fish. It definitely lives up to the pictures. We got to our lodge after 12 km of sandy track where Dave dodged cows while trying not to get stuck. It was on a gorgeous lagoon, where crocs cruised in the evening, and a tremendous rainstorm had knocked out the phones. The only way into the delights of the Delta is by boat or by plane, so we definitely took advantage of the water transport option. We even went fishing, catching wild tilapia…and throwing them back again. Our second day there we went out on the water all day, with our guide, Alec, who also took us in a makoro, a dugout canoe which is propelled by a standing poler. It was amazing, seeing the delta waters from a low vantage point, with no motor, so quiet you can hear the lily pads squeaking on the hull as we pass. We saw the rare sitatunga antelope, and got quite close, though thankfully had no canoe encounters with a hippo! We also walked around some of the islands and saw evidence of elephant and civet cats. Just wish we could have stayed longer.

Our last days in Namibia were no less filled with wildlife encounters though. On our way back through the Caprivi and down to Windhoek, we spent two nights on the Kwando River, which eventually flows into the Zambezi. The place is filled with hippos, they’re around every corner. Having one charge your boat really gives you an appreciation for the fact that these animals really are that big, and that dangerous – even their footprints seem dino-sized. One hippo blew a huge warning bubble directly under our boat that actually made me scream like a little girl. Even Dave admits to being more than a little scared.

Our last two nights before flying to West Africa gave us a new appreciation for the people that live in the bush. We went with a tracker in search of leopard on one game farm, and he found leopard prints that had been drenched with hours of torrential rain, barely discernable in the red mud. How? He looked for the impressions made by the huge cats’ claws. He also found tiny paw marks – a cub. He even picked up long hairs, which thorny bushes had plucked from the leopard’s tail. But…no spotted cats were seen. Still we were in awe of his skill, that is until we all got stuck in the mud, ending the exciting tracking part of the game drive. We also were able to spend a night interacting with a San family, an ethnic group more commonly known as the Bushmen. These people have been pushed into remote areas of the Kalahari, in the eastern part of Namibia. They can no longer hunt, and live in extreme poverty. We stayed at a camp where the San had been hired to come and show tourists how they survive in the bush. That night, we hung out with them by the fire and shared cigars and songs and played with the kids. We were the only people staying there, so it was really nice to just enjoy their company. In the morning, we went for a walk with them, and learned about various foods and plants, and how they use their environment. Dave was also very impressed with their portable pipe, which doubles as a handle for an axe. I loved just listening to their language, which is one of the planet’s oldest tongues, with different clicks I found almost impossible to pronounce correctly. It was a great way to end our time here, this too-quick look at a culture that may be under threat, but still struggling to co-exist with all the groups that make up modern-day Namibia. It’s just one more enticement to come back someday.

Well, we meant to update this every week or so, but that would involve…actually having internet access. Namibia has a lot of cell towers and some internet, but getting access to people who are wired is tough, especially as there are really only three towns of significant size in the entire country, which is twice the size of California. Plus the internet cafes don’t like you to use jump drives or memory sticks due to viruses and fraud. SO, long story short…we finally can tell you about our time in Namibia…after arriving back in the States!

This huge, stark desert country has less than two million people, with one of the lowest population densities on earth. In some places, you can drive across a flat desert road for five hours without seeing another car or person, and not a single drop of water. When we arrived, the rains were a month late, and the north and west of the country hadn’t seen a raindrop in over a year. 2007 was a year of drought, and people here have desperate hopes for this rainy season, for if it doesn’t go well, they will have to start bringing water by tanker truck into the capital. Never mind oil - Namibia has a water pipeline, a foreboding image of future days to come elsewhere in the world.

We got off the plane and met our friends David and Jillian, who were also on holiday in Southern Africa, and by harmonic convergence, we could meet up with them, and then later fly to Ghana to visit before going home (more on that later!). We jumped straight into the car and drove the 400 plus kilometers up to Etosha National Park, a paltry driving distance in Namibia. Etosha is one of the region’s most amazing parks, typically very arid, but home to large populations of zebra, giraffe, elephant, lion, black and white rhino, leopard, cheetah, and hordes of various antelope, not to mention other smaller creatures from martial eagles to banded mongoose. Due to the late rains, the park was bone dry – little clouds of dust rose with every animal footstep – which meant we could see quite a lot around the waterholes, except for those pesky leopards and cheetahs. We went on a night drive where the guide took a red light to light up animal eyes, and almost immediately saw a black rhino and baby standing quite close. Really amazing. This was our first time being, er, “on safari”, and it was a strange experience. In Etosha, due to the large populations of animals possessing big claws, teeth, horns, or tusks, you have to stay in your vehicle at all times when driving through the park. The advantage? Unlike many of the parks in East Africa where you need an armed guide or tour group, you can drive your own car to wherever you want to go on the large network of gravel and dirt roads through most of the park. Most days we were out from dawn till dusk. The disadvantage? Being in the car all day can be a bit of a drag, though when that big male lion yawned, stretched himself, and proceeded to amble over to within 5 meters of us and eyeball Dave’s big camera lens before settling down for his afternoon nap, we were pretty glad of our tinny Toyota’s protective layers of glass and steel. The other strange thing about an Etosha safari is that the Namibian government is trying to take advantage of the country’s premiere tourist attraction and turn its gated utilitarian rest camps into something more like a luxury resort. This has resulted in very high prices (60 dollar campsites! 150 dollar huts!) and a weird Palm Springs-like oasis where you are fenced in and surrounded by wild animals. We didn’t expect to end up in Namibia with our tent and stove, and instead have drinks by the pool and then wander over to the waterhole observation area to check out the elephants. That said, the design has been done well, the huts are thatched and look pretty organic, and why shouldn’t the government try to capture the almighty tourist dollar. It just didn’t feel very…wild. But none of that matters when you go out to look at the floodlit waterhole at midnight and see no fewer than FIVE black rhinos and one white rhino hanging out there, and then having a scuffle right in front of you. Or when you pull into Halali, the camp in the middle of the park, for lunch (we don’t recommend the buffet), and end up spending two hours watching a herd of 30+ elephant eat, spray water and play right in front of you before disappearing into the surrounding bush.

Etosha is set on a gigantic dry pan, which during the dry seaso

n, is snowy white, crackled, and blazing hot. In one place, you can drive the car onto the pan and watch the mirages move around in the distance and look for panting animals trudging across its broad expanse in search of water. At night, many of the prey animals huddle on the pan since there’s nowhere for predators to hide. We human prey got out of the car (shh, don’t tell!) and just reveled in the nothingness. No sound. No cover. Just distant dust devils and animal specks in the distance. THAT would be the place to camp at night, as long as an elephant didn’t come along and squish your tent.

The four of us wanted our next stop to be animal oriented, but cheaper than Etosha. So we called up a game lodge in the central part of the country which is a bit greener and has good grazing. When we showed up, we were in for a surprise. It was a hunting lodge. Trophy hunting is big business in Namibia, and you may be able to guess where the hunters are flying in from. Yep, that would be Texas. Apparently Houston airport has quite a few import issues with CITES-listed game when the hunters bring in their heads and skins. It’s not only Americans of course. We talked with quite a few hunting guides during our time in Namibia, and apparently trophy hunting has become quite popular amongst Russians and Hungarians. It was a bit creepy to walk into the lodge’s bar area and see an entire wall of dead animal and triumphant guy with gun photos. Many of them were big antelope, and considering we had been eating various kudu, oryx, and springbok meals all over the country…well, no meat goes to waste in Africa. But as Dave said, staring at the wall, “who the hell would want to kill a giraffe?”

Hunting does play a role in conservation here – game farms have repopulated large areas of land with native animals rather than cattle, and of course local people still hunt for food. But the trophy aspect of it was grim. Hunting guides have told us crazy stories about rich guys blowing animals away from the back of a Land Rover, which doesn’t seem very sporting. Sooooo…not our thing. But we were stuck there, and the people running the lodge were really interesting to talk to. They were also the polar opposite of Etosha. Want to walk? Sure, just keep your eyes open. They gave Dave the keys to the Land Rover, threw some beers in a cooler and told us to have at it. He was in heaven. Plus that place had possibly the most beautiful rainbow we’ve ever seen.