The Desert Lands of Namibia – Part 2

 

Vast spaces of nothing but sand continued to be the landscape as we drove through the deserts of Namibia. We spent the night in a desert camp with nothing around us but wild animals and the most awesome view of the stars. The milky way shines so vividly. The Southern Hemisphere offers such a different view of the stars, often seeming much brighter than in the Northern Hemisphere. At night while we took in the stars near a water hole, we watched in complete silence as more than 40 zebras came to drink. The sounds of the animals was incredible even if the zebras seemed to be full of gas.

Before heading to our next stop, we met a Bushman guide who took us farther into the desert and told us about life for the nomadic San (Bushman) people who once lived in the area. He also introduced us to some of the local wildlife, including the white lady spider.

After leaving our desert camp, we made a stop in the seaside town of Walvas Bay. It is port city and a popular holiday destination for wealthy Europeans. The streets are lined with expensive homes owned by Europeans. It is a huge contrast to the rest of Namibia. Our purpose for stopping there was to see the stands of flamingos that call the coastal waters of Walvas Bay home.

Then we set off to the city of Swakopmund. It is a tourist friendly city on the sea with a population of approximately 44,000 people. The city center boasts restaurants of many different cuisines as well as several shopping streets. It is a typical stop for people visiting the western part of the country.

A two-night stay in a lodge was a welcome reprieve after a week in a tent, moving to a different location each day. During our free day, we took advantage of our time by heading to the city center in the morning with our new friends Bas and Stephanie from The Netherlands. We explored the shops, had lunch a nice café and took in the view of the city from the pier.

In the afternoon, a large part of our group opted to take a quad bike (four-wheeler) tour through the sand dunes along the coast. We sped up and down huge dunes feeling the adrenaline build with each steep descent. Some were more fearless than others but toward the end we all had the throttle as far as they would go.

In the middle of our trip we made a stop to do some sandboarding and sand sledding. The dunes were so much bigger than what we did in the UAE. It was so much fun but the climb back up to the top was tough. The only casualty was the sand burn hole Robert got in the knee of his pants. Overall it was an amazing day!

Leaving the comfort of the lodge, our truck headed for the rock hills of Spitzoppe. This area is comprised of massive granite rock formations rising above the desert up to 700 meters high. The San people who lived in the area up to 800 years ago left their mark by the rock paintings that still remain today.

Our group was offered a bush walk with a guide who gave us information about the rock paintings, as well as many of the plants that were used for medicinal purposes. During our bush walk, the temperatures started to rise and we were thrilled to return to our adventure truck to have lunch in the shade.

Another very early start at 5:00am, put us on the road toward the village of Opuwo. As soon as we pulled into the village, an overwhelming feeling came into the group that we had reached the “true Africa.” Opuwo is home to people from several different Namibia tribes. Each have a unique way of expressing their culture through their clothing. There were so many things to see as we passed through the village center is was hard to take it all in. We were able to snap a few photos of the people we saw.

In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to visit on of the small local Himba village. As time has passed and some of the tribe members have inter-married, their village is now home to families of three different tribes (Himba, Herero and Damara). They have opened their village to a small number of tourists in order to share their culture as well as raise money to send their children to school. While it was a bit awkward meeting them in the first moments of our visit, the women were welcoming and eager to interact with us. We were offered a rare glimpse into the traditional lifestyle of a Namibian tribe.

Did I mention that we got up very early during most of our trip? Well, it was up at 5:30am again. The whole group was so excited because our day was to be spent doing a game drive through Etosha National Park. It is the largest National Park in Namibia and home to many of Africa’s wildlife species. The waterholes in Etosha are filled with wildlife. It is the best place to sit a take in the magnificent animals. The only drawback to the park is that the waterholes are really far apart and due to the foliage, it is hard to see wildlife in between.

The distance to cross the park is huge and we spent over 12 hours in the truck that day doing both game viewing as well traveling to the other side. In all we traveled almost 700 kilometers in one day and arrived much later than expected at a camp outside the park. Timing was not on our side, as we missed our deadline to leave the park and were locked in by security. They required us to have an escort out of the park and took us to a gate headed the wrong direction. It was quite a day. After setting up our tents in the dark, the group was exhausted and finished our night by eating dinner at 10:30pm.

Our extremely tough day was made worth it in the last 1 hour of our game drive in Etosha on our second day. We saw two male leopards roaming around the waterhole. Incredible!! We have been on dozens of game drives and have only seen a leopard once prior to this. Our high position on our large truck allowed us to see over the other safari vehicles and watch as the leopards paced around the waterhole. It was the perfect way to end our game viewing adventure in Etosha National Park.

Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, was our last stop before heading for the border. A local guide offered us a walking tour around the downtown in which we learned some interesting facts about how this very young country started to build itself after its independence in 1990. Most interesting is that North Korea offered them financial and physical support in building some of their government buildings. It wasn’t until many of the members of the UN threatened to pull trade agreements from Namibia did they end their partnership with North Korea. Windhoek has some great history to learn about but the city is not a great tourist destination, rather a place of transport via their international airport.

The next morning, we had to say goodbye to six members of our group. We hated to see Marinella, Stefania, Ilena, Annika, Bas and Stephanie all standing alongside the truck as we climbed in. It was sad waving bye to all of them as we pulled away. We hope to have made some lifelong friends. We miss you Stephanie and Bas!

 

Another six group members joined us as our journey continues into Botswana.