A Leisurely Day

What a treat - a lie in- in a bed!!  We wander down to breakfast after sending our laundry to be washed...$5NZ for a whole basket load!  There is a wonderful breakfast laid out and I partake happily.  Well, it would be rude not to.  Hils and I sit with Ronney, Uwe and Maria and discuss our plans for the day.  Ours is pretty much just a wander around town. 



Gary is excited, he has booked a fishing trip and, as a keen fisherman, is thrilled at the prospect of going out in the African waters. Swakopmund is a popular seaside destination for the inhabitants of the capital, Windhoek, about 280 kms away and its colonial history is still apparent in the many German buildings around town.  Hils and I are just starting out for a walk  when Gary comes to tell us his trip has been cancelled due to high seas.  He is disappointed but philosophical and joins us for a look around the shops. The centre of town has some very smart, upmarket shops but it is early in the trip and we don't shop. We stop for lunch at a particularly fun and funky cafe with all sorts of quirky signs and artifacts displayed.  The kitchen is labeled "The Labour Ward" and everything on the menu has a fun name and or explanation.



Down by the beautiful seafront we watch the locals playing and swimming and meet a local woman named Johanna who tells us a lot about life in Namibia.  She is very proud of the fact that one of her daughters is a school teacher and gradually gets around to asking for money for her daughter's music lessons.  We give her some, more for our admiration at the subtlety of her request than anything else.

 We run the gauntlet of the open air market on the way back to the hotel.  Some of the stall holders are quite persistent and we feel a bit mean not buying because we are sure they need the money but they are all selling the same things and we are not interested. We rest, write our diaries and then Gary, Judy and Raewyn come to our room for drinks.

  Ronney calls in a short while later.  We have a marvellous evening, laughing and talking.  Ronney tells us a lot about his life.  He is 31 and the son of a farmer.  His father has two wives and Ronney is the only child of the 2nd wife. As such he will have no claim on his father's estate when he dies.  His dream was to be a vet and he started training but had to drop out because the fees were too expensive.  He was chosen by the owner of the safari company as someone with great potential and offered a position as a guide.  It is deemed to be a prestigious job in Namibia and he is one of the youngest guides in the country.  He was very keen to learn, and ambitious, so listened hard to the senior guides, making notes and asking questions. He  wrote everything meticuously in a book and then lost the book. Fortunately he soon realised he had memorised everything  anyway.  His aim is to work as a guide until he has enough money to buy a farm.  He already has some cattle, or cattles as he calls them, but he needs six more as a bride price.  He is engaged to a kindergarten teacher but must have the bride price before they can marry.  He has never met her parents because, he said, it would be very disrespectful to meet them until they agree to his marriage to their daughter.  His parents must make the approach to her parents and they must do it by approaching her parents house on their knees.  I loved hearing this very personal insight into his life and culture. We all think so highly of Ronney, he is a fine young man.  He told us he loves our group because we make him feel like part of the family.  He said he usually takes English groups on safari and they are generally private, standoffish and don't include him.  We decide to go to the restaurant for dinner around 8.30pm however it is extremely busy and we have a long wait for our meals but they are worth the wait....I have the best calamari I have ever eaten.  In bed at a late 10.45.

                                                                                 
                                      



Photos: (1) German style building, Swakopmund, (2) Morning tea at a funky cafe, (3) Hilary and me with Johanna and family, (4) Ronney, our Namibiam guide, (5) The lighthouse, Swakopmund 

                 



                                                            

   

                                                                                 



















                                       





Swakopmund

 We are on the road to the seaside town of Swakopmund by 8am and travelling through more spectacular but, once again, very different scenery. We spot a few animals along the way, including the solitary and handsome oryx, Namibia's national animal. We stop to have our photos taken at The Tropic of Capricorn and  pass through vast mountainous ranges of striated rock.   Way out in the middle of nowhere in a lonely and desolate canyon a couple of Germans hid out during the second world war to avoid internment by the British.  I have no idea how they survived in this arid and hostile landscape but survive they did and wrote of their experiences in a book called "The Sheltering Desert" a fascinating account of endurance and self sufficiency. Until I came here I did not know that Namibia was so scenically stunning, so vast, so empty.

 



  After several hours we arrive at Walvis Bay, south of Swakopmund.  This is the site of a large flamingo colony and we walk along the coastline to admire them as they fossick for food along the edges of the sea and occasionally take flight in great swirling clouds of pink.  Lavish homes line the foreshore, several of them have gardeners working in their lush grounds. 



  The landscape between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund is just mile after mile of flat, golden sand,  whirled up into a sand storm by the wind.  I am fascinated to see houses built right into the sand along the shore and wonder how secure they are. Our hotel, Swakop Lodge, is right in the middle of town and it is a real luxury to have a proper hotel room and beds and showers, and....well, you get the picture! After showers and a rest we are met by our guide for the "township tour".  He tells us his name is Castro, "as in Fidel" he proudly states. The "township" is a shanty town on the outskirts of Swakopmund and it is a sobering sight.  Many of the houses are made from card board scraps and pieces of plastic, however, I am struck  by how  tidy the streets and alleyways are. It is sad to see people live this way but they have no choice.  Namibia currently has an unemployment rate of 51%. and it is impossible for many to afford a house.  The Government is, however,  trying to address the problem and there are small, new houses being built on the edge of the shanty town which will be available on very generous terms and low deposits to some of the shanty town dwellers. Our guide also points out the Aids/HIV Centre and proudly tells us that 95% of Namibians are now well aware of the dangers of contracting the disease and how to avoid it, nevertheless AIDS is a huge problem here, they currently have the highest rate of the disease in the world. 

  

We stop at a neat 2 roomed concrete house where we are met outside by a woman from the Damara tribe. She is dressed in the rather quaint costume Damara women have adopted based on 19th century German dress with a hat shaped like cow horns in deference to the Damara's great respect for their cattle. It is a cultural requirement that  Damara women speak softly so she answers our questions in a soft low voice then her answers are repeated to us by our guide. When volunteers are called for Judy, Maria and I volunteer and are taken into the little house and outfitted in Damara costumes. It is a surprise for our group when we reappear. We  move  on to the home of the Damara chief, a tiny, wizened, gracious old lady of 85.  She sits in her roomy, neat but humble living room and answers our questions through her nephew, Beadle, while her children and grandchildren saunter backwards and forwards through the house. Beadle is a large, beaming young man with an impressive head of plaits. We are all transfixed by their unique clicking language.



 Next we go on a walking tour of the township.  We are warmly greeted by everyone we pass and the children run around us playing tag and rolling around like puppies.  They are adorable.  Gary gives a boy some pencils and he is as delighted as if it were a million dollars. We visit a craft shop and then a neighbourhood bar where we are given drinks and sit on plastic stools while the locals come and go.  I love the African music they are playing and enjoy watching a loose limbed young man, in his own little world,  dancing to the beat. In a small thatched hut beside the bar we are served a traditional meal of cold maize porridge, beans, chicken, spinach and roasted caterpillars, yes, roast caterpillars!!  Not nice! ...all washed down with a sour fermented drink.  "Oh well," we tell ourselves, "this is all part of the African experience."  Finally, some of the local children put on a short but enthusiastic dance display for us in a narrow, dusty alleyway.  It has been a brilliant tour, so informative. sobering and humbling.  At around 7.30 we arrive back at our hotel and go straight out again to dinner.  We are eating at the Lighthouse Restaurant, very popular with tourists and right beside the fine, handsome, red and white striped lighthouse, a special landmark in Swakopmund. Ronnie comes with us and we are grateful for his help in  deflecting beggars along the way.  I enjoy my meal of local fish, prawns and mussels and the good company of the evening.  As we walk home I tell Ronney that we had eaten caterpillars and he laughs and says that he has never eaten them because they sound nasty!!




 






Photos: (1) Oryx, national animal of Namibia, (2) Hilary, Gary and me, (3) Two Germans hid out here during World War 2, (4) Sandstorm between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, (5) With Judy and Maria in Damara costume, (6)  Shanty town on the outskirts of Swakopmund, (7) Humble houses and neat, tidy street, (8) A very cool local dancing in the bar, (9) So proud of the pencil Gary gave him







Dune 45

Poor Hilary!  She tells me that she got lost last night trying to find her way back from the toilet block.  It is not surprising, the flat, featureless desert is disorientating and there are no obvious landmarks to relate to.  She wandered around for about an hour, climbing fences and walking in circles....scary!  I feel bad because I was sleeping and oblivious to her plight..

                                                                                                                                       

This morning we are going to the Sossusvlei area to climb Dune 45 and watch the sun rise so we are up early and waiting in the truck for the camp gates to open at 6am.  There are a lot of safari trucks on the road, all  heading in the same direction,  and we cheer Ronney on when he overtakes a couple of them.  A 40 minute drive and we are at the dune.  We start climbing, it is still dark and far more difficult than I expected in the soft, steep sand.  There are perhaps a 100 people climbing the dune and I am grateful that someone up ahead stops every now and then for a breather, giving us all the chance to rest. At the top everyone sits on the sharp ridge of the dune to watch the sun rise.  I notice that a group up ahead are facing in the wrong direction so shout "Turn around!".  It is amusing to watch them scramble to turn without falling off the ridge. A huge bright red sun appears from behind the mountain range and everyone gasps.  The effect, however, is muted by the heavy cloud cover.  Time to head down.  Raewyn runs down the side of the dune .  It looks like fun so I follow...wheee!..it is great fun. Jonas has our breakfast set up at the bottom of the dune and we munch happily while watching

other people climb and descend it. 
Ronney admits to me that he has never climbed it...he thinks it looks too hard!









   

After breakfast we drive further up the valley to take a more gentle walk among the dunes, some of the highest free standing dunes in the world.  The scenery is jaw-droppingly spectacular.  I have never seen anything like this before.  All around us are red sand dunes, the size of mountains, sunlight enhancing their planes and folds. We peer down into an ancient dried up river bed.  Ronney tells us that the set of tyre marks we can see dates back to the 1950's.  Vehicles are now forbidden from the valley to protect its wonderful variegated colours. Back to camp for lunch and to pack up again and we set out for our next camp, Solitaire Guest Farm. 





On our way we stop at a funky outpost consisting of a bakery, a grocers shop, a petrol station, camel rides and old cars displayed as sculpture in the desert landscape.  The bakery produces a "famous" apple pie and Raewyn buys enough for our desert tonight.  We all stock up on goodies.

Solitaire Guest Farm is absolutely beautiful, set in the veldt and with excellent facilities.  We are delighted to see a meerkat (suricate) standing on a rock peering at us as we approach but it proves to be annoying, marking its territory all around our camp with urine and trying to get into our tents. There is a springbok around camp too.  It is tame but chases Judy much to her horror and our amusement. 




Hilary, Gary and I head to the gorgeous, thatched roofed  bar set in a very pretty desert garden. Drinks are on an honesty box system...you just help yourself and write your name on a register.  I can't see that working in NZ somehow.  Others of our group gradually arrive to join us and we have a great time chatting and sharing the events of the day.  I put my glass down, gently, I might add, and the base snaps off which, for some reason,  causes much hilarity.  Another lovely camp fire dinner, including the amazingly delicious "famous" apple pie,  as the bright red sun sets over the veldt. Ahhh....Africa.






  


   


  Photos: (1) I made it!  Note the tiny figures at the top, (2) Admiring the dunes and the valley, (3) Sossuvlei Desert landscape, (4) Hiking in the dunes, (5) Old fashioned grocery store, Soltaire, (6) Soltaire Guest Farm, (7) Whoops!  The wine glass incident, (8) The sun sets over the veldt, Soltaire, (9) Ronney and Jonas cooking our dinner, Soltaire



Melrose to Sesriem

Hils and I share a tent and wake early after a fairly sleepless night. We are going to have to get used to tenting and the snores of one of the men in a nearby tent. Jonas has set up breakfast and it is to be the norm for the Namibian part of the trip; cereals, eggs, orange juice, bread, jams, coffee and tea. We pull down our tents pack up the van and start out for our next destination, Sesreim, about 7 hours drive away.

  

After about an hour we start to notice an oily smell wafting through the truck and are becoming nervous when Ronney notices a wheel nut fly off the front, right wheel. Ronney and Jonas walk back along the road about 100 metres and fortuitously find not one but two wheel nuts on the road. We are lucky to be travelling with several practical New Zealand men, some of them ex farmers, and before long they and Ronney have the vehicle repaired and on the road again.




Our trip today is through the spectacular scenery of the Namib-Nauklauft desert - vast, barren, stoney flat lands surrounded by mountains with absolutely no indication of human habitation. We stop at various times to photograph springbok, oryx, ostrich, baboons and the huge and remarkable nests of the tiny bird, the sociable weaver. It is an apt name for the birds which live in large colonies within their enormous nests, some  the size of a small car. We marvel at the birds' skill in building their nests in such a way as to ensure snakes cannot get in.  




      

 

  Way out in the middle of nowhere we stop to give a young goat herd some apples. He is delighted and we are rewarded with a radiant grin. We stop to lunch under the shade of a tree. The tree is right beside a pile of animal droppings and there are baboons capering up and down the opposite side of the road, we are not impressed but since it is the only tree for miles around we decide to stay there....needless to say it is a quick lunch!





Early afternoon we arrive at our camp, at Sesriem. 

It is attractive with good facilities including a swimming pool, shop and bar. Hilary, Gary and I waste no time in making for the bar and enjoy cold drinks under slow turning fans.
Late in the afternoon we all head off to visit a deep canyon with a dry river bed at its base. We walk down to the riverbed and along it for about 500metres. We jump and play on the rocks like a bunch of school kids. Ronney spots some fresh leopard tracks in some soft mud. We are pleased to learn that the leopard visits only at night when all visitors are gone!




 Back at camp we have a tasty meal of mashed potatoes, sausages, pumpkin and cabbage. I am so tired that I nod off during briefing around the camp fire and head to bed while Hilary heads off to clean her teeth.




 



  



 Photos: (1) Gary displays a wing nut, (2) The Namib-Naukluft Desert, (3) A sociable Weaver nest, (4) Lunch en route, I'm centre photo in blue shirt, (5) Ah, cold beer. Raewyn. our tour leader, with  Gary and Hilary  (6) Sesriem Canyon, (7) Hilary and me in Sesriem Canyon

                







  









And on to Namibia

Up at 5am...this will become a pattern in Africa. We haven't slept well. Anxious not to miss our shuttle for the airport we had set Hilary's cell phone alarm but somehow we had miss-set it and it had gone off four times in the night. A good breakfast and then off to the airport for our short flight to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. An hour and a half and here we are on the tarmac at Windhoek.

 I am bubbling with excitement. The sky is a blue, blue and the golden sun bathes us in  a hot dry heat. I can't believe I'm in Africa and keep pinching myself. Our guide for the next two weeks, a 31 year old Namibian, named Ronney, meets us. He takes us to our truck, a purpose built safari vehicle with large panoramic windows and a pop up roof for animal viewing.

After a short briefing we head into Windhoek, about 30 minutes away. Our cook for this leg of the trip, Jonas, is buying supplies and we will meet him there. We have an hour to look around Windhoek...smart shops, a well stocked supermarket and affluent looking well dressed locals. I buy a sim card for my cell phone. Despite Vodafone's assurances in New Zealand my phone doesn't work here. At last, fully provisioned, we set off for our first camp, about an hour and a half's drive away. We all shriek with excitement when we see a troop of baboons on the local rubbish dump....our first view of wild life.
          

We stop at Melrose Safari Park, a small clearing adjoining an upmarket lodge. We pitch our tents for the first time, explore the camp's clean toilets and showers and climb the high tower overlooking a large, lake-like water hole. In the distance we can see baboons and springbok and there is a cheetah kept captive in a field beside the camp. We are excited to see the cheetah but, due to its captivity, don't count it as a true safari sighting. We see our first African sunset, a bright red ball slipping behind the hills.
We sit around the camp fire under the stars and feast on chicken cooked in ginger beer, rice, corn and marshmallows toasted over the fire on a stick. It is romantic and convivial and a great start to our adventure.

  

Photos: (1) Our safari vehicle  (2) Our first campsite, Melrose Safari Park





The adventure begins 5 September 2010



 Here we are standing in a circle at Auckland International Airport, wiping the sleep from our eyes and eyeing each other up, warily. 4.30am in the morning is not the time to be bright and breezy but the air of expectancy amongst us is palpable. We are a group of 13 New Zealanders, aged mid 50s to early 70s, off for a month long safari in Africa. Hilary, Gary and I know each other, the others we have met, only briefly, at a pre trip meeting. It is a first safari for all of us and although excited we are a little apprehensive, not sure what to expect. We have a long trip ahead of us, flying firstly to Sydney and then to Johannesburg, South Africa, 17 hours flying time plus airport waiting time. The long leg from Sydney is uncomfortable and tedious in an impossibly tightly packed aircraft with some obnoxious and drunken Australians on board but it is thrilling to fly over the ice flows of Antartica and to see giant icebergs in the ocean. We arrive in Johannesburg late in the day. The airport, built for the Football World Cup, is glamorous and spacious. We change our money and while waiting for some of the others I take time to admire some handsome African families with their beautiful children. A short shuttle ride and we are at our overnight accommodation, The Road House Lodge. Hilary and I share a small, cramped room with the most unusual shower arrangement I have ever seen. The shower is right in the bedroom with no privacy at all. Walking to the hotel restaurant we become aware, for the first time, of the edginess of South Africa noting the guards and gates and high fences everywhere. We are a tired and subdued lot so after a fairly quick meal all head off to bed.

Photo: Miriam, Gary and Hilary at Auckland Airport