Before I begin - I want to send wishes to yet another grandchild on their birthday - Rowan who turns 9 on the 12th. Happy Birthday darling - love you.
We had no expectations about Namibia, and we only knew there were sand dunes, flamingos and great mines here, and that Angela Jolie and Brad Pitt had lived here for a while and had their first child here. We were expecting to see poverty and were frankly shocked that we did not see any slums. It has an interesting history, having been visited in the 15th century by the Portuguese and finally annexed by Germany in the 19th century. Diamonds were discovered here and the Germans locked down the area where they were to be found to make it off limits. German forces surrendered to South Africa in World War I, and South Africa was given the mandate to rule it by the League of Nations. Although this was reaffirmed after World War II, by the United Nations, they did not sanction an outright annexation by SA. Lots of politics ensued during this century and last, and apartheid was practised here too. But finally they got their freedom in 1994. Today it is a stable and prosperous country. The top industries are mining (uranium), fishing, agriculture and tourism.
Six of us elected to take the shuttle to Walvis Bay from the container port, then get a taxi to the German town to the north, 26 km away, called Swakopmund. Driving by the homes we were all surprised by some of the sumptuous luxury, and the modern architecture. The city of Walvis Bay, population about 50,000 has no redeeming architecture in the business district and many people commented that it is typical of the plain concrete structures of German colonialism. Whatever the case, it is extremely clean.
We haggled with the taxi drivers, who were like piranhas trying to make a deal with us, and we overpaid by quite a bit, we later found out, but off we went, past the apartheid legacy townships, which are clean, and consist of small well kept simple homes, followed by large vacation homes on the sea, and past the beautiful drifting sand dunes.
The day started with fog, and we were all bundled up as it was quite cool. We learned on the second day, that this fog is life saving for the desert, and it sets up a little microclimate that provides dew to the desert plants which provide water in whatever scarce amounts there are, for the animals that live in the desert. The Namibian desert is the oldest desert in the world.
We found Swakopmunde to be a strange but interesting little city of 100,000 with wide boulevards, the same plain concrete architecture, mixed with some more elaborate early German buildings from the 1900's. The shops are very nice with higher end products and most have iron gates across their entrances, that require the shopkeeper to open. Apparently there are gangs of thieves who try and do raids on the merchandising. There was also a man in the middle of the street, called a Namibian Car Caretaker, who is making sure that the cars parked on the street are not highjacked. So while the streets seem safe, there is obviously a criminal element here.
We had lunch at a German Beergarden restaurant with excellent draft beer and bratwurst sausage.
We had originally planned to stay in the town and go to a seafood house for dinner, but most of the group voted to return to the ship at 4 pm., which turned out to be a good decision as the last shuttle was at 5:30 and taxis were not permitted into the port.
The day had turned into a gorgeous one - with clear blue skies, and hot sun - again this would be a typical day in the desert here.
Friday we had all planned a HAL tour to do a 4x4 excursion into the desert and what we thought would involve riding over the dunes. This tour was fantastic, but luckily we were in large vehicles - Max and Mal and Barry and me in one, and Karen and Jonathan in another. Our guide Heinie, told us all about Namibia, especially that they value the rainbow nature of the different races and tribes and that they live in harmony. They are also hosting the International Adventure Tours Conference in October of which they are extremely proud because it will give them a chance to showcase Namibia, which is not well known in the world.
We set out at 8 am. and went into the area known as the Moonscape.
We travelled into the Namib Desert, continuing along the Swakop River, a dry riverbed, to the moon Mountains, exploring the deep chasms and interesting geological features which developed over many hundreds of million years, and with some unique flora. We were out for 8 hours, learning about the plants, the animals and the climate. We saw 4 wild ostrich racing across the desert and on the way back some springbok, an antelope like creature. We stopped to get a lesson on the Welwitschia mirabilis plant which they now know lives to be about 900 years old. Heine demonstrated a tiny plant with green leaves that you can use if you are thirsty in the desert, by squeezing the water out of it, and it is surprising how much comes out and it tastes salty too.
Our lunch was at an oasis restaurant where we dined under the trees on game meat and salads, and mango juice. Our final stop was Dune 7 on the sand dunes, so named because it is 7 km from an old military base, whose soldiers trained daily by climbing the dunes. Two of our group made it to the top - and it is hard going, as I tried. The dunes themselves have a remarkable beauty with the fluid shapes made by the wind, carved into swirls.
Back on the ship, the children from the Bernhard Nordkamp Centre, an orphanage that we have been raising money for, were entertaining our guests. We didn't make it back in time, but they did raise $8000 to present to the executive director.
We ended our day listening to Naomi Edermariam, a amazingly talented concert pianist, who received a standing ovation. Rhapsody in Blue her final piece was astoundingly performed.
We are leaving Africa, headed for St. Helena Island and the Ascension Islands with 2 sea days ahead for us to recover.
No comments:
Post a Comment