Travels to Namibia

Namibia: Sand and Safari


Jim and I had a truly marvelous time in Namibia and a few days in Cape Town, South Africa. I'm sitting here listening to my African Music CDs while I type already longing to return. As I told a person that I met on the trip, once you get Africa in your blood, it is there forever.


By far, Namibia is the best African country we’ve visited. The country is so remarkable that it hardly felt like an exotic adventure. It is very easy to see why Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt love this country. Even though we were in Africa’s youngest country, it was more like a long road trip in Southwestern America. We could drink the water, every bathroom in the whole country is spotless (even at gas stations & public camp sites), and even though most roads are gravel they are in excellent condition as we were able to travel them at 70mph most of the time.


Landscape and Background
The best way to describe Namibia is like our Southwest although it is much larger (it is as large as California, Oregon, and Washington combined, or twice California’s size). It has a huge desert, small rocky mountains, and either tall golden grass or short thorny shrubs covering the landscape. (Over 90% of all plants in Namibia have long sharp thorns.) In the very dry desert area close to the Skeleton Coast there is a rare desert plant called “welwitschia mirabilis”. It can live up to 2,000 years. It grows on the ground, but looks a little like a palm.


The flat topped Acacia tree found throughout most of southern Africa looks like Mesquite trees found in West Texas. Although it is quite large, Namibia only has 2 million people who are mostly located in its northern part where the most water is. We drove for hours without seeing another vehicle and most vehicles carried tourists like us.


Most tourist come from South Africa or Europe (mainly Germany since it was German colony up until WWI and is well known there). The only Americans tourists we ever met or saw were at the airport and locals were quite surprised, but delighted when we told them we were Americans since they don’t see too many of us there. Everyone speaks English since it is taught in the schools along with Afrikaans which is a legacy from the South Africa’s long occupation and is derived from Dutch. The African descendants also speak their local tribal language. Two guides on the trip were Bushmen or San people descendants. Their language is comprised of various clicks. It is very interesting to listen to them speak.

Transportation
Our vehicle with the pop-up, roof top tent was fantastic! Once the tarp cover was removed all we had to do was pull it up and Presto- our tent was ready to go.


Each morning we were packed and ready to go in 30 minutes. The truck also came with a built- in refrigerator, sleeping pads & bags, gas stove, and cooking utensils. Camping has never been easier. We were also surprised out how nice our campsites were. Each one had a top notch area to rinse out pots, very clean bathrooms, and showers with hot water. Some sites also had a built in patio complete with chairs, electric outlets and a light. For these luxurious campsites we only paid $20 a night.


Three Trip Highlights


Sand
The first was visiting the gigantic red sand dunes at Sossusvlei in Namib-Naukluft National Park. We were lucky to be there on 3 good days when the temperature was never very hot with little wind. We had a great time hiking in the dunes and taking many pictures. It is incredibly beautiful, stunning landscape. In the mornings and late afternoons it had a very Zen- like feel with the simple curved lines and long shadows on the sand. In one area we needed to use 4 wheel drive in the deep sandy road. Jim thought I should experience driving in this desert terrain. An understatement is I wasn't very good and almost got us stuck.

Safari
Our next favorite highlight was Etosha National Game Park. This was our 4th African safari trip and without a question the best we ever experienced. The abundance of wildlife is outstanding and few visitors make it incomparable to other African national parks.


We were in the park for less than 5 minutes when a French woman stopped her vehicle to tell us where to view 2 female lions. From that point on we never went very long without viewing some wildlife. Two things we will never forget had to do with elephants. One day we wanted to pass a bull elephant that was taking his time walking down the road. The bull charged us, but thank goodness Jim was quick at getting us into reverse quickly which was good because the vehicles there are right hand drive like in Britain so the shifting is a little different. But the story doesn't end there. Once we were finally able to pass we had to return down the same road 10 minutes later. It is true an elephant doesn't forget because when the same elephant saw us coming down the road he charged us once again flaring his ears, rearing his trunk, and letting out a trumpet blast letting us know his true feelings toward us. Once again Jim hit reverse and got away quickly.


The other unforgettable sight involved us going down a road once which we had never been lucky at sighting animals. Jim thought we should give it one more try even though I said it was fruitless. I’ll never outlive this remark since it turned out to be a great decision. It was late in the afternoon and we sighted only our 2nd rhinoceros about 40 yards from the road lying in the grass. Mindful while in Africa to keep your head on a swivel because as you are looking to your front, something may be approaching from the rear, Jim turned to see a huge elephant herd emerging from the bush. There were about 50+ female elephants and their young for approaching a small watering hole for their late afternoon drink and mud bath. As they passed directly in front of us and close by our vehicle, it was an incredible site. Each adult female elephant was very upset at the rhino for lying so close to their path. They all flared their ears and stomped the ground at the rhino as they passed. The rhino’s only reaction was to flutter its ears as if it couldn't be bothered.


For us the joy of being able to travel at our own speed and to spend as long as we wished at each watering hole and not be rushed about by a guide made this safari unforgettable. Combine this ability with few tourists and more zebras and giraffes than we could count and we had a great safari experience. One day we even saw 30 giraffes at the same water hole which was amazing as giraffe are only generally seen in small groups. Plus for the first time ever we saw many giraffe spread their front legs into a V so they could drink from the pond. It will be hard for us to ever return to the heavily touristed areas in Kenya or Tanzania where most vehicles contain 4-6 occupants and you compete with 100s of other tourist vans to see the same animals.


Wild Cats
The last highlight came with our 2 visits to areas working hard to save the cheetah from extinction. The first is called the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF). It was established by a woman named Dr. Laurie Marker from Oregon who felt enough wasn't being done to save the wild cheetah from extinction. With only $15,000 she moved to Namibia in 1990 and started talking to local ranchers in Namibia to learn why they shot cheetahs and how she could help prevent this action. She now conducts daily workshops with locals to educate them on why cheetahs are important to the eco-system, how farmers/ranchers can co-exist with cheetahs, and why it is in their best interest to do so. She is also does extensive research on this animal at her facility. If you have any interest in this animal you might want to check out their website. http://www.cheetah.org/.


While there we actually met Dr. Marker who gave us a private tour in which she allowed us to meet and pet a pair of 3 week old cubs she was treating. The cubs had been orphaned after a rancher had shot their mother. Meeting Dr. Marker was incredible and very inspirational. I hope to inspire some teachers at my school to use curriculum her organization has put together for teachers to educate children about cheetahs.


After visiting CCF we went to another wild cat conservation site called AfriCat. This organization is run by a local Namibian family. The owners’ father was once a cattle rancher, but when their parents retired they decide to turn the ranch into a place that would work to save both leopards and cheetahs. It was interesting to see the 2 approaches. In some ways they are very similar, but in others very different. AfriCat works a great deal with a catch and release program. CCF works more on preventing ranchers from ever capturing or killing wild cats. We spent the night at this facility and were given the opportunity to see cheetahs and a leopard. Our guide was surprised by how friendly the cheetahs were on our visit. During our guide’s 30min. talk about AfriCat, the cheetahs sat only inches from our vehicle. I was sitting in the very front and often thought at any moment one of the cats was about to jump right in my lap. I did not realize until later that I had the plastic container full of their meat tidbits sitting at my feet. During the feeding one cheetah did jump on the vehicle’s hood for a mere second which even surprised the guide. Too bad Jim and I weren’t able to capture this with our cameras. The next morning we were able to view 2 lions that live on the premises. Most of us heard them roaring all night long while we tried to sleep. AfriCat has about 10 leopards at their facility fitted with radio collars. Each morning a guide takes the guests on a hunt trying to track a leopard using a radio signal. For two hours we listened in vain to faint beeps that led us on a wild goose (or leopard) chase, but we eventually tracked down a female. She had just killed a baby oryx and was so well hidden and camouflaged in the brush we would have never found her without the tracking device. Although it was thrilling to see the leopard, it was heartbreaking to see the mother oryx emerge wandering and crying to locate its young who the leopard killed, but in Africa from death comes life. If you would like to learn more about AfriCat go to http://www.africat.org/.
Both CCF and AfriCat are great organizations. I only hope that their work will be successful and they will be able to save these great cats from extinction. Additionally, I thought it was quite appropriate my big pet cat Minnie joined me on my desk as I typed this section on cheetahs.


Final Thoughts on Namibia
While in Namibia we also visited a petrified forest, saw some ancient San drawings, and stayed in the small town where Angelina and Brad had their first child.

We don’t normally follow the news while on holiday, but while waiting for dinner one night Jim picked up the local newspaper in a small town to see what was happening there and right there on the front page we found out about Brad and Angelina’s twins.


Additional Images
If you are interested in seeing more images from our trip to Namibia and to see a few images from Cape Town, South Africa go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lambdaman/sets/72157606510543228/
This website also offers additional information about Namibia and its wildlife.