INTRODUCTION
Travel Arrangements made by www.AfricaEasy.com
April 2012
Why did we want to revisit this country which we had explored through an itinerary which included Botswana, Zimbabwe and Cape Town a few years ago? Simple answer: we never saw the Skeleton Coast and gorgeous red desert dunes for which the country is so justly famous. In addition, there were three animals we particularly wanted to see there: the desert adapted elephants, the desert adapted black rhinoceros, and the desert adapted lions. There was one insect we hoped to see as well: the headstander beetle. As you will soon learn, we were successful at three out of four! We were lucky enough to see other animal species we had not anticipated.
Namibia has been independent only since 1990, after having been the German colony of Southwest Africa until World War I when it became a protectorate of South Africa. After a lengthy uprising, the United Nations negotiated a settlement between the insurgents and the South African government which created a free & independent nation.
It has a large territory, being a slightly more than half the size of Alaska. Because it is occupied by two deserts, the country has less than 1 percent arable land. The two deserts are the Kalahari in the southern part and the Namib running the length of the Atlantic Coast stretching as far as 100 miles inland. One great achievement of this arid nation is the fact that it is the first country in the world to include environmental protection in its constitution; therefore about 14% of the land is set aside as parks and preserves.
NAMIBDESERT
The Namib is the world’s oldest desert at 55 million years and it boasts the highest sand dunes in the world: the tallest is 980 feet high. The entire desert is part of the preserved land of the country. The Kuiseb River bisects the desert creating two fairly different terrains. South of the river is the great sand sea characterized by parallel sand dunes with regular troughs between them. The great red hills are beautiful in their austerity and in the colors which the sunlight and shadow paint on their silky sides. Gravel terraces beneath the sands contain the world’s largest deposit of gem diamonds!
North of the river gravel and rock plains stretch as far as one can see, even from an airplane. This area is harsher in appearance and even less hospitable to animal & insect life. It is this part of the Namib that is called the Skeleton Coast. The treacherous currents of the Atlantic Ocean have driven many a ship onto this desert where both ships and humans per ish; there i s no fresh water available. Even a sailor who survived the shipwreck would not last long on the Skeleton Coast.
There is less than one inch of rain annually in the Namib but dense fogs roll in off the Atlantic and create heavy dews which add another l.6 inches of moisture to the terrain. The temperatures at midday in the desert can reach 150 degrees F. The marvel here is that anything living survives the drought and heat.
PARTICULARS OF THE TRIP
The Kalahari Desert covers most of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa. Though it is a semi-arid plateau, it is not a true desert because in its total territory it can receive between 5 and 20 inches of rain annually. Geologists also use animal life present to determine what is true desert and what is not. In the Kalahari many animals live who cannot survive in a true desert. Furthermore, many humans have lived in the Kalahari for millennia but that is not true of the Namib where only scattered small tribes have lived nomadic lives in the past. Three lodges in Namibia were our homes away from home while we explored this dramatic and beautiful country. We used small planes to travel from one of these camps to the next.
Africa Easy, a company owned and operated by Nadia Eckhardt, planned this safari for us. She also introduced us to two other people who wanted to see Namibia, so Peter and Sharon Robinson became our traveling companions. It was a good match and we enjoyed the wonders of the country together.
After only an hour in the capital city of Windhoek, we boarded the first of the small, single engine planes that would ferry us about the country from north to south. Our first destination was Desert Rhino Camp in the north. During this flight we observed the rocky and barren terrain north of the dividing River Kuiseb.
There were cindery, sharp and craggy granite spines and spires occasionally jutting out of the flat land and we could see lines of green trees & bushes which follow the courses of dry rivers under which run enough water to allow them to live on despite no rain and no standing surface waters.
To say this land looked uninhabitable would be an understatement; it actually looked like I would expect the “seas” on the moon to appear. It even seemed that there was no atmosphere above the gasping earth. It was beyond “dry” and to emphasize the point, the sandy areas were interlaced with salt pans of dazzling but deadly glaring white. A true “dead zone.” But awe-inspiring nonetheless.
The black ridges, aretes, and crag testified to the ancient pedigree of this desert like dinosaur bones emerging from the antediluvian sands. Even the gravelly sands here lacked the brilliant reds of the desert dune area; these sands were light ochres or even grayish smears below the plane’s wingtips.
Surprisingly, there was a kind of beauty to be seen in the sand patterns where it appeared that water had flowed at some time in the past. These sand patterns looked like the prominent veins in leaves or lightning forks in the sky. When had these patterns been created was an unanswered question.
Another wonderful phenomenon came into view as our young pilot, Waldemar, took us out to the coastline at Cape Cross. As we flew above the blue green Atlantic and looked back at the shore, there were granite boulders lining the water’s edge and others out in the shallows. When we passed over the area at a lower altitude, these rocks metamorphosed into lounging, swimming, fighting, and “arfing” fur seals thousands of them. We were told that about 20,000 stay in this area year round.
They are wonderfully fluid creatures in the water but awkward and endearing on land. We greatly enjoyed seei ng them sporting in their natural environment.
As we flew for two hours over this desolation (perhaps a preview of what more of the earth will resemble due to catastrophic climate change?), the four us wondered behind the deafening noise of the engine where in all this chaos of rock, sand and gravel could there be hidden a tourist camp for visiting desert rhinos?
We landed on a plateau in the middle of nowhere on a clearly manmade strip but as in Ozymandias, the desert stretched around like a wasteland. As we hesitantly and more than a little apprehensively disembarked the noisy dragonfly which had deposited us here in this “nothingness,” we heard another loud engine sound prophesying some other human beings in the area. Sure enough, the Land Rover appeared on the rise from the desert floor onto our plateau and we felt relief at our rescue.
DESERTRHINOCAMP
Desert Rhino Camp was about a 45 minute ride from the landing spot and the rock-strewn suggestion of a path took us through an amazing transformation in scenery. It was surreal to see actual greenery growing alongside our way. Bitter and bitten plants to be sure, but something alive anyway. In the distance we spied 4- legged creatures which our driver identified as a small herd of Oryx - a very handsome desert-adapted antelope which we had not expected. Dramatic sweptback, long and ridged horns characterize this animal’s lovely head with beautiful facial markings of dark and light stripes to minimize sun glare. Both males and females sport these horns, but the males are larger. It turned out we would see this beautiful animal everywhere in the three sectors of the Namib that we visited.
Then we were startled to come across real grasses growing in this desiccated and sandy soil. Of course, it was dried up but apparently serves as food for the creatures living in this oasis. The biggest plant surprise was the incredible Welwitschia - a plant which grows only in this desert (and it is the only species in its
genus as well). It is composed of two leathery leaves but it can grow to over 6 feet tall. Talk about desert adaptation; this plant is the epitome of that evolutionary fact. The two huge leaves are so torn and shredded by the drought and desert winds that the plant often looks feathery from a distance. In another testament to the powers of adaptation, there is even a beetle who lives only in the welwitschia plant; it is called the “Dontus Sexpuntatus” or pushmepulya bug. How’s that for specialization?The road into camp would prove to be typical for all the safari routes we used here: twisty, rock-filled, steep, and potholed. So our safari van provided a carnival-like thrill ride of bumps, jolts, squeals, and dips. Sharonchristened the roads “The DrakePassage on Land.”
Anyone who has crossed that treacherous passage from South America to the Antarctic Peninsula will understand what she meant. Desert Rhino Camp was a typical tourist accommodation in Africa with tent cabins for tourists and a central dining/library area.
Everything was open to the air. There were breezes to keep us all from melting in the heat that lay on the land with a very heavy hand.
We enjoyed meeting the staff and taking the exciting safari rides for which Southern & E Africa are so well known.
Our quest here was to see the desert-adapted black rhinoceros and we were fortunate enough to see one 22 year old male called by the Rhino Trackers “Don’t Worry.” I imagine they enjoyed his willingness to be found and stared at by the eager tourists and they know as long as he was in the area they didn’t have to worry about producing a rhino encounter.
The Rhino Trackers were interesting fellows who come from backgrounds as diverse as former rhino poachers to trained aides to the Minnesota Zoo and National Geographic Magazine. They spend every day tracking the 22 or so rhinos who live in this area, monitoring their health, their habits, the distances they travel as well as protecting them from poaching. Their record during the last 10 years has been excellent in preventing their charges from falling to the specimen hunters and in providing much needed information for the animal researchers and conservators. Our biggestsurprise came when our Range Rover hurried through an ever darkening twilight to meet the Rhino Trackers who had found “Don’t Worry” for us.
He was grazing along a swampy area among tall grasses (I guess the first surprise was that there was a swampy area in this desert)! The second part of our astonishment was the fact that we were told to get out of the vehicle, cross a very low and watery spot over a log, stay as quiet as possible and emerge on the bank only about a football field’s length from the rhino.
So there we stood looking at this behemoth who was well aware of our presence with no protection whatever. He shambled a bit closer to us perhaps as curious about us as we were about him but not nearly as vulnerable as we felt. He was huge and seemed to grow exponentially as he edged closer. So we got excellent views of him as well as good close up pictures. “Don’t Worry” might have been his name, but we could not stop worrying that he might charge and we knew we’d never get back over the log bridge, the watery area and up the hill to the car without his reaching us first! But we were completely safe as it turned out and thrilled to see this huge creature living in such an unlikely environment.
At a dinner we talked with Agnes who runs Desert Rhino Camp, with Raymond the coordinator & driver for the safaris and Consigy who was the grandson of a reformed rhino hunter. We felt that we had real person-to-person conversations with these three people and learned much about why Namibia is already a successful African nation in a sea of failed states. The interest in education that all three of these young people evinced, as well as their personal ambitions to better their own lives, that of their families, and the society at large, was inspiring. They saw the value of learning skills that were marketable, of conserving their country’s natural resources and making sure that they were used to benefit all, and of preserving the natural environment. They were politically aware of what was going on in the country and were eager to see Namibia prosper and progress. Raymond and Agnes were continuing their educations at university and clearly had profited from their earlier basic education.
OKIHIRONGAELEPHANTCAMP
Our airplane safari from Desert Rhino Camp to the Okihironga Elephant Camp was another amazing experience because the landscapes beneath the plane were so beautiful yet so stark and unforgiving.
This camp was much plusher than the tent camp in the north of the country. We had individual bungalows decorated with wonderful native arts - masks, weapons and shields, pots and paintings. The owner is a native Namibian of German extraction who has decided himself to helping create a real tourist industry for his home country.
AERIAL VIEW ELEPHANT CAMP
The camp is in a long valley, bone dry of course, except for some natural springs and a river nearby which attracts the wildlife which of course brings the tourists. This valley is one in a series of gorges cutting through the area creating mesas, buttes, and marvelous panoramas o f des ert scenery. The river we explored ev er y day wa s shallow but overflowing and it supported grasses, trees and shrubs for the animals and birds of the area. Such a green and beautiful oasis in this unbelievably dry environment.
Yet another example of the urge to improve Namibia w as Pieter’s choice of his second in command, our young guide, Pollan. As we learned during our stay, this young man (in his 20s) is a member of the tribe nomadic people who have lived in this area for centuries. These people live a Stone Age kind of life with very little interaction and interest in the miracles of the 21 century.
They live in small extended family groups of about 20-30 individuals and create temporary “towns” in the open desert by erecting thorny fences in a circle to protect themselves from wild animals. Inside the circle are their rude huts created of cattle dung and wattle. They have some cattle, goats, and sheep as well as chickens and try to grow some vegetables in the inhospitable sands.
The women are bare breasted and wear sarong type skirts around their waists anchored by metal belts. They cover their bodies with the red powdery dust of the desert to protect themselves from sunburn and from biting insects.
Because water is such a precious commodity, their clothing is not washed in it - rather they drape their costumes over smoky fires to cleanse them by encouraging the smoke to flow through the garments.
We thought perhaps the purpose was insure that no insects or other parasites could live in the materials. The method of cleaning certainly did not remove dirt from them.
The day we visited the village, the men were all away searching out the next site for a village since they would soon be leaving this current place because all the grass was drying up or being eaten completely by the village’s livestock. The women willingly demonstrated how they created their red powders, how they made a fragrance to apply to their bodies, how they made beads for decoration, how they cleaned their clothes. They seemed totally incurious about us or where we might have come from or even why we had come. It seemed their only contact with our world was their eagerness to sell their bead creations and other jewelry to us
Yet Pollan was a son of this tribe and laughed and talked with the ladies all the while we visited. In just one generation he emerged from this primitive tribe to join the new
Namibia. He went to school in the settlement below the Elephant Camp and was hired by Pieter the camp owner who further educated him in the skills it takes to run a tourist operation. So now when Pieter goes to another of his camps, Pollan runsthis one. He has learned to drive, to guide, to keep records of business, to use the computer, to direct the cooks and waiters and housekeeping personal, to make small repairs of things around the camp as well as the vehicles. Pollan has ambition and wants to better himself even further. And this new Namibia has given him the chance to be something other than a nomadic shepherd. Another example of the importance of education in personal and national advancement.
Another good thing to report is that Pollan did not have to sacrifice his tracking skills to advance in the tourist industry above the ranks of driver/guide. Because we were the only four people in camp during our visit, Pollan himself took us out on the safari drives in search of the rare desert-adapted elephants found only in Mali and here in Namibia. He was persistent and successful in getting us to see the six member herd in the area in two different habitats on two different days.
We first saw them in the lush river canyon where the grasses were prolific and the waters ran clear and cold. We drove after them and found the 6 shambling along slowly towards water which Pollan told us was at least another 10 miles away. They had already walked at least 40 miles during the late afternoon and night of the day before. The following morning, we returned to the lush valley and found they had disappeared. We followed the valley to an exit into the grasslands and then onto the desert beyond.
Then after much on foot tracking as well as some exciting 4 wheel runs up steep hills and onto to barren and rocky plateaus, he spotted them on a long stretch of open desert with no water or vegetation in sight. Their gait was interesting. They walked very slowly and stopped frequently as though to rest.When they halted,
it was almost as if they were playing the child’s game of “Statues” as they seemed to freeze in place, even with one foot raised and kept there. The matriarch with the young one was definitely the leader in this deadly game. She appeared to be giving the older male at the rear of their single file like a true respite since he seemed to be having the most trouble keeping the pace. As she started to walk again, the line moved like train cars catching up with a restarted engine. The last one to get going was the aging bull. Pollan estimated they had about another two hours before reaching the next water source.
What was most amazing to us was the fact that the elephants left the sanctuary of the canyon with its abundant water and grass to trudge across the desert spaces to reach another such place. Why not just stay in the canyon? Were they practicing some sort of “conservation” by n o t completely using up the resources at one place before moving out? Did the Himba folks practice such care in saving their
environment by constantly moving on? Pollan told us that there is another similarly sized herd that lives in this area and they too constantly migrate between water and food sources. They had pushed on in another direction about two days before we arrived and we were told that unless we stayed about 4 days, we would not see them. By the same token, if other guests arrived on this day or in the next 2-3 days, they would not see the herd we were lucky enough to observe.
Since the Elephant Camp was the only spot where we had a chance of seeing the desert adapted lions, we were disappointed but not surprised when we were told that there are currently no lions in this area due to poaching and to normal migratory patterns of the prey species which the lions follow. But that’s the way it is when you come to see animals in their own environments - it is not a zoo and the animals are free to be wherever they want to be! Safaris are more exciting that way - it’s like a hunt without weapons.
And we were fortunate to see other animals as we searched for the elephants. In the cool of the mornings, creatures were out and about.
SOSSUSVLEIDESERTLODGE
Our last camp in Namibia was the plushest of all the Sossusvlei Desert Lodge and it was quite beautiful, set in a wide valley with the most amazing mountains forming the shape of the valley. The mountains were especially magical because of the many colors they displayed depending on the quality of light, sunshine, shadow, clouds, and even misty rains going on at any one time. And the colors changed quickly and dramatically in such rapid succession. Every look into the valley was different.
The bungalows were built from native stone and blended perfectly with their settings. They were air-conditioned, fitted with modern furniture and the most delicious bedding. The communal dining room served gourmet meals and there was an observatory staffed by a real astronomer! The skies at night over this marvelous setting were spectacular. Even the “jewel box” star cluster in Orion’s scabbard could be seen with the naked eye! That’s means no light pollution or any haze or dust in the air.
Besides the nightly astronomy shows, the resort offered quad rides in the dunes, morning and afternoon safari drives, a really special gift shop with local creations as well as interesting gift ideas, and very good reference library to research questions that arose about the animals and plants and geology in the area.
Our biggest curiosity was about the “fairy rings” we observed as we flew into the valley a couple of miles from the Lodge. These were round patterns all over the ground where nothing grew inside the circle. Each was outlined with plants but nothing seemed able to survive in the interior. The pilot told us that these were still a mystery, despite several studies which were undertaken to understand the phenomenon
The circles are fairly uniform in size though there are larger and smaller ones. The floor of the valley is sandy with scattered small stones as well and there is plant life thriving there - just not inside the circles. Some theories have beenadvanced but
none of them is universally accepted as the answer. The most likely one seemed to be that the surrounding plants exuded a toxin that prevented other plants from growing inside, but that was disproved. Well, needless to say the library gave us no answer either. So another African mystery.
Our two most wonderful sightings in this camp were the African Wild Cat which looks very like a slightly larger than normal domestic cat but we had not seen one before and the amazing Aardwolf which we had never seen before either.
The Aardwolf is not kin to wolves or canids of any kind but looks rather like a small hyena sloping back, spotted fur, pointed nose, and very erect ears. But he does not prey on animals living or dead. His diet is chiefly subterranean termites. In what our guide stated was unusual behavior, we saw this creature in full sunshine. Normally they are nocturnal, but this fellow as very obliging so we got an excellent picture of him as well.
Our guide, Siegfried, was another example of Namibian emphasis on education and self-improvement. Siegfried had started as a janitor/baggage handler in a tourist lodge and soon realized that the driver/guides made much more money that he could ever aspire to doing the job he could perform.
So he decided that he must get more training and experience so he could move ahead. He took advantage of some training courses offered in Windhoek but decided he needed more in-depth education than was available in Namibia. So he applied to the Phinda training program in South Africa at one of the premier national parks of that country. He was accepted and lived and worked there for a couple of years as he learned about the flora, fauna, geology and geography of Southern Africa. He also received training in how to guide effectively, manage safari vehicles, and work with difficult tourists as well as the usual kind. Then he returned to Namibia with his new credentials and has been a tour guide and assistant camp manager for over 10 years.
Of course, our conversations were with people in the tourist trade, so the emphasis was on education/training for those careers. But Martin, a British citizen who lives in Namibia full-time, assured us that educational opportunities are available in many fields through the emphasis on childhood and high school education. University is not free but is priced within the range of many students and financial support is also available.
Siegfried took us on the long trip that would take us to our chance to experience the gorgeous red dunes and to see the head-stander beetle. It was 110 kms away from our beautiful lodge but we got to see more of the countryside from the road rather than the air, so the ride was an extra too.
Before we reached the legendary red dunes, the land was less harsh with a little more greenery showing. In addition, we saw several of the chalk white salt pans created by the migrating dunes which dam up rivers, even small rivulets of water during the rainy season, and prevent those waters from reaching the sea or a larger river. As these waters evaporate during the dry season, the salt percolates out and leaves these “dead vleis” or salt pans.
The red dunes rose up like the Rockies when you approach them from Calgary. Suddenly, there they are even though the land was pancake flat as we drove between Sossusvlei and the coastal area. This is the area of the world where stand the tallest sand dunes in the world. Their sides are steep but silky looking and the sun and the shadows make magic of their curves and slumps and sharp crests.
The most famous of the dunes is # 45 not because it is the tallest (263 feet high) but it is closest to the tourist route and is therefore the most photographed. It was already busy with climbers when we reached it.
Wewere taken toBig Daddy dune which is 1066 feet tall. It was the one we were to climb.
And so we did! It is the highest dunein the Sossusvlei area.
On the way up we were lucky enough to see the famous head-stander beetle though it was a little late in the day to see him actually perform his headstand routine to get a drink. But Siegfried assured us we were seeing the very insect we had wanted to see. So tiny and black but a lot lighter than we are, so I think he climbs the dunes more easily than we did.
This dune area is magnificent and it is the biggest tourist draw in all Namibia. There is an unexpected amount of vegetation on the dunes because of the dense fogs that roll in from the Atlantic to condense into thick dews (the beetle and other
small creatures drink from this supply as does the vegetation). There are also underground springs which supply water to the plants. The play of light on these iron rich dunes creates a most amazing palette of colors during the day - everything from pinks, to ambers, to orange, deep red, mauve, and cream! Simply splendid!
What a wonderful final day in Namibia! Our visit there was totally fulfilling and visually spectacular! With silent thanks to Nadia, the tour planner extraordinaire for Southern Africa, we got on our small plane the next morning and flew to Walvis Bay on the coast to board the Clipper Odyssey on its repositioning cruise up to Douala, Cameroon, where our journey with Zegrahm Expeditions would begin.
This was a fabulous way to visit this marvelous country.
Check out www.Africa Easy for your next safari.
FINAL SUNDOWNERS
BLACK-BACK JACKAL
