I decided to get out of Cape Town the day MAT left. I booked a tour to see the west coast of SA and head towards Windhoek in Namibia. I plan on visiting my mate James from college in his research project in the Namib Desert. The tour group was good with a good mix of scoopers and more seasoned travelers. It was made up of mostly Ozzies. We had a good laugh over the week and we’ve visited some amazingly scenic places. We first went through the wine lands of Stellenbosch and we visited 5 wine farms and tasted some lovely wines. I’ve learned a little bit more about wine. It’s just re enforced the idea that it’s all about what suits your palate and not the cost of the bottle.
We headed north towards the Cederburg Mountains and stayed a night in a backpackers. We were up early to hit the road and cover some kilometers. We crossed the border into Namibia relatively hassle free and headed to the bush for our first night. It was nice to be back in the bush with the sounds of the animals all around. The stars at night were the highlight. They were amazing. We cooked on the Braai and headed towards the Orange River for some canoeing. It was good fun but relatively sedate paddling. We didn’t get the opportunity to blitz any rapids but it was a nice river to take a swim in and do a bit of paddling.
We headed further north into Namibia and eventually reached the second largest canyon in the World. It was amazing and seeing that I never made it to the Grand Canyon in the States when we were over in Las Vegas a few years ago it kind of made up for it. The Canyon is reputedly 13 Kilometers wide at some points and at 549 metres deep its pretty impressive. Unfortunately we didn’t get to spend to much time there but the landscape had changed dramtically and there were indigenous plants and trees which I hadn’t seen before and I enjoyed reading about them. The !nara tree (no I didn’t spell it wrong as they actually make a clicking sound when pronouncing it) and the Quiver trees were great for photographing.
Our next stop was definitely the highlight of the tour. We headed for Namib Desert and the biggest sand dunes in the World. It was an early start in the morning and we went to a place called Sossusvlei. It’s an amazingly scenic place for photography. The dunes throw off dozens of different hues in the morning and although it’s a harsh place it’s got an abundance of life. You can see all the tracks of the various creatures in the sand. The climb to the summit of any of these dunes is quite taxing. I’ve a lot of training to do when I get home as I’ve totally lost my aerobic condition. The climb is well worth it though and it’s quite a steep decent to the bottom but its great craic running down the dune. We went on a bush walk later and I learned a lot about the make up of the dunes and especially about the indigenous bush men who used to live off the land here. Unfortunately that way of life is gone with the persecution of the natives by white settlers over the last century. The bush man way of life is dying out completely and it’s such a shame as all the skills and knowledge of these people dies with them. It was unbelievable that they could survive in this place at all. The most poignant story the guide told us was about the choice between survival and death here. The bushmen used to have to leave their own children behind them if their was a severe drought or if they couldn’t find food. It really sums up the human survival instinct for me. It must have been a horrendous decision to have to make. The parents used to turn their back and walk away and never look back. They would never think or talk about the child again and when they made a fire they felt that the smoke carried the memories of their babies away with it.
We ended up in Swakopmund on the coast of Namibia. It’s a great place for adrenalin sports and the entire group did a few of the activities. I went fishing and we caught a load of fish. The mist comes in off the water and it’s eerily quiet when you’re fishing. A massive amount of ships met their end here and I’m not surprised. We even caught a few small sharks. We were joined as we were pushed back into the water by a pod of Dolphins. They ended up surfing the bow wave from our boat and used some of the breakers to surf towards the beach. It was beautiful to see them so close to the boat and land. We even had a Seal join us and steal some of our fish from our lines. He scared away all of our fish though and we had to get away from him. We did catch a good few Catfish and Cob and we’ll be well fed from the Braai tonight. We celebrated our hall with a couple of hot whiskeys when we got back to land. It was a nice end to a day at sea.
