AH SURE AZURE

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  • Day 6 Desert Lodge and Sossusvlei

    We are on the edge of the Namib/ Naukluft National Park. Just a huge expanse of sand, where an amazing amount of wildlife manages to exist.

    The Sossusvlei is an area of extraordinary beauty – red dunes blown in strange shapes by the constant wind.

    Our guides had explained the difficulty of climbing the famous dune 45 and the access to it, a 4km walk in sandy harsh conditions. Normally a 4km.walk would not phase me but there were 4WD vehicles available to cover this stretch, such is the difficulty of the trek.

    I felt I would enjoy being in Desert Lodge,a unique place for the day, rather than slogging up a sand dune. Although it was bordered by the desert, it had a swimming pool and a large bar with tables you could sit at to take advantage of the wifi. I spent a happy day observing the animals coming and going to the waterholes. Our accommodation was top class. It was newly-built chalets with verandahs facing the desert. The front part of the chalets had two beds, then a wall behind with openings on both sides, with access to the bathroom, toilet and clothes hanging space.

    My room mate, enjoying the peace of our environment.
    Oryx at the water hole
    Sculpture of the Quiver Tree
    Camel Thorn Tree with close up of massive seed pods. These allow the seed pods to survive in drought conditions, until the rain causes the casing around it to disintegrate, thus having a good chance of survival.

    Eventually, the group returned. They were all exhausted and at least one of the group was ill from the heat. No one climbed dune 45.

    We were here from the end of October to mid November, which is moving towards high summer. The temperature reaches 50′ C in December and the rain starts to fall. We were witnessing Southern Africa at the end of a very dry spell. As we moved up towards Zimbabwe, we saw the first of the rains starting, but that was not for another two weeks.

    Our guides cooked us a delicious dinner. Next morning, I took a walk up the avenue- about a mile- so that I could loosen out my calf muscles which had begun to tighten up with all the sitting on the bus.

    I had a great view of some buffalo that had come to drink at the waterholes. amazing powers of survival. I felt myself amazed at how living things adapted to nature. Coming from a country where we have almost continuous rain, this seemed like a miracle to me. We were to spend another week in this extraordinary Country of Namibia, travelling next to the coast and the vast expanses of beaches that dwarf any coastline in Europe.

  • Day 5 Namib desert

    Day 5 Namib desert

    Quiver tree sculpture at Desert Lodge

    Our day started with a forgettable breakfast at the Seeheim. 

    We crossed the disused train tracks and we were buoyed up by Swise’s promise of the best Apple Pie in Namibia, in a town called Bethanie. 

    Our route on ‘gravel roads’- bumpy

    A German missionary called Schmelen tried his best here for a few years, in 1814, until he went home, discouraged by the lack of cooperation from the Red Nation tribes that lived in the area. The oldest building in the area is the church built by him.

    A historic agreement whereby Luderitz bought land from the local chief was signed at a house in Bethanie. He later sold it on, claiming he had bought a much larger piece of ground due to the difference in the definition of a German mile and a South African mile.

    The town of Luderitz on the west coast is called after him.

    Namibia was known as Namaland after the Nama people who live there. Its name was changed to German South West Africa when it was taken over by the Germans. It gained full independence in 1990, some very recent history.

    In any event, the apple pie was delicious and the surroundings – a beautifully tended garden with cacti, succulents and trees for shade, made it a pleasant stopover.

    View from our bus that we dubbed the ‘Red Elephant’
    Oryx at the waterhole
    Sociable Weaver Bird nest
    A little bulbul finishing off the apple pie

    On the road to our destination, we spotted a Pale Chanting Goshawk, doing what the bird book said he does – sitting on top of a telegraph pole.Ostriches were seen along the edge of the road. 

    Pale Chanting Goshawk

    We had our first glimpse of an antelope, however, as we settled into our chalets, right on the edge of the desert at the Desert Lodge.

    In front of the chalets was a watering hole, where Oryx had just returned after the winter. The first night, we saw only a single one. Next morning, I spotted six.

    Oryx or Gemsbok with three twists in his horns

    Some wildebeest or Gnu gathered further down the long sandy drive to the Desert Lodge.

    It was all about sand here. It builds up, blown by the desert winds that come up from the rapid cooling and heating of the air every night and day. The contrast was extreme and definitely made us understand how rocks would shatter with the differing temperatures.

    Every day, sand piles against the door, around the swimming pool, into machinery, the battle goes on with sweeping being a major task. 

    In the morning, I noticed hoof marks around the pool where animals had come for water the night before. We spotted wild dogs close by and we were warned to keep the zips on our bags closed at all times because of the number of scorpions.

    Our guides made us dinner and we washed up and settled down for the night. Our accomodation was modern and comfortable. The sky was spectacular with the moon waning on the wrong side. In the southern Hemisphere, it wanes to the left. We saw little slivers coming off the left every night, so you could hold the moon in your right hand while it’s waning.

  • Day 4 Fish River Canyon

    Day 4 Fish River Canyon

    Fish River Canyon

    Next morning, we opted to make a start for the Fish River Canyon early, rather than take two hours on a canoe trip.

    We had a delicious cooked breakfast, bacon, sausages and beans and we washed up, loaded the bus and set out North again, this time towards the real desert.

    As we drove over gravelled roads, our guide pointed out how people had made farms in the desert where there had been nothing before. We saw acres of date palms and tomatoes.

    What he also explained was that workers came to these remote places with no facilities and set up what are really shanty towns as the option of commuting is not available. Water has to be carried from a distance.

     We passed a large settlement where people had nothing more than shacks to live in.

    Again, I felt privileged and lucky to be driving past in a modern well equipped vehicle.

    The terrain became more desert-like and the road continued in its ‘gravel’ status, ie very bumpy.

    Plots of ground have been fenced off by buyers and whole hills are demarcated such as Mount Elena that we passed by.

    We stopped at a little outpost of Fish River Canyon and saw one of many Quiver trees we would see from now on. The San people used to hollow out the trunk and use them for quivers for their arrows, hence the name.

    The lower branches tend to be torn off by Kudus and Springbok. The leaves of the tree are equipped to withstand long periods of drought. 

    It’s been three years since they had any significant rainfall here and we had to imagine that there were rivers here in rainy season, as there were only puddles at the bottom of the canyon, which we drove to next.

    This is the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon in the USA.

    We spent some time marvelling at it and taking photos. 

    Inhabitants have been recorded here as far back as 70,000 years ago and some of the oldest Rock Art in the world can be found here.

    We drove on to our next accommodation, in an outpost known as Seeheim. I use the word outpost advisedly, as it is in the middle of a junction that no longer exists. Train tracks run through this desolate place, but it has been many years since the sound of a locomotive has been heard. Now, you can listen to the creaking of the abandoned wind generator as it turns lazily in the breeze. 

    We sat on the porch and imagined Charles Bronson playing his lonesome tune from ‘Once Upon a time in America’ on the other side of the tracks.

    There has been a hotel here since 1895 and it became an important stopover point when diamonds were discovered in Johannesburg. At one time a Brothel was started up, although it was tightly regulated, with concerns for the health of the  five women engaged there.

    Passengers from Luderitz on the coast headed for Johannesburg needed some entertainment while waiting for their connection onwards.

    At one time, it was a lemonade factory, set up by the hotel owner’s sister after the Second World War.

    It was rebuilt an indeterminate number of years ago, but it is fairly dilapidated, except for the bar and reception area which have an interesting array of long dead Ungulates.

    The Rugby World cup between SA and NZ was televised in the large dining room and some of us stayed up after dinner to watch that.

    After casting bets as to how many of us would survive the night, it being close to halloween, we said good night. On our way to our various rooms, we noticed a partial eclipse of the moon, which was full, another ominous sign….

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