Peeing in the sand (Namib Desert)

Member Name: Otjiwarotji

Product:	Namib Desert
Date:	06/10/01 (561 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Vast open spaces, Amazing scenery, Get away from it all

Disadvantages: Take masses of cool drinks, Make sure your car is sandworthy

If you've read my love affair with seals you will know that I am writing about my travels in Namibia in chapters, and if you haven't .... why not??

We spent 6 days of a 3 week trip to Namibia staying with my friend Heila's brother Peet and his family in Swakopmund, Namibias main seaside resort. We were welcomed with open arms by this generous family even though none of us had ever met before and were made to feel like visiting royalty. It's not very likely that royalty would have got such a grass roots welcome though as we were able to experience the Namibian way of life as it is lived day to day, with local people and shown the best sights and taken to places no tour bus will ever go.

OUR ACCOMMODATION

Peets house is a lovely bungalow within walking distance of the sea, complete with an annexed holiday flat for guests, vistors and e-pals from the other side of the world. This is quite the norm over there, even quite modest homes usually have a seperate flat in the garden. Beside being a very comfortable base from which to tour the sights around Swakopmund, Peet had a super covered barbecue area in his garden, where a huge welcome barbecue (braai) party was thrown upon our arrival.

Outdoor living is essential in such a hot country although it is a lot cooler much of the time at the coast and often foggy. Temperatures can vary enormously with scorching daytime heat of around 35 to 40 degrees celsius, dropping overnight to just a few degrees. The most dreaded weather is when the East winds blow, as they travel from inland, rushing across the Namib desert and drawing dust and heat from the dry scorching sand and delivering it to Swakopmund in a sudden blast of hot dry air, coating everything with hot sand and dust and causing people to stay indoors as much as possible until it passes. The braais are put on hold for the duration and Swakopmunders are heard muttering about the awful weather just like us Brits often do
. Fortunately the East winds were kind to us during our visit and we only met them head on, during our journey back to Windhoek, but I digress, thats another story..... So back to the coast.

Peet was working for much of our stay but on the Sunday we all piled into two cars and set off to be shown the sights and "you must sees". The inevitable fridges were loaded with enough cold drinks to quench an army and we drove towards the nearby Naukluft National Park, and Namib desert, stopping en-route to purchase day permits to visit the Welwitschia trail, and fill up with fuel at a local petrol station. Have you ever been to a Namibian petrol station? perhaps not, thrown in with the price of filling up your fuel tank you always get a free windscreen wash by hand, which is usually much needed and the attendant invariably fills your tank with a LIT CIGARETTE hanging out of his mouth Yaargh.

THE NAMIB DESERT TRIP

Ready for adventure we continued a short way along the main road back to Windhoek and turned right towards the Namib desert, you can't miss it, theres nothing but sand and it's everywhere you look! There are roads through the park and you can drive through it to Walvis Bay and further but its only a recommended route if you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle, bakkie (as a pick up is known) or suitable vehicle. Polite notices loom from the sandy haze, begging visitors not to drive off road and stay to the main tracks, not so much as not to get lost (though that wouldn't be difficult at all) but because rare lichens and desert plants struggle to survive in the inhospitable surroundings, many tiny and living for thousands of years, one careless swerve from a heavy car can literally destroy hundreds of these miniscule life forms and cause irreparable damage. You can see across the sand dozens of sets of tyre tracks leading you to believe that not many people take heed of the notices but you'd be wrong, the tyre tracks can
remain for 50 years or more once they are made.

It is not long before you look behind you and in front and would be forgiven for thinking you were a million miles from any kind of civilisation. Small piles of the lichen bearing rocks are piled up at intervals and you are invited to pour a few drops of your precious drinking water on them and watch them burst into life, well I wouldn't say they BURST into anything but it is a bit like one of those magic painting books you had as a child, when you add water the colour appears from nowhere and the grey and browns turn gradually a fresh looking green.

We continued further into this inhospitable wilderness and admired the moon landscape, enormous dry rock formations which really did make you feel that you were on the moon and we may as well have been given the lack of humans here and the utter silence broken only by the whining howling desert wind, which, when we played the video back sounds like haunted voices. Then we carried on across a dried up river bed, with a few hardy plants clinging to the sides and evidence of life, flocking to seek out the rare drops of moisture stored in the leaves of the shrubs, in the footprints of a jackal, a few birds, a pile of coca cola tins .... cola tins? yes even this far from civilization people had dumped their 20th century trash!

We passed some rusted relics of old army tanks and shell cases, left to gather sand and rust and rot, and of which the Namibians seem inordinately proud, yet which looked to us to be a bit of an eyesore. We saw the huge and surreal Welwitschia mirabilis plants which are about ten feet wide 1,000 years old and only have 2 leaves and are unique to this environment. Protected from vandals by fences the largest and oldest, nevertheless had the names of visitors carved into their leaves "Billy wos 'ere 1980" etc! To my amazement there were even two toilets in small wooden huts, discreetly placed away from the pic
nic area where we all sat and ate cold meats, fruit and drank a beer or two. It's very thirsty work being in the desert.

Every time our vehicles stopped we would all pile out, dive into the fridge and come out with something wet and cool, the heat was overpowering and with no shade it is was very easy to understand how easy it is to get completely lost and even die in a desert, there is NOTHING to get your bearings from, the horizon seems a million miles away and the heat is consuming. Mirages shimmer on the sand and look so realistic you could easily be taken in by one, perspective is so unreal that tiny plants and rocks shimmering near a mirage take on the aspects of people, trees, welcome shade and once you wandered off you just would disappear.

Gundi kept wandering off, but she's allowed to, she is a Namibian born and bred and her love of and knowledge of the flora and fauna of Namibia is huge and all embracing. We soon realised that if Gundi suddenly wandered away from the group, peering down at the sand, she was on the track of something. She has inborn tracking skills despite her dodgy eyesight for reading, she can spot the tracks of a snake where anyone else would see only ripples in the sand looking exactly like millions of surrounding ripples. She showed us the tiny tock tockie beetle who rises at dawn and lifts his posterior into the air to catch the faint morning mists rolling in from the coast and allow the much needed drops of moisture to run down his back so he can have his only drink of the day. She can find beautiful flowers .... in the desert. You wouldn't believe the selection of miniature and colourful plants and flowers she spotted in natures most unlikely garden. She showed us how to lie down and look along the deserts surface and spot life, after a few seconds of seeing nothing but sand you begin to see a faint green shimmer which is plant life, algae and lichens and she trained our eyes to see beauty in small in
significant things. So when she set off at a sharp pace during one of our stops I called to everyone "Gundi's off again, lets follow" and we all trooped after her ... much to her annoyance, she wasn't off to look at nature this time but to make a call of nature, somewhat difficult to do circumspectly in a flat desert with several onlookers!

We had just about gone as far into the desert as it is safe to do without getting hopelessly lost even with an experienced desert driver (Peet) at the wheel of the leading vehicle and we hadn't seen any other signs of human life for over an hour, we were rattling along the sandy rutted tracks, our vehicle staying well back from the car in front, you need to keep a good 50 metres between you, otherwise you just can't see a thing with all the dust and sand clouds created by your wheels when the car in front suddenly lurched to a grinding halt.

By the time we drew level the occupants were out of the car, so was the fridge and the beers, juices and cokes were being swilled "Ah hah, another picnic" thought I.
"Ah hah - a PUNCTURE" said Peet. Brian rushed forth to help ..... Actually what happened was I pushed him forward saying loudly "Brian will help" as I helped myself to a coke. What happened next was like a farce and I am so glad I shouted to Heila "switch on the camcorder - we HAVE to have this on film" It begins with Peet and Brian on their hands and knees in the middle of the Namib desert, trying to jack up the car in the soft sand to remove the old flat tyre, then much scratching of heads and a lot of swigging of cool drinks as they tried to improvise a tool to tighten up the wheel nuts, of course the wheelbrace was back in Swakopmund ... Why? don't ask me! So there is this amazing shot of Brian being the hero of the moment and changing the tyre with a small screwdriver, whilst in the background Gundi can be seen giving a lecture on
the resilient desert ant and me trying to turn my better side to the camera and shouting encouragement in the form of " haven't you done it yet" and "it will be getting dark soon".

Of course they did manage to change the tyre and we did get back before dark, but this rather surreal experience brought home the fact that in the desert theres no AA man to call on and gave us yet another memorable an amusing incident to add to our list of happenings in Namibia, where theres nothing to see and never a dull moment!!!

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