As I begin writing this blog I have noticed it’s been exactly two months since I came back from Namibia and here I am still recording my journey but, finally I have arrived at the concluding chapter. I should really be writing about Namibia in general as part of my routine closure but I had one more place to write about before I do that.
Mountainous terrain around Kuiseb canyon
Nest of a Social Weaver
Endless grasslands
Through my odyssey across Namibia I had made a concerted effort to save time wherever I could. I spent one less day at Etosha and in then in Kaokoland. Traveling solo with a rental car also gave me a greater degree of flexibility. Had I been with a packaged tour it would have been impossible to adjust my original itinerary. It’s certainly one of the main reasons I am unwilling to go on pre-packaged tours.
Social Weaver
Oryx burger...tastier and leaner than beef
Waking up every single morning when it was still bitterly cold and dark was not fun but gave me an early start. By starting the drive each morning before the sun came up, and then having my breakfast/lunch while driving helped save considerable time. Though not advisable to be performing other tasks while driving I think the roads were empty enough for me to do it effortless. One unexpected benefit of doing this was that I got to see some spectacular sunrises and sunsets at different locations along the way.
More pretty scenery along the way to Sossusvlei
The sharp stones are brutal
on the tires
All this time saved meant I was ahead of schedule by one day. I had two options with this bonus day; one was to head back to Windhoek, chill for a day and then catch the flight back to Liberia. I had ticked off all places from my initial itinerary and then some more, so I would not have had any regrets had I boarded the flight back to Liberia with that plan. The second option was well…try to squeeze in one more destination if possible.
Penultimate sunset in Namibia
Snake and insect tracks
There was one place I had grudgingly left out of my original itinerary…Sossusvlei. Namibia is a big country and there was no way I could hit all its attractions spread across the breadth of the country in a fortnight so I narrowed down on North and North-Western Namibia as my focus areas as I finalized my itinerary before embarking to Namibia. Since Sossusvlei lay close to 400kms south of Windhoek, it was significantly off my intended route plus I had seen sand dunes in the Gobi Desert so it was perhaps not as appealing as the wildlife at Etosha or the Himba of Kaokoland.
Dead acacia trees on the clay pan
Sand dunes at Sossusvlei
With a bonus day though, the proposition of making it to Sossusvlei suddenly seemed feasible. Getting there and then back to Windhoek would be a real squeeze and I wouldn’t be able to spend much time at Sossusvlei but I would be leaving something on the table by not attempt it. I decided to let the sand in my shoes stay there for just a bit longer as I pushed south-east from Swakopmund into the Namib-Naukluft National Park where there spectacular dunes lay.
I had to include this shot
Geometry of nature
The start was less auspicious as I woke up in Swakopmund with a flat tire. Along with the flat tire went my plans to get an early start as I had to wait for the repair shop to open but at least I was in a city where I could get it fixed easily. I could have chosen to ride on the spare tire but the risk of pushing through on Namibian gravel roads without a spare would be have been foolhardy…as it would be proved later.
Collage of pictures from Deadvlei
The small dot is someone climbing Big Daddy
View of Deadvlei from Big Daddy
As I drove inland the cold wet fog that seemed like a persistent light drizzle petered out into bright sunshine. I entered the northern reaches of the Namib-Naukluft National Park boundary soon thereafter and continued driving south-east through the park. The gravel road initially passed through flat arid grasslands and then around the Kuiseb River the landscape changed to striking rocky mountainous terrain. As the road turned south towards the outpost town of Solitare, it reverted back to grassland but a little less arid than the towards the coast thus facilitating the existence of large farms in a small patch of the road as I skipped out and then back into the Namib-Naukluft National Park.
Beautiful contrast
Clay pan
Despite the lost time due to the flat tire early in the morning and taking the time to have an Oryx burger as lunch at Solitare I was well on course to reach the camping spot at Sisriem before sunset. I was almost feeling pompous the way my plans were working out truly believing I was a master planner. Things were working out very nicely…too easy in fact. Then I felt the car wobble and I realized that I had another flat tire.
Dead acacia trees of Deadvlei against the backdrop
of the dunes
Thanking my lucky stars for having gotten the flat from the morning fixed, it was action on all four limbs as I went about changing the tires before it got dark. Perhaps I had been lucky up until that point since I had no punctures in over 14 days of driving on tough gravel roads but it all evened out by having two on my second last day. It certainly brought some adventure back into the journey. My prayer that I shouldn't have anymore flat tires until I get to the campsite was answered and I finally made it to the campsite around twilight.
Oryx at Sossusvlei
Springbok
Next morning I woke up before dawn one last time to proceed towards Sossusvlei which is a vast area with continuous red sand dunes towering over dried clay pans where the ephemeral River Tsauchab is swallowed by the thirsty Namib. I stopped at one such dried clay plans with dead acacia trees called Deadvlei to admire the stark beauty of the place as the sun made it ascent across the dunes. The contrast in the colors and the stark geometry was spectacular as the colors of the clay pans (white), sand (red), sky (blue) and dead acacia trees (black) were visually stunning. For some of my Indian readers who can recollect a song from the movie Ghajani (2008) this place would seem familiar.
The "plug" of the tire
Oh...the gravel roads of Namibia
The sand dunes at Sossusvlei are some of the biggest in the world and the biggest aptly called the “Big Daddy” was right beside the clay pan of Deadvlei. Big Daddy stands at over 380 meters and is significantly higher than the ones I climbed in the Gobi last year. There were a few more differences between the sand dunes of Namibia and Mongolia. Most notable was the reddish-black shades of the dunes at Sossusvlei compared to a more uniform yellow at Khongoryn Els. There also seemed to be more wildlife at Sossusvlei but it was much more accessible and perhaps less “wild” that Khongoryn Els although I would rate both experiences as equal.
Naukluft Mountains
Perhaps knowing the technique for climbing the dunes this time around, the hike up Big Daddy was fairly easy and just like any climb the views were worth the effort. The dunes stretched across endlessly and as I gazed around I realized that my time in Namibia was fast winding down. Once last glance and I slid down the dunes to get back to my car and proceed towards Windhoek.
I still had to get the tire fixed and since the damage was to the sidewall the first couple repair shops wouldn't help. Finally, one repair shop inserted a temporary plug but couldn't guarantee how long it would last. Though nervous I atleast had the safety of the spare now as I made my way through the spectacular Naukluft mountains in the company of some stranded Nama people who seemed stunned that I stopped to ask if they needed help without them even asking for a lift.
The Nama people being closely related to the Bushmen and Damara shared a similar language with clicks. Below is a recording of their language as they send their best wishes to my family.
One last pretty sunset and late that night I made it to Rehoboth, a city on the B1 highway and I could finally heave a sigh of relief…the plug had held itself pretty well and I would be getting to Windhoek before my flight the next day.
Much like my own country, Namibia’s population seems to be on extreme sides of a spectrum. The Kavango, Owambo, Himba, Damara, Nama and the White Namibian of European descent that I met through my journey made Namibia fascinating from a cultural perspective. There is a difference in the term “diversity” where different cultures melt into one pot to form a homogenous culture aka the USA and some country like India or Namibia where the diverse cultures still retain their distinct identities. Both are good in their own ways but I have a particular affinity for the latter just because I think the world is tragically shifting to the former as mankind becomes increasingly homogenous in the coming years.
The Nama people of central Namibia
All the Namibians I met were friendly and welcoming and to a large extent ignored the foreigner (me)…which is a good thing. The landscape was simply stunning and as was rightly pointed out by somebody…it really changes over few kilometers…perhaps not 20km. The country sometimes felt empty and in a number of ways reminded me of Mongolia due to its emptiness and similarities in terrain be it grasslands, deserts, and mountains. The wildlife is amazing, Etosha is good but the real gems are the animals in Kaokoland, Damaraland and the Namib Desert.
Road block
Economically, the nation seems to rely heavily on its natural resources with tourism being one of its primary growth areas in the coming years so it was a good thing I went there now…perhaps it might change quite a bit soon. It is place tough for a backpacker to get around but for someone with no time constraint it might precisely be the reason to visit.
The economy of the nation is dependent on South Africa as the Namibian Dollar is tied to the South African Rand. Most of the goods are imported from South Africa and its cost of commodities seemed favorable compared to the insane cost of living in West Africa.
I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to record my journey through Namibia, perhaps there were many awesome experiences to note, or maybe I was over elaborating. It could also be that I am unsure how many of these wonderful experiences I have left in the tank so maybe I was taking my time writing about each experience. Regardless, Namibia is a spectacular country with amazing landscapes, wildlife and people and I consider myself fortunate to have been there.
View Journey through Namibia in a larger map
No comments:
Post a Comment