Running with the Wild Dog - Coast and culture

Up at virtually the crack of dawn to shower and pack away our dome tents, down a hearty breakfast and climb back into the tour truck, the happy band of travellers set off on another leg of the Namibian Explorer Safari. Safari-so-goody! All too soon we waved goodbye to the magnificent dunes and desert landscape and headed down to a quirky one horse town (more of a hamlet) called Solitaire , vaguely recalling scenes from the Texas chainsaw massacre remake, where we stopped off to try some of Moose MacGregor's famous apple pie (more of an apple crumble without cream or custard) in the midst of a graveyard of wrecked vehicles. Bizarre! Thankfully no chainsaws, only a few sad looking camels...hmm camels and car crashes.....what a mix.

Come on in for apple crumble!

Where old bangers go to rest!

Leaving Solitaire we headed towards the coast where we stopped at the Tropic of Capricorn line for obligatory photos and then towards Kuiseb where we stopped again to admire the unusual geological mica schist formations....

Well I just had to have my photo taken here.

View from the Kuiseb pass

Soon we caught a glimpse of the Atlantic as we swung into Walvis Bay and enjoyed a bracing pre lunch walk along the lagoon, famed for its birdlife, before attempting to sit down next to the tour bus and eat sandwiches and salad al fresco in gale force winds.

Wot no birds?

That was not our last stop of the day though, we drove onwards to Swakopmund where we enjoyed two nights at the Amanpuri traveller's lodge. Having spent a weekend in Swakopmund a few weeks previously I decided to use this opportunity to chill out instead of running around trying to see everything. I treated myself to a delicious morning coffee at the Garden Cafe, wandered along to the Die Muschel bookshop and bought 'Jonathan Livingstone Seagull" by Richard Bach and "Conversations with God" by Neale Donald Walsch and settled into a spot on the sand to begin my literary foray. In between reading and watching the world go by I sampled a tasty veggie lunch at the Strand cafe and strolled up and down the sea front a few times until the sun set.

Swakopmund pier

The next day we followed the skeleton coast past a floating ship wreck, (sadly no Captain Jack Sparrow in sight aharrgghhhhhh) and on to Cape Cross where the famous portuguese explorer Diego (sometimes spelt Diogo) Cao set foot on Namibian soil for the first time in 1485. Nowadays, Cape Cross is home to a large colony of fur seals and they don't half pong I can tell you!

Cape Cross seal colony - what a racket!

A few jackals skulked about in the background but were too elusive to photograph on this occasion. After breathing in the seals' pungent aroma for far too long, we piled back into the relatively pleasant-smelling tour truck and hit the road again, away from the coast and on to the Brandberg mountain (or 'Fire' mountain) in Damaraland where we left the truck behind to trek through Jurassic Park like terrain and foliage, wending our way through elephant grass, jumping over steams and scrambling over boulders, past monkey rock. I half expected to see a pterodactyl swoop down upon us from the lofty mountain heights but instead we came across a few lizard relatives, the agama. 

Cute little chappie isn't he?

The heat clung to our bodies as we scrambled further up through the boulders, reminiscent of scenes from the film Picnic at Hanging Rock, towards our goal, a glimpse of the white lady. Who is she? A ghost? A goddess? A barking mad witch living in a cave? She is actually none of these apparitions. She is in fact a 'he' and an ancient rock painting, of great spiritual significance to the San people.

A slightly 'off-white' White Lady

As the sun began to set over the mountain top, giving it its burnished glow and name of Fire mountain, we returned to the truck and drove to our camp where we put up our tents among the trees and settled in for the night.

Wild Dog camp

Unusual carvings of animals at Twyfelfontein

The next day we toddled off to Twyfelfontein, home of the famous rock carvings and enjoyed a guided tour of plenty of animal and half animal/spirit carvings. Early signs of shamanic shape-shifting? Carvings weren't the only features to stand out from the rocks, we noticed plenty of white hyrax poo as well. Hyrax or Dassie is the closest living relative to the elephant but you wouldn't guess that from looking at it as it resembles a guinea pig. Anyway enough of poo, from Twyfelfontein we travelled on, taking in a short stop to admire some more ancient wonders, this time of the vegetable kind, which are also important cultural symbols as this species has a special place in the Namibian Coat of Arms. It is the great Welwitschia mirabilis.

Can you see it?

 Welwitschia looking a tad leathery and shrivelled

It's a unique plant by any stretch of the imagination, with only two leaves which split into many ribbon like structures and a longevity of on average 500-600 years, and some larger specimens are thought to live for up to 2000 years. Well no wonder it looks a tad leathery and shrivelled - so would you be if you grew up in a desert for a couple of thousand years! It is an endangered species and requires fog to survive. In homeopathy this plant symbolises duality.

Onwards forever onwards to our camp among some impressive rocks next to a Himba village.

Happy camping!

After putting up our tents (again....getting very good at this now, in about 5 mins) we were taken on a guided tour of the Himba village to learn about the culture of the Himba tribe. Although this was fascinating, I also felt uncomfortable because the 'project' seemed very staged and I did not see evidence of how the women and children of the village benefitted from the income from tourism. 

Hairdressing Himba stylze

So our coast and 'culcha' filled days were nearly done, remembered over a evening camp fire before the final leg of our adventure.

Swakopmund photo essay

Here is a slide show of my photos of Swakopmund.

Enjoy!

A seaside adventure

I slept like a log in Villa Wiese, it must have been the bracing sea air. I got up reasonably early and enjoyed a tasty cooked breakfast (somehow bacon tastes better by the sea!). Then I set off into the fog which had rolled in off the sea during the night and wrapped Swakopmund in a thick grey blanket. The town was silent. Only a few people and vehicles were about. The fog gave the streets an eerie appearance, like a German version of Brigadoon (the legend of a Scottish village which appears once every hundred years in the fog!). 

I decided it would be a good idea to do a photo essay. So off I trotted down to the lighthouse, as if I had stepped into a Virginia Woolf novel…, and wandered up and down the sea strand, along the jetty, waves crashing underneath, around the Mole and back into town. I wended my way through the still fog-shrouded streets. I snapped away, framing seascapes, street scenes, the German colonial architecture and every now and then captured some colour e.g. brightly painted benches in primary colours and arty murals along walls. I stopped for a latte in the Garden Café which is tucked behind an art gallery and craft shop and sipped to warm up a bit. Afterwards I continued my walk up the seafront and bought a few postcards on the way. I soon worked up an appetite and checked the menu at the famous Tug restaurant but it looked a bit run down and overpriced so I decided to go to 22^o South, a new restaurant in the bright and cheerful red and white lighthouse that stood proudly, like an oversized pepperpot, a sentinel looking out to sea. 

I chose hake, vegetables and new potatoes, a lime soda followed by ice cream and coffee. The food was excellent and the service impeccable. By the time I had drained the last few drops from my cup, the fog had dissipated and the sun had come out. And like any mad dog and Englishman, I strode out into the midday sun and plonked myself down on the beach in a sun trap and began reading the novel “What I loved” by Siri Hustvedt that I had bought earlier at Die Muschel bookshop and art gallery. I continued reading and soaked up the sun’s rays, lifting my head up now and again to watch the waves crashing onto the beach and children playing on the sand and a few brave souls who paddled out to sea.

The water looked too cold for me and the current too fierce. Signs on the beach indicated ‘swim at your own risk’. Later on I wandered idly along the strand in the other direction, took more photos and then returned as the temperature cooled. I stopped off at the Strand café for a warming pot of Five Roses tea and watched the sun sink down behind the Mole.

When it was too cold to sit there any longer I slowly strolled back up town and popped into the 3 NAMigos Mexican restaurant for a burrito before going to bed. Although I woke up early, or so I thought, the hostel was busy and I thought this was strange so early on a Sunday morning. I checked the time with the receptionist and discovered to my horror that the clocks had gone forward in the night by one hour and I had just 10 minutes to grab my bags and sprint across town to catch the bus back to Windhoek! Thankfully I made it in the nick of time. The journey back was smooth and Townhoppers dropped me home by lunchtime. I popped down to Checkers to stock up on food and then sat outside in the sun for a while in the garden.

Political view

Oops haven't posted for a while. I'm slacking. A few weeks ago my colleague and I went to Parliament to give a brief presentation on our findings from our regional field visit protection report to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Economics and Natural Resources.

Me in front of the Parliament building in Windhoek

Unlike the Houses of Parliament in London, the Parliament building is a very light and airy structure with a laid back feel. There was much joviality as we were introduced to four MPs including the leader of the opposition. This committee was about to go China for a week to meet the Government there in order to learn how the Chinese prepare for and respond to natural disasters. It was the perfect timing to capture and draw their attention to the main challenges for addressing protection concerns from the recent flood emergency. Our presentation was well received and we wished the MPs all the best for their visit.

We had a few minutes to enjoy the view of the Parliament Garden while waiting for a lift back to the office.

Me across the road from the Parliament Garden

Later on the Town Hoppers shuttle bus picked me up from UN House and I embarked on a weekend adventure to Swakopmund, a German-style town on the coast.  The journey took about 4.5 hours through ever-changing landscapes, with two short stops in Okahandja and Usakos. I arrived in Swakop at 7pm after dark and checked in to Villa Wiese, an International Backpackers lodge, quirky but cool. I toddled off down the street and popped in to the Napolitana restaurant to enjoy a pizza followed by chocolate mousse. Stay tuned for another exciting episode....