Erongo West again

This was the second time I went to this place and it looked totally different than before. Everywhere grew high, green grass, pretty flowers, even moss and algae. The road was damaged by the river crossing it and we had problems to get through, although there was not much water flowing anymore. Near the campsite were beautiful small waterfalls and pools for bathing although not swimming.
The first day I decided for the walking group. We went along and in the river, sometimes sinking into loose sand ankle-deep. Then we crossed over to the mountains where my friend remembered to have seen bushman paintings. Unfortunately, this time we could not find them. Never mind, we continued to another place where there is a little cave and paintings on the overhang. These we found and they were very clear: kudus, two giraffes and an unidentifiable bird. We completed the round and returned along the river. I let the others go to camp and used the chance to take a shower in the waterfall. The water was lovely and warm.
In the evening we had a lekker braai and there was talk about getting up at 6 to do some climbing before the heat of the day. I did not really believe in this, but got up at the first sign of dawn anyway and packed everything. Then I took my breakfast and climbed onto a rock overlooking the camp to see the sunrise and keep an eye on the camp to notice what is happening. And there, really, just as I finished my Nutella roll, 2 people emerged with rucksacks from the camp. I hurried down to join them and climbed two fairly easy routes which I remembered to have managed on a top rope before, this time leading. As we approached camp again, a group of women was on the way to the pools. I quickly grabbed my towel and followed them for a bath. It was very relaxing, with water-massage from the little waterfall. After lunch we sadly had to return to Windhoek.

Blutkuppe

As we left the special permit area, we saw more tracks on the beach, rubbish lying around, we passed a dead whale and finally reached tarred road. It was a strange feeling to have cars coming towards us, to have to observe road signs and traffic lights. It is astonishing how soon you can almost forget these things. Then we heard the first news: the Kuiseb river did flow because of the extensive of rain, damaged the water pump station and left Walvis Bay without drinking water. Thus, after a last meal together and saying goodbye to the other tour participants, we moved on to Swakopmund and stayed there.
Next day we set off to Windhoek via the little mountain Blutkuppe. I drove through that area a year ago and it was just stony desert. This time it looked like a field in spring: green everywhere! We climbed up Blutkuppe and enjoyed the plentiful stone formations. Back at the parking spot we had to change a flat tyre. Fairly tame Guinea fowl came nosily to have a look at our coffee table. We packed just in time before heavy rain started. It was already late and we still had a long drive on gravel road in front of us. It was not fun driving in the dark on these muddy roads, with cows standing in the middle of the way. Once we also saw a Dikdik, a small antelope, in front of the car. Finally we arrived safely in Windhoek and I went straight to sleep.

serious dunes

Now driving in proper dunes began. Going down a slip side of a dune looks scarily steep, but in reality is only about 35 degrees. My driver was the only one without sand experience and we struggled in the beginning. The others gave us good advice and after taking some weight off the car by distributing excess water and adjusting the driving style to high refs it worked out ok. However, almost everyone got stuck at least once, even one of the guide’s car. The crew was very experienced and quick in recovery. Luckily, towards the north, where the dunes get higher, the sand was still wet from previous rain and it was relatively easy to drive. The Landrover sometimes got an easier way on a detour and mostly we followed it. On the other hand, some of the others tried how far they could get up a steep dune and sometimes even jumped over the edge as they had too much speed. On the way we visited literally deserted diamond searcher towns, a graveyard in the sand which was uncovered by a storm with human bones scattered all over the place, and a ship wrack from 1910 which nowadays lies 1km away from the coast. We also saw a seal colony and a lot of whale bones left over from former times. Halfway through the desert are some bungalows which form the base of the Oranjemund fishing club. The fishermen come there for a week every now and then. We got some fresh fish from them to cook over the fire in the evening, very delicious! Nearby lives a brown hyena and we were lucky to see her. Here, at the coast, it was windy and misty and sometimes really cold in the evenings. What I enjoyed most on this trip was to be hundreds of kilometres away from any settlement, in the middle of nowhere.

start from Luederitz

Our group consisted of 8 cars with 2 people in each, mostly South African farmers. There was one Landrover Defender in the convoy which was immediately regarded as bad luck. Apparently, these cars struggle in the dunes as they are heavy, not well balanced and not speedy. Again I was glad I only came as a co-pilot and not in my Landrover. Then there were 2 guides, each in a Landcruiser. One of them has been doing the tour for five years and it was amazing to see what he can do with the car. First we had to fill in an indemnity form, basically saying that your car may get stuck irrecoverable and that yourself may die on the trip as there is no medical help in reach. However, we were still looking forward to the tour. After a few km on tarred road we turned off into the desert which is a nature park and only few permits are issued for people to enter the area. We stopped to let air off the tyres, down to 0.8-1bar. They looked scarily flat. On the first day we still saw a lot of dune grass and Oryx feeding on it. We visited a deserted bulldozer which was used by a diamond searching company until 1954. This was about the only sign of civilization we saw that day after leaving the road. No, the second one was the drop toilet at camp, consisting of an open metal barrel with a toilet seat and lid, four wooden poles and some fabric around it on three sides with free view into the dunes on the fourth side. I never had better views during big business than on this trip.
To my surprise, the driving did not get boring. We stopped for breaks and to take photos and even the driving itself was quite exciting. At 5pm we reached camp and after a nap I went for a walk in the dunes. When the camp disappeared behind a dune one could think one is alone on the world, so wide and empty was the landscape. I enjoyed the experience not to hear any background sound of civilization.

Into the desert

This trip was an organized 4x4 tour from Luederitz to Walvis Bay - 630km through the desert! Participants had to use their own car, carry extra spares, water for 6 days and around 250l of petrol. I was lucky to be invited by a friend to join him in his car as I would never have done this tour myself.

Firstly, it is a long drive to get from Windhoek to Luederitz. We camped on the way at a place near Keetmanshoop, near a quiver tree forest. These “trees” are in fact aloes, but they grow as tall as trees. There was not much time to look around in the evening, but the light effects were great and there was a marvellous sunset with very localized rain in the background. We were the only people on the campsite. For our evening meal we used electric light which attracted so many beetles, moths and grasshoppers that the area around the light was covered with them. Although we kept some distance from the light source a number of beetles still found the way into our salad. Then you just eat slowly and carefully and spit the bit out when you feel legs moving on your tongue. In the morning a bus full of tourists arrived and they all came up to our tent to take photos of the oldest quiver tree which stood next to it. There was no respect for privacy and they were just short of asking us to move the car so that they could get a better shot. After this sobering experience I went to explore the “forest” with my camera. It is an accumulation of some trees, but nothing that would be worth calling it a forest by European dimensions. However, it was a very pretty setting. We carried on to Luederitz, pitched up camp on Shark Island, and I went for a quick swim. We were lucky that it was not too windy that night as tents had been blown away from that peninsula.