Heidrun in Namibia

South Africa

2010-09-29T20:22:00.003+01:00

This was my first trip to South Africa. I intended to see the Namaqualand flowers in blossom, but unfortunately they did not have enough rain there this year and there was only the occasional flower at the roadside. But anyway, the main objective was climbing which also meant that I did not see very much of the country, not even Cape Town. However, I did manage to squeeze one wine tasting in – on the winery that makes my favourite sundowner. So there was at least one standard tourist activity.
For climbing I visited the Rocklands in Cederberge. It is a fantastic landscape with amazing rock formations and the vegetation is as green as in Europe. The rock has a rough surface with very good grips, lovely to climb. It was quite a bit colder than in Namibia, generally good for climbing although one day we finished early because of a very cold wind. The other climbing area was Montagu, 200km east of Cape Town. There are hundreds of bolted routes of all grading which kept us busy for days.

Spitzkoppe again

2010-08-17T21:48:00.002+01:00

Originally, we had planned to go hanggliding this weekend. I wanted to keep in training and was quite keen to try new things after the last long and successful flight. Also, there was a new hangglider to be tried out by Andreas. However, already a few days before we intended to leave for the coast we heard the bad news: east wind and up to 40 degrees in Swakopmund, a real desert storm. The main deterring factor was that the wind blew the wrong direction and we would not be able to start.
Therefore, we decided to go climbing at Spitzkoppe, almost a year after our last visit there. We arrived late afternoon and found a beautiful, quiet campsite. We scrambled up the rock for a last view over the plain this evening. It was already dark when we came back to the car for our sundowner. Then we made plans: 4 two-pitch routes on Sugar Loaf looked tempting. So we got up at 6 to make our way up the rock face in the morning sun before it became too hot. We started with a grade 16/17 and I felt brave and thought I would lead the second pitch. However, I changed my intention long before I reached the first stand. I just felt too insecure on that pure friction rock face. Promptly, I slipped on the second pitch and struggled to get over that tricky section. The next route was a 19/18 and I left the lead from the beginning to Andreas. After a 20/21 where Andreas was almost blown off the rock by a strong gust, we retreated to shorter routes in Boulder Valley.
After lunch and a nap Andreas attempted a 23 on Dinosaur Rock. From the bottom it looked to me as if there were enough grips and cracks for it to be an 18. I would learn otherwise. Andreas struggled his way up to the 3rd bolt. He put the quickdraw in, but when getting the rope up he suddenly slipped and fell – on top of me. I was glad to have stopped his fall just above the ground and that we were both ok. He pushed and pulled himself up the rock again and finally reached the anchor. Now it was my turn to try this route on a top rope – a waste of power. I realized that this was definitely not an 18, somehow the angle of the rock was not right for that grading. I gave up half way. After two more, easier routes, we finished the day with a braai.
For the next morning we had planned to tackle the fourth route on Sugar Loaf, a 22/20. Strong winds at night and in the morning persuaded us to a lie-in instead. Then we had a look at the routes on Bushman Rock: a 23, 20, 17 and 10. We decided to leave the 20 and 17 till some time after a thorny tree has been cut back and to leave the 23 at all. I took my first lead of this trip on the 10, wow! After a hairy 19 on Lion Rock Andreas was keen to try “mit links”, a bloody hard one. He struggled, pushed, pulled and cheated his way up to the anchor. When it was my turn I protested to even try it, but he insisted in pulling me up the rock. A very light climb up and scenic abseil down The Bridge pleasantly closed the day.

Orange river

2010-04-26T21:04:00.002+01:00

Finally we joined a group paddling down the Orange river with Felix Unite. The boats were fairly big and stable and took quite a load. We had waterproof buckets for our things fixed in the boat and even a cooler box with ice for our drinks. The river was relatively high which made it easier to get through the rapids. On the other hand the water just covered a number of rocks which – because of the brown colour of the water – we could only see when it was too late. Once we got stuck on a rock and had to get out of the boat to free it. The waves in the currents were surprisingly high, more than half a metre and we got splashed soaking wet a couple of times. But we never capsized. Steering through the rapids was not that easy, but our guides were of great help pointing into the right direction. We paddled through a marvellous landscape with rock faces rising steeply out of the water in places. There were a lot of fish eagles, herons and shags. The water was warm and pleasant to swim in. In one place our group visited an old mine and some people collected the bluish-greenish stones. In the evening they threw them into the fire where they glowed and then popped. We just camped at the riverside and our guides prepared a delicious meal on the fire. After the refill half way there was even ice cream as dessert!

In the Canyon

2010-04-23T22:07:00.003+01:00

The next highlight of this tour was 2 days of rock climbing in a wonderful canyon. The sight of the canyon alone is worthwhile, but imagine this even with about 40 bolted routes! There are steep walls at both sides of the narrow path which seemed to be formed by piling one block of rock on top of the other. It reminded me of fairytale castles. We had route descriptions printed from the internet, but the numbering and grading of the routes was not always clear. We started with a 16 lay back and then slowly worked our way up to a 22 at the most. The rock is good sandstone in most places with some crumbly sections. Although it can get quite hot in the canyon the temperature in the shade was pleasant and there were always plenty of routes to climb in the shade. We climbed well, 10 routes on the first day and 8 on the second. At the bottom of the last route a scorpion came out of the grass, but it was very shy and disappeared quickly when it noticed us. We really enjoyed these 2 days. It is a pity that this area is so far away from Windhoek.

Fish River

2010-04-21T20:53:00.003+01:00

On this tour Andreas and I went all the way down to the Southern border of Namibia, to the Orange River. Although we started on Good Friday morning the roads were almost empty and we arrived at Keetmanshoop, 500km from Windhoek, at lunchtime. As it was nearby we had a look at Giant’s playground, where huge boulders are piled up in amazing formations. Sometimes we could not believe the stone on top is not falling down. We also took some pictures of the quiver tree forest from the roadside. This is not actually a forest in the European meaning of the word, but rather an accumulation of a few trees several metres apart from each other. Next day we continued to the famous Fish River Canyon. Yes, it is impressive. We looked from the top down to the water 500m below. It is a rugged desert landscape with just a thin stripe of green along the river. And it was hot. Further south we visited Ai/Ais Hot Springs which is a camp with a 65 degrees hot spring – what a waste! I imagined how glad the Eskimos would be about such a source. This camp is at level with the Fish River and we took a refreshing bath. Finally we made our way to the Orange River which appeared as a green ribbon out of the desert, an astonishing contrast.

Pillendreher

2010-01-26T19:22:00.003Z

This is especially for my colleagues in good old Europe - a small account of unexpected problems in practising pharmacy in Africa. It is not that you cannot get the drugs and it is not exotic diseases. The problem is a combination of difficulty in expressing oneself and a completely different perception of health and diseases. People come into the pharmacy with funny descriptions of what they need. Look at the following examples:
"My son has a worm in the head." After questioning how he knows, the customer replied that he has seen it when washing the head. I had to consult with a local colleague to come to the conclusion that the man probably means ringworm - admittedly a stupid name for a fungal infection of the skin. The man must have heard the word and then only remembered part of it which lead to a wrong description.
"I eat too much sand." I asked the woman why and she said that it feels nice. No clue what that was about. I just told her to stop it and recommended some minerals and vitamins.
Several people were looking for a necklace or wasteband for newborns which is supposed to calm and protect them. These things are on sale in some pharmacies here and I think it is dangerous rather than protecting as the child could strangle itself.
"I want a medicine for the gut because the back and shoulders are paining when I eat." ?? Strange association, I could not find out what that should mean.
"Don't you have something to clean the stomach?" I explained to several people that they do not need to stick a bottle brush down their throat. The cleaning sometimes related to constipation, sometimes to heartburn.
"I am looking for the perfume for the room." After careful questioning and with the help of a colleage I revealed that the woman wanted naphtalene moth balls - for a good smell in the room!
By the way, the Pillendreher (I think in English it is dung beetle) is very common on farms here and it is amazing to watch them rolling their perfectly round ball until they finally bury it.

Christmas at Harnas

2009-12-29T20:16:00.004Z

Hello, this is the story of a different Christmas. Without Christmas tree. I made a sudden decision and was lucky enough to still get a place at the campsite at Harnas. This is a farm in the far east of Namibia where they take care of injured, abandoned, orphaned, unwanted and abused wild animals, especially big cats. I wanted to visit them for a long time already, but it is out of the way of any round trip through the country. However, it was well worth it. On arrival I missed the reception and ended up in front of a cheetah enclosure where I did not want to proceed. The cats were just being fed and I turned around to find the reception. After checking in I unwrapped my one present I had brought with me and spent some thoughts on my family in the cold and snowed-in Germany. Then I strolled through the area till it got dark, watching the baboons playing, the tortoises grazing on the large lawn in front of the bar and the crocodile lazily lying near the pool. I went to bed soon after dinner to get up with the first daylight. The baboons were already active and noisy and there was a young giraffe behind my tent which came so close that I had to stroke her. Later the same happened with a duiker, a small antelope. I actually had to push her away to be able to take a photo. There was also a zebra in company of a calf strolling around. Then I spent quite some time watching a Pillendreher-Scarabaeus-dungbeetle rolling a lump of dung and burrying it. I joined the morning feeding tour during which we drove around to enclosures of baboons, lions, cheetahs, leopards, velvet monkeys, African wild dogs and karakals. The leopard could catch a big piece of meat standing on its hindlegs on a branch. One karakal jumped 2m high to get the best piece of meat. The dogs were fighting with each other, 5 of them tearing on the same piece. At last we drove through an enclosure with tame cheetahs, but none of them was seen. Then our guide called them and they came running to us despite the fact that there was no food for them. We were allowed to stroke them and one licked my arm with a very rough tongue.
By the time we got back it was already very hot, so I just relaxed, had a light lunch and long siesta. Then I watched a video and an exhibition about the place and walked around with the afternoon feeding tour. There we saw baby lions, a vulture, exotic parrots and monkeys, bat-eared foxes and rock dassie. People come here from all over the world to work for free for some time, that is actually, they pay for it! It is cheaper to stay there as a guest, but of course you then don't get in such close contact with the animals. In the evening there was a buffet and Christmas party for everyone. Early in the morning I went for another walk around and then drove off at lunchtime.

flying higher

2009-12-05T18:47:00.001Z

I spent another weekend with my friends in the dunes, got a lot of flights done and learnt a lot - not the least is confidence. We started higher and higher and in stronger winds, though not from the top of the dune yet. Sometimes it took quite an effort to correct the flying direction when the wind blew. I am very happy that I managed the weekend without further injuries and the Sunday even without any crashlanding. I am looking forward to next time!

Skeleton Coast

2009-11-20T19:44:00.002Z

My latest trip lead my friends and me all the way up the coast from Swakopmund to Terrace bay (that is as far as you can get). This is a more than 350km drive on salt and gravel roads with hardly any features to rest your eye at. We saw some shipwrecks and left overs from the diamond mining times on the way, that was it. However, even this huge amount of nothingness is amazing, though quite tiering for the eyes. It was also very windy and when someone got out of the car the sand pricked the sking like thousand needles. Not a welcoming place, but there ist still live in this desert. We spotted a jackal and a couple of springbocks and even some ducks in a little puddle in a riverbed. Terrace Bay itself is an assortment of some bungalows and most guests come here for fishing. There is really nothing else one could do. We only spent one night and then moved on to Palmwag lodge behind the desert girdle. We drove through a great landscape with lots of little table mountains. Palmwag lodge is a nice place and they offer game drives to see elephants and lions. After one night we continued via Fingerklip to a farm near Outjo. There we split up - my friends went to Etosha next day while I drove home. All in all it was a bit too much driving (1700km in 5 days) with too little to see and too few activities. But at least I have been through skeleton coast without leaving my skeleton there.

trying to fly

2009-09-15T19:30:00.002+01:00

Last weekend we spent at the coast as I wanted to try hanggliding. After a couple of exercises such as running with the thing I moved a few metres up the dune and started with the first hops. Early afternoon I was successful to fly for about 20m, but the landing was a bit too fast, I twisted my ellbow and finished the sport for this weekend. However, I got the taste for it and I definitely want to continue with it.

the coast

2009-09-02T20:49:00.003+01:00

One night we camped wild at the Brandberg with no-one around for a couple of kilometres. We enjoyed the nature and the absolute quietness. Then we explored the other end of our proposed original route, the Brandberg West camp. We drove through a deserted mine and just as we thought nothing will be there and wanted to turn around a simple camp appeared. We were greeted and the woman had a registration list ready and also hand-drawn maps of the way through Doros Crater. So, from this side the undertaking looked much more possible, but now it was too late. We turned around and drove to the coast. The Skeleton coastline is as bleak as described in the books, but we did not get bored by this. I even enjoy this emptiness. The kids went bathing in the Atlantic at 13 degrees water temperature, mist and an unpleasant wind outside. On our way we visited one of the largest seal colonies in Southern Africa. The number of animals was quite impressive and it stank horrible. We watched the acrobatic swimming for a while.
We stayed a few days in Swakopmund to get some entertainment. The boy and the man went quad biking, the girl and the woman had a look at the Kristallgalerie and adjoined jeweller shops. One day we joined Tommy’s Living Desert tour which was great fun. I had been on the tour over a year ago, but it was very interesting again. In Walvis Bay we met a pelican selling souvenirs and my visitors bought a few.
On our way back to Windhoek we stopped for one night and a bit of scrambling at Spitzkoppe. The kids enjoyed this adventure a lot.

Ugab Terraces

2009-09-01T20:49:00.002+01:00

The next leg of our journey brought us along the Ugab river to the famous Vingerklip. Long ago the river cut through the landscape and created towers and funny shaped hills with steep sides. One of these towers is the Vingerklip, so narrow at the bottom that one wonders that it does not tip over. We enjoyed this amazing landscape for 2 days and then carried on to Twyfelfontein. On the way we visited the petrified forest where we marvelled at 30m long logs of stone. We stayed in the Aba-Huab community camp, right next to the Huab river. One evening I strolled along the riverbed and discovered several elephant footprints. Although they were not fresh I found this quite exciting. We explored the surrounding, found the Wondergat, a very deep and narrow hole in the ground and looked at the Organ Pipes, a strange volcanic rock formation. Twyfelfontein is known for its rock engravings and we joined an interesting tour to see these. Usually I prefer looking at rock art at my leisure, without a guide. However, this was not possible in this place and it was indeed good to get some explanation of the engravings. Some of the pictures were like a map where temporary and permanent wells are marked, essential knowledge in an area like this. Most engravings showed animals, sometimes with human body parts. This should symbolize the shaman who is transforming into that animal. Then there was an ostrich with 5 necks which showed its movement.
Originally we intended to cut through the Doros Crater to the coast from there, but warnings about people getting lost, lack of a detailed map of the area and lack of information about the way from local people deterred us from this. We went on a day trip on the 4x4 path into the area and back instead. Then we made our way on a long detour around the east of Brandberg to get to the same point.

mishaps

2009-08-31T21:11:00.001+01:00

I could not believe the number of broken things on this tour. It started with the fridge in the car: it worked for the first 200km, then said “beep” once more and then it went dead. No light, no tone, no refrigeration. So we had from then on a very bulky and inefficient cool box which restricted us in our food shopping. However, we managed surprisingly well without it. The next thing was the borrowed gas cooker. Our attempt to cook tea on it required a windstill place and a lot of patience. The flame was tiny, not enough gas was coming out. We checked the valve and the outlets, but could not find anything wrong. So, this meant cooking on an open fire whenever we wanted anything hot. OK, I could put up with this. Then, on a camp site in Etosha, we had a screw in one tyre and it lost a lot of pressure. We decided to change the tyre in camp rather than somewhere on the Etosha roads with hungry lions around. We had problems getting the nuts off and asked for help at the local petrol station. The man there helped us with some tools and we thought the problem was sorted. It was not so. When trying to use the hydraulic jack it only moved a few centimetres and then stopped. It turned out that the oil had been leaking out. So we also borrowed a jack, finally changed the tyre and got the hole fixed. At our stop in the next town I bought more useful tools for the nuts, a new jack and also showed the gas cooker to the man in the garage. He tried it out and it worked! He said he had not done anything, it just worked. Hm. Well. What I had not expected was that we needed tha jack and the tools the next day as we had another flat tyre in another camp. We also got that tyre fixed in the nearest town. To finish this unpleasant story, later one tyre was torn by a stone and the last one ripped totally off on a normal gravel road. We ended up driving 150km along the coast without a spare. In Swakopmund I ordered new ones. And I remember my brother asking me in the beginning why the hell I have 2 spares! I think 4 flat tyres within 2 weeks is quite a record and in the end we were very quick in changing it.

Etosha once more

2009-08-24T22:14:00.001+01:00

This time I went on tour with my brother and his kids. The Landrover was fully loaded with borrowed camping gear and food for 2 weeks and off we went. We took our time to enjoy everything in leisure and to avoid too long drives in a day. Our first stop was the Cheetah Conservation Fund, a place where they care for injured and orphaned cheetahs. If a cheetah does not learn to hunt from its mother, it will not be able to survive in the wild, so it has to be kept in a reservate and fed. We were introduced to the concept of the place and saw the feeding of a group of the cheetahs. There is even a clinic and laboratory to care for injured animals and to do some research on them. The museum nearby was also very interesting. They do a morning exercise with the cheetahs, where there is a piece of fur pulled over the field for them to hunt, similar to a greyhound race. Unfortunately, we missed that.
The next highlight was Etosha. Although I had been there before it was still a great experience. Already in camp the night before we entered the park we heard the lions growling. We had 3 days to spend in the park and saw everything one could wish for: a herd of 20 elephants crossing the road just in front of us, 4 lionesses with 7 cubs relaxing at a waterhole, oryx fighting, giraffes with their offspring and a pair almost twisting their necks around each other … The funniest thing I saw was a large group of zebra mongoose whirling through each other at the road side and the strangest thing was a single black rhino pestering a group of elephants at the waterhole – and the rhino won! Usually this is the other way round. After those 3 days in the car we took a day off and relaxed in a camp outside the park, just walking around a bit and using the pool.

Rhino Horn

2009-07-21T21:35:00.002+01:00

I spent another wonderful weekend climbing at Spitzkoppe. We did a number of routes, up to grade 22, Andreas leading all of them except the easiest one. The highlight was the 22 up Rhino Horn. I got some great pictures abseiling down the other side of it. In the afternoon we quickly wanted to get up an unknown route for which we did not have any description. It did not look so long from the bottom, but it turned out to be about 200m of climbing, 5 long pitches. Andreas only had 13 quickdraws with him and needed 17 on the first pitch, so he had to keep coming back down to retrieve them. To complete the mishap I then dropped one of them after taking them out, so it fell down the 50m into the bush at the bottom and it was missing for the next pitches. The sun was going down, but we completed the climb and reached the car just before dark. Next morning we had to search for the lost quickdraw, but we were lucky and Andreas found it easily.

Namibgrens

2009-05-27T20:55:00.002+01:00

The last long weekend I spent with a friend on the farm Namibgrens near Spreegthoogte Pass, the way to Solitaire. We had not planned anything in particular, just relaxed, went for one short and one full day hike and enjoyed the view from the escarpment down to the Namib Desert and over to the Gamsberg. The campsite was new and typical Namibian: an open "kitchen" which means a water tap, sink and fireplace, an open tent for shade, a shower next to the rock with a wooden fence around and a toilet with a little tree inside a similar fence. I always find it funny to see the white ceramic basins in the middle of the bush with no wall around or roof above. And I do enjoy the free view while sitting there. We only saw a few wild animals on the farm: dassies, a hare, a leguan and the track of a large snake which had crossed the sand road, possibly puff adder or phyton.

Spitzkoppe summit

2009-05-07T21:42:00.001+01:00

I spent a long weekend at Spitzkoppe once more. This time the aim was to climb the summit of Spitzkoppe itself which is 1728m high. Andreas and me arrived around lunchtime and waited for a Russian woman to join us. For warming up we climbed “desert rose”, a grade 13 pure friction route up the Sugar Loaf. It sounds easy and it was not hard, but the leading climber had to have good nerves as most pitches did not have bolts or any kind of protection – just around 30m to the next anchor which was not visible from the start of the pitch. I lead 2 pitches and each time was very relieved when I could see the anchor. I did not like the idea of climbing the pitch back down in case there was nothing on the top. We happily arrived on the top and enjoyed the view around before abseiling.
The ascent of Spitzkoppe was planned for the next day. We camped near the start of the scramble and got on the way at 6am. It is a long scrambling route and not always easy to find the way as there are waymarks of stone everywhere. We made good progress and had a break for a second breakfast at the bottom of the climb at 9am. It is an interesting route with 3 chimneys, 1 traverse and very few bolts or anchors. Andreas lead all the way as he has been there 10 times before. At 1pm the three of us walked up the last bit to the top hand in hand. We enjoyed the view over to the Pontoks and the Sugar Loaf which we climbed before and they looked very small from up there. Then we read odd pages in the summit book and entered ourselves and had a short break. After that the long abseil started. It went well, but it took some time. We also used the ropes to support us at the first part of the steep scramble down. In the end we had to hurry up as the daylight was fading and it became difficult to find the way through the boulders. However, we managed and arrived back in camp at 6:30pm, exhausted but happy.
Then we had a day rest, walking around and enjoying the rock formations and climbing 2 routes in the evening. The last day we spent the morning at Klippdachswand. I lead a 3 pitch grade 17 route which went fine and Andreas a 3 pitch grade 19. After a long lunch break I lead a short grade 18 route which I had not climbed before. I struggled a bit, but eventually made it. We decided we have to come back to this great climbing area soon, maybe to climb Rhino Horn, a grade 22.

Arnhem cave

2009-04-18T21:17:00.002+01:00

Hello,
today I visited the largest cave in Namibia. It is a dry cave, so there are not the usual nice stalagtites etc, but the exciting thing about it are the bats. 5 different species live in there of which I got to see 2 alive and 1 mumified. There were lots of them and when we disturbed them it sounded like a storm coming up from the noise they made flying. We saw some very close and even a pair mating. There were also mumified porcupines which venture very deep into the cave - one was found about 60m deep and maybe a km from the entrance! During the second world war the guano from the bats was harvested and shipped to Germany to make explosives. Nowadays there is no mining, but the smell is awful!

Brandberg Pools

2009-04-13T21:14:00.002+01:00

The next morning I went to marvel at the lovely stone garden up there and took some pictures. Then I took over the guiding and tour planning. With the help of map and GPS we exactly identified where we were and decided to carry on through unknown landscape to a creek called Longipools which sounded promising. The problem was the way. There were again steep stone slabs we had to cross and huge boulders where it was difficult to find any way through. However, eventually we managed to get to our destination and it was a wonderful place. Lots of pools to bath in and drink water from. We decided to stay there for two nights and make a day trip without the heavy backpacks to Orabes Kopf. This is a very prominent peak of the Brandberg, 2299m high and it offers great views all around. Again, it was not easy to find a way through the boulders as we lost the stone pyramids, but it was much easier to get through it just with the light day pack. On top were pools again and one very close to the edge really looked like a bath. I tried it out, but it was quite cold. Next day we packed again and climbed through another gorge to another rocky place called Wasserfallflaeche. Of course I took a bath at the heat of the day. There was also a cave with a waterfall in front of it, very pretty. Then it was time to find a way back to Hungarob gorge and we found a lovely place to camp directly at the Messum river, 300m below our first camp. It was a pity this was the last night, we would have liked to carry on. We were now able to follow the stone pyramids which made progress much easier, although walking was hard in the sliding scree. Early afternoon we arrived at the car which was boiling hot. After a last bath to cool down we left the gorge and made our long way back to Windhoek.

Brandberg Hike

2009-04-10T21:07:00.001+01:00

This was a 5 day hike on the highest mountain of Namibia. There are no footpaths, just here and there some stone pyramids to mark the way. It is absolute wilderness, so we had to take all food, tent and bedding in our backpacks. Water was taken from creeks and pools with tadpoles in them. It was clear and tasty (just remember to spit the tadpoles out).
I went with a friend from the mountain club who had been in the Brandberg several times before. He had chosen the route he knew best: up Armis gorge to a cave called Lufthoehle, then Riesenhoehle and finally some pools “Katarakt” on the top. This was the plan. We also took a GPS with us, just to try it out and to be able to track back in case we got lost. We drove there from Windhoek and arrived at the bottom of the gorge in the early afternoon. We took a dip in a pool formed by the Messum river to cool down and then set up camp. Clouds were coming up, but only a slight shower disturbed our game of chess and the braai.
The first day of the hike was a usual the hardest. We went up from 700m to 1800m through difficult terrain. There were boulders 4 times the size of my Landrover blocking the way, thick thorny bush between the rocks and sticky grass where it was flat. You Europeans don’t laugh about the grass! I did so in the beginning when people told me about it, but it is very annoying. It sticks to your trousers, pierces through the skin and irritates you all the time. When you try to take it off it even sticks to your fingers. In the beginning we tried to follow the river which flew sometimes underground and then appeared as pools again, very nice. Quite often we had to make a detour around the boulders which involved some climbing, not easy with these heavy backpacks. Later we had to move up on the slope at one side as the river itself became impassable. My friend thought to recognize that pool and this big rock and so we moved our way up. At some point he became doubtful as he did not see familiar features anymore, but then very large stone slabs appeared on our side and this was were we had to go up. It was steep and he became breathless, so we swapped backpacks for a while as mine was much lighter than his. However, the stone slabs turned out not to be the ones he was looking for. Finally he realized that we were not in the Armis gorge at all! The GPS has been trying to tell us we were in the Hungarob gorge next to Armis, but we did not really believe it. Now we did. Luckily there were some waterholes at the top of the slabs and we set up camp there as it was already late. Wow, what a camp site, what a view! Alone at the top of a steep slope of rock! We cooked our noodles on a gas stove, drank a small bottle of red wine and sat by the campfire until tired.

Erongo West again

2009-03-23T19:18:00.001Z

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

2009-03-08T18:42:00.001Z

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

2009-03-07T19:03:00.002Z

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

2009-03-05T20:08:00.001Z

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

2009-03-02T18:43:00.002Z

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.

The flight home

2009-01-12T20:07:00.002Z

I went home for 3 weeks around Christmas and New Year to escape the heat and boredom of Windhoek during that time of the year. It was nice to follow the old Christmas tradition again with proper pine tree, goose and Christmas markets. I also enjoyed ice skating after a few years break. It was a very relaxing time as I did not try to visit all my friends in Europe (sorry, dears). On my flight back home from home I had the opportunity to see the great countryside of Namibia from the air and this time I did recognize a couple of things I saw. The most impressive one was Etosha. Only from the air I realized how big it really is, after I have driven around in this area for 3 days.

Elephant course

2008-11-11T19:49:00.003Z

Last weekend I took part in a course about elephant behaviour, just out of interest. It turned out to be a professional tour guide course, but never mind. I never thought one could talk 3 days solid about elephants, but it was possible and even very interesting. My intention was to learn what to do when near elephants and how to predict when one has to leave them alone to avoid being charged. I got an idea of that, although there is of course no clear answer for all situations. But I also got so much relevant background information starting with anatomy to guess when a broken tusk would be painful (and therefore the elephant aggressive) to the family structure of elephant groups. There were surprising facts such as that they have only one molar tooth at a time in each quarter of the jaw and that they have 6 sets of that. Or that giraffes communicate by infrasound (a bit off topic, but still interesting). Or that the weight of an elephant results in only 600g per square centimetre footprint area. All in all, it was a strenious, but enjoyable weekend and I hope I passed my test today so that I can join the practical part of the course next year. And avoid elephants like the one on the picture which I took on a guided tour last year in Caprivi.

off-road driving

2008-11-05T19:30:00.002Z

Last weekend I finally managed to take part in a gravel- and off-road driving training course, something I already wanted to do before I rolled my first Landrover. Two women from the Afrikaans course joined the party. The training is provided by a German couple on a farm near Solitaire, almost in the Namib desert. To get there you have to drive 250km from Windhoek - mostly on gravel road, so you have already done some training before arrival. I was glad about the airconditioning in the car because it was very hot - summer in the desert. We started with 2h of theory and the most important thing I kept in mind from that is: YES, you should brake when the car becomes unstable. So far many people told me this was what I had done wrong during my accident: I put my foot on the brakes. Another useful thing to know was that one should not look at any obstacle on the road, but rather at the way around it. The practical training was exhausting, of course more for the nerves than for the body. We started with driving at low speed around some cones and then gradually increasing the speed until the car started to slide. This was a horrible feeling, but after a while I found out that even then it is possible to gain control again (within limits) if you react calmly in the right way. The next exercise was to brake fully while steering the car around a wall of cones. Yes, ABS makes it possible, although in this case only at speed up to 70km/h. Then we tried driving bends and our trainer asked me whether I want to become a ralley driver. No intention at all, thanks. I think our tyres lost a bit of rubber during these lessons.
The second part was off-road driving, to find out what the car can do and where the limits are. Now both of us (my car and myself) know what is possible. I would never have dared to try all these things, the worst of which was driving along a slope with the sky in one side window and the earth right in front of the other one - at least it seemed so. We also drove diagonally through ditches and up steep hills. The highlight at the end was a drive up a solitary hill from where we had a great view down to the dunes. Then we drove back to camp through a dry riverbed, trying not to get stuck in the sand.
The evenings we passed enjoyable with BBQ and chatting.

climbing Pontok

2008-09-24T20:20:00.002+01:00

This is about my latest climbing event. I managed to get a Saturday off work and escape on Friday 1pm. Andreas from the mountain club drove with me to Spitzkoppe and we did 5 routes that afternoon to get used to the rock. All went well and so we decided to go for the route “to bolt or not to bolt” up to the peak of Pontok Spitz on Saturday. We camped at the foot of the walk up the Pontoks, a mountain range next to Spitzkoppe. It was going to be my first long climbing route up to the top of a mountain! There would be full daylight half past six, but Andreas crazily decided we have to get up half past four already. It did not matter as I was so excited that I hardly slept anyway. So we had plenty of time for breakfast and to sort things out in the morning. With the first faint sign of dawn, still under the light of half moon, we started walking up a huge slab towards the beginning of the climbing route. At the end of that slab we had to pause and wait for more daylight in order to find the little stone cairns which marked the further way through the boulders. Sunrise up there was great! The landscape was like a huge, beautiful stone garden with strange plants like Aloe and Euphorbia. Half past seven we reached the bottom of the first climbing pitch. We re-packed our things, left the hiking shoes, enough water and what else we did not need on the climb there, tidied up the ropes and off we went! In front of us waited 9 pitches, 270m, partly natural, partly bolted, granite route of grading 15 to 18. 18 was the highest I ever managed to climb, so it was quite a challenge for me. Andreas has been there before and he was kindly leading all the way. Especially granite is so much easier on a top rope! Most of the time you feel like sliding down, standing on almost nothing and holding at nothing at all. Nevertheless, I enjoyed that climb very much and after 4h and only one slip of myself we reached the top. We were rewarded with great views over to Spitzkoppe and the field around. After a short break we abseiled down to an overhang for lunch in the shade. Then we abseiled all the way down which took quite some time. At the last pitch the rope got caught between the rock so Andreas had to climb up again and free it. Back at the bottom of the climb I was glad to take the climbing shoes off, the feet were really hurting from all the standing on the steep slopes. 12h after setting off we were back in camp, enjoyed a bush-shower and braai. We went to bed very early that evening and slept well until the sun was high up. On Sunday we climbed a few single routes to round up the weekend. Then I even followed Andreas up a grade 21 route, although he said it was overgraded. When toes and fingers hurt too much we called it a day and made our way back to Windhoek.

Waterberg

2008-08-20T21:11:00.002+01:00

It is unbelievable, but there are permanent lakes in Namibia. In the Tsumeb area are 2 very deep craters in the limestone, collapsed caves. We went to see one of them. The lake was about 40m in diameter and the walls leading steeply down to the water surface, 20m below our viewpoint. It was a shame really, there was no way to go swimming in the clear, fresh water. The lake is said to be bottomless which is probably not true, but it comes quite close.

Next we visited a crocodile ranch where they have 50 adult animals for breeding, huge beasts, all caught in the Kunene/Caprivi area. The offspring is used when they are 3-6 years old: for shoes, handbags and meat. We had a look in the nursery and were surprised how small the 4 year olds are, maybe a meter in length. Our guide held one of them and we were allowed to touch it: the skin is very smooth and soft, not as it looks like. Afterwards we had crocodile steak which was very tasty, but somehow it felt the wrong way round: we should be eaten by crocodile instead of vice versa.

On the farm Gaub we took a guided tour into their famous bat cave. It was very interesting to explore the cave, not with built ways and staircases as I knew it from Europe. We only saw 3 bats, but very close and they did not move away. We took camp on another farm where there was a sign for camping, a note with the prices and a box to put the money in at the gate, several campsites with fire places, a simple toilet and shower for which you could make hot water by lighting a fire under the boiler. We were all on our own and enjoyed it.

Despite warnings that it is not worth it we went to the Hoba meteorite. I found it quite impressive: an iron lump 3m x 2m and 1m high. Yes, there is not much to see about it, but when you imagine when and where it comes from …

At Waterberg we went on a guided walk onto the plateau with a Herero who explained a lot about the plants, the animals and Herero tradition. It was interesting to listen to him. The other reason why we went with a guide was that there are buffalo and black rhino on the plateau which can become quite aggressive. However, we did not meet any. The other days we walked around in the plain on our own. The landscape is phantastic, red sandstone towering maybe 50m above the plain! There are permanent springs and it was lovely to walk along the water, you do not get this chance very often here.

Etosha

2008-08-18T20:33:00.002+01:00

Our next stop was on the farm Otjihaenamaparero to see 219 million years old dinosaur footprints. There were very well visible, over 20m long tracks, deeply imprinted into the sandstone, surprisingly impressive. The landscape was wonderful with mount Etjo towering above the plains. We stayed on the small, simple camp site there, all on our own, it was so quiet.

Next day we took our time, topped up our stock in Outjo, and carried on to Etosha Safari camp 10km south of Anderson Gate. That evening we started our first attempt of cooking a meal on the open fire and it worked! To our surprise nothing was burnt. We got very excited to enter the highlight of Namibia, Etosha Park. And it did not disappoint us. Already at the first waterhole we stopped for a long time, amazed that the animals did not run away as usual. They are so used to cars here. There were zebras and springbok and fresh elephant shit. The view of the pan itself was just unbearable, so wide and endless, you could see the animals kilometres away. It was still muddy in places. We drove around all day and it never became boring. I took lots of photos of beautifully patterned zebras, secretary bird and the cute little ground squirrels. We returned to our camp and next day we set off to cross half of Etosha and camp in the middle, at a place called Halali (regards from the German hunters). We added elephants, rhino, impala, kudu and oryx to our list and laughed at drinking giraffes. The camp had its own floodlit waterhole were we watched a herd of about 20 elephant at night, 2 black rhinos with a calf drinking, and a spotted hyena. On our last day in Etosha, early in the morning, with the sun blending me through a dusty windscreen and the bushes throwing striped shadows on the road, I slowed down as I saw an animal on the road. I was busy working out which big antelope that would be when I realized that it was a lion! In fact, there were two. We watched them slowly disappearing into the bush, marking them on the way. Wow, what a start of the day! We drove through an area of interesting landscape with hills, smaller pans and palm trees. There were even large areas with water and pelicans. Again, we saw a lot, but we had stopped counting except for the 3 lions and 4 black rhinos. Not long before sunset we left the park and took camp nearby. We were looking forward to a day of rest, walking around a bit, without driving. This is the big disadvantage of Etosha that you are not allowed (for good reasons) to leave the car. Even the toilets are fenced in.

Africat

2008-08-12T21:29:00.001+01:00

My next trip started with a visit at Africat Foundation, a place that cares about big cats that are not suitable for living in the wild. They have a posh lodge (at posh prices) and show visitors the animals and explain the rehabilitation projects. We started with leopard tracking in a car. The leopards there are actually not part of the project, but had been fenced in by accident as they are living there. However, some of them had been marked with a collar with a sender, so that the animals could be located. They also got used to the cars and are thus not as shy as wild leopards normally would be. It took a while to find one of them and on the way we already spotted Eland antelope, Kudu, Oryx and Zebra. Kudus make a barking sound when disturbed and when we first heard the leopard we thought it was a Kudu, such a strange noise it made. Then we saw the leopard between the bushes, a beautiful animal. We followed it for about half an hour and it did not seem to mind. It took a sand bath, walked around, and shit on the way. It was interesting to learn that it carried its tail high to signalize the nearby Kudus that it is not hunting. Although the whole activity had a little bit artificial feeling it still was a great experience. In the evening we went to a hide and watched porcupines which came for the kitchen waste.

Next morning we got up early, before 6 o’clock, to watch the three lions in their large enclosure on their morning walk. They had been rescued from cages as small as a car, but were too used to humans to be released into the wild. Then we went to see the wild dogs which had been rescued as cubs after a farmer had buried them alive in a plastic bag to get rid of them. They are an endangered species with unpleasant characteristics: they hunt their prey in packs and eat pieces out of it while it is still running! The next stop was for feeding the cheetahs that could not go back to the wild. They came really close to the car, chirping and purring, yes, almost singing! It was a joy to watch these elegant cats jumping for their piece of meat. We also learned a lot about their properties, habits and life stile. After a good break and a proper brunch we went on a little walk on our own, in an area without big cats. To our surprise we discovered quite a few tiny flowers despite the dry and cold season.

On the afternoon programme was cheetah tracking on foot. The animal was used to humans, but lived wild, i.e. it was not fed. It also had a radio collar so that we could locate it. The tension grew when we knew it was close and we left the car to follow it. Firstly, it moved fast and then not anymore. When we found it it had just killed a Dikdik, one of the smallest antelopes. We watched it eating for a while from of distance of only about 5m. On our way to a wonderful sundowner place we saw a troop of baboons and dassies in a tree.

On our last morning we went on a “Bushman trail”. They explained to us how they live, showed how they make ropes, bags and bows, how to catch animals in a trap and how to make fire. The ropes were made of sansiveria and were very strong. This demonstration was full of interesting stories about their culture. I really like their attitude not to take more than they need and to use the resources of nature so that they can recover.

cheetahs

2008-07-14T21:16:00.002+01:00

Finally we left the mountains behind us and arrived in Marienfluss: a wide plane framed by mountains on each side. We had a great view at all this space. There we were picked up by car and driven the last 20km to the Kunene to a proper tented camp with toilets, showers and warm water. We spent two days there, going for short trips, one day upstream, one day downstream. This involved some rock climbing and traversing in places because we wanted to stay close to the river. It is a beautiful area and I could have carried on hiking for another 100km down to Kunenemund. Then we set off for a two days drive with the Unimog to cover the 250km of bad road back to Opuwo. We had a flat tyre twice and it is hard work to change the wheel of an Unimog, but our men managed it well. We passed a point called “red drum” where three roads meet. There is literally only a red drum with an old, damaged emergency telephone and a sign for each direction. Nevertheless, this point was marked as Red Drum on my map of Namibia, so I would have expected at least a village there! Back in Opuwo it was difficult to get used to civilization again. We carried on driving in our own cars for another few hundred km and stayed at a cheetah farm and camp. They have 19 cheetahs there and we were taken on a drive to feed them. It was interesting to watch these cats so closely, fighting for the food. In a separate enclosure was a female with three little ones, only a few months old. It was cute to see them playing on a fallen tree. Also on the property was a 7 months old giraffe which came to the farmer sucking on his thumbs and drinking milk from a bucket. The farmer also had two tame cheetahs and we could stroke them and listen to their purring!

The leopard

2008-07-13T22:13:00.001+01:00

Our next camp was near a little creek which run over the rocks to form a pretty waterfall with a beautiful private pool underneath, surrounded be reed. It was such a nice place and a good feeling to have a save bath. The advantage for us two climbers and the drawback for the others was that this place was only accessible by a 5m down climb the rock face. We followed the cascades down for a while until we came to a spot with a good view at the magnificent Kunene river. After taking in the view we climbed back up to the camp in fading day light. This evening our guide bought a goat from the nearby village. It was slaughtered and skinned and then barbequed straight away. We tried the heart and liver which were good and later had the ribs which were tasty, but the meat was very tough and not much of it.

The next day took us some of the time along the river again. At one point we wanted to fill our water bottles and were looking for a suitable way through the reed down to the river. We changed our mind when we heard a loud splash, probably originating from a crocodile that had rested on the shore and jumped into the water at our approach. Later, at the campsite we saw a big one on the rocks on the other side of the river, in Angola. We climbers usually went in front of the group as the geologists were slowed down by rock sampling. We followed our guide through a wide, dry river bed which narrowed into a steep gorge. About 120m from the gorge our guide stopped and pointed at a leopard coming down the rocks to drink from the puddles in the gorge. The animal had not noticed us. We waited and after a while it returned, looked at us and majestetically jumped up the rocks to where it came from. What an elegant, powerful cat! We were very lucky to see a leopard in the wild. The sides of the gorge were vertical, water washed rock. At the bottom were pools with fish in them, it was nice and cool. Further in the gorge the pools merged and filled the whole gorge so that we had to take our shoes off and balance barefoot over the pebbles. It was great to look at the steep walls from down there, tree trunks which had been carried there by the river far above us. We continued until our feet became tired of the permanent hopping and balancing, then returned to leave the gorge and carry on on our route.

Our last camp directly by the river was at a wonderful place. The river was wide and calm, with mountains in the background reflecting in the water. Another river flew into the Kunene. In this river was a small waterfall, very convenient for a shower. The next day we followed this river which again required some rock-hopping, an unusual exercise in this country. Then we crossed the mountain range which brought us trough a new type of a beautiful landscape. There were more gorges and rock face inviting us to climb. However, we did not have any gear with us, so we left it at eye-climbing. The walking became more interesting and challenging, involving some climbing over boulders along the creek. Unfortunately, we only had foul tasting water from some pools at one camp there and exactly on that day I felt a bit dehydrated and had to drink a lot. I put a water disinfection tablet in and some lemonade powder so that it became drinkable. Even the tea tasted bad.

Himba kids

2008-07-13T10:14:00.002+01:00

The following day took us to another, bigger waterfall coming from a lakelike widening the river formed. The river split into two parts there and a rock island had been formed in the middle. There were interesting rock formations in marvellous colours: black, red and green. It was a long walk that day as we skipped one camp. I felt it was far too hot to carry on walking and I really got to a point that I did not want to continue anymore. Not that I was exhausted, but just tired from the heat. Finally we reached a dusty place under a tree which was our camp. Some areas of the riverbank were blocked off with cut bushes to prevent crocodiles coming on land. We were directed to a shallow, stony stretch where we could wash off the sweat of the day, cautiously watching the water. In the evening people from the nearby Himba village visited us and there was some chatting, dancing and singing going on. They were friends and family of our guide and two of his kids were living there, a boy of 10 and a girl of 8 years. The kids joined us for the rest of the trip, going to live with relatives at Marienfluss. Even though they were so young they knew the way cross country and they were able to go much faster than us, even barefoot on all these stones and thorns! They helped their dad, never complained and we accepted them as our guides. Tough kids in a hostile environment.
The whole area was not as deserted as I thought: all the time we were crossing paths and every couple of kilometres we passed a few huts and a kraal, where Himbas had lived for a while with their cattle grazing. In front of some huts we even found quite sophisticated wooden toy cars, probably carved with a machete. They had proper wheels and the kids used a stick to move them around.

Donkeys

2008-07-11T21:16:00.002+01:00

Next morning the donkeys were loaded, and how! Saddle bags on both sides and on top a big sea sack with our tents, sleeping bags and mattresses. Some animals got the cooking pots tied on top of it which looked funny. The poor donkeys had to carry a lot, it nearly made me feel guilty. The way the guides led them was strange: the donkeys went ahead and were shushed from behind or the sides when they went the wrong way. Often the pots got caught in the bush and the whole group made a funny noise. When the guides whistled the donkeys would stop and wait what was to happen. I admired how surefooted they went through stony, steep terrain, where even we started sweating. The day passed pleasantly, but without any remarkable events. We camped under a huge tree at a marvellous spot at the riverside. Black rock formed little pools save for bathing protected from crocodiles. Further downstream was a small, but forceful waterfall and behind it a rock rose up to 15-18m above the river. At the current low water level it was possible to get over to it and of course I had to climb it together with my friend from the mountain club. On the top we found to our surprise a huge tree trunk, surely thrown there by the water during the flood. What impressive power the water can have! This night we again enjoyed the wine, looked for shooting stars (and I saw a couple of them) and listened to the silence of nature.

day 1

2008-07-09T21:19:00.002+01:00

We usually got up with the first sign of dawn, around 5:30, in order to do some of the walk in the pleasantly temperated morning hours. Breakfast was usually muesli with sugar and warm water which tasted surprisingly acceptable. On a few days we tried porridge or millipap which was edible, but much worse. On the first day we passed the waterfall once more and then walked for quite a while along the river with breathtaking views around each corner. Alone the contrast between the dry landscape and the lush green at the riverbanks and the brown-blueish of the water was amazing. Although there was a lot of rain this year the grass was already dry, but most trees still green. There were places at the river where you could think you were on a tropical island: fine, white sand, black washed rocks and Makalami palms. The seeds of these palms are very hard and the Himbas carve beautiful pictures of animals into them and sell them to tourists in the cities. The leaves of the palms are used to make basket with interesting patterns. After a careful footbath we left the river and went cross country through stony terrain. Towards midday it became very hot for walking and I wondered what people do here in summer! Eventually we reached the 4x4 track and were picked up by our Unimog to drive to a place nearby a creek where we put up our camp. The donkeys got there already, this time still without their load. In the afternoon we explored the surrounding, played chess, chatted with each other. When we were sitting on our groundsheet after the meal, drinking wine and chatting, a scorpion came crawling onto the sheet. It was quite a big beast, interesting creature. Our tour guide caught it, but we then moved around more carefully.

Kunene Hike

2008-07-06T21:20:00.002+01:00

My latest adventure was a 2 week 150km hike along the Kunene river in northern Namibia. It was organized by geologists and designed as a professional trip for sampling of rocks. However, as 2 people dropped out only two weeks before the trip started they were desperate to fill the places with anyone who would like to do the hike and pay the money. I got to know this from the mountain club and was immediately hooked. A hike through an area where there are not even 4x4 tracks, guided by indigenous Himba people! What an opportunity! I asked my boss nicely and he made it possible that I could have the time off even though I did not have enough holiday left.

The tour started in Opuwo, a town where only a handful of white people live. The majority of the population there are Himbas. We only had to bring tent, sleeping bag and personal items as well as a day backpack for water and snacks. Everything else, including food, was cared for by the tour operator. On the first day we were transported on a Unimog to Epupa Falls, a dusty 200km drive which took about 4h. Our camp was directly at the steep riverbank. We were warned not to enter the water because of crocodiles. That day we only saw a water monitor lizard, though. The waterfalls are beautiful and impressive, with huge baobab trees on the rocks. We saw Himbas from the nearby village washing their clothes there and putting them to dry on the surrounding bushes.

Love birds and Go-away birds...

2008-06-01T20:03:00.002+01:00

... fly around my house. The love birds even come to sit on the balcony, chatting very noisily. They must have offspring now as there are many of them, behaving a bit clumsy. Most of them are green with their rosy face, but there are 2 or 3 in white-blue-greyish colours. I wonder whether they escaped somewhere as these are not the natural colours.
The go-away birds are not less noisy, but they do not come that close. The story is that they warn the wild animals from hunters, shouting "go way" with their loud voices. It is the equivalent to the European jay.

grass insect

2008-05-19T19:23:00.003+01:00

There are some funny animals around here. On my last walk I found this insect in the middle of the path laying eggs or something. When it sits on the grass you really cannot make it out.

Brandberg

2008-05-06T20:25:00.003+01:00

Last weekend I spent in the Brandberg area. My friends already left on Thursday which was a public holiday, but unfortunately I had to work on Friday. This only left me with 3 free days and the task to find them in one of the gorges of a mountain massive with a diameter of 50km. I have never been there before and there are no road signs at the many tracks. However, my friends gave me a good description of the area and some printouts from google earth. I also bought topographic maps with a scale 1:50000. So I packed my car on Friday and left Windhoek with the first daylight on Saturday morning at 6 am. It took me 5h to Uis, the town nearest to the Brandberg. I thought this was not too bad, but then it only started. The road on the remaining 80km was incredibly bad, ripples all over. On top of this a yellow warning light in my car went on which made me nervous. So I drove very slowly, watching the mountain carefully and trying to identify described features. This was surprisingly easy and even the tracks that turned off from the "main" road were in the right place. Thus, 3h later I found my friends without difficulty. They were as glad to see me as I was, already imagining me camping on my own in the wild. They had cleared a path into a dry riverbed, a very romantic setting. We went for an evening walk and then sat around the fire, braaing and chatting. The others slept in their roof-top tents on their cars, but I just spread my sleeping bed on a mat on the floor, enjoying the free view to the stars. I was not disturbed by anything in the night, only noticed some bats hunting above my head. And it was ABSOLUTELY quiet, no sound at all at times, not even snoring neighbours ;-) What I had not considered was the mist rolling in from the coast only 60km away. So my sleeping bag was wet outside, but never mind, I was not cold. Next morning we set off to a trip up the mountain. This turned out to be harder than it looked because of huge bolders we had to climb over. It is amazing that we still always found a possible way. There were interesting plants all around: Welwitschias in the plain, reed in the now mainly dry creeks and somthing like a little stone garden further up. The view from the top was rewarding. The way down trained the muscles in the arms as well as the legs because we had to let ourselves down the bolders and jump from one to another. I still feel the muscle pain today, two days later. The whole tour took 7 hours. It followed another relaxing evening at the fire. Next morning we set off straight on the way back in order not to get into a Namibian traffic jam.

fontain

2008-04-30T22:39:00.002+01:00

Last week we had a special entertainment in Windhoek: a fontain nearly as high as the building nearby in Independence Ave. I don't know whether it was a broken pipe or what, but the result was quite impressive and lasted for almost half an hour!

climbing hazard

2008-04-20T20:12:00.000+01:00

Today I went climbing again and discovered some of these animals. I looked at them closely, marvelling at the beautiful colours. However, my friends told me that it burns and you get blisters when touch your skin and someone even mentioned that their bite can be deadly! I had not expected this animal to be that dangerous and looked at it with even more respect then. Luckily I did not meet it when I was up on the rock.
In a presentation on Saturday I heard that in Australia live 7 out of the 10 most poisonous snakes in the world while Namibia only has 1. How reassuring! Never mind that the next 10 poisonous snakes can still kill people and several of them exist in Namibia.

Pontok mountains

2008-04-15T21:48:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I spent with a friend at the Spitzkoppe again. It is 8 months since I have been there and the landscape now looked totally different. Due to the good rains it was green everywhere and the flowers in blossom. We arrived at 8pm, in the dark, at the camp. The half moon was just above the mountain and run down its side which was great to watch. Thus we had light till after 9pm, enough to get our meal ready and ourselves settled in the sleeping bags under the starry sky. It was wonderful to wake up at night and look at the stars. In the morning we watched the sun dunking the Spitzkoppe into light. This time our aim was not Spitzkoppe itself, but a walk around the nearby Pontok mountains. A Pontok is a hut covered with a mud roof which looks like the peaks of this mountain range. We took our time, had a look at Small Bushman's Paradise first where you can see ancient rock paintings. I am always fascinated by the rock formations and caves in this area. It was a hot day and we had to climb over the saddle of the mountain to get to Big Bushman Paradise, but I thouroughly enjoyed the tour. Back in our camp I went on another small excursion to a rock formation called the bridge through which you can also see the mountains. Then I used the luxury of a rock pool which stays for about 3 months after the last rain to take a quick bath. I was back in time for the sundowner and then the usual ceremony of braai started. It followed another wonderful night under the open sky. Next day we tried to reach the top of the first Pontok, but we did not know the way. Surprisingly, we came across some way marks and climbed quite high over bolders and rocks until all possibilities ended at a steep wall. Without rope and proper climbing equipment there was no way to go further. I think next time we should try it from the other side. Anyway, it was a nice trip, we returned to the car and drove back to Windhoek just after lunch.

Moltkeblick

2008-04-14T22:46:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday I decided to climb the second highest mountain in Namibia, Moltkeblick, with a friend. It is only 10km away from Windhoek. He has been there before, but years ago. The mountain is 2400m high, but you already start at about 1700m. We set off about 9am, asked at the farm for permission to walk on their property and then we are on our way. First we went along an old, disused farm track where grass and flowers grew on the way. My friend could not exactly remember the way he went once, so we just turned to the mountain range after a short while. We climbed up to the ridge and continued along there, first on a kind of path, then just through the bushes and bolders where there was space. We had a great view from up there. I found a lot of beautiful flowers along the way, some of them only come out every couple of years after a good rain. There was yellow and red and purple and white amongst the high, green grass. What looked so beautiful made walking harder, though, especially as one should look out for snakes as well. The longer we continued along the ridge the more evident it became that we should have stayed for much longer on the farm track. Our "way" was up and down, through deer fences and around cliffs. However, I found it a pleasant walk while my friend began to struggle and slow down. Finally, more than 6h later, we reached the top of Moltkeblick which was not very exciting. There was a wind motor and a signal post, all fenced in. So, the way has been much nicer than the destination. We had a short break and then started to make out way back down. This was not easy as the ground was full of medium large, loose stones and it would have been easy to break ones ankles. When we reached the foot of the mountain it was getting dark. We just about managed to identify the farm track and stayed on it through dusk. It was still several km back to the car, there was no moonlight and the way became harder and harder to follow. At some point we lost it and had to return to the nearest fence to find it again. Then we tried with a torch, but it was still very hard to identify the remainders of the track. I already thought we had to stay in the field over night. Finally, 12h after we set off, we reached the car, fairly tired, but happy.

Erongo again

2008-04-08T21:11:00.000+01:00

Easter saturday I followed my friends to a farm in the Erongo mountains. I set off after work and it was a fairly long drive so that I only arrived in the evening at the farmhouse. The camp was about 6km away and I have only been there once. The farmer described the way for me and it sounded easy enough: follow the path along the fence and bear left. However, as far as I could see there was nothing to bear right or left, just the one path. I noted a totally overgrown track to the left which did not look as if a couple of cars had passed there 2 days ago. I remained on the main path which led to an area I could not remember and then got worse until it only was a tractor track. Meanwhile it has gone dark and I turned around. There was no chance to find my friends this night and I did not want to return to the house. So I just pulled to the side, pitched up my tent, had a bread and a drink and sat on my cool-box watching the stars and the full moon coming up. It was very quiet and peaceful, an overwhelming feeling of beeing alone in the wilderness. Even the farmer asked me the following day whether I was not afraid, but of what? Leopards have been seen in the area, but are very shy, snakes escape when they feel the vibration of approaching man and the farm gates were locked, so there were no people. Next morning I got up before the sun, drove to the farmhouse and asked them to show me the way. It was really that overgrown track I considered the evening before! My friends had just decorated the camping tables with branches with easter eggs and I joined them for breakfast. Then we went climbing some fine granite walls and I even led one route myself. In the afternoon we went to the natural rock pools to cool down in a bath and wash the sweat off. Others had filled a black bag with water and hung it in the sun to have a hot shower, called "super solar shower". Then I went for a walk along the dry river bed and found a piece of a clay pot made by the bushman, probably thousands of years ago! I also discovered a small dead snake on the track, probably a poisonous puffadder. In the evening we had a delicious barbeque and lots of wine. We watched the lightening far away in the Brandberg region and were glad that it did not rain where we were.
Monday morning we packed slowly, went to Omaruru for an icecream and then each set off our own way. On the road back I saw a dead monitor lizzard, a giant beast of nearly 1,5m! I would not like to meet this alive on foot.

Okambara Elephant Lodge

2008-04-04T20:56:00.001+01:00

The second weekend in March my parents and me spent at Okambara Lodge. This is only a 2h drive from Windhoek to the east. The first question they asked me when I called to confirm my booking was what car do I drive. The last 8km from the “main road”, which is already only a gravel/sand road to the lodge just consists of mud and puddles after the good rains. The day before someone got stuck there with a combi. They advised me to keep on the track even when it goes through relatively deep water. We made it, but afterwards you could not even read the number plate anymore because of all the mud. Approaching the house offered a dreamlike view at a green jungle of bambus, cacti, bougainvillea and large trees. There were even ducks and geese on the grass. First we were greeted by a cute, tame suricate nibbling at my toes. Then the friendly house lady came and showed us around her little castle which she had designed herself.

After a delicious lunch and a nap we went on our fist game drive there. It started with feeding the captured leopards and cheetahs which were problem animals from other areas and found asylum here. One leopard was quite tame and I stroke his fur when he leaned against the fence. It was very soft. The cheetahs fought with each other for their food and it was a joy to watch these graceful cats. You could see that our guide liked his job and with the help of a sender he found the little herd of elephants on this gigantic farm for us. On the way there we saw the damage they hat done to the fences and wind-engine. One bull had fought with the others and then escaped from the farm. Later we heard that he had to be shut. So there were 7 elephants left and we saw the whole group. Furthermore we spotted red hartebeest, wildebeest, steenbok, impala, eagle, stork, ostrich and some small birds. At the end of our excursion it started to rain and we were rewarded with the view of giraffes in front of a rainbow. In the evening we fed wild porcupines at the terrace.

The next day we started with a game drive after breakfast to find the rhinos. We drove criss-cross through the farm, discovered tortoises and saw a beautiful large kudu-bull very close, but no sign of the rhinos. We already turned back to the house when we spotted a little grey hill between the bushes at our side. It was the back of a rhino. We drove closer and met the whole family which was peacefully grazing. Very satisfied with this success we returned to the main house. After a swim in the large pool we said goodbye and made our way back to Windhoek.

The way back

2008-04-03T21:07:00.001+01:00

We took a slow drive back via Helmeringhausen and Maltahoehe. In Helmeringhausen we stayed in the old post office which is now a very tastefully decorated B&B that belongs to the hotel. The settlement itself only consists of 5 houses including a shop, an agricultural museum, a petrol station and the hotel. In former times the place was just a farm. There was not much to see and do, but we enjoyed the peaceful setting. The road to Maltahoehe was very bad because of the rain, mud and deep puddles everywhere. We only made 50km/h on average. So we could marvel at the lilies in blossom at the roadside and we discovered some bright orange oryx-weaver birds who build their nests on the long grass in the puddles.

In Maltahoehe I was surprised to find a backpacker, but no-one was staying there. The river there was severely flooded, trees and fences were under the water. This was a strange sight in this normally dry country. Near Mariental we also looked at the full Hardap Dam which is a gigantic sea of brown, muddy water. Unfortunately, we could not do the game drive there because the roads were closed for safety reasons. On our way back into Windhoek I hardly recognized the area. It was green all around where I weeks before only saw brown, burnt grass.

Luederitz

2008-03-29T20:36:00.000Z

On our way to Luederitz we stopped at Garub to watch the wild horses of the desert. It is surprising how they survive in this bleak environment. We saw a number of them at the well, fighting with each other. A single oryx also came for a drink, hardly taking any notice of the horses. The remaining 90km of the road were straight and boring and I was happy to use my automatic speed control so that I did not even have to keep my foot on the accelerator, but could relax. In Luederitz we rented a large, colonial-style flat. There were 3 bedrooms, a large living room with TV and many very old German books, 2 bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen with sitting area and an entrance hall. For the whole flat we paid about 40 Euro per night! It had a special atmosphere, it looked as if the owners from colonial times had just left. Luederitz disappointed us first as we walked through an area of old, disused industrial buildings and rotten houses. The other day we discovered the new waterfront with restaurants and shops which is much nicer, but nothing special. They still had the Christmas decoration on, a bit behind the time.

We visited the old diamond-town Kolmanskop. It was interesting to see how well organized and technically equipped people lived there in the desert up to 60 years ago. Now the sand is claiming the area back with dunes walking through open doors into deserted houses. Still, what can be seen is impressive. Most houses were built in a generous style, there was a theatre, gymnasium, shops, hospital and even a small railway connecting the few houses. In the surrounding area diamonds are still harvested, but not by the handful on the surface anymore as it was the case in former times. All vehicles and people leaving the diamond mining area are screened for hidden gems.

From Luederitz we went on a day trip to Diaz point. On this barren and sandy peninsula we really needed the 4x4 again. We watched seals and dolphins playing in the sea, flamingos in the lagoons and we even had a good view at the penguins on the nearby Halifax island. It seems funny to see penguins in Africa, under this burning sun, but the water there is quite cold, only about 16 degrees. To our surprise at this remote and lonely point, there was a café! They served excellent apple cake, tea, hot chocolate, beer and fresh oysters. I did not expect anything that civilized in this area.

Ballooning

2008-03-28T18:32:00.000Z

I have heard a lot of contradictive opinions about ballooning here. Some people say it’s great, others think it is boring and not worth it. Only in one point they agree: it is expensive. We started very early in the morning in a vlei between the dunes. We rose up to 1000m and saw the sun rising over the misty mountains on the other side. Then the mist cleared up and we could see quite far over the dune sea. We travelled very quietly, watching the dunes pass and animals moving on the ground. Where we landed, in the middle of nowhere, the team had prepared a table for us with Champagne breakfast. This was the i-point of this marvellous start of the day. Then we were driven back in a 4x4 to our starting place.

It was a long way to our next lodge, but it was a beautiful drive. Sometimes the now green landscape reminded me of Scotland! However, we saw secretary birds on the way, zebra, ostrich and oryx which you certainly would not find there. On the farm there was a oryx-family with a very small one. While walking around in a dry river bed I found the skin of a snake, easily 3m long. I asked the owners of the farm and they think it was either a cobra or black mamba. I am glad the snake was not there anymore! We enjoyed our stay at the lodge in this beautiful surrounding. The meals were taken together with the owners in a tastefully decorated hall. This was a good opportunity to find out more about the area and farm life.

Sossusvlei

2008-03-26T18:19:00.000Z

Of course we made a trip into Sossusvlei. This is the most famous part of the real desert, a usually dry chalky plain surrounded by red dunes. A tarred road leads 60km into it and then a sandy track continues for another 5km until it is stopped by the dunes. This time there were some puddles at the roadside and grass was growing on the dunes, a strange sight. We started very early in the morning to be there before the heat of the day. A herd of springbok was in front of us and bouncing to the right and to the left between the farm fences at both sides of the road. Eventually some of them got through and others let the car pass. This is the downside of all this farmland. Later we saw ostrich very close and oryx galloping across the road directly in front of my car.

For the sandy track I reduced the pressure of the tyres, realizing that I had forgotten the especially for this event borrowed compressor in the camp. Never mind, I just had to drive back the 60km to the park entrance and petrol station very slowly. Driving through the sand was quite an experience, very difficult to steer. People say you have to steer to the side the car is veering to in order to get it under control again, but this is just against your automatic reaction. Finally we arrived at Dead Vlei, a plain that had been cut off from the rest of the valley by shifting dunes with the result that water cannot enter anymore and all trees have died. It looks ghostly, this wood of black stems and branches. I decided to climb up the highest dune in the area, called “Crazy Dune”. Instead of going the normal long way along the ridge I went straight for the deep ascent. This is an angle of about 45 degrees and with one step up you slide half a step back. It took me over an hour, a lot of breaks and sweat until I reached the top. I was rewarded with great views over the other valleys and dunes. The way back took only 10min. Meanwhile it was half past 11 and over 40 degrees in the shade of which there was none. We drove back with the aircon on full power.

In the Desert Camp we cooled down in the pool and then just lay on our beds and waited for the day to pass. In the evening a strong wind came up which made the braai a difficult task. At night we listened to the barking of the geckos which can be amazingly noisy.

River Crossing

2008-03-20T17:41:00.001Z

We drove further south, past Solitaire and then through an area which I knew dusty, burnt brown and dry from a few months ago. It was unbelievable how green it was now! Leaves on the trees and bushes, juicy grass on the ground and the river flowing with a strong current. However, the only animals we saw were a few baboons. We heard that all the antelopes had travelled north much earlier, towards the first approaching rains. Strange, how animals know where the food will be.

Not far from our destination, driving down into a dip, I had to stop. We suddenly stood at a muddy river crossing the road. Although there were some tracks going through I was not sure about the crossing and rather returned to the nearest farm to enquire about the river. Luckily this was only a few 100m away. I was told that this river was ok to drive through, but the next one we should check out first. I was a bit nervous at this my first river crossing, but my car knew how to get through. At the next river we stopped and I walked through first. The water was almost reaching my knees and the ground was a little sandy in places, but the current not strong. The manual of my car stated that the car can easily wade through 50cm deep water. Still nervous, we tried and although it felt a bit weary in the mud we got through. Later we heard that someone got stuck in that river this morning, trying to get through in a 2x4 combi! At this point the latest I was really glad that I did not listen to some people who told me that you can drive almost anywhere in Namibia in a normal car. This may be true in winter, but not in the rainy season.

Finally we arrived at our destination: the only wine farm in Namibia. They have 5 wells on their property and thus enough water to grow Merlot and Shiraz at the edge of the desert. There is also a veggie garden, date palms and a lovely little shady pool, very romantic to sit at. Walking around in the there already dry river bed we were accompanied by “go away birds”, a kind of kakadu. We spotted a large praying mantra and even a wild cat. In the evening we had a delicious braai with home made sausage and very tender lamb and of course, wine with it. It was also very interesting to chat with the owner about the development of the farm and about Namibian history.

The sound of stillness

2008-03-18T19:47:00.001Z

We moved on from Swakopmund via Walvis Bay towards Spreetshoogte Pass. We took a scenic detour along the dunes through the Namib-Naukluft Park. You need a permit for using these small roads i.e. you have to pay an entrance fee. It was well worth it, the sight of the dunes behind the green riverbed on one side and dry, stony desert on the other side was an amazing experience. We passed some villages of the local “Topnas” people. They used to make their houses of wood, clay and reed, but nowadays you mainly see ugly huts made of leftovers from the civilization: wooden boards, tin, plastic and wire. We met a family travelling in a donkey cart, quite a common method of transport amongst the indigenous people.

It was a hot day and a long drive on bad roads. I was really glad to have air conditioning in the car and in the end we avoided stopping to have a look around because when we switched it off it immediately became unbearably hot. We passed the Tropic of Capricorn. In shallow places, where the rain water was kept for a little while, the grass began to grow. Zebras and oryx were grazing there, ostrich and springbok running around.

Approaching the mountains we saw dark rain clouds in front of us, but it rained very locally and we only got a few drops. However, it was impressive to watch the weather developing. A few days before one of the two passes we had to drive through was closed because the river was so strong and high that it threw tree-trunks onto the bridge. By now the road had been freed and there was hardly any water left in the riverbed. This change is hard to imagine.

Late afternoon we arrived in the camp where we had booked a “family unit”. This consists of 2 permanent tents with 2 beds each, a raised place between them with an open (that is without walls and a roof) kitchen with gas cooker and fridge and a bathroom behind. In order to have a warm shower you had to light a fire at the back and heat a tank of water. About 100m away from this place was a little pool, more like a stone-built bath, in the middle of wilderness. I had a bath there at night, watching the starry sky (and there are a lot of stars out there!) and listening to the sounds of nature. Before this, however, we observed the Namibian ritual of sundowner drinks, walked up a hill to a lapa (thatched roof with a bar underneath, but it was empty), taking our wine with us. We took our seats on the wooden benches outside, had our drinks and watched the beautiful sunset. All that was around us was space and nature with the mountains forming a phantastic background. The only signs of human beings we could see were the lapa and our tents. And it was so still …

Living Desert

2008-03-16T18:52:00.001Z

We went on two more excursions into the desert, one into the “Moon Valley” along the dry Swakop riverbed and the other one into the dune girdle between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. One was as exciting as the other. The barren, hostile landscape of the Moon Valley was breathtaking and you could easily imagine how people get lost there and die from thirst. Yet, there are plants! “Living stones”, almost invisible, sunken into the gravel to expose only the absolute necessary amount of leaf surface to the burning sun. The sunlight enters the plant through little windows at the top of the thick leaves to allow photosynthesis inside. Then, there is the “pencil plant” with little grooves along the stem-like leaves to collect moisture from the fog and lead a few drops towards the stem of the plant where they enter the soil and can be absorbed by its roots. Last not least, we saw Welwitchia Mirabilis, actually a conifer which consists of a wooden stem and only two leaves. It can grow for thousands of years. It is amazing how some plants are used by animals. For instance, a kudu would injure a euphorbia and cover its fur with the poisonous milk so that any ticks fall out.

Along the way we found strange rock formations resembling the sinking titanic, a giant lasagne or comic figures. There were also some rocks very rich in iron sitting loosely on each other. When you hit them with a stone they gave a sound like from church bells, in different nuances. What a concert of the nature!

The drive through the dunes was a special experience, one of the highlights of the whole trip. Our guide would spot an animal track – not of antelope or such, but of tiny, tiny animals like scorpion or spider – and follow it to find the animal. Most of the time he was successful and brought the beast to us to have a close look. Thus we saw sidewinder and horn viper, two poisonous snakes. He even dug out a Palmato-gecko just after spotting a tiny heap of sand next to a little hole. The skin of this gecko is so delicate that you can see the vertebrae and guts through it and it would burn in the sun within 20 min. The most amazing animal, however, was the Namaqua-Chamaeleon. Our guide spotted one from the driving car, threw some tok-tokkie beetles to feed it and then caught it. We observed it changing colour and apparently it can even go pink. We watched it snatching out its long tongue to catch the beetle. We held it in our hands. We saw it turning its eyes in completely different directions. It seemed like a creature from the ancient past.

Sandwich Harbour

2008-03-05T19:54:00.000Z

The first tour was a 4x4 drive through the desert to Sandwich Harbour on my birthday. We were only 4 people in the group, so it was quite a private atmosphere. The vehicle was a purpose-built Landrover Defender with a steel construction inside in case we roll over. Which we did not. The drive alone was exciting enough, climbing up the dunes and going down so steeply that you sometimes could not see the bottom on the other side. On top of this it was an amazing landscape: first the salt pans near Walvis Bay, then “hammock dunes” (bushes in the pan that have caught the sand and become a little hill), then real, high dunes, the seashore and finally the lagoon Sandwich Harbour. The sand of the dunes has different shades depending on the material deposited. The base colour near the coast is yellow while further inland, at Sossusvlei the dunes have literally rusted and display a bright orange colour. Then there are black patterns from iron containing sand and dark red ones which is actually garnet.

On the way we saw springbok, flamingos, pelicans and even one spoonbill who got here by mistake during strong winds and was adopted by a group of pelicans. It was an awesome sight to see some pelicans flying in front of the dunes. Sandwich Harbour itself was formerly a fishermen’s settlement, but all the houses have been swallowed by the ever moving dunes. Today the area is a biosphere reserve because the lagoon provides a unique biotope for fauna and flora. Our guide explained how the plants have adapted to the conditions of living between the desert and the sea. We tasted salty sea-asparagus and sweet-savory Nara, a kind of melon which is highly valued by the native people for its water content. On the way back we stopped for a play in the strong waves of the Atlantic followed by a picnic on top of a dune. It was delicious and combined with the great view of the empty landscape just incomparable.

In the evening I made a “braai” (BBQ) in the cozy backyard of our accommodation. Unfortunately, just at this time Swakopmund received about a third of its annual rainfall (which is about 5mm) so that I had to use an umbrella for it. Nevertheless, it was very tasty.

Hoodia

2008-02-28T19:38:00.000Z

Hello everybody,

I am back from the tour with my parents and have collected my first experiences as a mini-tour guide. I bought another Landrover just in time. It was a great holiday, full of fun, beauty and adventure. We went from Windhoek to Swakopmund, then past Sossusvlei and the Tiras mountains to Luederitz and back via Helmeringhausen and Mariental.

We took our time and a sand-road to get to Swakopmund on the first day. The Landscape was beautiful and changed every 50km or so. We stopped a number of times to have a close look at wild flowers, marvel at unusual rock formations, have a picnic or follow the track of an antelope. Just from the roadside we saw kudu, warthog, ostrich, jackal, springbok and several large birds. However, the highlight of this drive was the unexpected discovery of the “Queen of the Namib”, hoodia gordoni. She was in full blossom with butterflies all around her. I have heard of this plant, mainly from patients asking for the herbal wonderdrug to slim down, but I have never met her personally. She is beautiful.

After this hot and dusty drive through the desert we enjoyed a swim in the Atlantic when we arrived in Swakop. We stayed in Swakop for 6 days and joined a number of very interesting guided tours.

Katutura

2008-01-27T17:36:00.000Z

Hello,
today I got the chance to join a free tour to the township. It was very interesting. The area is called Katutura which means "the place where we do not want to stay". This origins from former times when the black population was told where they were allowed to settle. There are "posh" areas within Katutura with small stone houses and water at each house and the poorer areas at the outskirts where people just own a hut made of tin and have to share a drop toilet with several neighbours and carry their water from a tap hundred meters away. The huts are really only for sleeping and keeping their few belongings; everyday life happens on the streets. There are stalls where people sell things such as dried beef or a kind of self-brewed light beer. There are open "restaurants", consisting of a fireplace and wooden benches in the sand where women cook and sell the food in the evenings. We also visited a market where people sell dresses with big patterns and bright colours, get their hair straightened, cut or artificial hair knotted in and where barchelors buy their food directly from the fire, cut off half animals. There are shoes on sale made out of antelope leather with the soles made of old tyres. Those people just use everything you would regard as rubbish - a very economic way of living.

Game Park

2008-01-13T18:34:00.000Z

Hi,
I wish you all a happy new year! I celebrated it with friends barbequeing in the garden. To fill the time we tried funny games such as balancing on a rope or jumping over a stick you hold with both hands. So, quite a sportive change of years! New Year we went "hangover-climbing" which was a successful start for me.
Now the citizens of Windhoek slowly return from their holidays and the peaceful and quiet time is over.
I have been in the Daan Viljoen Game Park today, starting early at 7am. It was worth it. I saw Giraffe at breakfast, Springbok, Zebra, Kudu, wildebeast, Red Hartebeast and lots of birds. It is unbelievable how hard it is to spot even the big Kudu as the colour is the same as the ground and the rocks. Although I have done this walk before it was still interesting. I also saw horns of Oryx, Kudu, Red Hartebeast and Springbok lying in the sand. Luckily we had a good rain yesterday and it was still cloudy, so it did not get too hot. Afterwards I enjoyed a nice ostrich steak in the park restaurant.

Christmas Tree

2007-12-25T10:28:00.000Z

This is a Namibian Christmas Tree. It is a white-thorn acacia. It is nice, but to me it looks more like Easter decoration at the wrong time of the year. This here is not Christmas for me, it is some other kind of feast. Never mind, I enjoy this as well. I wish you all a merry time and a happy New Year!

I'm fine

2007-12-14T20:14:00.000Z

Someone wanted to see this photo. It was on the way back from the Naukluft. I have been warned of the sand roads, but I still don't understand how this happened. The road was straight and solid, not much sand on it, no animals to run onto it and I only went 100km/h. I was alert and concentrated and just felt so well driving. The car started to loose its track and first I just took the foot off the accelerator and held the steering wheel straight. It did not help, so I started to press the brake which was wrong, people told me. But I did not want to drive into a tree or bush at full speed. The car went to the right onto the loose sand and spun around to face the other direction. I already thought I come to a halt, but unfortunately it then turned around onto its roof. I just switched off the engine and climbed easily out of the broken window. I was not hurt at all, no shock, no bruises, just a few minor cuts from the broken glass when I climbed through it not carefully enough. I knew my friends drove behind me so I went to the road to show them I am ok. They then managed everything for me, took my luggage into their car and spoke to people who stopped to help. The first driver informed the police in the next town (40km) and called a recovery truck. We wanted to wait for it as if you leave the car alone there will not be much left after a short while. People steal everything here. It took 3h for the truck to come from Windhoek. All but one car that passed during this time (which was about 10 in total) stopped and the drivers asked if we are ok and if they can help. How friendly! A farmer even asked us why we don't just turn the car around and carry on driving. He was probably right, the damage only seemed to be glass and metal, even the lights of the car were still working. But I was not too sure about this suggestion and the problem would have been how to turn a 2200kg car around. Finally, the recovery truck arrived and loaded the car. The people did not make a very professional impression, but we had no choice. The truck left for Windhoek and we a little later. Then, after 15km there were cars at the roadside and people stopped us. That recovery truck had an accident, a horse run into it. We saw the truck some 30m beside the road on farmland, my car fallen off it onto its side although it had been secured with chains. That was it. If it was not a write-off before, now it was. Shit. There was nothing more to be done but drive home and go to bed. This week I was busy sorting all the paperwork out for the insurance. And now I am on the outlook for another Landrover Discovery 2. Meanwhile I drive an ancient Nissan-Bakkie from the pharmacy I work for. What a different feeling!

Naukluft Park

2007-12-13T19:13:00.000Z

Monday was a holiday here, "Human Rights Day". Funny enough in South Africa Human Rights Day is in March. Never mind. Anyway, I used the weekend to get away, walking with friends in the Naukluft Park. As I had to work Saturday morning and my friends left early, I drove there on my own Saturday afternoon. Already on the way from the Park entrance to the office I stopped to have a closer look at a social weaver birds nest, I saw Kudus and Steenbok. The Campsite has only 10 places, each for a few tents, and there were only 4 groups camping there. It is simple, but sufficient, sandy, shady space swept free of thorns from trees, braai place (=BBQ), water tap, toilets and shower. The camp is right by a dry river bed with a few puddles with tadpoles and crabs in it. The evening I arrived I just explored the closer surrounding and later we grilled venison sausage and sweetcorn. Of course we did not miss the obligatory red-wine sundowner.
In the middle of the night I heard some shrieks of animals and the noise of them moving around. I am not sure what it was, maybe baboons or mountain zebra, but it was quite close. I marvelled at the starry sky for about 15min before I recognized Orion there. There were so many stars that I nearly did not see the pattern. Unfortunately, I did not have my binoculars with me to have a closer look at the nebule.
Next day we started the 17km walk, first along the riverbed with cristal clear pools for a dip (not big enough to really call it swimming) and interesting rock formations. On the way we saw some antelopes, dassies, baboons and lots of lovebirds. The walk then left the pools and went 15km over the hills with not much shade and pretty powerful sun. On the way back we joined the riverbed again and dipped into more pools. You could imagine the waterfalls when it rains, the soft sediment stone was in many places washed away. When we crossed one creek we saw a snake in the water and it held still for long enough for me to take some fotos. I am not sure if it was poisonous or not, but many of them are. It was quite a long day and we arrived tired in the camp. Next morning I went part of the way backwards on my own to bath in the pools and take some picture of fig trees between the rocks in the morning light and then returned. I also watched a group of baboons having their fig-breakfast. It is a very different experience to go the same way in a group or on your own, you look with different eyes and are more alert. I really enjoyed it.

Himba in town

2007-12-03T19:22:00.000Z

Windhoek is a European city. At least it almost looks like it. But there is still the real Africa every now and then. Such as today. A Himba woman came into the pharmacy where I work. She asked for some tablets in a language I did not understand. I needed the help of our security guy to find out what she wanted. She stood there in front of us in her traditional clothing which is almost nothing: a peace of animal hide wrapped around the hips and some necklaces made from animal bones and plant seeds. Bossoms bare, hair held together by a type of clay topped with a crown made of leather. She wore ockre paint on the naked body and smelt nicely of aetheric oils from a bush. Just as well as they never wash themselves. I found that contrast very strange, this woman as she comes from where she lives and the neon-lit glass shelves of a pharmacy with all its cosmetic range in the background. The spice of Africa.
Sorry, no, I did not take a photo, but the picture will stay in my mind.

Ameib

2007-11-25T18:59:00.000Z

I am just back from a weekend at Ameib Ranch. We went hiking to the famous Phillip's Cave with Bushman rock paintings in it, through a valley called "Bull's Party" with giant bolders and even some rockpools with tadpols in them, and we climbed up a rock formation called "The Elephant". The landscape is very interesting, but this time of the year is really too hot for walking. We had lunch break and a long afternoon nap in the shade of the granit bolders and started again half two into the bright sunshine. There were still over 30 degrees in the shade and I do not know how hot it was in the sun. Climbing up that rock formation was sweat-driving, but the view rewarded us. I was amazed how plants survive on the granit, especially climbing fig tree. Back in the camp we refreshed ourselves in the pool before we had the traditional sundowner and then BBQ. We slept under the stars and full moon, the night was refreshingly cool. I woke up and saw an owl, bats and the housecats emptying the bin. Early in the morning a pair of giraffes came for breakfast very close to the camp.
This morning I joined the climbing group, but attempts to find a route in the shade resultet in a fairly long walk and scramble over bolders before we got just one route in. It was nice anyway and before the greatest heat came we were back in the car with its aircondition. I am afraid for the next trip I have to wait a couple of months until the worst heat is over.

It's getting hot

2007-11-18T18:24:00.000Z

Now it is slowly becoming summer. Yesterday there were 38 degrees Celsius in Windhoek. Luckily I was at work half of the day, with the aircondition on. The heat hit me when I went outside. The only option was to have a very long siesta and then do something where you don't have to move much.
The moskitos are coming, a locust knocked at my window, butterflies decorate my garden and the weaver birds are breeding. And in this weather people try to gear up for Christmas! I cannot get into the mood for it and I will probably start baking Stollen just the week before. It feels all wrong.

Dassie on the rock

2007-11-03T19:36:00.000Z

Hello,
as some people do not seem to know what a dassie is, I decided to post this picture taken this afternoon in my garden. They are quite tame here. I can also usually watch a fox mangoose in the morning, it is very nosy and comes quite close. Apart from this I have at the moment finger-thick millipeds climbing the walls of my house and a gecko regularly visiting the balcony in the evening. I wonder what else the summer will bring as it proceeds.
Cheers,
Heidrun

I believe it now

2007-10-14T22:13:00.000+01:00

...that it is possible that water falls out of the sky here. We had the first rain since 6 months today! And a beautiful rainbow visible from my balcony. The rain did not even last an hour and the roads dried quickly again. Now I am waiting for the green to appear on the trees. Many plants already started flowering before the rain, I wonder how they do it, where they take the power from. Nature is amazing.

I could not resist

2007-10-14T22:05:00.000+01:00

... to buy this T-shirt. For those of you who can't read it, it has "SAND-LOVER" written in the Landrover design. It is just sooo funny! I saw a guy in the supermarket with this T-shirt and asked him where he got it from. He happend to work in the shop nearby which sells it. And you really have to love the sand in this country.

Kassler mit Sauerkraut

2007-10-10T20:48:00.000+01:00

Ja, unglaublich wie deutsch das hier ist. Da habe ich neulich im Restaurant nicht schlecht gestaunt, dass es Kassler mit Sauerkraut gab - fuer 4 Euro. Das habe ich mir schmecken lassen. Im Supermarkt gibt es Ostseebutter und Ruegener Fischbuechsen. Am meisten begeistert mich das frisch gebackene Berliner Landbrot. Schwierigkeiten gibt es bei der Quarkbeschaffung, das macht nur ein Farmer, der jede Woche mal nach Windhoek auf den Markt kommt. Ich vermisse noch Berliner Weisse. Vielleicht ist das ja zu politisch, aber schwarzes Bockbier gibt es auch nicht. Dann haben wir noch englische Muffins und Scones, aber keine clotted cream und keine Indischen Curries. Hm, und recht fette, fleischige lokale Spezialitaeten mit Maisbrei. Ist schon eine komische kulinarische Mischung, aber jedenfalls besser als was einem in England angeboten wird.

Moving house finally

2007-09-24T20:13:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I finally moved into my flat. The landlords have made some improvements I requested and I have cleaned it so far that it is suitable for use. I have a lot of space now! So many rooms and so many cupboards, nothing to put in. The first visitor was a gecko which came in in the evening when I opened the windows to let the cooler air in. It was not easy to chase it out again, it holds very well to the walls. I put my things away which took not much time and now more cleaning and then shopping is on the list. I still need curtains, washing machine, tables, pots and pans... This morning I enjoyed the sunrise from my balcony and I share this picture with you.

Landrover

2007-09-16T21:25:00.000+01:00

Hey, I got a car, finally! It is a Landrover by chance, not by deliberate choice. I want to say that I do not belong to the Landi-freaks, but this car just serves my purpose best. I have already been teased about it and I decided to collect Landrover jokes, so feel free to post some as a comment. It is quite a huge car compared to the little Corsa I drove before, but I am getting used to it quickly. It is a Diesel and Automatic and therefore a bit slow, but powerful. I am already looking forward to my first own 4WD trip.

Spitzkoppe

2007-09-04T21:36:00.000+01:00

I had a great weekend at Spitzkoppe. It is a wonderful landscape with amazing rock formations and the mountain just arises unexpectedly out of the plain. The trees and bushes start flowering, it looks so nice. My friends went on a difficult all-day 13 pitches route climbing while I scrambled nearly up to the top on my own. I stopped often to see some plants close, watch a red and black striped lizzard, a small snake or Klippspringer with envy. It was quite a tough route, especially on the way down, and I got a lot of scratches from the thornbushes. In the evening I sat for a sundowner with my friends and we barbequed. It was a very mild night with a bright starry sky - until the moon rose. Next day we did some of the easier climbing routes together before we drove back to the city.

Safari part 3

2007-09-03T21:41:00.000+01:00

Hello, I cannot catch up with the events. I have been away for the weekend again and not even finished my report from my last trip. Our next stop was in Chobe National Park at the northern Botswana border. There is abundant wildlife! We went on a tour with fairly large, busy river boats and we saw everything we could wish for. Literally, as soon as someone said "we have not seen a lion yet" there was a lioness with 4 young ones and after such a wish also a single giraffe appeared at the riverbank. We saw hippos very close, lazy crocodiles, buffalos, waterbuck and lots of elephants. When they cross the river they just walk on the ground and if it is deep only the tip of theit nose is above the water, although they can swim. This was a really amazing trip, we did not know what to watch and where to look first. We also saw open-billed stork, heron, shag, fish eagle, marabu, darter and last not least a beautiful sunset over the water. I am glad I have a digital camera now so I can just try the photos and discard the bad ones.
On our drive to Livingstone we saw a lot of ground hornbills, black, 1m high birds which are apparently very rare. Another rare species I found at a camp just outside Livingstone: someone parked a Trabbi at the roadside as advertisement for a camp with a German owner! I did not expect to see this in Southern Africa!
The Victoria Falls ARE impressing. Although we arrived in the dry season water was still roaring down the cliffs at a width of 1,5km! The mist came up to the high walkway opposite the falls. Down at the riverside the vegetation finally looked like I imagined all the area of north Namibia and Botswana: like a jungle with palms, parasite plants, monkeys ... I wanted to go on a half day elephant ride, but they were unfortunately fully booked. So I went horse riding instead and afterwards visited the museum. It is not as boring as some of you may think, there are a few exhibitions about local history, culture, flora and fauna, not just about Livingstone. I was really touched by some vodo-like figures used to cause misfortune. Apart from that, Livingstone is not really worth the word "town". I bought myself a nice red an rainbow couloured light dress, made in Taiwan - never mind.
Next day we started our long drive back - 1500km in 2 days in burning heat without air conditioning. We were now only 3 people in the car and so had space to stretch out and sleep, but I felt pity with our driver.

Safari part 2

2007-08-30T21:53:00.000+01:00

We continued north to the Caprivi strip where we got to see them: hippos grazing on land and lying on top of each other in the water and elephants breaking branches off the trees and crossing the road just in front of us. We watched them for a good while, but then one came quite close, shook his head, flapped with the ears and our guide said we better leave now. We also saw lots of very grazile impala antelope which was not shy, the rare roan antelope, a group of mountain zebras, a water monitor lizzard, vervet monkeys playing and a mole snake escaping just in front of the car. This game drive was well worth it! At the end we marvelled at a huge baobab tree.
Then we visited a local village - it was actually a show village for tourists so that the people living there do not get disturbed. They showed us scenes from their everyday life which was very interesting: how to store corn, make flour and baskets, catch fish ... There was a mouse trap to protect the corn and the mouse was then used in the cat trap which was there to protect the pigeons. The people also explained how they used to hunt hippos: with an instrument called a "hippo caller" they made a noise similar to the hippos to attract them and then shoot them from 6m distance with a poisoned arrow - and run away fast. Very impressive was the dance of the medicine man, just not describable. There is still a lot of superstition and traditional medicine which partly keeps due to lack of access to modern medicine. I quite liked the idea of a healing dance for psychiatric patients.
For the next posting you will have to wait a little while again as I am going away tomorrow to Spitzkoppe mountains for walking and rock climbing. By the way, yesterday I received my registration certificate as a pharmacist in Namibia! I think I should start a collection, see how many I can get in my life.

Safari part 1

2007-08-29T22:50:00.000+01:00

Hello, I am back, healthy and happy. Too much happened to write it all in one go, so here are the first few days of my trip. I was lucky that the group consisted of only 6 people - not up to 16 as normally. There were 4 Americans and a woman from Kasachstan who lives in London now, all nice people. We started with a long drive on the Trans-Kalahari highway, through Bushmanland to Ghanzi in Botswana. There was not much exciting to see on the way except for a Secretary bird which is a bird of prey that catches snakes. In our camp was a little zoo with lions, wild dog with young ones and ardwolf. I do not really like them behind the fences, but otherwise you do not get to see them. Eland antelope, Kudu and Oryx were also walking around. A group of San people performed traditional dancing and singing for the paying guests of the lodge, but we from the camp heard them and also got a glimpse of the dance. It was as I imagined it, but still amazing to experience it live, to see and hear that it really happens like this. I have a lot of respect for these tough people surviving in this environment. Going on from this, people do live in mud huts, use donkey carts and ox waggons, sometimes made from parts of cars and one of the waggons still had FORD written at the back. Our guide cooked our evening meal on the open fire.
We approached the Okavango Delta, but the vegetation stayed brown and dry until the last few kilometers. The camp workers picked us up with their 4x4 because the road became just a deep sandy way. I did not feel too confident when I saw lots of fresh elephant dung and huge, half a meter footprints from the car. There was a symbolic wire fence around the camp and the gate open. However, we did not see any animals. The camp has a nice wooden terrace by the river, huts overlooking the papyrusgirdle, an open bar and kitchen. The bathrooms are just hides made from wooden planks, with no roof and with a barrier at the entrance to put down when engaged instead of a door. Simple, but sufficient. We went on a boat tour in traditional "one-tree-boats", pushed around by local people using a pole. We were searching for crocodiles and hippos, but only saw kingfishers and frogs. However, the trip was beautiful and I was not sure myself if I wished to meet a hippo with this delicate boat. We stopped on an island to look for elephants, but again only found their traces. I still felt the tension and excitement. On the way back it was very hot and at a place where the waterlilies gave way to see in the clear water to the ground I went swimming. It was so good and refreshing and I had missed it for the last 2 months. We marvelled at the sunset and even more the sunrise over the water next morning.

Erongo Mountains

2007-08-16T19:36:00.000+01:00

My long weekend trip was great. It is quite a drive to Erongo, but well worth it. We camped at a lonely place on a farm (not in the European meaning of it, it looks just like wilderness), where there is only a fireplace and a bush toilet. It was amazingly quiet. The landscape is wonderful, barren with small trees and bushes and lots of granite outcrops in astonishing formations. It reminded me a bit of bald rock in Australia. The first climbing routes were just a short walk away from the campsite and it is good stuff, a lot of friction. There are nice views around from the top as well and we saw and heard black eagles in the skye and dassies in the rocks. It is amazing how loud and bird-like these small animals cry. People said there are occasionally leopards seen on the farm, but we did not meet any. In the evening we had a sundowner and grilled meat and sausages on the open fire. I got up before sunrise to walk up a rocky outcrop and watch the sun rising. The light was wonderful. Then I went for a 2h walk around, saw Kudus and Klippspringer, droppings from Zebra and a lot of bleached bones(!?). I also took a close up photo of some red wasps building their nest and back in the camp I was told by my friends how aggressive they usually are and how painful their stings. Luckily it is still winter and it was early morning, so the cold made them lethargic. You see, I have a lot to learn to cope in the wilderness.
Back in Windhoek I learned the last day and wrote my exam. I think it went well, there was not much I did not know. Now I am already preparing for my longer safari which you may read about after 28.8.

Chameleon, Crazy Kudu and Wild Dog

2007-08-08T22:15:00.000+01:00

Hello all,
now it is getting exciting: I have booked my first safari. I will go on 19.8. with a company called Crazy Kudu to Okavango Delta in Botswana, Caprivi Strip in Namibia and Victoria Falls in Zambia for a 10 day camping safari. It was not easy to get this, originally I wanted to go with Chameleon on a similar tour, but they were fully booked till the end of September when I am supposed to work already. It includes a boat tour in a traditional dugout canoe, a game drive to see rare antelopes, a visit to a local village with demonstrations of traditional medicine and superstition and good chance to see elephants, crocodiles and hippos in their natural habitat. I am really looking forward to this, can't wait! Yesterday I got my last vaccination (meningitis) and malaria prophylaxis is already sorted as well.
Meanwhile a friend from the climbing group called me and asked if I would like to join them for a long weekend in the Erongo mountains (300km northwest from Windhoek) for camping, climbing and walkabouts. Of course I want to! First I hesitated a bit with my exam on Tuesday in view. But never mind, I can take the books with me. I feel quite well prepared already and do not want to miss this adventure. I will let you know how it was next week.

Cheers,
Heidrun

Botanischer Garten

2007-08-05T21:52:00.000+01:00

Jeden Monat ist eine Fuehrung im Botanischen Garten von Windhoek und diesmal nahm ich teil. Ich haette nicht gedacht, dass so viele Leute kommen, es waren ueber 20. Fast alle waren deutschsprachig, viele davon leben in Windhoek und unterstuetzen den Garten. Uns wurde das "Gewaechshaus" gezeigt, das diesen Namen nur aufgrund eines Daches hatte, das den Regen abhalten soll. Nicht, dass es davon hier viel gaebe und im Moment schon gar nicht, aber unter dem Dach haben sie Wuestenpflanzen, die schon wenige Tropfen zur falschen Zeit uebel nehmen. Es ist faszinierend, wie solche Pflanzen ueberleben und wie scheinbar lebelose Struenke oder Steine mit ein wenig Feuchtigkeit zum Leben erwachen und praechtig bluehen.
Nebenan ist ein Foto, dass ich einfach am Strassenrand gemacht habe. Es zeigt die Windhoeker Aloe and eine Euphorbie.

Bis zum naechsten Mal - Heidrun

My flat

2007-07-28T23:05:00.000+01:00

I know, I neglected you here waiting for news on my blog, but I am trying to improve now.
I found a nice flat to rent for me. It will be free next week, but I will move in after my exam, on 15.8.07. It is the upper floor of a 2 storey house high up at a hillside. It will be quite a steep drive for my car, so I might have to buy a 4WD anyway. The view to the east is marvellous, straight to the mountains surrounding Windhoek. There are 2 medium size bedrooms with built in cupboards (not beautiful, but useful), one facing east and north for warmth in winter and the other one facing west and south, for a cool sleep in summer. Then there is a large living room southeast and from there you get out to the east-facing Veranda with the nice view. To the north there is a white tiled bathroom with shower over bath and a large kitchen with all cupboards, sink and fridge built in and space for a seating area. I will be able to use an old couch and a couple of chairs, will need to buy bed, tables and a desk. To the west is an area of currently stone and dust which with a bit of luck, advice and support from my landlords, may turn into my garden. Behind that is a rocky, unfortunately crumbly (therefore not suitable for climbing exercises) natural wall and then the mountain continues. I also have a shaded area and some wooden seats for a BBQ, a garage and a shaded parking area. The nearest relative of the elephant is living in the mountain rocks and my garden: rock dassies. They are very cute, but I have been told I will face problems with creating a garden. The place is not far from the city, 15-20min walk and the area is fairly safe so that I will be able to walk to or from work in daylight.
The landlords are very friendly, but hardly ever there. They have a guest farm north of Windhoek, maybe I can stay there one day with you?

Rock Climbing

2007-07-25T22:25:00.000+01:00

Hey, I can't believe it is nearly two weeks since my last entry! Time is passing so quickly and I guess even quicker here in Africa than elsewhere. Last weekend I have been rock climbing with a couple of very nice people near Windhoek. It is a nice, solid, smooth rock on a farm and there is almost always shade which is essential inthis country. The only disadvantage is that baboons sleep on the rocks and leave all their shit there. At this time of the year there are no problems with snakes and scorpios, but I have already been told just to throw them down when I come across any while climbing. All the routes are bolted and the technique they use for securing themselves slightly differs from what I knew. There are only a few easy ones and then a lot which are challenging for me. I also noticed that I only climbe once before this year and was tired quite early. Never mind, this group goes every weekend, so there will be plenty of opportunities for my training. At some point this spring they also want to climb Spitzkoppe and if it fits in my timescale I will try to join them.
So, this is my first entertainment organized here, horse/camel riding will follow as soon as I have written my second exam and bought a car.

Heidrun

Back from the farm

2007-07-12T17:06:00.000+01:00

The weekend in the wilderness was fabulous! I went with my friend on a number of game drives and although nothing was close enough to shoot we saw a lot of animals: Kudu and Oryx, some smaller antelopes, lots of Guinea Fowl, warthog and jackal. It is amazing how quiet it is out there, you just hear the calls of the animals and the squeaking of the pumps for the waterholes. Also, the stars at night are unbelievably clear and so many that I had problems to find familiar pictures such as Bootes or Corona Borealis (apart from the fact that they are upside down from what I am used to). I also found Scorpia, Libra and Virgin very clearly and high up. It has not rained since April and everything is sandy.
Now I am back in the "big city" finalizing my work for the law exam and then heading on straight for the Pharmacy Practice exam which will follow on 14.8. So, unfortunately, no safaries for a while.

I will keep you posted - Heidrun

first foto

2007-07-06T23:40:00.000+01:00

Hello,
I am very busy, preparing for my law exams on the 16.7.
I just thought I show you a photo of a craft market in Windhoek city.
I will be away on a farm for a long weekend now, looking forward to it.

Hoping to post more in the future - Heidrun

Arrived in Windhoek

2007-07-02T11:58:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody,
This is just a short note as I am currently on borrowed internet until I have my own sorted. I arrived safely, was picked up by my boss and straight away integrated in the family. I get lots of help with getting started. And I realized how much I have to learn for my exam - another reason why in the beginning I will not post very much, sorry.
People here are complaining about a very cold winter which is 2 degrees at night, but 24 during the day - comparable to a nice European summer, I am sure my colleagues in England envy me for this.

Heidrun