South Africa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.