Hoodia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.