The flight home

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.