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.

flying higher

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

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

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

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

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.