Near Walvis Bay, Namibia- Having now spent several more days in Namibia, I wish reclassify my definition of this being a country of nothingness. This is a country overflowing in abundance. What this country does lack though is people, with a population of only 3 Million; infrastructure, with most roads being bumpy gravel (we apparently drove 1500km of these roads); development, with most of the land being uninhabitable desert there aren’t many signs of civilisation like buildings, Starbucks, telephone poles, or anything of the sort. In this absence, we get things far more magnificant. An ever changing dramatic scenery and wild animals.
We’ve been spending long hours in our truck driving from one destination to the next. Anywhere else in the world this would be tedious. But here, each drive is like a long safari. With the windows open wide, I often stick my head out to feel the wind rush past my face and through my hair. As the landscape whizzes past we often spot wild animals. Several days ago, only 20 minutes after leaving our campsite we spotted three giraffes proudly walking along the roadside. They weren’t fenced in as part of any game reserve. Just roaming free as part of the desert, red sand, bushy terrain. Truly one of the most magical moments of my trip so far. Not long afterwards, there was a herd of wildebeest. This morning, there have been several herds of the Hartesmare mountain zebra. Different from the plain zebra, this breed has strips clear down to his feet, and a white belly (plain zebras have strips only to there knees, but all around their bellies) and these zebras will climb mountainous terrain, where there plain counterparts won’t. Other common sightings are the antelope like Oryx with their striking, bold grey, white and black markings and long horns. The gangly, fat bellied ostrich. The tan coloured springbox, which appear to be jumping on a trampoline as they run, literally hopping along. The occasional brown ground rodent called a Dasie. Two jackels, wolf like, have also been spotted. And there is the occasional herd of cattle too! We did also see a group of cyclists on mountain bikes. Their support vehicle said they were doing our trip in reverse going from Narobi to Cape Town. I couldn’t help but wonder, if our trip takes 40 days, how long will it take them by pedal power. Judging by the long scruffy beards on the men, they’d already been on the road some months. Man! What a trip that must be. I’d love to pass a giraffe on my morning cycle!
The backdrop for these sightings has been widely diverse. Just now, the land is an undulating barren landscape of grey sand and small rocks. Thirty minutes ago we were in an area called Zebra Park, not because of the animals,but because of the black and white layered hilly rock formations. For the previous two days we were driving through the vast Namib Desert with , flat foreground dotted with green acacia trees, the only trees with a deep enough root system to reach the table water several hundred metres below and survive in this harsh area, and in the distance a large imposing mountain range. Nestled in between this landscape, somewhat hidden from view, was the famous red sand dune national park of Sossusvlei.
We began our day in Sossusvlei with a sunrise climb up the side of Dune 45. This dune, so named as it is 45km inside the park gates, is one of the main tourist dunes. Surprisingly hard to climb, both because of its sandy nature and because of the wind whipping over the top and causing the fine grains of sand which form and shape the dunes to pelt against any exposed skin. (Also, not good for camera lens.), it reaches a height of over 100 metres or 300 feet. From its peak, you can take in the vast area of enormous red sand dunes accumulated left and right of the flat white valley, which thousands of years ago would have been a river bed. Here, you truly get a sense of being in the middle of nothingness. Here, even our lovely safari animals don’t exist.
The nothingness became even more desolate as we abandoned our truck for 4x4s to head deeper into the red dunes parkland. Here, nestled between the dunes was the dead lake. Thousands of years ago, two dunes merged together and stopped the river from flowing through the sea forming a lake. Over time this dried up leaving just the cracked white salt ground and 2,000 year old black tree stumps as the only evidence of water ever being present here. Truly a magical landscape of nothingness.
