Namibian Experiences

February 18, 2009

We arrived in Walvis Bay, Namibia (23 degrees, 0 minutes S latitude, 14 degrees, 30 minutes E longitude) at 0800 on Valentine’s Day morning. From the ship, you could see over the dockyard and into the Central Namib Desert. Georgia had arranged with a local company, Turnstone Tours, for a tour of the coastline, bird watching, dune driving, and overnight camping in the desert under the stars. Jon Kastendiek and Sarah Swank went with us, so with Georgia, Jackson, and me, we had a party of 5. Our guide was a relocated South African named Wayne Hutchison and he had a six-passenger Land Rove Defender, with a huge luggage rack on the roof – the sort of vehicle designed for safaris. We met him at the Port of Walvis Bay about 10 AM, climbed into the Land Rover, and took off south. Our first stop was to see the greater flamingoes and white pelicans along the Walvis Bay lagoon. These birds and many other species (avocets, for example) were very abundant here. There is a salt works near the lagoon that collects salt by evaporating sea water in expansive ponds that turn pink from the salt-loving bacteria that thrive in them. We drove to the top of a dune about 200 feet high and looked down on the salt works and the lagoon.

Once we left the Walvis Bay area, there were no paved roads, so we were four-wheeling in the sand; Jackson particularly appreciated that! Sand is the defining feature of this landscape. The prevailing southwesterly winds pile it up in huge dunes all along this coast; these dunes south of the lagoon extend right to the sea, and as you go further south, are immense – maybe 1,000 feet high. Wayne said that the “dunes are the memory of the wind.” Leaving the area of the salt works, we drove south along the beach. We saw a number of dead southern fur seal pups. They are weaned at 3 months of age, and many do not survive because they can’t find fish to eat. Sandwich Harbor was an early stopover for ships traveling along the southwest African coast because of the availability of fresh water and a sheltering sand bar.

There are amazing adaptations in the plants found in the various water-limited desert habitats in Namibia. Some have very deep tap roots; others have dew-collecting leaves to take advantage of sea fog generated by warm air moving over the cold Benguela current flowing north from the Antarctic; yet others store water in melon-sized gourd structures.

On the way back north, we saw a jackal sitting on a sand dune, studying us. The guide took us up into the dunes in his amazing Land Rover. We went to the top of a dune that was probably 500 feet high, and rode along its ridge, with steep slopes just to either side. We got out, walked around, and then drove back down. It was rather exhilarating in a terrifying way. Next we drove to a midden, an archaeological site where whale bones, shells, ostrich egg beads, and glass beads dating from the earliest European trading days along this coast could be found.

Back north along the coast past the salt works and then east into the Central Namib desert for about 10 miles and then south again into the Kuiseb River basin, an ephemeral river. Ephemeral rivers are rivers that only run when it rains in the mountains. Since it was raining in the mountains, we had to camp downstream where we could ford the river in the Land Rover if necessary. Along the way in our search for camping site, we saw the dwelling of some Topnaar people. The Topnaar used to be called Hottentots; they are descendants of the Khoi-Khoisin, the earliest humans in Namibia, speakers of a click language of the Khoisan group. Today, they still live in these areas where the ephemeral river provides enough water for certain drought-adapted plants to grow, such as the !Nara. (The “!” is the English symbol for a click sound.) !Nara are melon-like fruit that have many seeds like sunflower seeds. The Topnaar women collect these !Nara and cook their insides (sort of like the stuff in a cantaloupe that you throw away) and collect the seeds for drying. The seedless stuff is converted into a sort of flour for a type of bread.

We pitched camp on a small dune above the Kuiseb River bed. Wayne built a fire and roasted potatoes and white sweet potatoes in aluminum foil and grilled marinated eland steaks for dinner. As an appetizer we had pate from kudu liver. Eland are large antelopes; kudu are smaller ones. We also had wine and beer and bread. Wayne fixed all this while we sat around in canvas chairs drinking beer.

Just before dinner, a small (1 foot or so) puff adder crawled out from under the Land Rover toward us. Puff adders are a species of venomous vipers and are responsible for more deaths in Africa than any other snake. They apparently are very willing to bite you. Wayne shooed it out of camp, while we took photos of the rascal. Wayne had been extolling the virtues of sleeping out under the stars with no tents, just sleeping bags spread on a tarp. A few drops of rain and a large amount of snake paranoia convinced us that we needed tents, so Wayne set up three of them: one for Jackson, one for Georgia and me and another for Jon and Sarah. We crawled in and ‘enjoyed’ the typical night’s sleep outdoors in a tent in a sleeping bag, only waking occasionally to wonder if a snake had crawled in or a hyena was roaming nearby. Just before sleeping, we heard the Topnaar people go by full tilt in their donkey cart down the river bed, despite the fact that it was pitch dark. The next morning while Sarah was seated on the makeshift outdoor toilet seat just behind the nearest dune, three Topnaar men appeared on the top of the largest dune close up, setting Sarah to giggling at the situation. The three headed our way, one of them doing back flips down this huge dune as the quickest way to the bottom.

They came into camp and we met them: Alfred, Rudolf, and Stephen. They were looking for their donkeys that were lost last night when a wheel on their cart broke, aborting their journey. Alfred went off to find the donkeys, Rudolf stayed to help Wayne break camp, and Stephen led Jackson, Georgia, Jon, Sarah, and me down the river bed, and taking a short cut, high over a very large dune into the valley below where two Topnaar women were processing !Nara collected nearby. They had set up camp under a tree with weaver bird nests in it and would probably stay there a month or so, accumulating a cache of !Nara seeds to sell, one of their few sources of money. We listened to Stephen talk to these two women in Damara, and we were able to hear the clicks characteristic of these Khoisan language. The Damara and Topnaar are related.

We drove back into the Walvis Bay area and then north along the road that parallels the railroad on the east side of Dune 7. Just before Swakopmund, we turned east in the Central Namib Desert to see the Welwitchsia, a two-leafed desert plant that Darwin called the “platypus of the plants”, because it is halfway between a gymnosperm and an angiosperm. Talk about sexual ambiguity! The desert is pretty much what you imagine, only more so in person. The Welwitchsia are even much older than me since they live for as long as a thousand years; however in the course of that time, nothing much really exciting goes on, as far as I could tell from looking at one.

We drove into Swakopmund for lunch, Wayne’s treat. I think the alternative was he would have to make lunch for us, and it was easier for him to buy it at his pal’s German luncheonette. We then bought some curios (we would call them souvenirs), such as carved hippos, woven baskets, and such. Swakopmund is a bit of Germany plopped down on the coast, a charming little gingerbread sort of a town, a relic of Germany’s control of the region as a colony called Southwest Africa. We then drove south along the coast back to Walvis Bay, where we had a beer in the Walvis Bay Yacht Club, and listened as Wayne played his guitar and sang his elephant song.

The next day, we took a tour out to Pelican Point where we went sea kayaking among the southern fur seals. Jackson and I had a two-seat kayak, and we were out in the ocean near the beach surrounded by hundreds of seals.

We arrive in Cape Town in about 30 minutes, ready for more adventures. Noon today 27 49 S; 15 45 E; 64 F air, 61 F water.