Hello party people. I just returned from an incredible road trip to Namibia, not to mention it has been eons since my last post, so I decided it was the perfect time to throw down a little blogsky. Early last Saturday morning a few of us got up early to go retrieve our rental van at the airport. We got a ride to the rental place, and managed to drive the van through the rough streets of Cape Town back to our house. From there we loaded up and hit the road to Namibia, unaware of what we were getting ourselves into…
We had a 13 person van and an eight person tent for the ten road trippers, so on average we had plenty of room. There were six girls and four guys, and the men had to, nay, got to do all of the driving. We drove about eight hours the first day and slept in the town of Springbok, still within the South African border. On Sunday we woke early and crossed the border into Namibia, but not without some questioning from skeptical border guards.
Our next stop was Fish River Canyon, and we arrived there in the early afternoon. We set up camp swam in the swimming pool, and then hiked out to the canyon, which is the second largest in the world (after the Grand one of course). There were amazing views into the canyon, and we watched the sunset from the rim.
(Our trusty Toyota Quantum, at the Fish River Canyon...)
The next morning we woke up to baboons raiding our campsite, ripping open bags of oats and throwing them everywhere, before dashing off into the bush. We also woke to discover a slow leak in one of our tires, which was looking pretty flat. A nice South African helped us change the tire and we were on our way, only slightly slowed down by our morning’s problems. By lunchtime Monday we were in Keetmanshoop, a small town in the boonies of Namibia (but then again, everywhere in Namibia is the boonies…) The surrounding area held the famous quiver tree forests as well as a boulder park known as the Giant’s Playground. The quiver tree forest was unlike anything I had ever seen, with tons of strange, unnatural trees sprouting from the desert-like terrain.
Our van did get stuck in the sand at the quiver tree forest, but again, a nice South African helped us out, pulling our van out of the sand with his 4x4 truck.
The Giant’s Playground was even more incredible; the endless field of boulders stacked upon each other was awe-inspiring, and seemed as though it had to have been made by giants.
The campsite that night was teeming with gigantic slow-moving bugs of some sort (we thought they were some sort of locust or cicada, except they weren’t flying, so maybe it was an early stage in development, or maybe they were just beetles or something) which weren’t really bothersome, except for occasionally when one of the boys would throw one in the tent.
The owner of the campgrounds also had a sweet dog named Terry, who became friends with us, or at least pretended until we gave her some food.
On Tuesday we had a long day of driving before hitting the dunes of Sossusvlei in the late afternoon. The Sossusvlei was definitely my favorite stop on the trip, due to the National Geographic-like views and due to the fact that rolling around in mountains of sand is a ton of fun.
(From the left: Me, Will, and Elliot, all Macalester students, at the Sossusvlei)
We watched the sunset from the dunes that night, camped out nearby, and then watched the sunrise from the dunes the next morning. It was a foggy morning, so we didn’t literally see the sun rise over the horizon, but it wasn’t a big deal; the sun burning through the fog was just as breath taking.
(Me after playing in the sand all morning)
Also, in one of the outhouses near the dunes, I saw this bloody scene of a beetle eating a dead lizard… pretty creepy…
After the dunes we drove the ocean town of Swakopmund, on the west coast of Nam (the nickname Namibians have given their country), for a couple nights of relaxation in a hostel there. We arrived Wednesday night pretty tired, so we got some seafood pizza at a local pizzeria and then went to bed early. The next day we went antiquing some (it was a tourist town, so it had plenty of antique shops) as well as laid on the beach and hung out in our hostel (where there were other international students, a pool, a lawn for soccer and a pool table…) A couple of us (the brave ones) also went to the local snake park, which was extreme. We saw a bunch of huge, extremely venomous snakes, including an 8 or 9 foot black mamba, a bright green boomslang, a few cobras, a puff adder or two, and some zebra snakes. I had never seen such deadly animals before, so I thought they were pretty cool.
After our second night in Swakopmund, we started the trek home, driving all day Friday and Saturday, making it back to Cape Town on Saturday night, around 8. On Friday night we stayed at the same campsite in Keetmanshoop we had stayed at days before, and saw our friend Terry the dog again, as well as the army of huge bugs.
Speaking of which, over the course of the trip we saw a lot of wildlife, although it was mostly arid or desert environment. We saw baboons, ostriches, zebra, springbok, oryx, elands, lizards, as well as a whole host of huge bugs.
(Oryx at the Sossusvlei)
Also, the trip went pretty much according to plan, with very few hiccups along the way that couldn’t be fixed pretty easily. And probably most importantly, everyone on the trip got along famously; the long periods of driving were actually a lot of fun in the crowded van with ten people, there were very few arguments or altercations, and spirits were very high the whole trip; we were sad to be returning to South Africa from the great country known as Nam.
(All the girls on the trip, at a stop near the Fish River Canyon)
Getting away from life in the city and getting out to the sparsely populated, desolate wasteland that is Namibia was great, and I realize I need those types of breaks in my life. Nam was definitely the farthest from legitimate civilization I have ever been in my life (it is the second least dense country in the world, after Mongolia), and I can’t wait to go back. Nate, over and out from Cape Town.
