South America and South Africa

Driving through the Namib Desert was one of the most rewarding experiences of my trip to the South of Africa so far. The openness of the country with its slowly changing scenery was truly amazing. Flat dry yellow grassland that is colliding with a pale blue sky to red sanddunes and a contrasting deep blue sky where the low evening sun models sharp edges on the dunes to hilly or even mountainous areas where crossing a pass opens up new and very different views to deep canyons that are only visible when one is right in front of it. It strongly reminded me of driving through the Southwest of the United States, a trip which I still treasure as one of the greatest trips I ever made.

For hours we didn’t see any other car and when one was approaching it was already visible miles away due to its dust trail on the dirt roads. The drivers were greeting each other as in case of an emergency or breakdown this could be the only help available until the next day. We helped one dutch couple to change the flat tire of their car and received help from two south-african guys who were fixing our flat (then spare-)tire we encountered the next day preventing a detour of approx. 50 miles. While we were driving I was thinking how the road alignment is planned and designed given that there are no curves for 40 miles or so. I guess in the Department of Transport and Infrastructure they bend over their maps drawing a straight line with a ruler.

After Zambia we went to the Etosha Nationalpark in the North of Namibia crossing the Caprivi Strip even further North and squeezed between Botswana in the South, Zamiba in the East and Northeast and Angola in the North. It is bordered by the Okavango, Chobe, Kwando and Zambezi River contrary to the rest of Namibia fertile and lush. The scenery was very much alike to Zambia and also the villages were made of little round thatch covered huts like in Zambia and Botswana.

Regarding the Etosha NP I reckon that we were clearly there at the wrong time of the year. The rainy season had already started so that the game does not use the waterholes close to the camps but stays deeper in the park with its more than 20,000 sqkm. The Etosha Park is dominated by a salt pan desert which is about 130 km long and as wide as 50 km in some places. Other than anything I have read before we could not see huge herds of game populating the park. Given what we had seen just a few days ago in Chobe NP I was somewhat disappointed from seeing “just” bigger groups of zebras and ostriches. My personal highlights were the two chameleons crossing the road in front of our car. It was amazing to see how slowly they moved needing for one step of one leg maybe 30 seconds.

After Etosha NP we went to Swakopmund, which is a city with about 40,000 inhabitants located at the coast approximately 170 miles west of the Namibian capital Windhoek. It was founded by the Germans at the end of the 19th century and its colonial heritage is still visible in its architecture, the restaurants, bakeries and “Konditoreien” and also audible as a bigger part of the population still speaks German and this with only a slight accent if any at all. For me it was awkward speaking German to the locals albeit being more than 7,000 miles away from home. And since I am now away for more than four months it was really great to eat some real German food (Marinierte Heringe mit Pellkartoffeln – Pickled herring with oven-potatoe for those who are interested). Swakopmund is located between the Atlantic Ocean and the Namib Desert and could potentially have wonderful beaches. As the cold Benguela Current coming from the Antarctis flows by swimming without a wetsuit is more or less impossible as the water rarely gets warmer than 15 degrees centigrade which is a shame given the perfectly fine sand they have here.

The last days it has been more difficult to access the internet so that I could not update my blog as soon as I would  have wished. Anyway, now I am back and actually already in Cape Town after crossing the amazing Namibia.

We continued our trip from Livingstone, Zambia and encountered our first flat tire still in Zambia when we oversaw a huge pothole in the otherwise (quite) good roads. The rim was completely crooked and I was absolutely convinced that there is no other way than buying a new wheel after we have replaced it with the spare wheel. When we finally found a garage looking reliable enough we were more than surprised when the guy said that it can be easily repaired. The crooked rim was hammered until the tire was airtight again. And my eyes got even bigger when the guy charged 20 Namibian dollars which are the equivalent of about 2 (!) USD.

The other two incidents were attributable to Namibia’s dirt roads, which are in general in a good condition and are maintained regularly. However, we experienced a little adventure when we had to change the wheel in the Etosha Nationalpark with lions and leopards watching us (ok, at least potentially watching us). Claire and I decided that one of us is changing the tire while the other one keeps a watch so that we wouldn’t have unexpected visitors. Another car stopped and the driver explained to us that it is dangerous to exit the car and that we should have called the park rangers. However, he and his wife disembarked their car as well to help us keep a look out. Claire and I were happy when we were finally safely back in our car. Later in the camp we could see how “normal” punctures are repaired: with a pricker the little hole is widened to create space for a sticky strip of rubber that get stuffed into the hole. Thereafter both ends are cut off to have no loose ends flapping around in the wind. Simple but efficient.

Ommmmmmm