Overlanding in Namibia Part III
Originally our ACACIA bus was due to depart from Swakopmund in the early morning so that we could reach our next night's campsite just outside the Namib-Naukluft National Park in the early afternoon. However, our seemingly invincible (and yet sadly not) bus driver Patrick had been diagnosed with cerebral malaria while in Swakopmund and was too ill to continue on as our driver. Therefore, ACACIA had lickedy split found us a replacement driver and flew him out from Jo'burg to meet us at the nearest international airport on our route, that being in Walvis Bay. Our new driver, TJ, a colossal ginger-haired South African fellow sporting dreadlocks who had apparently dropped close to 25 kilos on the Atkins Diet, once through customs, hopped behind the wheel of our truck as if Patrick had simply been keeping his seat warm and......OFF WE SPED!
We arrived at our campsite, which was in the southern end of the Namib Desert, at just before sunset and quickly unpacked, set up our tents and prepared dinner. Everyone turned in early that night (Yes! Even the boozers!) for we planned to wake up before the roosters in order to catch the sunrise from on top of Dune 45 (170m) in Namib-Naukluft National Park. We did in fact manage to be among the very first to reach the dune, putting us in prime position at the tip top for the dazzling dawn. A magical moment captured on camera to be sure and did I mention that I climbed the dune wearing only socks? No, wait! That came out wrong!! I mean I removed my shoes but refrained from removing any other items of clothing, hee hee.
After the sunrise, we drove further into the park in order to hitch a ride on one of the 4x4 vehicles which transports tourists(100 Namibian dollars) to Sossvuslei, a watery mud flat at the mouth of the Tsauchab River, and Dead Vlei, which is an eerie place full of petrified wood stumps and reminded me of a place elephants might go to die. On the bright side, however, it was the filming location for a scene in "The Cell", a terrible tecchie thriller starring the most beautiful woman in the world, Jennifer Lopez (People Magazine, 2011).
To be honest, I have no idea where we camped the following night for it was pretty much a pit stop on our way to our next major destination, but I would like to mention that the person responsible for decorating the female toilet facilities there had it going on y'all! They had oh-so-cleverly decorated the entranceway with various empty perfume bottles affixed to the wall. I wish, in retrospect, that I had bothered to take a photo. Oh well...memories will have to suffice.
Our next night overlanding brought us to the very edge...of...an abyss...
The Fish River Canyon!!
I do like a bit of drama in my blog entries and hope you can forgive these over-the-top tendencies. Anyhoo...the Fish River Canyon (160km long, 27km wide and 550m deep) happens to be the second largest canyon in the world (the largest being an obscure canyon located somewhere in Arizona or so I'm told), and we were lucky enough to arrive at its edge in the golden light of late afternoon and stayed long enough to see the sun set over its rim. Ooh, so purty. Having now visited Africa's largest canyon, that lesser-known one outside Flagstaff, as well as the world's deepest canyon, Colca Canyon in Peru, it appears as if I could legitimately hail myself the Canyon Queen, eh? Now bow down and pay your respects yee inferior subjects else I slap you silly with some sappy Celine Dion song lyrics!!
Leaving Fish River had me all sniffly for it was my last night camped under the Namibian stars before crossing the border into South Africa. Thankfully, none of the boozers on board had a criminal record for public intoxication so we were all allowed to peacefully proceed over the border to our campsite along the banks of the Orange River, South Africa's longest river (2200km). It was most definitely a lovely place to camp, but there really wasn't much to do other than take a cool, refreshing dip in the river or...DRINK! Not that I did much of either actually, but certain...they shall remain nameless....others...DID. Drinking games, in fact, was their #1 pursuit for the remainder of the day until the group (most likely to join AA by age 40) was politely asked to remove themselves from the bar so that other campers could also have the chance to douse their palates with alcohol.
From Orange River we forged onwards to our final campsite in the Cederburg region of the Northern Cape. The weather that day had taken a noticeably dreary downturn so a handful of the group decided to spend that last night laid out in their sleeping bags on the bus rather than in a damp and depressing tent. And you know what? Can't blame them! Thankfully, there were times when the rains paused and the sun briefly peeked out from behind the clouds as if to shyly say, "Hi!" Before dinner, the campsite offered its guests a wine tasting for the extremely affordable price of 60 Rand (less than $10!) and most of us partook, hic. But once again, I really didn't learn much about South Africa's wine industry other than to reconfirm the fact that its wines are quite tasty. I broke down and decided to split a bottle of Shiraz with our tour leader, Kelly, seeing that it was our last night together.
And so the final morning inevitably came and it was time to "pack up all our toys and go home". It was once again raining throughout much of the drive to Cape Town and the drizzle continued off and on during our Langa Township Tour. This tour was highly interesting but even more heartbreaking than the one I had done in Swakopmund for we visited the homes of families even worse off. We entered semi-detached homes where 3-4 different families shared one common room (basically a kitchen/dining area) and toilet, but then ALL family members had to sleep in one unbelievably small room not much larger than a walk-in closet. And believe it or not, this wasn't even the worst home we were shown on the tour. The absolutely poorest area of the Langa Township consisted of a bunch of ramshackle shacks with sagging roofs, dirt floors and, naturally, no running water or indoor toilets. Instead, the Cape Town government had "generously" set up a row of portable toilets along a wire fence which separates this part of the township with the more affluent area commonly referred to as the "Beverly Hills" of Langa. I was ever so glad that I had the opportunity to see how the other half lives in Cape Town. Although this tour failed to bump Cape Town from my "Top 5 Cities of the World", at least now I see it -Warts and all!!
So there you have it! Windhoek to Cape Town in a single
Boo yah!
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