Camping safari through Namibia

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Camping safari through Namibia

Special to The StarPhoenix


Saturday, December 06, 2008


By Jenni Mortin

for The StarPhoenix

SWAKOPMUND, Namibia -- I have a passion for deserts, and so here I am, flying over a desert of giant orangey sand dunes, dry riverbeds that will fill temporarily when the rains come, struggling vegetation and all-enveloping heat.

This is the Namib, Africa's second-largest desert, part of Namibia's Namib-Naukluft National Park. It stretches for 1,600 kilometres along the country's Atlantic Ocean coast and covers about 81,000 square kilometres. It gets less than 10 millimetres of rain each year, which makes it as dry as the Sahara, but its flora and fauna are rich.

We are flying in mid-afternoon, so dark shadows set off the sinuous curves of the dunes, which can reach up 300 metres -- among the highest in the world. At times, they fill the entire horizon. I see hills, valleys, even the odd manmade feature such as an abandoned mine, and, occasionally, distant mountains. Somewhere to the west, the Atlantic stirs, and waits.

There, we will see wrecked ships, including the German passenger ship Eduard Bohlen, which smashed on the shore in 1909 and is now 200 metres inland, apparently sailing through the sand. We will fly over half-buried buildings and equipment that speak of other dead dreams.

But right now the sand is overwhelming. In one place, I see a large white area -- it looks like ice! It's Sossusvlei, our pilot says, a dry valley where once a river flowed to the ocean until the dunes built up by battling east and west winds blocked its path. Nearby is Deadvlei, where stark, long-dead trees tell the same tale.

These two cut-off valleys surrounded by dunes are the focal point of Wings Over Africa's popular Sossusvlei Scenic flights, two and a half hours of amazing vistas of the desert that cover nearly 10 per cent of this old, but young, country.

In two days, the five of us on this small plane will walk across Sossusvlei and Deadvlei and climb among the dunes we are seeing now from the air. We will be as minuscule among their towering peaks as the shadow of our plane on Namibia's enormous sea of sand.

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The desert flight was a high point of the two-week camping safari through Namibia, run by Karibu Safaris, that I shared with my friend Peggy Cumming and 11 other people in October. But there are many different ways to experience the great dunes, and while I was flying, Peggy was quad-biking up and down them in an adventure she found equally thrilling -- and much more work.

And these were just two of the optional activities available (at our own expense) when the safari took us to Swakopmund, Namibia's popular seaside resort city.

It began, however, in Windhoek, capital of this nation of about 1.8 million. It was known as German South-West Africa until the First World War, when it was invaded by South Africa, which then administered it under a League of Nations mandate as South West Africa. The struggle for independence led by the South West Africa People's Organization succeeded in 1990, and Namibia was born.

Now, it is a multi-party democracy with a SWAPO government and many peoples, enormous unemployment, considerable mining wealth -- it's the fifth largest world producer of uranium and has diamonds, lead, zinc, tin, silver and tungsten resources -- GDP of about $10 billion in 2007 ($5,249 per capita) and mainly subsistence agriculture. The AIDS statistics are devastating.

Namibia also has one of Africa's great game reserves, Etosha National Park, which was a big reason for our trip. Its 22,700 square kilometres are home to thousands of birds and animals. Etosha means "place of dry water" or, other sources say, "huge white area," and both apply. The park's heart is a 5,000-square-kilometre dry depression known as the Etosha pan.

Etosha's Okaukuejo resort and campsite was the first stop on our safari. Don't be misled by the word campsite. Okaukuejo has scores of attractive rondavels as well as camping spots, a store with groceries, liquor and quality souvenirs, a swimming pool (oh, bliss) and -- most important of all -- a large waterhole lit brightly every night. A wall lined with benches separates camera-laden visitors from the waterhole, which attracts antelope, giraffe, lions, jackals, elephants and many other kinds of animals.

We, and many others, spent hours at Okaukuejo's waterhole watching the animals come and go. We witnessed the care with which a lioness guarded her three playful cubs, the tenderness the elephants showed to one another, the awkward way the giraffes spread their legs to drink and the jackals' sneakiness.

In the early morning and late afternoon, however, we went on long game drives that took us to many waterholes thronged with game. We saw innumerable impala, zebra and wildebeest, sometimes with a few beautiful oryx mixed in, their wonderful tall horns making them stand out. One time, I counted 31 elephants of all sizes crossing the road in front of us and parading off through the bush. Another day we saw a lion and two lionesses idling an afternoon away under a tree, either sated or planning a hunt.

The Etosha pan was almost surreal, a flat, white plain that stretched as far as the eye could see in several directions. While it appeared to be bone dry, our guide, Immanuel Sheehama, told us that water could be found two metres down and the pan would become a sea when the rains come in December.

Namibia is a big country and we travelled across 4,000 kilometres of it. Our longest leg took us north to Epupa Falls on the Kunene River, which forms the boundary with Angola. Those were long days of driving through bush and grass with little of interest to see. We did visit a giant, hollow baobab tree and sat inside while we heard how the women and children of the nearby tribe were lowered from the top and sheltered there during a tribal war. Later, Germans carved out a ground-level door and made it into an army base, a chapel, a meeting room, even a post office. Now, it is a minor tourist attraction.

We camped for two serene days above the falls on the Kunene, one of just five perennial rivers in Namibia. Alas, the crocodiles ensured that no one put even a toe into the water, despite temperatures ranging up to 40 C. The government has proposed to build two dams and power plants on the river, an idea resisted by the local Himba chief. The reservoirs would drown traditional lands of the small tribe of 5,000 to 6,000 people, and the graves of their ancestors.

We visited a tiny Himba village and saw there the great gulf between that traditional, almost Stone Age, people and other Namibians who have embraced the 21st century. The Himba live in mud huts and raise goats and cattle. The bare-breasted women rub ochre into their skin, as a body cream, and so are noticeably red. They wear tiny skirts of hide and wide anklets of metal mesh.

We noticed, however, that young men of the village wore T-shirts (one featured David Beckham!) and used cellphones. Although our Himba guide, Jason, went away to school and learned English, he plans to marry in the traditional way. As the rest of Namibia moves as quickly as possible toward modernity and prosperity, what will be the future for a small tribe like the Himba? Or the San, called Bushmen?

Although some safaris offer an opportunity to meet San people, this one did not. Our only contact with these ancient people was through their amazing rock engravings in the Twyfelfontein area of Damaraland. A local guide explained the natural and spiritual significance of the animals carved by the San, and we could only marvel at the artistry.

Namibia is a big country of big contrasts. We travelled on some really good roads, even pretty good gravel roads, and also over the worst pass I've ever seen, the (infamous) Streethoogte Pass. It was narrow -- luckily we met no one -- and steep, so much so that bricks had been laid in the steepest places to improve the tires' grip; going backwards not being an option. Immanuel, an excellent driver, had to keep shifting down to first gear. We were all terrified.

Peggy and I have a lot of good things to say about Karibu Safaris, which organized this Essence of Namibia 14-day standard mobile safari -- but sending us over that road is not one of them.

On the bright side, we had good, friendly, competent guides in Immanuel and Manuel, and Moses was a terrific cook. The tents were fine, the cots with thin mattresses and sleeping bags amazingly comfortable, and dawn and sunset almost always special. Every campsite had showers, flush toilets and all but one a pool, plus bar, restaurant and stores.

While some of the "tourist sites" we visited had very little to offer, Namibia is beautiful, its people welcoming and its animal life and its desert stupendous. Together, they provide a trip to remember -- even if, like me, you haven't camped in 40 years!

Jenni Mortin is a Saskatoon freelance writer.

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More online at:

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GETTING THERE:

We flew South African Airways from New York to Johannesburg via Dakar, Senegal, and relished its service: good meals and wine, big socks for swollen feet, eyeshades to facilitate sleeping, toothbrush and toothpaste, www.flysaa.com.

Our trip with Karibu Safaris was organized through Wild Journeys of Toronto and Nelspruit, South Africa, which also handled all our flights,

www.wild-journeys.com. The trip could be arranged directly through Karibu Safaris, www.karibu.co.za. Both companies offer a variety of safaris and tours.

Wings Over Africa has a variety of flights,

www.flyinafrica.com.