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| Fish River Canyon |
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| Quiver tree forest |
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| Giant's Playground |
Many people come to Southern Namibia to hike the famous Fish River Canyon. The 5-day backpack hike is reputed to be quite rigorous. At Ai-Ais we hiked up into the canyon and came across several hikers on the last leg of their trip (the hike runs from Hobas, in the north, to Ai-Ais in the south). To be honest, none of them looked particularly happy. Driving along looking at view points up near Hobas we actually ended up rescuing two hikers who had just ascended one of the two "emergency exit" routes available on the trail. Off in the distance we see, what initially looked like ostriches, coming over the edge of the canyon. Once the woman started flailing her walking sticks we realized they were humans in need of help. It seems the older gentlemen (75 years old retired judge on his 14th hike down the canyon) had torn a calf muscle and his late-50s heart surgeon "girl" friend felt it was best for them to exit while they could. We ended taking them down to Ai-Ais with us and celebrating their good timing with cold beers and plates of "chips" (French fries) for lunch and an eland steak for dinner. Delicious!
In
addition to remarkable landscapes we see plenty of desert adapted creatures
like gemsbok, springbok, dassies (or rock hyrax whose closest relatives are
elephants!?), a few mountain zebra and some cheeky baboons harassing campers at
both Naukluft and Ai-Ais campsites.
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| Springbok in the Transfrontier Park |
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| Dassie at Ai Ais, Fish River Canyon | | |
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| Ai Ais campsite |
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| Baboon with find, Ai Ais campground |
In
addition to “The Fabulous Mr. Fox” encounter (which sadly we got no pictures of
because it was dark), we did see some meerkats when we stayed at Torgos Lodge
which we would highly recommend for anyone who arrives at the Mata Mata gate of
the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park only to find the border closed due to the one
hour time difference in Namibia during the winter – we arrived at 4 but it had
closed at 3:30). We also were entertained by a yellow mongoose as we ate lunch
in the park which we transited through on our way back to Botswana (on very corrugated roads that I thought
might cause my teeth to rattle out!). He did cause me to leap off the picnic bench when he jumped about lap high to try to get to some of the chicken in the curry rice salad I was eating!
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| Torgos Safari Lodge |
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| Yellow mongoose friend at lunch, Transfrontier park |
As always, the African bird life was stunning. We saw love birds invading a socialable weavers' nest, flamingos trying to keep their footing in a very windy surf near Luderitz and we were serenaded by a pale winged starling seated on the spare tire of our vehicle at Ai Ais. Finally, we might be the only campers that travel with bird seed but it sure helps Paul make friends as we go.
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| love birds invading a sociable weavers' nest |
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| Pale winged starling |
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| Paul, the birdman with a flock of weavers (yes, on the table) |
One
of the most curious sites we visit on the trip is a proper German castle in the
middle of Namibia called Duwiseb Castle. Smack in the middle of nowhere
(literally) lies a German castle made with American money. While Baron von Wolf is often historically
documented as the owner of the castle, digging a bit deeper reveals that it’s
actually the inherited money of his wife Jayta, originally from New Jersey,
which has funded this bizarre project. We spent several hours on dusty roads hypothesizing
what those conversations between Jayta and her husband might have been
like…”You want to build a castle where??”
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| frozen faucet at Duwiseb |
While
we actually had the opportunity to stay a night in the castle, we opted for our
tent because the temperature in the castle seemed much colder than outside. We
weren’t disappointed with that decision when we woke up the next morning to
find the leaky water tap at our campsite had actually frozen into an icicle!
I’m not sure building a castle in a place colder than cold in the winter and
hotter than hot in the summer was a wise decision. It may explain why Jayta never
returned to claim the castle after her husband died in WWI (in just under two
weeks of service). All that remains are wild horses in the area that are rumored to have been introduced to the area by von Wolf's thoroughbred horse breeding activities.
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| Duwiseb Castle |
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| Wild Horses |
In
Luderitz we had hoped to stay in a lighthouse on Shark Island after reading
reviews suggesting that it was difficult to pitch a tent in the campground on the island due to
high winds but were unable to arrange that (while we were told
others had booked it for the two nights we were there, we never actually saw
anyone there – sad!). Camping ended up being fine and we both agreed that the
sunsets over the ocean (while a little chilly) were some of the most stunning of
the trip. We had two beautiful sunsets on one side of the island and a full
moon rise on the opposite side.
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| Sunset at Shark Island |
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| Moon rise at Shark Island |
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We
ventured to Luderitz, the second largest port in Namibia next to Walvis Bay,
only to find a rather sleepy town at the end of a very long and dusty road.
Kolmanskop – an abandoned diamond mine town now turned into a tourist
attraction – was definitely worth the trip providing a fascinating history of
the opulence of the early settlers. We learned that not only did they build
grandiose homes for their owners of the mine and an extensive hospital for the
mining community (which was totally creepy and reminded me of something out The Shining) but they actually shipped in coal to fire their power plant from
Germany. Amazing!
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| Kolmanskop, Ghost mining town |
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So despite the cold nights, windy days, and baboon raiders, it was definitely worth the dusty and sometimes corrugated roads to sojourn to Southern Namibia. We traveled over 3,500 km (2,175 miles) in two weeks and saw some amazing sites, had some magical animal encounters, and even rescued some injured hikers. It was even worth getting up before sunrise one morning in the transfrontier park to see a pride of lions perched at the top of a sand dune. Anything is possible on any given day in Africa (even me getting up before sunrise!).
