Namibia

Post 5
So it turns out that Namibia is Africa’s national secret. OK, not a complete secret since Brad Pitt owns a house on the beach just a few minutes from where we were docked! Walvis Bay is a small port city of about 50,000. Most of our time in Namibia was spent in Swakompmund around 30km (18 miles) north. Swakompmund was the first German city (it was a German colony) in the early 1800s. It is very interesting to go from Walvis Bay, a newer South African type city, to Swakompmund . The architecture, the food and even the language was as if the city had been lifted straight out of Germany!

On My first day in Namibia, I was on a SAS trip called the “Treasure of the Namib.” The Namib desert is claimed to be the second largest desert in the world (apparently two countries both claim to have the second largest desert). The group of 60 SASers were split up into 12 jeeps for a day in the desert. We spent a lot of our time exploring the “river” area even though no running water was present. Clearly, from the vegetation in the riverbed, water was coming from somewhere. The native plants of the Namib are known to have root systems that go as deep as 300ft. The “river” is an underground river that at center is only a meter from the surface and the further from the center the farther down the roots must go to reach water. The Namib Desert is famous for it’s 18 hole golf course that is as green as the desert is dry due to plentiful amounts of water being pumped from the river. In addition to learning about many of the desert plants and how they survive the conditions, we also spotted reptile life, a Jackal dog, and our guide caught a scorpion to allow us to have a closer look. The scenery was spectacular which ranged from massive sand dunes, to granite cliffs, and basalt rivers (previously molten rock). On the way back to the ship we stopped at Dune 7, the areas tallest dune and raced to the top. It was probably quite a sight to see 60 US students racing to the top of a dune! About half actually made it to the top and I came is 2nd (1st girl)! The best part though was coming down! Because of the steepness of the dune, all you had to do was jump away from the dune and you can cover quite a distance, but because when you landed the sand went half way to your knees, it was a very soft landing. So, discovering this, I “sprinted” down the dune much like I was walking on the moon! I couldn’t convince anyone else to try this since running down something that you climbed up on all fours doesn’t seem like a good idea, but to me it felt just like landing off of a drop fence with a horse and the sand slowed most of the downward momentum (hence the moon walking feeling). By the time I got down many people were still only about twenty feet from the top sliding down on their bums, so I went back up and did it again!

On the second day, I spent the morning around town just seeing things and interacting with the local people. In the afternoon, I had another SAS trip. We went ocean kayaking for about 5 hours and were able to get amazingly close to the marine life. The first thing we spotted was a big red jellyfish around 12-15 inches across! It was just inches from our boat. We paddled about a mile out of the lagoon and into the open waters where we surrounded by seals. Hundreds of seals lined the beach and the pups were just beginning to explore the waters edge. The mothers, however, would swim and jump all around our kayaks! After much convincing that the big jellyfish (and there were hundreds of them too) were not harmful, just painful, I spent some time swimming with the seals. It turns out the seals are naturally playful and will interact with people without any training. Best of all, I did not touch any jellyfish! We also spotted dolphins many times and as close as 50 feet from us. Overall, it was awesome experience getting up close to the sea life!

That evening, my friend Jenna and I decided we would try some of the local dining (we had been eating the “free” food on the ship so far in this country) and the only place open on Sunday night was a place called “Crazy Mammas.” We went not knowing what to expect, but it turned out to be a really neat African themed restaurant. In Namibia, everything is done at a much slower pace and dinner was no exception. It took us 3.5 hours from arrival to check, but it was well worth it. Having the place jam packed with SASers probably did not help any though either! The best part of the meal was my discovery of “monkey gland” sauce. The closest thing I could relate it to is sweet and sour sauce, but more tangy. I had it again on a chicken burger in S. Africa yesterday and I it is now a new favorite!

On the last day in Namibia, Jenna and I were, planning “quad-biking and sandboarding tour” in the Swakompmund area dunes. This turned out to be the best thing we have done on this trip so far. You come at a dune at full speed, go up it and flip a u-ey near the top and fly back down at twice the speed! I most enjoyed the rhythm section type areas that would be up to 5 miles long. It was a good way to learn how to keep the quad on the ground and go through them as fast as possible. It was much like going through a gymnastic line with a horse, but I didn’t have to worry about knocking down poles, lol! The sandboarding was also quite a kick! It is just like snowboarding, but going down sand dunes. I was just glad that I didn’t have any sand in my teeth by the end; others were not so lucky!

The last couple of hours I had in Namibia, I spent walking around Walvis Bay. I went to the grocery store for some snacks, stocked up on sunscreen, and so on. Here, everybody sells one or two types of things in their shop so I would say Walvis Bay was like one big Wal-Mart, but with a lot more walking in between! I did find a Christian book store (70% of Namibians consider themselves Christian) and picked up a book called The Shack as well as a CD and I finally found a day planner. It was really nice to be in a place were one of the major languages is English. My day planner is in Afrikaans, however, but it’s pretty neat. I only wish I could read the quotes in it; many are written by John Maxwell, but the only part I can read is his name!