Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Conclusion to a Family's Field Trip

Monday morning, we packed up our suitcases for the very last time. This was a little less stressful vs. our prior dozen packups, as we didn’t need to try and keep clean and dirty organized, nor did we need to try and keep everyone’s individual clothes grouped together. The suitcases would not be opened again until we reached Nashville.


Ahead of us, we had a 36 hour journey consisting of 4 flights, 26 hours of air time, and 10 hours of airport time. We were flying from:

     • Windhoek, Namibia to Johannesburg, South Africa
     • Johannesburg, South Africa to Dubai, UAE
     • Dubai, UAE, to New York-JFK
     • New York-JFK to Nashville, TN

Fortunately, the two longest legs of this journey were on Emirates Airlines. They are a relatively young airline, but from what I know have developed a fairly good reputation. Leaving Namibia, we decided to shrinkwrap our bags, as in my planning I had read that Johannesburg has had a bit of a problem with rummaging through luggage. Really there was nothing of value in any of our checked bags, and the joke would be on the unlikely thief who would find nothing more than some really dirty clothing, but nonetheless, to provide a little piece of mind it seemed worthwhile.

When we checked in with the airline, we were ecstatic to hear that they could put our luggage all the way through to BNA (Nashville). As my understanding was that our return trip was made up of a compilation of 2 or 3 separate “tickets”, I had figured this would not be possible. However, there was a problem with Air Namibia’s computer in Windhoek, and she had to manually check everything in, as well as print two ribbons, each with two destinations on them for each bag. The process took about a half hour, so hopefully all 6 bags will actually show up when we get there….fingers crossed.

Our series of long flights gave me some time to think about the trip. Logistically, I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Only one cancelled flight, which ended up ultimately helping us. All of our lodging, transportation connections, and even the few “leaps of faith” that I knew existed in the itinerary worked themselves out flawlessly. In terms of planning, the only thing that will gnaw at me, is that I really shortchanged Mauritius. Three days, following a red eye flight was not near enough. There are a lot of touristy things to do, and there are beautiful beaches that alone are worth several days just to relax on. We struggled a bit there with clear direction of what to do, as we wanted to do a bit of both, and not having the time rushed it. I think everyone left with a luke-warm perception of the place, and our lodging, and that is unfortunate, as I think 2 more days on the itinerary could have fixed that.

In terms of health and safety, it will always eat at me that Alexandra missed the Taj Mahal. One of the most beautiful architectural masterpieces in the world, and she made it to within a mile of it, and didn’t get to see it up close. She still says this doesn’t bother her, but I think at some point in her life, it may be a disappointment. With her experience for those first 3 days of India, I doubt it would ever be something that she would ever go out of her way to reattempt. As Natalie and I had discussed and prepared for the trip, I had said with some certainty, “Someone will get sick, we should expect it.” As long as we were prepared to deal with it we were fine. My sincere hope was that Angkor Wat, and the Taj Mahal would be the two things un-impacted by it. I had built flexibility into the plans to allow for some cushion, but with the timing of her ailment, it didn’t matter. All in all, as a percentage of the trip, it was only 3 days that she was really out of commission which is a small component, and the rest of us remained in fairly good health, with the exception of a few acute digestive issues, and Kalyssa and I catching an annoying cold.

Most importantly however, were the educational and cultural benefits of the trip. These will be hard to gauge immediately. At Alexandra’s point in her life, she will not come out and talk about how much this has impacted her in this way. Kalyssa also unfortunately, will often mimic her older sister’s attitudes towards things. In a one on one conversation she’ll open up a little bit more, but will still put up the wall that she’s getting trained on from her sister. This is something I hadn’t personally prepared for. I, of course, had a bit more of a romantic expectation, of the trip, of open emotional discussions flowing from our experiences and learnings from the trip. I think deep down I knew they wouldn’t be likely, but still had the ideas in mind. Instead, as we return back home, and transition our experiences to memories, I’m left with the directional evidence of conversations that will occur over the coming weeks, months, and years.

Clearly, Kalyssa had interactions in both Cambodia, and India, that has given her the opportunity to build the connection with cultures and lands far away. Even in Mauritius, she did spend a little bit of time with Athena, the daughter of the guesthouse owners who is only 2 years older than her. Those interactions made me wish that I could have arranged and expanded the experiences in other countries. Namibia for example, would be a perfect place to allow for that, with a culture of hospitality, and a lot of English speaking people. It’s not quite the level of extroverted friendliness that you experience in Cambodia, and Oman on my prior trip, but it is still a more reserved friendliness, where a homestay experience could have been really awesome. Even in India, I wish we could have incorporated a broader cross section of interactions, as Minnie and Spiky where her only 2 relationships at her level she was able to develop. Nonetheless, I think the outcome for Kalyssa was tremendously beneficial, and will shape her perspective going forwards.

Allie is the tougher one. On the walk that I took with Suheil around the mountain at Desert Camp, we talked about travel and opening our kids up to understanding of other cultures. He said he took his daughter on her first international trip when she was seven, to Pakistan, just the two of them. That would certainly be quite the trip, and quite the change of scenery for a seven year old growing up in the UK. This would be something Natalie never would have allowed me to do, (though Suheil also said that in today’s Pakistan, he would not feel comfortable doing that.) Prior to the trip, I had thought that Allie was at the upper limit of this opportunity being most beneficial with us. I now wonder if we’d already past that point. Being a typical emotionally guarded teenager, it’s hard to tell. The only insight from the last 4 weeks that made me think that perhaps it had achieved its goal was the dinner conversation with Margaret in Swakopmund, Namibia, when Allie began to talk about the Khmer Rouge and how said it was that everyone there seemed to have a story about it. I could certainly sense the empathy in her voice. There’s no shortage of tragedy these days. Over the last few decades Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda went through terrible episodes of genocide. Today you have Darfur, Syria, and Somalia where there are millions of people suffering at the hands of our fellow humans. Awareness can’t solve the problem, but ignorance can certainly help perpetuate it.

Similar to the blankets that we worked on in Windhoek with a simple bible message on it, this trip was simply to sow seeds that may sprout into something throughout the rest of their life. Perhaps they’ll join the Peace Corps. Perhaps they’ll become missionaries. Perhaps they’ll simply carry on a more traditional life and never travel outside the US again, but at least will do so with a greater connection to their fellow man on other parts of the globe. Perhaps, I’m still being a hopeless romantic, and it wasn’t anything more than a very long vacation stuck in close quarters with their annoying parents. The ultimate answer is outside the scope of this blog, and may never become apparent to me. None the less, I have no regrets, and I will certainly always relish the memories, which I’ve been able to memorialize and share in this blog, and I appreciate any of you who have travelled along with us by reading it.

As for Natalie and myself, I think this trip was a tremendous opportunity for us to put aside the stresses in daily life that get in the way of just enjoying each other’s company. I think I speak for both of us, that as much as we enjoyed sharing this trip with our children, now that they are getting a bit older, the two of us look forward to the next such adventure will likely be just the two of us. Though she has already reserved the right to make all the decisions on what countries that trip will include.

Ryan Ziemann
June 18, 2012
Flying somewhere over Northeastern Africa

Monday, June 18, 2012

Sewing the Word

Sunrise Over Desert Camp
Sunday morning, our final day of our safari, we woke up to weather that seemed to be even colder than the day before. What was worse, the sky was overcast, which would mean it would take even longer for the day to warm up. We had a 6:00am call for breakfast, and plans to depart camp no later than 7:00am. We went through our routine of cleaning up all of our luggage, and headed for the outdoor communal dining area. Monet had asked each of us to leave our bags at the foot of the drive for our cabins, and we’d put them in the truck as we drove past on our way out, and we did so with our large pile. Natalie, unable to shake the cold, decided to wrap herself in the thick comforter from her bed, and waddled the eighth of a mile to the dining area with it.


After cleaning up breakfast, Monet went to the truck to start it. “Ka-chump, kaaa-chuuump, click.” He gave it another try, “Kaaaaaaaa-chump. Click” That’s not good. Additional attempts provided less and less in return for turning the ignition. The truck was dead. Meanwhile, we all stood around in the high 30/low 40 degree air waiting.

Monet, always cool and collected, said “That is no problem, we will call a truck from the other lodge to come give us a tow.” He made the call, and about 15 minutes later, another safari truck came. They attached some tow ropes to the front of the safari truck, pulled it out into the road, and after two tries, of pulling the van, and popping the clutch, the engine roared to life. Monet carefully tried to keep the engine revving and drove the truck around in circles for a few minutes to get the engine warm enough, and the battery charged enough to keep it alive.

This morning, we had only one brief activity planned before driving back to Windhoek, and that was cheetah watching in the town of Solitaire. This was about a one hour drive from our camp, and we arrived around 9:00. As we pulled up to the Solitaire Guest Farm, we saw an open air safari jeep sitting there, and we all hoped allowed to each other that we would not be riding in that, as it hadn’t seemed to have warmed up at all since we had awoken, and the skies were still very cloudy. The office had one bathroom, which we all took our time using, and I sensed that everyone was stalling every minute they could standing inside the building instead of out in the cold---and delaying the torture of having to get in an open air vehicle on this cold day. Eventually Monet prodded us along and said that we needed to get moving. We climbed into the jeep with our guide from the guest farm ( a woman in her late 30s from Pittsburgh), and noticed Monet was remaining behind to stay in the warmth. We pointed out that we didn’t think that was quite fair.

As we began driving, it was just as cold as we had feared with the added wind chill caused by the movement. Fortunately, the skies did look as if the clouds were beginning to break up from the warmth of the sun. In fact, we even drove past a couple brief sections of sun, and completely relished the fleeting moments of relative warmth. We drove for several kilometers, up to a fence, where our guide got out, opened the fence, drove us in and closed it behind her. She explained that this was where they kept the cheetahs. Only 4 of them, as they couldn’t be kept in too dense of a population. She then pulled out what looked like a roof antennae for a TV connected to a small radio, and begain pointing it in various directions listening carefully. The Cheetahs had collars on them that enabled tracking them, and finding them relatively quickly for viewing.

Unfortunately, at the first attempt, she was not picking up any signals. We then drove to the other side of the fenced in area (which I believe was a few square kilometers) and tried from there as well. Here she heard a few faint sounds. One of the 4 cheetahs was very young, and she said from the direction the signals were coming from, that she was likely out learning to hunt with her mother, and she did not want to disturb them, so instead she followed the signal for another one named Pepper. This one she said had been hand fed growing up and was very used to humans, though not exactly tamed. As we got close to the point where the signal indicated pepper was, she stopped the jeep and escorted us off the truck into the brush. Something that certainly made all of us a little uneasy. She then pulled out a wooden dowel that was about 4 feet long, and said that was for mom (Natalie) to protect the little one (Kalyssa). Now we felt better. A wild animal with razor sharp claws, and tremendously strong jaws, and lightening fast reflexes, and we get a wooden stick.

Pepper The Cheetah
Nonetheless, we began walking through the brush slowly with our guide infront of us, using her radio to locate Pepper. After only a few minutes, she said, ah, there she is. Sure enough, there about 20 feet away, lying in the sun that was now peeking out from behind the shrinking clouds, was an adult cheetah. We remained there for only about 5 minutes, and the women talked a bit about the efforts to protect cheetahs using shelters like this one, as well as protect the local farmer’s livestock from wild cheetahs. We then headed back to the office, and jumped on our truck for the final return trip to Windhoek. When we boarded, we were delightfully surprised with giant slices of apple pie for the road.

Mid-Sized "Baster" Home, Rehoboth, Namibia
On the way to Windhoek we made one stop for fuel and restrooms, in a town called Rehoboth. I’ve read a little about this town, and Monet gave us a little bit of history on it as well. Over the last couple centuries there have been a lot of german immigrants into Namibia. (though white’s are still by far the minority). Many of these immigrants over this time have intermixed with some of the Nama people. Their children historically referred to as coloureds, endeded up developing a community in the village of Rehoboth. They’ve since began referring to themselves as the Rehoboth “Basters” (which is a derivative of the derogatory term bastards. As we sat at the gas station and saw some of the locals coming in and out, it was very interesting to see an entire community, where almost everyone was 50% Nama, and 50% German. Many of the individuals had very german facial structures, but then had very dark complexions, and African hair. This community has developed strong building skills and as a result has done very well. On the way out of the town, along the main road, we were able to see some of the beautiful houses that they have built. (unfortunately, I missed most of the really nice ones while looking for my camera.)

The Ziemanns and our Guides: Monet, and Oeckert
At about a quarter to 3 we pulled into the driveway of the Chameleon Safaris Offices and Lodge (at this point we wondered why we hadn’t been booked here instead of the Pension Moni, as this would have been convenient, and looked like a fun place. We also learned half of our travel companions had stayed here. Though we also learned that the Chameleon lodge did not have heat either. As we disembarked Oeckert was there waiting for us. It was great to see him again, and he said if we had the time, that Chameleon was offering us a free round of drinks. We definitely had time for that! We stayed around for about another 45 minutes, talking with Oeckert and Monet, and reliving some of the funny moments from the trip, such as the Ostrich nest story, and the truck not start for Monet on two separate occasions. Also while we were at the bar, there was an older woman in her late 60s or so that was leaving for safari the next day. After hearing her talk, she seemed to have a mild southern US accent. I asked where she was from, and she said she’s from Maryland, but grew up in West Virginia. I talked with her for about ten minutes, and she talked about how much she loves travelling, and that she’s been doing it every year, ever since she was my girls’ ages. She said that maybe this trip would spark that interest in them. Though I told her that Alexandra has already sworn to us she will never travel with us again, because “we are too annoying.”

At this point, Monet came over and told us it was time to head over to our hotel, so we said goodbye to the rest of our travelling partners as well as Oeckert, and headed over to the Hotel Pension Moni. Since it was Sunday, and we’d been travelling in the morning, I had researched churches that had services in the evening. Though Windhoek is the capital of Namibia, it is still a small town relative to US standard, and there were very few options for Sunday evening worship, but we did find one not too far from our hotel. The service was at 6:00, which left us only a little time for a quick meal.

We dropped our bags off at the hotel, and quickly walked down the road to the Maerua Mall to find a restaurant. Once inside we found a steak restaurant called Peppercorn’s for my Father’s Day dinner. Unfortunately, as we were pressed for time, I consumed a large steak with a very rich peppercorn and brandy sauce within a matter of 10 minutes. We had arranged for a cab to pick us up at our hotel, so I decided to run back and get the cab (which I was now late for), and return to pick up the girls.

When I got there the cab was waiting (which was a Mercedes Kompressor, which still has me scratching my head a bit) and he took us over to The Emmanuel Church, Windhoek, where we were in for a bit of a neat surprise. Natalie got out first to ask one of the ushers what time we should have the cab return. They said usually it’s about an hour, but today they had a bit of a special service going on, and that it may run an hour and fifteen minutes. She returned with this information, and I shrugged, and we went in.
The Emmanuel Church, Windhoek

When I found the church, the website made it fairly clear that music was a big part of the services, and that the music was likely to be pretty rockin’. When the service began, the pastor, who was a white south African about my age, reiterated the same expectation. However, he said, tonight you’re in for something quite a bit different. “We always have music, and we have great music and we all enjoy praising God, and listening to the message. But tonight we’re going to do something for other people instead. Windhoek has many people that are poor, and some of them are homeless, and are living in the streets. Last year several of them, some of them children, froze to death during some of the cold nights. This year we are going to provide blankets to the homeless. And we don’t want to just do a good deed, that is not what we’re here for, we want to share the word of God while we are doing that good deed. So tonight, we are going to sow the seeds of the Word of God. And we are going to do that by sewing the Word of God, John 3:16 on to the blankets:
Sewing the Word

“For God loved the world so much, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but will have eternal life. “

Selfishly, I was initially disappointed, especially after seeing the large stage, the live drum set, guitars, and listening to the uplifting pre-service music in the background. However, the more I thought about it, I thought, this is really great. We had originally hoped to do a couple service projects while travelling. We helped out with the English classes in Cambodia, and we had tried to research Lutheran Church Charities orphanage in India, but were never able to get details. “Sewing” the Word gave us one more opportunity to do something to give back to one of the countries that we were in.

One of the parishioners of the church sat in front and gave us all a demonstration (with aid of the cameras and large screens in front) of how to do it. We would each get a blanket, and a small patch with the Bible verse on it, a needle, and some string, and would stitch around the patch to affix it to the blanket.

For those of us that have not sewed (which was all of our family except Natalie) before this became an interesting challenge. I spent a good 5 minutes trying to thread the needle. Alexandra nailed that part, but halfway through sewing on the patch realized she had three stitches that went through another section of the blanket, inadvertently affixing a 3 inch section of blanket behind the patch. Kalyssa actually seemed to do the best of the three of us novices, and of course was quick to point out to the pastor her sister’s mistake.

All in all we had a fairly entertaining time, all while doing some good. We had an opportunity to spend a decent amount of time talking with the pastor, Matt, who it turns out has been to the Chicago area on several occasions, and has worked with Willow Creek, the “Mega Church” in the northwest suburbs. We also spent a little time with the youth pastor Jens. For a fairly large church, it definitely had a very welcoming feel to it. And of course they encouraged us to visit Namibia again, and come back and see them. Though we’ve had a great time, but somehow I don’t see that playing out in the cards in the near future. 

Our church experience in Namibia and our experience in Hong Kong made for nice bookends on our trip, as both provided a very welcoming environment and a reminder that even in different continents almost half way around the world, we are never too far from our Christian "family". 

As the service ended we turned in 3 finished blankets, and our cab driver was waiting for us outside, and we headed back to the hotel, filled up our hot water bottles, and climbed into bed before the evening chill was able to fully take over our room.

Sossusvlei Sand Dunes

Saturday morning was cold. Really cold. Our rendezvous time with our group was 6:15am for a quick breakfast so that we could then leave and get to the Sossusvlei gate when it opened. Getting out of bed though was very difficult. The problem with sleeping in a very warm bed in a very cold room, is that your body heat keeps the covers immediately around you very warm. However, if you move an inch, suddenly its like getting a hug from old man winter himself.


We procrastinated much longer than we should have about getting out of the bed, and as a result had to rush to get ourselves ready, and run down the road to the girls tent to try and get them up and out which was even more difficult. It was now 6:15, and we were still not ready, and we had a 5 minute walk to the breakfast area. Alexandra was ready, so I asked her to head down so they at least knew we were coming. Two minutes later, Kalyssa was ready, so I asked her to go get started on breakfast as well. Now Natalie and I were late, as we had spent the last 20 minute trying to get the girls going. Finally, we began walking at 6:30. Then as we walked 50 feet from our cabin, Natalie realized she forgot something, and ran back. I continued on by myself, and reached the reception area, alongside which was Monet and our breakfast.

As I arrived, I looked around, and realized, that neither of the girls was there. Uh-oh, that’s not good. I asked one of our other travelers if they had seen them, and they said they had seen Alexandra, but not Kalyssa. Uh-oh, that’s even worse. I then realized, though the camp is a straight line with identical lodges, except for the reception area, since we came in after dark, and they had slept through dinner last night, that they had no idea what to look for to find us.

I ran out to the road that the lodges are all on, and here is Kalyssa and Alexandra about 200 feet down the road. It turns out, Allie found it fine, and was having breakfast, looked up, and saw Kalyssa coming down the road. Several minutes later, she realized that Kalyssa never showed up at breakfast, and went chasing after her. By the time I got out there, they were already heading back towards breakfast, with Kalyssa in tears.

On our way to Sossusvlei
With everyone there now, we quickly inhaled some breakfast, and jumped in the bus to head to the Sossusvlei/Deadvlei area of the national park. As we drove in towards the area, there was a low lying fog over many of the dunes, which got thicker and lower the further we drove in. Although this generally muted the colors in the mountains and vegetation around us, in a few areas a break in the clouds would illuminate a small section of the landscape beautifully. In one such area off in the distance, surrounded by drab gray and brown mountains, was one large mountain creating a pathway up into the clouds, with bright morning sunlight shining down on the slope. The sunlight brightly illuminated the red Sussesvlei sands, contrasted by the yellow Namibian brush, and lightly peppered with dark green vegetation, all this surrounded by a light aura of blue in the area the sunlight was entering in. As we peered out the windows at this spectacle, Kalyssa looked at it and said, “It looks like it’s the gateway to heaven.” Indeed it certainly did.

Kalyssa's "Gateway to Heaven"

After a little more than an hour's time, we neared the end of the gravel road leading into Sossusvlei, and at this point the trail turned to very loose sand. This was a launch point, for several smaller safari jeeps much better equipped to drive through the loose sand that continued from this point. As this path led to Deadvlei and Sossusvlei, which are two of the most popular tourist attractions, it is heavily traveled and there were scores of people coming into and out of the park, and some outhouses were setup.

I will say that this is the first place In Namibia that seemed to not be very well maintained, as the public toilets were clearly highly utilized, but in very poor condition. [Skip to next paragraph if you wish to avoid details.] As we approached the outhouses, there was a strong smell of raw sewage, and near them, there were several places of standing water. Given the general climate of Namibia, and the dry season that we were in, the only likely source of this liquid made one cringe. On the men’s side, there was a 6 foot by 8 foot section of canvas, which none of us were quite sure about at first. Inside, where about 10 black plastic pipes of 3 inches in diameter jutting out of the ground to about 3 feet high, at about a 75 degree angle around the perimeter. Brian, a member of our safari group from Canada decided to make the first move in deciding that these must be meant to be urinals. Unfortunately, the entrance into the “men’s room had puddle stretching from one end to the other of the doorway. I attempted to hop over this, but came down toe first on the edge of it which made for a slick landing. I skated a few inches in my hiking boots and developed a layer of mud up the front of my boot. I was relieved that I maintained my balance and did not land in the mess, but disgusted at the same by the mixture on my foot. The girls side was not much better, as the doors to the porta-potties were falling off, and a section of the base of one of them was missing a section of plastic revealing a hole of about 8 x 8 inches, in which there was a couple inches of clearish liquid. Unpleasant to say the least.

Having prepared ourselves for some hiking, we now climbed into the smaller safari jeeps. Unfortunately, the sun had still not burned away the clouds and fog around us, which meant it had not warmed up much. The air was probably still in the lower 50s, our feet were quite cold, and the jeeps were open topped providing for quite the wind chill as we drove deeper towards Deadvlei. The entire way was in a dry riverbed with very loose sand, so the jeep was slipping and sliding every direction just as a car may in twelve inches of fluffy snow. After a 15 minute drive, we reached the start of the hike into Deadvlei.


All of the sand in this area was a rich orange-red due to the high iron content in the sand. The hike began in an area which was partly loose sand, and partly hard packed mud that had baked essentially into cement after the river dried. We hiked almost approximately a kilometer in the crisp air, thankful for the exercise which was getting our blood moving, and warming our limbs a bit. As we neared the end, there was a medium sized sand dune along side us. Monet said we could either hike up the dune and along the top, or we could go around it on the flat ground. Allie and I and the rest of our group, began up the dune. Kalyssa and Natalie remained for the time being.


Allie Struggling up the Dune at Deadvlei

A path had been carved by hiker’s earlier this morning that gradually ascended the side of the dune at an angle, as the wall of sand was to steep to climb vertically. The sand was extremely pure, and very light. With every step forwards and upwards I took, my back foot would sink backwards half a step. It only took a few minutes for my leg muscles to begin to burn as I fought the long battle against gravity to try and make forward progress. Though I was moving extremely slowly my heart and my breathing were racing heavily as if I was jogging at a strong clip.

Ahead of me were the Brit and the Aussie who were both likely in their 60s, and needed to take several breaks on the way up and regain their strength and breath. I was thankful for this as it saved me from having to make that decision fo myself. As Allie and I neared the top we saw Kalyssa begin the ascent behind us. When I finally reached the top, I collapsed onto the peak of the dune in exhaustion, and to take a few pictures. I remained in that spot until Kalyssa made it to the top of the hill. Ahead of me, and also resting was the fellow from Australia. Once we were all at the peak of the dune, we began to hike along its crest in the direction of Deadvlei. As we continued we could see the flat, white riverbed, empty except a surreal community of ancient dead trees below us. However, we began to ask ourselves where the path down was. Half of our group was already at the bottom, and it seemed like the crest of the dune was now turning in the opposite direction. However as we looked at the wall of the dune we did not see any similar path down like we had where had all ascend the dune. It was completely smooth, with only the markings of the wind on it.
View from the Top of the Dune Near Deadvlei

We sat asking each other about this for a few minutes, utterly confused, two people with a different group, who also looked somewhat perplexed, decided to simply attempt to walk down the wall of the hill. This seemed fairly ridiculous and looked rather dangerous, as it was an extremely steep slope. As we watched however, they walked with ease, lifting their feet as if walking through light snow, and glided almost effortlessly down the hill. Behind them, a small avalanche of sand occurred, and seconds after they went down, the side of the dune was completely flat again. Only upon very close examination could you notice a slightly different tint to the sand, as it lacked the minute wind ripples on its surface.

We looked at each other and shrugged, and then followed. Descending had an amazing sensation, opposite to that of the ascension. For every 1 meter step you took, you would glide about 2 additional. So even with slow even steps we each descended at an amazingly fast pace. Each footstep would sink 6 -10 inches into the sand which actually made it very difficult to lose one’s balance. However, the sand was light enough, that it was not an effort to lift each foot for the next step. As I glided further and further down the hill, I began to move my feet at a very light jogging pace, but my body was moving much fast than I ever could have on flat ground. The complete lack of impact on my knees, and the absence of the up and down motion that you subconsciously associate with running made the descent feel dream like, I reached the bottom where Natalie was awaiting with an involuntary grin on my face, and sat down to remove all of the sand that had gathered in my shoe. Though the air was still very cold, the activity of the last 20 minutes had warmed me up quite a bit.

Once our group had reassembled at the foot of the dune, and at the lip of Deadvlei, Monet gave us the history of the area. This section used to be part of the river bed. Regular water over the years had enabled vegetation and trees to grow. At one point however, a dune grew during the dry season which choked off the access of the river to this area permanently, and all of the vegetation died, leaving a white, flat, baked clay floor. The trees all died, and, based on carbon dating, have remained in this post-apocalyptic state now for 2000 years.
Deadvlei

Monet, now pulled out a map of Namibia, and laid it on the ground, employing assistance from our feet to keep it from blowing away. He then gave us a 20-30 minute ecological, and demographical history lesson of Namibia. He discussed the theories of the Sossusvlei sand dune creation. Most of them are believed to be 10-20 million years old, and the sand is thought to have either blown to their current location from the Kalahari desert in eastern Namibia and Botswana, or travelled to the Atlantic Ocean from that area via the Orange River from where it then washed up and blew inland from the ocean. The latter seems to be the more plausible solution, as the high mountain ranges inland would have likely caused most of the sand to be deposited to the east of them, instead of to the west of them where the sand now lies.


Monet's History Lesson

Monet also provided an overview of where the different types of people live in Namibia. The highest concentration is actually not in the capital city of Windhoek, but instead is in the wetter area north of Etosha and close to the Angola border. Additionally he provided an overview of the Nama, the Himba (known for their still “primitive” lifestyle, and women with reddish skin that do not wear tops), the Damara (who speak a language which consists of clicks and clucks), the Basters (an accepted derivative of the word “bastards”a community of builders that are all half German, and half Nama), as well as the many other peoples, and where they live.

During this lesson, we noticed Kalyssa had wandered off, back towards the dune, and was attempting to carve her own path directly up the hill in the distance. As she was wearing a fuchsia jacket vest, I was not concerned about losing her in the distance. However, as Monet finished up his lesson on Namibia, I began to scan the dune for her. Last I had seen she had made it about half way up. I didn’t see here there, nor did I see her on the peak of the dune. As a bit of mounting concern grew, of how and where to find her, I scanned every direction a little more frantically. After several minutes, I decided I couldn’t. I then tried to subtly ask Natalie where she had last seen her (though as Natalie was on the other side of our circle, it subtlety was not possible, and the group conversation stopped to listen. Natalie then said, “She’s right there.” Alexandra moved over 2 feet, and sitting on a rock 10 feet from me was Kalyssa. Mystery solved.

Lunch Time
From here we headed back towards the safari jeep drop off, and jumped in another one. To our surprise, we did not head back to the truck, but instead headed to a quiet area under a camel thorn tree. As we pulled up, we noticed that one of the cargo boxes from our safari truck was sitting on a picnic table. We all shared some surprised looks, and asked Monet how that had arrived here, to which he teased “That is a secret.” We made ourselves some quick sandwhiches and had some juice, and headed to the pond for which Sossusvlei was named. We again walked down a dry river bed of mud baked into concrete, and at the end of it was a small pond. This is the end of the river, and is where the water gathers during the rainy season. The pond then shrinks (often disappearing completely throughout the dry season, and then once again fills up the next year. The name Sossussvlei is made up of the Nama word Sossus and the Afrikaans word Vlei. Both have the same meaning: a place where water gathers.
Sossusvlei

Our next stop was Dune 45. This dune is reserved for climbing whereas most of the dunes are off limits to hikers (due to the strong risk of climbers experiencing sudden dehydration in the hot dry summer months). After the last dune climb, I had figured I’d sit this one out. However, as we discussed it, Monet had said it takes most people around 25 minutes though he knows one person that can do it in 10. When we pulled up to the edge of it, it didn’t seem that large. I could see people almost at the top of it, and my competitive spirit kicked in, and I thought sure, why not. The couple from Canada, Margaret from New Orleans/Zambia, and Suheil from the UK and I headed up, and Natalie, and Alexandra remained behind. As had been the case for most of the hikes, I was in the tail, with Kalyssa behind me.


Dune 45:  5 Minutes In - We're Almost There....

Five minutes into the climb, I looked up and saw the rest of the group only about 20 meters ahead. They appeared to be nearing the crest of the dune, and again I thought to myself this won’t take long. I also realized something about dune climbing. There is definitely a science to it. Walking on the very crest of the dune appears to give the best foothold, as does stepping in the footsteps of the prior hiker, if possible. From their, small, flat footed gliding steps will get you the best traction. Trying to move too fast simply causes your pushing foot to slide backwards. Oddly, I began to make a connection with the story from the Bible, where Peter attempts to walk out to Jesus on the water. This had to be exactly what that felt like. If you panic and try and walk fast, you begin to sink and slide in the sand. But if you relax, and focus on being steady, you suddenly rise to the top of the sand and hardly sink at all. It was very surreal.

20 Minutes In: - Did the Dune Get Taller??!?
I had been walking for about 5 minutes since last I checked the group ahead of me, and they still seemed to be 20 meters ahead, and nearing the top of the dune. As I turned and looked behind me, there seemed to be twice as much dune in that direction as there was 5 minutes ago. Kalyssa was quite a ways back and I waited a minute for her. I tried to hurry her to start catching up to me, and began walking again myself. After another 5 minutes, I checked the group ahead of me again. They now appeared to be about 25 meters ahead of me, and seemed to be nearing the top of the dune. I seriously began to question my own sanity, as we’d been walking for 20 minutes or so, and it still didn’t seem like they were any closer, or further to the peak than when I first looked up at them. I stopped and began to look around for a moment to see how high I was, and realized that the desert floor was an amazing distance from me. I could no longer make out the individual sprouts of yellow grass. There was also a steady breeze now, and I could see it healing the imprints of the group in front of me, and replacing them with the knife like edge of the dune. Along the slope of the dune were a few gecko lizards and large beetles navigating the sand much better than I was. As I looked at the floor of the desert again, I felt the wind and the sand moving around me, and the distance to the earth below was so far, that I began to get dizzy and had quite a bit of vertigo. I thought I may fall, or vomit, as my head began to spin. I tried to look at my feet, the only thing up here not moving, and regained my balance for a moment.

Near the Top (The white dots are the cars, where we started)
 



View From Top: (Follow the Edge CounterClockwise to Get True Sense of Height)

At this point I waited for Kalyssa to fully catch up, and had her walk in front of me, so that I could keep us moving and keep pace with the group ahead (who still seemed to be nearing the top of the dune 20-25 meters ahead of me.) We did finally reach the top of the dune, and Kalyssa and I spent a few moments enjoying the tremendous view, and discussing our mode of descent. The side we were on had a wall of sand plunging about 60% of the way to the desert floor before the slope lessened and fell more gradually the remaining distance. Kalyssa ran first, and after she nearly made it to the lower section, I followed. For my final dune descent in Namibia, I wanted to see how fast I could truly descend the mountain of sand. I began running as fast as I possibly could. The sensation was what I imagine it would feel like to ride an avalanche down a mountain side on skis, All the sand around me moved with me as I travelled at a truly amazing speed towards the earth, passing Kalyssa as well as Margaret and Suheil on the way down in less than a minute, I had descended what took me nearly a half an hour to ascend. This climb, and the ride down was definitely worth it.
The Whole Crew at Dune 45

It was now 2:30 in the afternoon, and our guide gave us the option to either return to the lodge for a siesta and then go out to Sesriem canyon, or to simply do the canyon now, and retire to the hotel early. We fairly unanimously chose to do the canyon now .

Sesriem Canyon
The canyon was not extremely spectacular compared to some of the sights earlier in the day, but was interesting none the less. We only spent a half an hour there or so, and then returned to the lodge. At this point, many in our group took advantage of the warm and light hours of the day to shower, sleep comfortably or just sit and relax. I sat down at the table behind my cabin, and spent an hour our so on the laptop enjoying the most beautiful view of an African field with Mountains as a backdrop. The sites and smells were phenomenal in the warm afternoon sun. I thought to myself, how wonderful it would be to have this as an office every day.

View from the Porch of our Cabin at Desert Camp

Suheil, the gentleman from the UK and I had agreed to meet at 4:30 to take a walk on one of the paths near our lodge which led out to a small mountain across the street. We walked for about 40 minutes around the mountain, hoping to see some wild live, but instead found nothing but a huge weaver’s net, about twice the size of the one that was over our lunch table the other day. After this, I showered, and enjoyed the rest of the evening at the bar with our fellow safari-goers followed by another good dinner cooked by Monet. Once again, Alexandra and Kalyssa went to sleep about 5:00 in the afternoon, skipped dinner, and remained there until 5:30 the next morning when we woke them.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

On Walvis Bay

Friday morning was designated as a self guided section of our safari package. Near and around Swakopmund there were plenty of adventure activities/excursions including sandboarding, quadbiking, horseback riding, skydiving, hot air ballooning, and the like. The safari guides had contact information and were available to make suggestions and set up arrangements including transportation. Time was limited however as our new group departed from Swakopmund at 11:00. We chose a boat ride out into Walvis Bay, which was about 45 minutes south of Swakopmund. This worked well, as the safari traveled through Walvis Bay on the way to Sussessvlei, which was our next stop.


We enjoyed the warmer sleeping quarters a little too much, and ended up sleeping in a bit more than we should have. The result was another made rush to get all of our stuff packed up in our suitcases, and only about 10 minutes to grab breakfast before we were picked up for the boat ride. Its always even more difficult to rush when you are in a place like Namibia, where many people are very friendly and laid back. Everyone likes to wish you a good morning, ask you how you are, and the breakfast serving staff at the hotel, wanted to explain everything available for breakfast. We tried our best to smile politely and exchange pleasantries, but continue to move fast.

Half way through breakfast, Oeckert let us know that our ride had arrived. We rushed to finish our breakfast and get out to the van which was full of about 8 other tourists waiting for us. After a quick stop at the office to arrange payment, we jumped on the road for a 45 minute drive between the coast and the large golden dunes along the coast to the town of Walvis Bay.
  
Sand Dunes Between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay

Once we arrived, we were met with approximately 8 more people, and we boarded the boat. At this point, our group was made up of some Germans, Italians, Canadians, and ourselves. The bay that we were going to be navigating was a very large bay in the Atlantic ocean, and had tremendously calm waters compared to the rough seas we watched hitting the open shore line the evening before.

Beachfront Homes Near Walvis Bay



Our Boat Guide With Junior

As soon as we boarded the boat, a seal jumped out of the water on to the back of the boat. One of the guides for the boat tour, a very enthusiastic Namibian of German heritage played with him a bit and gave him pieces of fish. He asked us not to touch this one (named Junior) as he was not very friendly. As we pushed out to sea, the seal followed us, and would occasionally jump on and off the boat. As we got a bit further, there was a second seal that began following us, and who jumped up on the boat. The guide told us that he had raised this seal from a pup. This seal was very friendly, and he invited us to feel his fur, and pet him. At that point, he invoited the different families to pose for pictures with the seal. Each family would sit down, and he would lure the seal behind the family and then up on to their shoulders to take a family picture with them. While all this was going on, we looked into the front window of the boat, and there sitting next to the captain looking out the window was the seal named Junior, copiloting. When the friendly seal (we can’t remember his name but it started with a P, so I’ll call him that) saw him through the window, P became irritated and snapped at and slapped at the window a couple times. The guide explained that P doesn’t like Junior, and if they get together he will bite him.



Family Picture (find the imposter!)


After photos and playtime with P, we travelled quite a distance out into the bay, towards the edge of a low elevation sand peninsula, where there was a colony of 60,000 seals. P and Junior followed us quite a ways out to the peninsuala (a distance that had to be several miles). As we neared the cosat, the two things you noticed where the overpowering smell of seal droppings, and some dead seals, as well as the sounds which sounded like hundreds of sheep bleating with a few hundred old men mingling between gurgling and clearing their throats. The entire coast was just covered in seals, either lying in the sand, or hopping around.


Kalyssa Holding a Jelly Fish



Seal Colony

After seeing the seals, we went to head out to see the dolphins. While we were travelling, the guide pulled out shotglasses, and a bottle of “Old Brown” South African sherry. This was approximately 10:00 in the morning…. Oooh its going to be a long day…. I looked at Natalie, shrugged and said “It’s 5:00 somewhere” and we each had a glass….or two.

Our guide had tempered our expectations on the dolphins explaining that we would need to be lucky to see them. As we got further out in the middle of the bay, and a little closer to the open waters, we did begin to see some dolphin fins occasionally. However everytime one caught your eye and you turned to look, it would slip back into the water away from view. The guide tried to navigated from the front of the boat, asking the driver to meander various directions to try and find a school that we could follow, but we weren’t having much luck.

Suddenly, the captain began knocking on the window to alert the guide, and then made frantic parting motions with his arms, apparently trying to communicate for all of us to get off the front of the boat and back inside. Once we were safely inside, he opened up the throttle and we headed out for the edge of the bay to the open waters. Apparently there was a large school of bottlenose dolphins that had been sighted. As we were flying out jumping over the growing waves, I noticed there were several other small boats that must have gotten the same information, as they were flying in the same direction we were. After we navigated the ocean at full speed for about 15 minutes, ahead of us in the distance the smooth waves were broken up by a large amount of activity in one area. As we got closer, we could see dolphin fins everywhere, and the occasional head pop up as they came up for air.

Dolphin!


The closer we got, the more excited our guide got. Suddenly, all around the boat everywhere you looked were dolphins swimming along side the boat. Hundreds if not thousands of them. I noticed our guide run down give the captain a celebratory clap on his shoulders, and the captain turned around with amazed excitement. The guide later told me that it had been four years since he had seen anything like this, and that usually schools of bottlenose such as this stay way out in the very deep open water. It really was quite an amazing sight.



After 20 minutes of following the dolphins, it was time to head back to harbor. We all headed into the boat, and were served up some fresh oysters from Walvis Bay, as well as some finger sandwiches, and other snacks. The guide also popped open several bottles of champagne and passed around glasses, and we enjoyed that as well. I turned to Natalie and said that our new guide, Monet, is going to be dealing with a couple drunks for the afternoon, as it was still only about 11:00am.


After we had our snacks, and we neared the harbor, several large pelicans began swirling about us. Apparently, our guide had some of these named and trained as well. These birds were much larger than I expected with wingspangs that were 5-6 feet. There wer a group of 4 of them, that were out in the distance, and saw us coming, and began to fly directly at us, just over the top of the water in perfect formation. Our guide in his typical enthusiastic German accent, said “Look, here comes the Namibian Airforce, look, look, look.”

JJ the Pelican

He began calling to one of them: “J. J., Set! Set! Set!”, The pelican obeyed, and came and landed on the boat. We noticed this particular pelican had a tag on his legs with his name J.J. on it. Our guide grabbed a cooler which J. J. recognized right away, and from this point, would do just about anything our guide asked him to. Many of the other passengers pet, posed with, and took pictures of the bird. Oddly enough, he seemed to like all the men, but when women would come near, he would try and bite their head. As he continued to mingle with the crowd, our guide would toss him bits of fish to keep him happy. J.J. stayed with the boat until we docked, and then followed us all on shore as if to wish us all a goodbye.

At this point, we sat and waited approximately 20 minutes for our safari group to pick us up. Once they arrived, we boarded, and introduced ourselves to the new companions we’d have for the next few days. In addition to Margret from New Orleans (but living in Zambia) whom we met the prior evening, there was a couple from Canada, and 2 older gentlemen: one from the UK, and one from Australia.


The rest of the afternoon was spent on a long ride in the same truck we’d been in for the last three days though now with our new guide Monet. Leaving Walvis Bay, we began to move away from the coast, and on either side of us were immense golden sand dunes that reached like mountains into the sky. Gradually over the next couple hours, the empty sand began to have more and more vegetation, and the land gradually went from sady to rocky, until we were back in open fields of brush with the occasional mountain in the distance.

Driving Through Namibia

The final hour of driving was in the dark, and we eventually made it to our lodge in Sesriem: Desert Camp.
Sunset Near Sesriem, Namibia

After disembarking from our truck, we each made it through the pitch dark to our individual cabins. Each one was partially permanent tent, and partially cement building. We had running water, indoor toilet and shower…but no heat. And now that we are quite a ways from the coast, the nights are very cold again.

Alexandra and Kalyssa jumped right into bed as soon as we arrived, and said they were not getting up for dinner, a promise they kept. Most of the rest of us gathered at the outdoor bar by the reception area and enjoyed some Namibian beer while watching the Sweden/France Football (soccer) game, and traded stories about our travels. While we were enjoying our cocktails, we could see Monet off in the darkness busily cooking our dinner for us around a wood fire. The smell began to waft over to us between the scents of some of the fragrant native plants making us eager to head over and eat.

 
Dinner was similar to our first night with Oeckert: salad, lamb chops, chicken, and game sausage. Additionally he had something I think he called “pop” (or something that sounded like it) which tasted just like Italian polenta. We all ate quite a bit, and at this point Natalie and I were exhausted and headed back to our cabin and turned in for the night.