Namibia-Desert to Coast

Namibia is a land of contrasts. Around each bend in the road is a dramatic change of scenery. Yesterday alone, we passed through yellow savannahs, where mountain zebras were grazing, to rocky "moonscape" where it appeared that no living thing could survive, to the cool, humid coast of the Atlantic Ocean. As we travel across these rural African landscapes, we rarely see any other people, which makes us feel that Namibia is quite wild and undeveloped. As an example, we visited the Fish River Canyon a few days ago. It's the 2nd largest canyon in the world; the largest is the Grand Canyon. But what a difference between the two...While the canyon formations and erosional patterns look quite similar, the development was very different. Anyone who has visited the South Rim of the Grand Canyon knows that it's like a zoo-cars everywhere, buildings, restaurants, shops, paved trails, and thousands of people. A gravel road led us to the rim of Fish River Canyon, a single rocky trail guided us from one overlook to the other, where we watched the sun set over the distant mountains. There were only 60 people there during our visit, so solitude was easy to find.

The next morning we awoke at 4 a.m. to hike to the top of Dune #45 in the Namib Desert. As the sun rose, it spread orange and pink tones across the wavy dunes that surrounded us. The sand warmed and we began a hike across the open desert. We discovered myriad species of wildlife: springbok (antelope-like), a wildcat, lizards, kude (elk-like with crazy spiral antlers), and a wide variety of birds. Their tracks criss-crossed each other on the sand, and we followed them up and over the dunes.

Our group consists of 16 other people from around the world: Lithuania, Poland, England, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Kenya and Zimbabwe (our tour leader and cook). We're traveling in a huge truck with large windows all around the vehicle. There are seats for 30 people, so we have quite a bit of extra space. We ride with the windows wide open so we stay cool, even in triple-digit heat. Our campsites have been beautiful so far in terms of scenery. The accomodations, like hot showers and cold swimming pools, have made our evenings quite comfortable. We've fallen asleep gazing up at the Southern Cross, Venus and Mars, while listening to the yelps of nearby jackals. Our food has been good, and we're still feeling healthy.

We're currently in the coastal town of Swakopmund, on our own for 3 days. Last night we wandered toward the Atlantic Ocean, where the waves pounded the shoreline. We'll depart Monday morning, continuing our journey northeast toward Etosha National Park, home to large herds of elephants and giraffes.