October 2001
Namibia
I hope things haven't started the way they intend to go on! Our first night in Windhoek and Goose has a raging fever. By the second night he was in hospital shaking, vomiting and boiling up so much that even his hands were hot to touch. The Roman Catholic Hospital looked after him with German efficiency and an African sense of humour - a strange but reassuring combination! On day three, Dr Weder, with his usual flippancy told me "this Goose has Typhoid!"
I spent my time wandering around Windhoek and sitting in the hospital with Goose, trying to stop him from playing with his drip, and taking the piss out of his rather colourful hospital attire - orange shorts with a brightly patterned cotton shirt which was slightly tight fitting round the middle!! Thankfully he made a fairly speedy recovery and by day four was back at the hostel for a couple of days relaxation before we set off on safari.
I'd started feeling bad the moment we arrived in Namibia. I tried to put it down to jet lag but wasn't convincing myself. That night thermals, a sweatshirt, 3 season sleeping bag and two blankets didn't ward off the cold creeping in my back and the violent shakes that followed. The next night the shakes come close to convulsions leaving me unable even to put my socks on. The dioherra and vomiting had all but dried me out and despite my freezing back I knew I was burning up.
The hospital was spotless and even by NHS standards, well equipped, but I didn't want to be there. The lights were too bright, that's all I could think about, the bloody lights. The miracle I was waiting for failed to transpire as the nurse told me my temperature was 104 degrees - not good. The drip was in my arm before I knew it and ridiculously I wondered if they'd allow me to take it back to our hotel - my desire to leave the hospital appeared to be stronger than rational thought.
My thoughts turned to my blankets - what if they fell off after Lucy left, what if the convulsions started again. I even thought about discharging myself - not much of an idea, since I could hardly walk! Lucy had to leave shortly after I'd been wheeled into the ward and I don't mind admitting I felt like a clingy three year old on his first day at school as she walked down the corridor.
The Safari
What struck us most about Namibia was its diversity - in everything from culture to landscape. Its German heritage is still very strong. On several occasions we found ourselves sitting in coffee shops, usually run by a couple of Germanic ladies, surrounded by Black Forest Gateau and Burtweist sausages. Apparently this is one of the countries where Nazi supporters fled after the Second World War. In Swakopmund, a very German looking town on the coast, there is even a souvenir shop that sells Nazi memorabilia.
There are about 11 major ethnic groups in Namibia including the Germans and Afrikaners. The traditional Herero women wonder round in thick long dresses with full skirts and a head dress designed in the shape of cows horns - a curious mixture of European and African tradition. As part of our safari, we were taken to meet the family of our Himba guide. They live in a small village of approximately 10 thatched huts along with numerous breeds of farm yard animals, all surrounded by a rickety branch-woven fence. The Himba still manage to live a relatively traditional lifestyle, despite the ever- increasing visits from travellers. The men wear mostly western clothes but the women still wear goat skin mini shirts and handmade jewellery. They coat their skin and hair in a deep orange-brown paste made from ocre stone crushed with buttermilk. This creates the beautifying effects of foundation make up and protects their skin from the sun. Their behaviour is reserved and their customs are based on a gentle politeness and regard for one another.
The Namibian landscape was also surprisingly varied - not the expected endless African plains. The landscape changes, sometimes quite suddenly, from the Spitzkoppe mountains - justly refered to as the Matterhorn of Africa and rising 1700m above the Namibian plains - to rolling hills, great canyons or the red sand dunes of Sossusvlei. Then there's the skeleton coast - bleak and surprisingly cold. It looks more like the surface of the moon or something out of a Sci-Fi writers imagination. With a coast littered with shipwrecks and adjacent to the vast Namib desert it was said to be better to go down with the ship than wash onto the beach to a certain, slow, death.
We arrived at a deserted oil rig in the middle of a sandstorm where a group of cormorants had made their home. Within seconds our faces were caked in sand and cameras filled with grit and refused to work. Apparently people come there on holiday, but one night was enough for us!
Millions of years ago the whole of Namibia was under water and many of the canyons and plains were formed on the ocean floor. Driving through this amazing place, it's not hard to imagine it submerged in seawater. It would be interesting to come back again one day after the rainy season when the dry river beds are full and the dead-looking trees are alive with greenery.
Photographs
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Namibia
A Himba woman demonstrates to her child the serious business of orange peeling.
Every evening the elephants of the Etosha National Park meander to this water hole where they drink and dust off.
It isn't often you catch an Oryx looking into the lens. They are notoriously camera shy and usually make a point of turning their backs.
The dry season has taken its toll leaving the herbivorous occupants of Etosha scavenging the last of the greenery. The giraffe makes good use of its natural advantage.
Unlike their cousins the Cheetahs, Leopards cannot be tamed, and although they become accustomed to their human Land Rover-mounted visitors, they remain a dangerous predator.
We knew no one would believe us so here it is, bubble gum flavour mayonnaise, try to imagine how awful it tastes then double it.
Lucy offering me a Nosh! Must be my lucky day.
Seeing the Elephants arrive for their sunset refreshment the Zebra's make a tactical withdrawal from the watering hole.
Springboks shade themselves from the intense midday sun.
Not exactly a forest, these trees grow sporadically among the balancing rock formations known as the devil's playground. Normally only found in solitary isolation it is unusual for Quiver Trees to be in such relative close proximity.
It only rains here once every 10-20 years. But these trees are so well adapted to this arid environment that they will lay dormant until there is enough water to bloom
The salt works at Walvis Bay produce 180,000 tonnes yearly, enough to satisfy 90% of Southern Africa's commercial salt requirements. Seawater is pumped into evaporation ponds from where it is naturally crystallised. The concentrated salt solution causes the micro - organisms present to change colour giving the water its vivid pink appearance.
Sunset at the water hole
The Cape Cross Seals gather in their thousands to bask in the sun on this isolated stretch of the Skeleton Coast, unfortunately their smell betrays their natural camouflage.
The Fish River Canyon, seen here at the tail end of the dry season, sandwich's the Namib desert with the Atlantic Ocean and is a classic example of the countries diverse landscape.
The sossusvlei dunes, some up to 200m high, make up part of the 32,000 square km 'sand sea' of Western Namibia.
Kolmanskop Ghost Town was once the centre of the early 20th century 'diamond rush'. Sand now sweeps through the buildings where fortunes where once counted.
Namibia has 25% of the worlds Cheetahs which unfortunately means they are not a protected species, many, tragically fall victim to the farmers gun. Peculiarly, despite several African countries having space in their Nature Reserves and Game Parks, the Namibian government only allows their pelts to be exported.
The Otjitotongwe Cheetah Farm homes these beautiful creatures, the only big cat species that can be tamed and kept as domestic pets (so long as you don't keep goats as well); these photos weren't taken through a cage.
