Digital Namibia
The
Namibia classic itinerary with a digicam, a GPS and one Laptop - (1) |
A very long flight... |
How many are the desert lover, sick with Africa, the nature lovers who wish to visit the Namibian deserts? Many, a lot, especially in Europe and Italy,
at least to judge from the difficulty one has to consider in planning a vacation there. It is necessary to reserve the flights well in advance
especially if the chosen period fall in August, during the fresh and dry season, the best one in order to visit the natural parks and to avoid the malaria risk. So we programmed our travel
by reserving in January 2002. Nevertheless all the flights scheduled for the first two weeks of |
| August turned out already booked, even for the 2004 season.
On the Joannesburg-Windohek stretch we remained
on the waiting list until two weeks before the takeoff. The airlines offering the more comfortable flights are Lufthansa and South African,
both operating from Frankfurt. Considering also the long waits in the airports it is a long and tiring journey lasting about 24 hours; fortunately for the travelers arriving from the European countries there is barely one hour (if any) of difference and therefore no jet-lag to bear. It is
sufficient to remove shoes and try to sleep, supposing you could sleep on the very
uncomfortable seats of the economy class.
As always it is better to be very rich and possibly to get a business ticket. However, in the perspective of visiting the magnificent Namibian deserts every sacrifice
could be envisagibable. |
| A two weeks visit of Namibia, a land encroached of natural wonders, means an itinerant travel consisting of long stages, with the obvious point of departure and arrival at the Windhoek international airport. The verification of the rented car is perhaps the most critical
moment of the entire trip. Everything must be carefully checked; tires, lights, window-glasses and, of course, the engine. Although the Country
owns an optimal road system, with good road signs and an adequate refueling station net, it must be taken in account that only the main roads are |
Checking the engine |
| asphalted.
Completely desert stages between towns are often very long. In order to survive the "classic tour" a cross-country vehicle is not strictly necessary however is strongly advisable, especially if some cue of adventure is planned and an acceptable average speed is to be held. The unsealed roads are quite regularly leveled and well maintained but those of minor importance are often plagued by numerous
potholes that do not affect a good cross-country vehicle but can slow down a normal car. It goes without saying that every possible damage the car could have
sustained from previous customers should be identify before signing the rent contract to avoid paying for other people faults at the time of giving it back. We have rented a 4x4 pick-up, a Nissan double cabin. It was a sturdy and rigid car but quite handy and enough comfortable. At the end of the travel we succeed in traveling beyond 4000 km without
troubles; may be we have to thanks the god initial check! |
Gideon Meteorites | In the heart of Windhoek there is a very singular monument, undoubtedly unique in the World. Twelve massive ferrous meteorites (siderolithes) are exposed in St Paul street on quadrangular pedestals made of stainless steel. They represent the very typical landmark of the city center renowned for its tourist shops. They
are the relics of a single meteorite swarm that landed near Gideon, in the south of Namibia. These meteorites originally constituted a mass of beyond 21 tons. The monument is very well conceived and effectively renders the idea of a
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| compact
formation of cosmic travelers rambling solitary in the sidereal emptiness, only
joined by the same trajectory, from the origin to destination. This meteoric irons belong to the class of differentiated meteorites, originally produced by fusion and gravitational segregation at the core of a celestial body that during the condensation phase of the primordial solar nebula reached the dimensions of a small planet. This planet was later destroyed by a cosmic collision during the early life of our Solar System. The
Gideon meteorites are therefore the fragments generated from a very ancient and remote collision, which finally reached the Namibia deserts, after a travel lasted some billions of years. |
| From our travel notes: "18/9/2002 -We head southwards, our main objective is the Fish River Canyon". It is beyond 700 Km far from Windhoek. We decide therefore to make a digression in the western fringe of the Kalahari Desert. Before abandoning the B1, the main NS road of Namibia, we
made supplies at Rehobot and we refueled shortly before Mariental. At the petrol station we met some begging boys. They asked for money but without too much insistence, apparently not in state of real necessity. It
was clear that they simply tried the luck with us. One of these boys hold to the leash one small squirrel. The animal is visibly suffering and its tail is broken. It is a "ground squirrel", a kind of African squirrel that usually lives on the ground forming big communities. We
tried to redeem the poor creature but when we agreed on the price, the demand was paltry, the boy repented. He wanted back his prey to try a new deal, this time asking for an absolutely exaggerated sum. |
An ground squirrel in the hands of a beggar |
| We therefore
left the petrol station without succeeding in our daily good action, aiming eastwards along the C20 road, in direction of the red linear dunes that form the western edge of the Kalahari Desert." |
Vegetated Dune | Driving eastwards we crossed the longitudinal dunes of the Kalahari Desert. These dunes are N-S oriented, more than 100 km long; they are quite low and are separated by wide flat corridors. The road is like the "Russian hills" and the drive was quite funny. The vegetation is an open bush with acacias and high grass. On the red sand of the dunes the grass
was still green even if it was the dry season while in the flat expenses of the corridors it looked dryer and yellow. The colors contrast was sharp and inviting to the photographer. |
| Sunset on the Kalahari dunes; the African sunsets are a show nobody can miss, especially in Namibia during August considering it is at 5.40 p.m. In the Kalahari landscape it is easy to read the effects of a climate change of opposite sign in respect to the mythical one that affected the "Once Green Sahara" so often described in the traveler and popularizing literature. These dunes testify in fact the transition from an
hyper-arid stage dominated only by the wind to the present day arid climate featured by very irregular seasonal rainfalls averaging 100 mm per year, | 
Sunset on the Kalahari Dunes |
| with frequent cycles of draught. The vegetation growing on these old red dunes is enough to sustain the economic activity of many farms which principal resource is represented by cattle breeding. Thus the Namibian Kalahari is not a "no-man lands" but an exploited territory; all the "veld" is subdivided in many plot of land, generally tens of square kilometers wide. Driving along the roads and trails you are always sided by interminable fences. There is never the chance, unless you have the authorization from the landlords, to try even the smallest off-road drive. |
Steenbok (Raphicerus campestris) | Along
the road to the Auob Valley we sighted a steenbok (Raphicerus campestris) entrapped between the unpaved road and the fence of a large farm. These extremely long and continuous fences prevent road accident with the cattle and the remaining wild fauna living in the wide territories belonging to the Kalahari farms. This kind of antelope is widespread through all the South Cone of Africa but it is quite difficult to sight because of it shy character. It lives lone or in pair. Its size is medium, like a dog, its coat is rufus-fawn while the under part including
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| the inside of the legs is white. Only the ram has the horn, which are pointed, smooth and straight. It eats grasses, seeds and fruits thus its natural habitats is a open one but it need for its dietary necessity some threes. This nice antelope has the particular habit of burying its droppings nearly as a domestic cat does.
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