The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius was not on our radar as we dragged ourselves out of bed yesterday at 3:30am and headed to Brisbane’s domestic terminal for our flight to Sydney to connect with the 11:35 Qantas flight to Johannesburg. This was the first leg in a multi-continent adventure that is to take us from the deserts and jungles of Southern Africa to the highlands of Scotland, the green valleys of Ireland and the rugged shores of Iceland. Mauritius you will note was not to feature in our itinerary, but about ten hours into our flight, somewhere over the southern Indian Ocean, our ageing Boeing 747-400 made a slow turn north west.
A medical emergency on board required us to divert to Mauritius. A beautiful place, at least from the air, but the three hour delay made for an extremely long day. Our time on the ground was not without its highlights. The sight of senior Qantas pilots completing engineering checks on our plane and the apology from the Captain that he was partly responsible for the delay because he had to personally refuel the plane, which he hadn’t done for many years, were just a couple of the lighter moments. A Qantas 747 must not have been a common sight on the Mauritius tarmac as ground and terminal staff were everywhere around the aircraft taking photographs – as were same senior pilots, taking selfies.
Our departure was a little out of the ordinary as well. Our pilots must have needed to use every inch of the runway, because, rather than simply taking the taxiway out to the normal start point for take off, we turned left and taxied to the very end of the runway where the Captain made what, from our view point, was an impossible manoeuvre, turning an enormous 747 through 360 degrees in just more than its own length. As it turned out he had runway to spare - a testament to the training and skill of Australian pilots.
A good night’s sleep at a Jo’burg airport hotel and we were again on our way, to Windhoek, Namibia.
28 March, Home Inn
Windhoek is a city of about 350,000, so the pace is fairly laid back. Our drive into the city from the airport yesterday was relatively uneventful, except for the sighting of several troops of baboons, scavenging by the side of the highway. We upgraded our original hire car, a Rav4, to a Toyota Fortuner, at a fairly hefty price increase, but the bigger vehicle and the extra spare wheel that came with it (at extra cost) will hopefully give us a safer journey over what will be some fairly rough and isolated roads.
Windhoek seems like a pleasant enough little city, but there is not a lot to see here, so we spent the morning walking around visiting a few small museums to get an introduction to the history and culture of Namibia. In common with virtually all African states, Namibia suffered centuries of exploitation, first by the Germans, then the British and finally their neighbours, the South Africans. The recency of these events stunned us a little. South West Africa, as the country was known, only achieved independence in 1990, following a number of bloody wars and insurrections that commenced in the mid 1960s.
The influence of the various powers that have controlled Namibia in its recent past have left at least one positive legacy, language skill. We are always impressed by people who have mastered a second language. Here in Namibia, a second language just doesn’t seem to cut it. Everybody we have spoken to speaks excellent English, but they will also speak their native language and most in Windhoek also speak Afrikaans. What really amuses us is when we hear them mixing languages, using words from various languages in the same conversation, just picking the most expressive phrases.
30 March, Desert Quiver Camp, Sesreim
Our drive from Windhoek to Swakopmund yesterday was fairly uneventful. The Trans-Kalahari Highway is fully sealed, though a little narrow in places. We made one short side trip to a war cemetery a couple of kilometres off the highway. In 1915, a little known battle was fought between South African forces and the German Imperial Army. South West Africa was a German colony. When war broke out in Europe, South African troops attacked German forces and a fairly short but bloody conflict ensued. One skirmish in this battle was fought at Trekkopje, a small railway siding on the line between Windhoek and Swakopmund. The small cemetery is out in the desert, unsigned and probably infrequently visited, but we were amazed to see it well maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A couple of the larger towns we passed through were indicative of the enormous inequity of wealth prevailing in Namibia. Most towns have large squatter settlements on their outskirts that are comprised of simple shanties of corrugated iron with no power, water or sanitary services. The more affluent, living in the towns themselves, seem to enjoy a life style equivalent to the western middle class. On the coast just outside Swakopmund, the truly wealthy have built beach houses that would not be out of place in Malibu. We feel fairly safe offering the observation that the owners of these places would be predominantly white.
Our visit to Swakopmund was mainly to load up on provisions for the far more serious excursion into the Kalahari that we undertook today. We will be back to spend a couple of days there when we return from Sesreim.
Planning this trip we had agonised over the type of vehicle we would need. Some web commentators claimed that standard two wheel sedans would be fine for a Namibia-Botswana safari. Others extolled the virtues of full-on 4x4s. We originally punted on the middle ground and booked a Toyota Rav4. One thing we did want though was an extra spare tyre. Even at home in Australia, we have blown many a tyre on our car and our caravan, so we really wanted that extra bit of security. Hertz was unable to provide an extra wheel but offered an “up sell” to a Toyota Fortuner. The price difference was about AUD40 a day, pushing our rate for 23 days to about AUD2450. After today, verdict? Great call. The 370kms to Sesreim was almost totally gravel. Patches were fine, smooth, clay-based, graded road. Some, not insignificant, parts were rough, corrugated surfaces intermixed with deep gravel that caused us to drift. Overall, we would have been extremely uncomfortable in the Rav4 and in a fair degree of trouble in a small sedan. As it was, the Fortuner copped a fair bit of a pounding, but it always felt safe. Traffic was light, we only saw three or four vehicles for the first coup[le of hours, but as the morning drew on those returning to Swakpomund began to approach us. Virtually all drivers kept to around 70-80km/h and, with the width of the gravel road, dealing with the small amount of traffic was no problem.
Some of the more difficult road conditions aside, our journey took us through some of the most spectacular desert scenery we have experienced, with flat rocky plains with salt bush-like vegetation, grey and black ridges with seams of what looked like limestone, yellow stunted grasslands studded with acacia and tortured small gullies and canyons. The landscape seemed to change every 50 kms or so.
Love reading your blogs
ReplyDelete