Southern Africa - Day 6

Saturday, 18 January 2020 - Namibia 

Woke up with a splitting headache. It’s the bloody blended whiskey. Luckily today is quite a leisurely day. In the morning there was an option to go canoeing but it was quite expensive so I declined. Instead we took a walk along the river and saw many birds - ibises and herons and cormorants. Some people say Orange River is named after the Dutch Royal House (I remember William of Orange when I was in Holland) but a local guy told us that it is because the mountain where the river originates from in Lesotho is orange in colour. In recent times it has been referred to as Gariep, which means ‘River’ in the indigenous KhoeKhoe language. 

The early indigenous peoples of southern Namibia were ancestors of the Khoesan. “Khoesan” is a unifying name for 2 major ethnic groups: the San (also known as the Bushmen) and the Khoekhoe (translated from their language to mean “true humans”). Today, the largest group of the former Khoekhoe are the Nama people. The San and the Nama are genetically related and both their languages use click sounds. But it is not clear whether this relationship is ancient or of more recent origin. The San, who are hunter-gatheres, have inhabited the region since time immemorial. The Khoekhoe arrived maybe 2,000 years ago from the Cape Province in South Africa, crossing the Orange River. They later acquired livestock, initially sheep, thus becoming herder-gatherers. The cultural beliefs and rituals of both groups remained very similar. This is why it is frequently impossible to positively identify a certain archaeological site as either “San” or “Khoekhoe”, which is also why the more generic term “Khoesan” is often used. 

The thing that strikes me the most about the landscape here is that to my right is desert land - barren, dry, brown, sand, dirt, rocks. To my right, because of Orange River, lush greenery. Two conflicting scenery all within my eyesight. It’s simply beautiful.

It was a leisurely morning and we hung out separately before lunch. I was writing this blog and there was this man sitting nearby and I chatted with him and found out that he is Namibian and he speaks Damara which is a click language. Of course I asked him to speak for me because I just love this click language. No where else in the world can you find this. As if that wasn’t enough, I asked him for permission to record him and I did. Of course he looked at me as if I was a creature with 12 hands or something but who cares. We’re never seeing each other again and I have the click! 😁

After lunch we continued our journey into Namibia. No problems at the border, and soon we arrived at the Namib desert. It is one of the oldest deserts in the world, and  stretches for nearly 2,000 km along the Atlantic coast from the Olifants mountain range and river until Angola. Apparently the older the desert, the redder its sand and many parts of this desert is rust colour. It also has some of the highest sand dunes in the world. It is known as a female desert which means that it is a desert teeming with life and gives life to many species. Not dead like the males 😁. 

Here you can find many kinds of animals such as oryx, springboks, reptiles, kudus, giraffes, ostriches, sand beetles, snakes, lizards, etc. They drink the dew which settles on some of the plants in the morning, and then they sleep for most of the day when it’s hot so as not to lose water. There are some old tribes living in this desert, they are known as the Himba people - they still use the old way of life i.e. underdressed and nomadic. About every 10 years or so there are heavy rains and sometimes flooding. 

We stopped in the middle of the desert, literally in the middle of nowhere (all you could see were mountains in the distance, a road in front and behind you, and a barren landscape for miles. No other vehicles, no life, just miles and miles of empty). We saw a bush which is known to be the nara melon. There are small mice here that make holes under the bush of the nara melon and when other animals eat the melon, the mice eat the seeds. How cute. We also saw some springbok and zebra droppings - they were indeed very dry but no animals in sight. Maybe sleeping as it’s hot. Clever said you could use the droppings in place of tobacco and smoke it. I’m really not sure about this. 

We arrived at our hotel which had a natural hot spring which was about 65 degrees Celsius. After checking in I took a walk to the hot spring and touched the water - luckily the outer layer was not that hot, I would guess only about 50 degrees Celsius. So I still have my finger. From the hot spring there are hot pools of water available for soaking in, known as the Ai Ais Hot Pools. Me and water really don’t get along so I didn’t bathe in the hot pool. 

Then we chilled on the balcony and we saw some rock dassies. Cute little fluffy things. Later at dinner Clever told me that their closest relative was the elephant!!! Apparently the skeletons of both dassies and elephants are a perfect match except for the size. I never would’ve guessed it, a dwarf and a giant related! 

The discussion at dinner centred around why it is difficult for Africans to travel out of Africa : it is due to stringent visa requirements. We also discussed politics - Clever’s take on things is that it is in America’s and the European Union’s best interest to keep Africa separated so that they can continue to benefit from their natural resources. Just like what is happening in the Middle East. To me, it’s just another form of colonisation. It’s appalling!!!

Meanwhile I tried oryx steak for dinner 😱. It’s very meaty and I didn’t really like it. I’m more of a seafood person. But at least I tried it. No alcohol for me tonight, and then to bed.