Namibia!

We've just spent our first week in the camper, loving the outdoor tenting feeling but with a bit of luxury like a fridge and being up off the ground (though not higher than a lion can reach, for the record...) We drove from Capetown almost to the border the first day, and then to Fish River Canyon in the south of Namibia.  It's huge, deep, awe-inspiring etc.!  Also very dry - the river only flows when the rains come, which should be now, but so far nothing, so it's a drought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Namibian campsites are plagued by baboons, rather than bears... 

 

We're driving through ridiculously gorgeous landscapes, changing all the time with location and the time of day.  Things are hot, up to 42 degrees, but as they say, it's a dry heat, more like being in an oven than a sauna!  This was the road into our campsite at Namtib, 12 km of sand, sometimes slushy like deep snow.  We've learned how to deflate the tires and shift to 4WD Low.

 

The view from our campsite.  We were the only campers, and the lodge was 2 km away - solitude!

 

Sunrise brings the vibrant desert colours to life

 

 

Endless huge dunes at Sossusvlei 

 

A shifting dune cut off the water supply to these trees at Deadvlei 600 years ago! 

 

 

Some trees do manage to thrive, or at least survive, in this harsh world

 

 

 

Ostrich, oryx and springbok also eke out a living  

 

 

 

Oryx (gemsbok) on the run, inland from the dunes. Still very dry but there are sparse grasses to graze

 

 

Some farmers (and tourists) have 4x4's; others don't...

 

 

It's Independence Day this week, so there are festivities even in supermarkets, like these Ovanga (?) traditional dancers.

 

 

Our kind hosts, the Vignes in Windhoek.  (my apologies for likely errors in this synopsis...) Piers (Jenny's cousin once removed) worked with the UN Refugee commission on resettlement and agricultural projects in Thailand, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Angola, and now works with a German fund, atoning for near-genocides in their colonial period here, to fund community-driven projects such as wells, schools and agricultural tools.  Katrine is finishing Grade 12 and gave us a window into teenage life at her school, and Hella worked with Namibian and South African anti-apartheid groups in London and Namibia, and stayed when independence from South Africa was unexpectedly won.