Namibia; what a weird place.

The black line represents the approximate route we took through South Africa to Namibia from Thursday, 24 Sept to Monday, 28 Sept. The red dots represent the places where we slept, which were (in order) Springbok, Betta, Windhoek, and Grunau.

I had been saying that I wanted to head up to Namibia for the next long weekend, but knowing my skills at planning, I figured that this would probably end up falling through. I had only found one other person, my housemate Kelsey, who wanted to go, and time was running out so it wasn't looking good. Somehow though, we pulled ourselves towards ourselves (inside joke kinda) and with some help found a car to rent for a reasonable price. We had wanted to leave on Wednesday, but because we were a little slow, only we were only able to get a car reservation beginning at 1 pm on Thursday (Thursday we had school off for Heritage Day, which was also Braai Day).

We bought a bunch of snack foods and headed into town to pick up the car, which we had no idea as to the make, model, year, etc. It was a very pleasant surprise when we found out that we were to drive a 2009 Nissan Tiida, which only had about 20,000 kilometers on it. It was a stick shift like most of the cars in Southern Africa are, which made the rental cheaper but was a bit of a concern at first because I was the only one of the two of us who knew how to drive it. Additionally, cars in Southern Africa drive on the left side of the road, which means the driver sits on the left of the car too, and neither of us had driven in these kind of conditions. As soon as I signed my life away, we were given the keys and I got in the driver's seat, more than a little nervous and apprehensive at my driving abilities. However, as soon as I started, it felt completely natural. I was definitely still nervous getting to the freeway, and had to really focus in order to not make a simple mistake, especially since we were in the heart of the city. Thankfully, we made it there with no problems, just apprehension, and got on the N1, which would take us to the N7 up and out of Cape Town and all the way to Namibia.

The first driving glitch we had was figuring out the exit to take to get to the N7. We missed the first turn off because the signs were a bit confusing, and had to turn around and go back, wasting only a couple minutes in the process but it felt like a really long time. Once we finally got on to the N7, it was such a relief and the drive would prove to be smooth from there.

Once you leave Cape Town and the surrounding residential areas and head north, it almost immediately becomes farm and wine land. There are wide expanses with low hills on wither side of the rad as far as you can see, and it is quite pretty. Thursday was a cloudy day, but the greens and yellows of the fields were still striking and in such a contrast to the urban atmosphere that we were used to. The highway we drove on as in great condition, and pretty soon hours began passing as we drove. We were clearly not that prepared for our trip, and had no cds, so we listened to whatever radio stations we could find. As we drove up the Western Cape, we still got a Cape Town station transmission until we were about 2 hours from the border, which was strange. This one was the best because it played a lot of songs we knew. Otherwise, there were a lot of stations that were in Afrikaans. Afrikaans music is terrible in my and many other people's opinions. It is the cheesiest soft rock ballad type music you can find and it is sung in a language that is very expressive and often angry sounding. We should have remembered this later on when we didn't have any radio, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Farmland in South Africa

What car company is zoom-zoom from? I hope it's Nissan because that's what I thought of for this picture.

Still in the Western Cape?

This is Kelsey's picture, stole it!

Our plan for the first day was to make it up to Springbok, a town in the Northern Cape/Namqualand, that is about an hour and a half from the border. We got there around 7, which was pretty good timing considering the distance we covered. For navigation, we had picked up several free maps to save some money, but some proved to be more accurate than others, so we were constantly shuffling maps the whole trip. Saved about R30 though! The maps also gave us some ideas of highlights and places to see, because we had only rough ideas of where to go before embarking. One of these sources told us that Springbok sprang up in the 19th century as a mining town and now is the largest city in the Northern Cape, with a population of about 15,000. It also described it as the shopping headquarters for many smaller towns, so we figured we could pick up some cds. Sadly, this proved difficult, and we were left without when we departed the next morning.

As we drove into town we spotted a backpackers and decided to stay there for the night. We were the only people there which was kinda nice. The lady who owned the place told us some good places in town to eat, and also gave us great suggestions on where to go in Namibia. We ended up eating a little diner place, which was cheap and good. Springbok is primarily an Afrikaner town, and it had some graves from the Boer War there too. It is just so interesting in this country, the way people are divided. At night, I don't think I saw any black people eating dinner out or in the streets, it was only white people and a few other Indian or coloured. In the daytime there were lots of people of all types. It might be a carry over still from apartheid, when many black workers lived on the periphery of white towns but came to the city center in the day for work. I don't know for sure, but one can't help but notice these things.

Kelsey and I at the first backpacker's place in Springbok. By the way, I wore the same clothes for three days. Yeah me.

Anyway, I was woken up several times at night by a barking dog that sounded like it was right next to my head, and also by some roosters. However, we made it out of town by 8:30 with a tank full of gas and a pretty set travel plan thanks to the nice Afrikaner lady. We got back on the N7 and drove to the border post. At the South African stop, we had to go to 3 stations and get a slip and our passports stamped, and then headed to the Namibian one. There we had to fill out slips for a visa, and had to make up an address as to where we were going to be staying because we had no idea yet. We got through both posts fairly quickly and were on our way.

The Afrikaner lady in Springbok suggested that we take the road that runs along the Orange River and then heads up towards Aus, which would be a good place to stay. She was right in saying that it was a beautiful route, and I got to have my first long-distance gravel road experience. Only a few of the major highways in Namibia are paved, and I ended up driving mostly on gravel roads until the way back to Cape Town. You had to keep your speed at around 80 km/hour for safety, and the cars headlights were also turned on so passing cars could see you coming through all the dust that was kicked up. It wasn't too bad at first, but by the end of the trip I was so very happy to be on a real road again, because there is always the fear that a tire will pop (they spell tire "tyre" here). Before we left, lots of people asked us to be sure that we had an extra tire handy and to know how to change it, because many people who went to Namibia on Spring Break had problems. Luckily we never did, but the thought of it was constantly nagging at us as we drove. The gravel was not always chunky, but quite sandy and there were tracks in the road left by other cars. Sometimes the track on my side of the road would be rough, so I would had to nudge the car over a ridge of sand to get to another one. It was not very easy driving at times and was sometimes a little swervy and bumpy, but I never felt like the car was out of my control.

Crappy huts that people live in who probably work at the nearby vineyards that run alongside the Orange River.

Artie and Me

1st major gravel road. This one was actually pretty nice compared to some others yuck.

Kelsey in the Orange River. The rock formations/hills or whatever you want to call them were strange looking and varied a lot depending on what part of the country you were in.

After the Orange River route, we pulled into a town called Rosh Pinah for lunch and to pick up some other things. We ate at Wimpy, which is kind of a fast food place like Burger King and kind of like a diner, and they have these all over Southern Africa. Then we went to Spar, which is a grocery store to look for cds after a tip from our waitress that they would be there. Sure enough there was a small selection at the front of the store. There were maybe 40 cds maximum to choose from, and they were not the best selection. We ended up with a 2 cd set of Led Zeppelin and a 2 cd set of Afrikaner singers singing cover songs (I think it's called Legends singing Legends, but I will have to double check). Some of the songs on the Afrikaner cd include Elvis, Bett Midler, CCR, and Abba medlies, and songs by Elton John, Cat Stevens, Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton. That might sound ok and even pretty fun, but you need to hear these versions. They are so over the top and terrible, but funny too for that same reason I guess. They weren't as funny as I thought they would be though, more annoying than anything. That didn't stop us from listening to them repeatedly however, as we often had no other options. Oh and in Led Zeppelin's Ramble On in the third verse or so, there is a LOTR reference. Find it.

We continued driving to Aus, marveling at the strange and interesting mountains and scenery on the way. We also saw some animals and stopped to look at them more. One stretch of road had ostriches close to the side, so we stopped for better look. Unfortunately, they ran away as soon as we got out of the car, but no matter. It was dead quiet around us when we got out, and that's one thing unsettling about this country - the quiet. You can hear the wind as it blows past your ears, but nothing else. It is the quietest quiet I have ever heard, because there is just nothing anywhere. The other unsettling thing is the lack of people. The towns that we stopped in were so small, it didn't make much sense as to why they were there at all except to provide gas for passers through. I have discussed with other people who have visited and they agree that the best way to describe the feeling towards the country is that it is weird. So empty and vast and unfertile. Long, endless roads with tiny towns sprouting up with no apparent rhyme or reason. Namibia is rich in minerals and natural resources, but in order to get them you have to venture so far out into unremarkable land that one can't help but feel a little uneasy and I guess creeped out by it. The population of all of Namibia is about 1.8 million, with 800,000 living in the capital, Windhoek, and most of the rest near the North by Angola where rain is more steady. It's population and size make it the second least densely populated country in the world, after Mongolia. A very strange country.

Nothing but the open road (a real road though yay!).

Oh yeah and at this stop too Kelsey was joking that she was going to find a diamond on the side of the road because this part of the country is full of diamond mines. She didn't find a diamond, but she did find a single quartz crystal about 3 inches long buried in the side of the road. I was super jealous and we tried to find one for me, but no luck. It's ok now, I have moved on.

When we got to Aus, we weren't really feeling the vibe, and it was only 5pm, so we decided to head further North so our next destination wouldn't be as far the next day. We made a detour first to a place where feral horses are supposed to hang out.

Triplets?

Aww

We tried to feed them apples, but they didn't want them! (kelsey's photo)

I was a little nervous about this guy because I thought he was going to hurt Artie (our car), but he was just curious I guess. He also refused an apple. Fine then horsie, fine. (kelsey's photo, I was too slow with the draw).

This group of wild horses started with horses that escaped or were left over from the South African Army. Okay quick and very, very general history lesson on Namibia, ready?:

1485- Portuguese first landed in Namibia, but had no interest and moved on, but Bantu peoples had been living in the area since the 14th c.

19th c - explored more by Europeans, and became a German colony, known as German South-West Africa.

WW1 - South Africa takes over the colony, and holds onto it despite pressure from the UN. Consequently, apartheid basically spread to this territory as well.

1966 - South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) tried to gain independence from South Africa, but it wasn't until 1988 that SA agreed to end its administration.

1990 - Namibia officially independent.

I was quite surprised when I found out that it was only in 1990 that they gained independence, and I was also surprised at the strength of German influence there too. A lot of towns have German names and architecture, and a lot of the food is German-inspired (many schnitzels). Actually after the horses, we drove to a town called Helmeringhausen which was supposed to have a nice place to stay. Unfortunately it was too nice, so we drove up some more to another town called Betta. Driving at night is definitely not recommended, because just as it gets really quiet, it gets really dark. And animals can jump out at any second. I had some very close calls with stupid jack rabbits who had some serious adrenaline addiction problems. There were also these coyote-like animals who would jump put and run in front of/alongside the car for quite awhile before darting back in the grass. It was kinda surreal though, very odd.

The drive to Helmeringhousen was really beautiful and was one of my favorite stretches of the trip. We saw lots of animals and a beautiful sunset that is coming up in the next pictures.

The grasses appeared a mint green in the shade of the hills, but in the daytime they would appear yellow. It was very pretty.

An oryx (or gemsbok) in front of hills glowing with the setting sun.

Wow it was pretty (and quiet!)

Then these guys ran in the road, scratched themselves, and ran off. I don't know what they are, but they are probably related to a raccoon. 2nd cousins at least.

Clouds make sunsets so much better.

Artie kicking up dust.

We arrived in a little town called Betta at about 9 pm, which is not an ungodly hour and you would think that places might still be open, especially lodging places. Apparently not. We pulled into the only place in the tiny, tiny town (or what we could see of it because it was so dark) that had lodging of any sort, and found it completely dark except for the building that had bathrooms. I parked near it, and opened the door to get out. Immediately, two small dogs start jumping on me and lick at me, and not expecting this at all, I got a little freaked out. Realizing they were friendly, Kelsey and I searched for any signs of human presence and were out of luck. The dogs hung around us, except occasionally they would dart off into the blackness and then appear again. We heard music faintly in the distance and decided to get back in the car to see if we could find someone and ask them what the deal was. We drove towards it, and see a bunch of horses run past randomly, and then see the light of a flashlight. We talk to the guy, and he tells us that the person with the keys to the place isn't here, and same with the gas station, so we basically had no choice but to sleep in our car. As we were talking to the guy, some dogs that were gathered in front of the car started to get in a fight. It was a pretty vicious one too, with one dog being thrown down and pulled in different directions by some other dogs. The guy broke it up pretty quickly, but still, it was disturbing. We then drove back to the campsite place and parked close to the bathroom place where there was a light thank goodness. It was pretty comfortable in the car, but it got pretty cold and every once in a while we would wake up from it and have to turn the car on for the heater for a bit.

Our nice doggie friends and protectors. They were sleeping just outside our car.

We got a couple hours of sleep this way, but we wanted to get out of there as soon as we could in the morning, so as soon as the lady with the keys came, we paid R60 total for the use of the bathroom and got some gas and left. We were heading towards Sossusvlei, home of the famous red sand dunes. They were super awesome, see the photos. I think it was my favorite part, so cool.

There were a lot of funny signs along the road like this one. Umm duh.

On the way, we drove through some nature reserves and saw lots of animals, like this herd of zebra.

Hi ostrich, you are a funny animal.

Aww love birds.

Oops, sunset setting, but still not far from the truth.

This dune is big and steep. Hard to tell, but I was there. Believe me.

This place is called Dead Vlei. Never found out what vlei meant, but yeah it was cool.

Rotation fail, but it was Kelsey's photo, not my fault. Dry hard dirt and red, red sand.

Some oryx hanging out under a tree. These suckers were big, about the size of a young horse.

Walking up a big dune at Sossusvlei

Top of dune

Running down this massive thing was so fun. It was really steep and your foot sunk in pretty deep. It also looked like water as the sand flowed down in front of you. Awesome experience.

Sand filled shoes. You can't see them due to the poor quality, but there are people at the very top of the dune behind that we just came down.

Leaving the dunes, we asked a guy for the best route to Windhoek. Unfortunately, we missed a turn, and ended up having to go up a really steep pass. If I weren't so good at manual car driving, we would have been in trouble. Nice views though, and we passed a bunch of people in donkey/horse carriages in a village in the mountains, which we probably wouldn't have seen if we went the other way.

Since it also happened to be Kelsey's 21st birthday (Sat 26 Sept), we decided to be ambitious and make it to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia so she could have a night out on the town. It was about a 4 hour drive, and we made it there around 8. We checked into a nice hotel and then headed to dinner at Joe's Beerhouse, which the guide that we bought last minute told us was a can't miss place in Windhoek. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera to document this night because I wasn't expecting us to stay out that late and I thought it would be annoying to carry. It turned out to be very interesting actually. Joe's Beerhouse is awesome, here's a link: http://www.joesbeerhouse.com/. Of course it a touristy place, but that does not negate it's cool atmosphere. We had a good dinner of assorted game meats and some dessert and drinks. Zebra is really good actually. Then we met some local white Namibians who were celebrating a friend's birthday too, and they offered to show us some of their city. So we went to some other bars/clubs in the area, all of which had a different feel. What was more interesting is that they really hated Namibia and wanted to leave. I guess it is understandable because honestly there is not much there and they must feel trapped, but it was kind of surprising. Being a white person born and raised in Africa must be strange at least from an identity standpoint, especially coming from places that have such strong racist backgrounds. Kelsey definitely had a unique birthday I can say that much. We finally got back to our hotel at around 5 or 6 in the morning, and slept for a couple hours before taking advantage of the free continental breakfast. Then we went back and slept a couple more hours before having to check out at 10. Then we drove around Windhoek a little, looking at some of the historic buildings and stuff like that, and then headed South on the main highway.

View of Windhoek. Nothing too special.

On the highway leaving Windhoek, we passed about 20 or so of these big army trucks, I have no idea why. Some of them were parked on the side of the road and there were dudes with guns hanging out. We thought for a second there might be a coup or something, but naw don't think so now. Still don't know why though, except maybe there is a base nearby.

Self-explanatory

We drove a long ways down the country on Sunday, and before we got to our next stop in Grunau, we stopped near Keetmanshoop to see the Quiver Tree Forest and Giant's Playground. We went to pay the entrance fee, and the guy there told us that they had just fed the cheetahs and we should go check them out. Sure enough, there are two adult cheetahs hanging out in a large fenced-in area a couple yards away gnawing at chunks of meat. They were larger than I expected, and were very pretty. Behind them in a field was a group of meerkats hanging out.

Dude was having trouble eating this. He couldn't rip anything off.

Did you know Meerkat Manor is filmed in South Africa? They make funny barking noises.

After oogling at these creatures for a while, we headed to Devil's Playground first which was a few km down the road. It is a bunch of natural rock pile formations that appear to have been stacked by a giant I guess, but they really were very neat-o. There were little arrows guiding you on a path through the place, but there wasn't enough of them, and we wandered off course, which I predicted might happen in the beginning, as the rocks all look similar. Luckily, I could see the telephone line that ran next to the road and we were able to find the parking lot pretty quickly.

Epic.

Super cool.

Then we headed back over to the Quiver Tree Forest, which is some kind of national monument. Some of the trees were over 200 years old, and they looked really cool. We got there just as the sun was going down, so it looked amazing.

They are called quiver trees because indigenous people used to make quivers out of them. Ohhh makes sense.

Kelsey with a baby quiver tree, cute!

Then we headed off to Grunau and stayed at this little inn which was very cute and friendly and they had an African Gray parrot that we got in a whistling contest with. We had Chicken Gordon Blue for dinner, which I thought was Chicken Cordon Blue? Anyway, it was nice to catch up on sleep in a nice comfy bed before we had to head back to Cape Town the next day. Oh yeah and the parrot said buh-bye to us the next morning yay!

Much needed rest

Before driving to SA, we went to Fish River Canyon, which is the 2nd largest canyon in the world (Grand Canyon #1). It was pretty impressive and would have been cool to hike around a bit more, but we needed to head out. We also decided that since we were really close, we should visit the Ai-Ais hot springs. This wasn't necessarily a bad idea, it was just not what we expected. Instead of natural hot spring pools, there were naturally heated swimming pools, meaning that the hot springs water was pumped into man-made pools. They were nice and warm, but not what we had imagined. We went down near the river and found a lot of awesome quartz and some other sparkly rocks though, so that made up for the disappointing hot spring situation.

Bang

Boom

WTF hot spring?

More natural? 60 degrees celcius beware!

Then we drove some more on some gravel roads until we finally got back on to the main highway. By this time I was so relieved to be off the dang gravel. It got really annoying because you had to be a lot more vigilant and careful, and I had had enough. Oh and Kelsey had figured out how to drive a stick a little bit on the trip so I didn't have to drive the entire time, but I did mostly still. From there on it was smooth sailing, and we made it back to Cape Town around 9, which was quite speedy.

Hee Hee. This was right before we left Namibia. Oh yeah and they accept rands and Namibian dollars in Namibia, as the currencies are worth the same, but you can't exchange Namibian dollars in South Africa for some unknown reason, so we had to spend all of our Namibian dollars there before we left. Gas and Doritios baybay.

Namibian border post

Since we were returning the car the next day and still had some gas to burn, we drove around town a bit at night enjoying the freedom of having a car a bit more. We drove up to Signal Hill to see the city at night since Kelsey had never been there, and went to Rondebosch to get some Nando's (a Portuguese chicken chain store that is absolutely everywhere in Southern Africa) for dinner before heading home. Poor Artie, as we named our car, was very dusty and bug splattered, but he was so great, I miss him.

Western Cape, SA

Western Cape, SA

Part of Cape Town at night from Signal Hill

Overall, it was a great trip and I am amazed at the distance we covered and the things we saw in such a short period of time. Hopefully I will be able to go back to see the Northern part of Namibia sometime, because I am not sure if I got a complete idea of the country. Too soon to judge officially, but in my experience, Namibia is weird.