Il tuo carrello è vuoto
Deserts, sand dunes as high as mountains that reach the ocean with colors ranging from yellow to rust, torrential rivers dry for many months of the year, dirt roads that look like billiard tables and very dangerous because they invite you to press on the accelerator, mines of precious minerals, generally hot/dry climate ranging from desert to subtropical, the second country in the world for population density per sq km (3.3 people), at least 11 different ethnic groups present on its territory, first country in the world to include the protection of nature in its constitution, a typically desert flora with some extremely particular species, a very abundant fauna also present outside the protected areas… This is Namibia, a marvelous and attractive country which has captured part of my heart and where I would like to go back!
Its capital is Windhoek located on one of the many plateaus of the country practically in the center of the state, it has a dry climate with temperatures, which in the winter months are between 5/18° C.
As soon as I got off my scheduled flight, at 5.30 a.m., the crisp morning air immediately woke me up from the torpor of the flight and after having collected my luggage I went to the rental company office in the city where I booked my car, strictly 4x4, which would have accompanied me for all 23 days of the tour. After checking the equipment of my Toyota pick-up (2 spare wheels, a water container, to be used exclusively for radiator water, to be checked daily, a first aid kit, checked the presence of the equipment for the replacement of tires and a portable refrigerator to have always fresh drinks),
the thing that amazed me were the many, right recommendations for trouble-free driving along the country's roads; the roads inside are practically all unpaved and in perfect conditions, very often as straight as swords and with a view of a few km, with no traffic (I traveled over 300 km, meeting a maximum of 3 cars), so that people don’t pay attention to the speed ( recommended on dirt road max 70 km/h) and this can cause serious accidents, as I then happened to see; in fact, crossings by of wild animals are quite frequent (especially monkeys and warthogs) which suddenly emerge from the bushes and given the particular road surface, braking suddenly to avoid them, having an excessive speed, causes loss of control of the car with consequent rollover with imaginable results. Among other things, Kasco insurance of the car covers all damages except "rolling" (the rollover). Another danger along the roads are the thorns of the shrubs which are even more than ten centimeters long and as hard as iron enough to puncture the tyres without problems. In conclusion, drive paying close attention to the speed, avoid sudden braking, check often the petrol level, since the petrol stations are very far from each other, avoid traveling at night and do not stop if someone asks you unless that it is not the police or other tourists . Despite all these warnings, for the entire duration of the trip, apart from a puncture, I haven’t had any problems.
Finally the next morning my journey, to discover the beauties of the country, began.
The first planned stop was the approach to the dunes of Sossusvlei which I reached after 8 hours of driving getting familiar with the car and the roads, surrounded by an exceptional landscape which gave me a first idea of what I would see in the following days.
The next morning, when the gates opened, I entered the Dune Park, a symbolic place in the Namib desert: without stopping too long, I went directly to the most interesting part, which is about 60 km from the entrance: Sossusvlei and Dead vlei. The environment here is stunning: red sand dunes a few hundred meters high, animals everywhere and then the depression of Dead Vlei, a sort of basin surrounded for three quarters by high dunes with, in the lower part, dozens of dead acacias, now skeleton, the only witnesses of the past oasis, before the drying up of the lake that occupied the central area; here the black of the trunks, the red sand of the dunes, the white of the saline bottom and the blue of the sky make this place one of the most famous in Africa and one of the most portrayed by photographers.
Then if you manage to stay in the structures inside the park, access is free at all hours and therefore you can also see this spectacle at dawn or dusk, moments in which the play of light makes the valley even more attractive. In the park many dunes have a name, often accompanied by a number, which corresponds to the distance of the dune from the entrance: Dune 45 the most famous, Big Mama, Big Daddy… Climbing to the top of these dunes is exhausting, also because the heat is already felt in the early morning, but the spectacle that can be enjoyed from above is incomparable. Then oryx, coyotes, gazelles, singing goshawks, passerines and much more accompanied my excursion.
The next day I faced a transfer stage of 340 km to the city of Swakopmund. On the way I made a detour to visit the Valley of the Moon and the Welwitschia plains, here the landscape is truly lunar, one of the natural wonders of Namibia, with its majestic landscapes, the result of thousands of years of erosion; in this valley there is one of the oldest plant species in the world: the Welwitschia mirabilis which can continue to grow and survive even more than a thousand years, for this reason it is considered a living fossil.
I stayed for three days in Swakopmund, a small colonial-looking town overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Here there was no shortage of things to do: I went on an excursion with a local organization in the Namib desert, which completely surrounds the city, in search of desert reptiles: Namib chameleons, webbed geckos, Peringuey vipers, desert lizards, worm snakes… it was an incredible experience to see the guides move through the sand dunes and challenge me to find these animals, which of course I could’nt spot. Another round led me to the immense dunes that end directly in the ocean, on the Walvis Bay side where the flamingos concentrate in the lagoon at sunset. I visited at Cape Cross, 180 km to the north, the large colony of Cape fur seals. The colony is accessed via elevated wooden walkways in order to avoid excessive disturbance to the animals, giving incredible photographic opportunities.
Then I moved to Damaraland, a little further north, not without passing through a point on the Skeleton Coast, so called due to the presence of countless shipwrecks (over a thousand) beached; the cause of these shipwrecks, which still occur today, is due to the sand that reaches the sea from the dunes, due to the wind, that creates unpredictable underwater shoals even at great distances from the coast.
In Damaraland I had the best experience of this trip by doing at least three excursions in the desert, which here is mainly rocky, with my off-road vehicle in search of desert’s elephants and lions, I met the elephants several times while I only found two lions (among the other monitored with the collar) poisoned dead for a few days; unfortunately in these areas there are many wild cattle farms and the breeders do not tolerate any predation and often leave poisoned morsels. This practice has almost extinguished the few specimens of desert lion present in the area.
It was a blast driving into dry riverbeds to cross them; use low gears to overcome sandy slopes and rocky paths; make a curve to go around a hill and find yourself in front of a herd of elephants, backtrack to let them pass and observe their behavior and protection towards the young; having to wait half an hour on top of a hill, on which I had climbed, to wait for a bull elephant in rut to stop destroying plants and shoulders of the path by venting his frustration near my car; meet many other animals not at all intimidated by my presence and photograph them even from a very short distance; make time to visit Twyfelfontein's graffiti and geological formations.
A separate discussion should be reserved for the Himba population, the red people of Namibia. This This ethnic group represents only 4% of the population, rejects modernity and prefers to live according to their traditions. The Himba people mainly raise goats and still today they follow the transhumance of the herds which are a source of life and religious belief. In an Himba village you meet mainly women, children and some elderly people because the men are in the fields with the cattle.
The women have a statuesque body generally covered by a goatskin skirt and seem to resemble terracotta statues, in fact they sprinkle the body and hair with a mixture made of goat butter, herbs and ocher earth, this, in addition that protect them from the sun and insects, gives their body a red color considered very sexy. They also have hair styled in various ways, which change with age and the situations of their lives.
Himba villages are all made up of mud huts with thatched roofs and are surrounded by a protective outer fence made of woven branches.
The last stage of my tour was the visit to the Etosha National Park where I stayed for five days, in which, with my car, I traveled all the park roads in search of the animals.
Under German rule in 1907 the governor of German South West Africa (as Namibia was then called), proclaimed Etosha (meaning great white plain) a national game reserve. At that time it covered over 100,000 sq km of territory and reached as far west as the Skeleton Coast. After various controversies and geopolitical problems, in 1970 the park was reduced to its current size of just over 20,000 sq km.
Inside you can stay in six Camps to access which you must book in advance because the request is always greater than availability: Dolomite, Okaukuejo, Halali, Onkoshi, Namutoni and Olifantsrus.
In Etosha humans are "in cages" in fact the various camps are surrounded by a high fence and people are allowed to leave immediately after dawn and must return at sunset.
Nature lovers and photographers roam the park roads in search of animals and their abundance is astonishing; in winter, our summer, the pools of water offer a unique opportunity because you just need to stop and wait for the animals to come to drink: it is a continuous coming and going, prey and predators, big and small, from the little Dik-dik to the elephant (among the largest in Africa, thanks to the abundance of nutrients), from the gazelle to the giraffes, from the lion to the hyena and at night in the Okaukuejo pool, which is attached to the camp and floodlit, it is also easy to observe the black rhinoceros.
For bird lovers, the rainy season, our winter, is the most suitable, in fact the immense salt flat fills with water attracting thousands of flamingos. More than 340 bird species have been identified in Etosha.
Of the days spent in the park, three are the things that have most impressed me: the Okaukuejo’s pool at night, frequented by all species of animals: is a unique experience being comfortably seated, protected by a balcony that overlooks a few meters far the illuminated pool and waiting for the animals at watering; the meeting, very early in the morning, just after the opening of the gates, with a small group of lions, returning from their nocturnal hunt, passing along the road by car, seen by chance while we were heading to a pool: suddenly, in the golden sea of vegetation, I saw two ears appear, I stopped and after a few moments the heads and then part of the body of the lions appeared, an adult female and three young males, who, for a few minutes, I photographed them , confused in the golden grass, then disappeared in the thick of the bush; the large herds of elephants, made up of more than thirty individuals, suddenly appear from the thicket and arrived at the pool to drink and cool off by bathing in the deeper areas.
I have mainly visited central-northern Namibia, but the central-south is just as beautiful and fascinating and will certainly be the subject of a future trip.
In these lines I have tried to report the salient aspects of my tour, but I can say that it was a unique experience, perhaps the most beautiful journey of my life, which filled my eyes of many images of nature and the emotions of discovery that I will never forget!!
