Before Sunrise/Sunset in the Namib Dunes
23rd to 25th April, Ian
On Saturday after breakfast we headed out to a
place in the dunes a few km south of Swakopmund where we'd booked some
activities the previous day. First, we went quad biking, which was every bit as
much fun as it sounds. Heidi and I took one bike and Paula and Zoe another, and
we zipped up and down the dunes behind the guy. My bike was 250 cc, which is
plenty to go mad with on a first outing. After cavorting around on the quads
for a while we picked up some sand boards and biked to the top of an implausibly
steep dune. I'm the one in our family who has vertigo. I can recall the first
time that I had it when as a teenager I was with some friends standing at the
top edge of a waterfall. Thinking then about the frisson that you get (even as
a non-vertigo-sufferer), it struck me that with neither wind nor any realistic
possibility of an accidental tumble it could only come from the possibility that
you might wilfully jump. Since that moment I've had mild vertigo that comes and
goes in intensity. (In a good moment I could, for example, rest on the low
balcony of a 60 story apartment with my friends Steve and Helen in Chicago. One
of my worst vertigo moments was walking the levadas in Madeira when, having seen
the enormous sheer drop to the side of one hairy section on the approach, I made
Paula walk it first and tell me how many paces I had to walk to get back to a
less exposed part.) Paula on the other hand has no fear of heights at all - a
couple of years ago, for instance, she did that mad walk over the top of the
Sydney Harbour Bridge (over the arched metal bit, not the road) while I went
swimming at Milson's Point or grabbed a cappuchino. It's surprising, then, that
while Paula was heatedly warning the girls not to go near the edge of our dune I
was in my element and first up for boarding down it. Perhaps its because I can
safely satisfy my urge to throw myself off. The board itself is just a sheet of
bendy woody stuff with one side shiny and quite frictionless. Unlike
snowboarding, you lie down rather than stand up (though you can find people who
will take you down a dune on a wheel-less skateboard if you prefer). When you
get to the bottom you have to walk back up, although they did throw a rope
ladder down for the last 40m or so.
Fun!
After we'd finished boarding we biked back and the girls had a go on the quads on their own in a flat section near the base. They didn't have any kids quads so the girls were allowed out on 125 cc bikes. Zoe looked great straightaway and while the bike initially looked quite big for Heidi she soon got into the swing of it. Chatting to the guy while they were racing round we found that he'd never been to Etosha and had an unfulfilled ambition to get to Victoria Falls. The Namibian guide who showed us round the petrified forest had been to Etosha just once, when he was at school. I don't know if this is a cost thing or whether it's simply like all the Londoners who've never been to the Tower.
In the afternoon we had a brief tour round the small aquarium down the road from our digs to see the diver feeding the turtles and fish. (It may be unfair to call it small since the only reference aquaria I can call to mind are London, Monterey, Boston and Darling Harbour.) Since this was our first stop at the coast, we next walked along the coast for half an hour's beachcombing. Then we stocked up on supplies in Swakopmund. In the supermarket, next to the Knorr packet sauces was a domestic brand which prominently featured a monkey gland sauce; I could see nothing ominous in the ingredients but we didn't try it.
Next morning we drove down to Sesreim, where we are now. This is a very pleasant camp site near to Namibia's main area of dunes. Each pitch is enclosed by a circular low wall of around 15m diameter centred on an acacia that provides shade (and convenient branches for hanging drying towels). Little geckos climb up the tree and craftily hide themselves behind bark that is peeling away. There's also a little pool, which is freezing in the mornings and warms up under the sun through the day; by lunchtime it's perfect for a cooling splash.
This morning we set the alarm for 4:30 am and at 5:00 am, the tents stowed, we were on our way deep into the dunes to catch the sunrise. Supposedly a 45 minute drive to the prime viewing point, we found that we didn't seem to making progress, despite driving at a multiple of the speed proposed by the road signs. We now know, as you could guess, that we had sailed past the place we were heading for and were driving deeper into the dunes. Eventually we came to a car park, the last place suitable for 2 wheel drive vehicles, where a guy told us that the best viewing places for the sun rise were yet further in. A couple of minutes later we were wallowing through soft sand, wondering whether this was such a wise idea before sunrise. (When I asked the car hire guy how to drive the car in dune sand he simply said, "Don't".) Equivocating over whether to proceed, we literally ran into the sand and stopped. Before I could waste too much time trying to dig us out with the Batmobile shovel, a driver from a dune shuttle (so that's how everyone gets here!) helped us out. Having learnt that commitment is key, I got the hang of driving in soft sand: you put the 4X drive into the L setting with the diff lock on and rev it to high heaven. Contrary to what we had been advised, even on soft sand you can stick it in 3rd and run up to 40 km/h; you're okay so long as you're moving forward with conviction. Don't know if this is textbook technique but after the first mishap we managed 10 km of driving before we regained the road.
We got to the Sussosvlei dunes in time for sunrise and ascended the ridge of one of them. They were exotic and beautiful. Without giving a complete taxonomy, the dunes where we were were parabolic; I'm not an expert but I suppose that they are called that because they make parabola shapes like this (taken on the one we climbed in the evening):
These are the most stable dunes, enabling a variety of life to establish itself. Zoe and I ran down the exciting side of it while Paula and Heidi made their way down the other.
Before sunset we returned to the dunes, this time to the one that we were originally shooting for. We again all climbed up the ridge and Zoe and I sat and then lay astride it while the sun went down. To the one side the dune was steep dark beach-like sand. The other side was also steep but warm and richly coloured, with the sun picking out spangles in the sand's quartz. Little winds blew shifting patterns over the sunlit face, and sand continually drifted from the warm to the cool side. After the sunset we returned to camp, where we sit now before dinner in the light of a large low full moon.
A couple of end notes today. First, thanks to Mike B for giving we a clutch of names for groups of vultures. I agree with Mike that the one to favour is a carpet of vultures; isn't that excellent! And finally, a nature quiz question: which land animal has the largest eyes? Answer to follow.
Ian
After we'd finished boarding we biked back and the girls had a go on the quads on their own in a flat section near the base. They didn't have any kids quads so the girls were allowed out on 125 cc bikes. Zoe looked great straightaway and while the bike initially looked quite big for Heidi she soon got into the swing of it. Chatting to the guy while they were racing round we found that he'd never been to Etosha and had an unfulfilled ambition to get to Victoria Falls. The Namibian guide who showed us round the petrified forest had been to Etosha just once, when he was at school. I don't know if this is a cost thing or whether it's simply like all the Londoners who've never been to the Tower.
In the afternoon we had a brief tour round the small aquarium down the road from our digs to see the diver feeding the turtles and fish. (It may be unfair to call it small since the only reference aquaria I can call to mind are London, Monterey, Boston and Darling Harbour.) Since this was our first stop at the coast, we next walked along the coast for half an hour's beachcombing. Then we stocked up on supplies in Swakopmund. In the supermarket, next to the Knorr packet sauces was a domestic brand which prominently featured a monkey gland sauce; I could see nothing ominous in the ingredients but we didn't try it.
Next morning we drove down to Sesreim, where we are now. This is a very pleasant camp site near to Namibia's main area of dunes. Each pitch is enclosed by a circular low wall of around 15m diameter centred on an acacia that provides shade (and convenient branches for hanging drying towels). Little geckos climb up the tree and craftily hide themselves behind bark that is peeling away. There's also a little pool, which is freezing in the mornings and warms up under the sun through the day; by lunchtime it's perfect for a cooling splash.
This morning we set the alarm for 4:30 am and at 5:00 am, the tents stowed, we were on our way deep into the dunes to catch the sunrise. Supposedly a 45 minute drive to the prime viewing point, we found that we didn't seem to making progress, despite driving at a multiple of the speed proposed by the road signs. We now know, as you could guess, that we had sailed past the place we were heading for and were driving deeper into the dunes. Eventually we came to a car park, the last place suitable for 2 wheel drive vehicles, where a guy told us that the best viewing places for the sun rise were yet further in. A couple of minutes later we were wallowing through soft sand, wondering whether this was such a wise idea before sunrise. (When I asked the car hire guy how to drive the car in dune sand he simply said, "Don't".) Equivocating over whether to proceed, we literally ran into the sand and stopped. Before I could waste too much time trying to dig us out with the Batmobile shovel, a driver from a dune shuttle (so that's how everyone gets here!) helped us out. Having learnt that commitment is key, I got the hang of driving in soft sand: you put the 4X drive into the L setting with the diff lock on and rev it to high heaven. Contrary to what we had been advised, even on soft sand you can stick it in 3rd and run up to 40 km/h; you're okay so long as you're moving forward with conviction. Don't know if this is textbook technique but after the first mishap we managed 10 km of driving before we regained the road.
We got to the Sussosvlei dunes in time for sunrise and ascended the ridge of one of them. They were exotic and beautiful. Without giving a complete taxonomy, the dunes where we were were parabolic; I'm not an expert but I suppose that they are called that because they make parabola shapes like this (taken on the one we climbed in the evening):
These are the most stable dunes, enabling a variety of life to establish itself. Zoe and I ran down the exciting side of it while Paula and Heidi made their way down the other.
Before sunset we returned to the dunes, this time to the one that we were originally shooting for. We again all climbed up the ridge and Zoe and I sat and then lay astride it while the sun went down. To the one side the dune was steep dark beach-like sand. The other side was also steep but warm and richly coloured, with the sun picking out spangles in the sand's quartz. Little winds blew shifting patterns over the sunlit face, and sand continually drifted from the warm to the cool side. After the sunset we returned to camp, where we sit now before dinner in the light of a large low full moon.
A couple of end notes today. First, thanks to Mike B for giving we a clutch of names for groups of vultures. I agree with Mike that the one to favour is a carpet of vultures; isn't that excellent! And finally, a nature quiz question: which land animal has the largest eyes? Answer to follow.
Ian
Posted: Mon - April 25, 2005 at 09:39 PM
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Published On: Feb 08, 2006 06:20 PM
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