On Tuesday we left Swakopmund bright and early and turned North towards the skeleton coast, named for its many shipwrecks. We passed a large salt factory - Charles said they make a lot of salt to ship to America to melt our snow. We saw some pipes that were going to a desalination plant, and then we saw the sprawling plant itself. The plant uses reverse osmosis to provide clean water for Walvis Bay and Swakopmund. We passed some Chinese satellite dishes that are allegedly monitoring Chinese satellites. We passed a German village with colorful houses with water tanks on each one. We stopped to view some lichen fields which are protected from vehicle and foot traffic. They feed on the fog from the sea.
Next we came to the shipwreck Zeila. It was being sailed to India to sell for scrap, and the captain did not anchor it well enough in Wallis Bay. It drifted on the current and went aground here. We next stopped in the town of Henties Bay, described by Charles as a fisherman’s paradise. Charles picked up box lunches and we hit the ATM. I had trouble with the first one but the bank directed me to another one up the street and that one worked fine.
We turned East and came to a desolate area where scenes from the movie Mad Max were filmed. There were mountains in the distance on both sides of the road. We were traveling on a nice paved road until construction forced us onto noisy, bumpy gravel. The ruts and bumps are jarring. My watch alternates between thinking I have fallen and congratulating me for closing my exercise ring. One day it thought I climbed 29 flights of stairs. Actual count may have been 4. Sometimes Charles recognizes he’s hit a particularly bad bump and asks if we’re ok. Usually he just rumbles on. Since we are putting in 6 to 7 hour drives between camps, it is challenging.
We came to the area near Brandberg Mountain, Namibia’s highest peak. It is apparently the second largest monolith in the world behind Ayer’s Rock in Australia. Charles said it takes people 3 days to climb it. We stopped in the town of Uis for a pit stop. We saw the trailings from a tin mine. When the mine opened, men came from all over Namibia to work there. Twenty-nine friends came from the North. They had some meat that they cooked with the leaves from the Euphorbia plant. They didn’t know it was poisonous; 28 of them died. Only 1 who didn’t eat any survived. Their graves are all in a row in the town of Uis. We later saw examples of the Euphorbia bush - it is very spiky. Rhino and Springbok can eat it, but it’s extremely toxic to people. Getting the juice on your skin can burn you and getting it in your eyes can blind you. Locals won’t eat springbok if they think they’ve fed on the Euphorbia.
We saw a cart with a family pulled by 3 donkeys. The landscape was changing to rocks and boulders and stony outcrops in the sand. We passed a colorful village called Soris Soris which means Sunny Sunny. We entered the semi-desert with more vegetation, and saw a flock of 10 ostriches.
Our next stop was the Damaraland living history museum. We were greeted by a guide wearing a goatskin dress and taken on a tour. The first stop was the pharmacy where a young woman used the click language to explain various remedies made from tree leaves and bark. Then we saw where the men make tools. Next was the jewelry workshop where they make beads out of ostrich eggs and various seeds. We watched young men start a fire using a traditional tools and antelope dung. When the fire was blazing they danced and sang. Then we hit the craft shop and bought some bracelets and an oryx carving. It was a wonderful experience.
We drove some more and came to Twyfelfontein, which means Doubtful Springs. A guide would take us to see etchings in the rocks made by the San people 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. Charles said it was not steep but I had trouble navigating the rocky path to the ticket booth, so I turned back and Nick and Esther carried on. Charles found a guide who rode in the truck with us to an area to view some of the engravings. The footing was rough but I managed to make it to see two sets of the animals and paw prints depicted. The young guide explained that the pictures were used to educate the kids as well as provide information as to where game was for wandering tribes. He said that the giraffe was a sacred animal to the San people as they thought with its long neck it could reach to the heavens and pull down the rain. We drove back to wait for Nick and Esther who appeared in about 20 minutes time, describing the path as extremely steep and one obnoxious tourist who almost knocked Esther to the ground.
Nick then told Charles that he wanted to go to the lodge and stop driving on the bumpy roads. It took all of us to convince him to first drive to see the elephants. Nick did ride up front with Charles where it is less bumpy. On our way we stopped at a village where Charles donated our leftovers from lunch. There were several adorable kids who came to greet us. Charles said that the village was created when the South Africans displaced an entire village in South Africa and moved the people here. We all want to find a way to help the people of this village. The kids told Charles the elephants headed for the dry riverbed.
We drove awhile and then entered a riverbed. We came across a bull elephant trying to reach the leaves on a tall tree. First to our amazement he jumped to grab a branch, then he stood on his hind legs to grab another. Charles explained that the desert elephants are better conservationists than the savanna elephants. On the savanna, the elephants push over the trees, destroying them. The desert elephants just take a few branches, which they eat stem, leaves and all. We saw another male elephant above us on a hill and then a very old bull. We crossed to the other side and found some females with a small (4 month old) baby and an elephant sleeping against a large stone. Back across the river, we saw three more. For the viewings Charles popped the roof open and we could stand up and take photos unimpeded. After spending 45 minutes or so admiring these endangered animals, we headed for the lodge. We were greeted by singing staff, shown to our tent which is reminiscent of one of our camps in Botswana, e.g., no door on the bathroom, just a canvas screen that rolls down.
In the evening we walked a long path to a boma dinner and had a delicious meal. We met some guests from France who were extremely nice. We took the long walk back and arranged for breakfast at 6:30 am for our 7 am drive to track black rhinos in the wild. The night was very cold and they had put hot water bottles in our bed. After such a long eventful day, I slept like a baby.
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