Namibia Part 1.

Dune 45.

So how does one get as far away as possible from sitting in an office at St. George Campus of the U of T? By going to fucking rural Namibia… to the goddamn desert, that’s how… This very thought came to me yesterday, as I lay in bed (in a tent attached to the top of a 4x4 truck) and tried to get to sleep over the sounds of various critters prowling about outside… The fact that I had never felt so dusty and dried out only heightened the utter disconnect between my circumstances 2 weeks ago and what I’m experiencing now. And this is good. This is partly why I’m on this trip and why I agreed to do the rural Namibia odyssey: to get out of my comfort zone and to challenge myself, to deal with new things (like driving through sand dunes at 100 kph, or on a more serious note, worrying about things a little more primal and base than tenure decisions or book contracts such as “will we find a safe place to sleep tonight?” or “what the fuck do we do if this truck breaks down?” or “how do I reconcile the sheer disparity of experience between myself and the man who assured us that our truck would indeed get through the soft sand at the entrance to Homeb and that no, the jackals wouldn’t be a problem at night”). Being utterly disconnected from everyone is hard for me and man, here in Namibia, when you leave a big town, you may not see another soul on the road for hours… seriously. There is NOBODY out there, let alone an internet kiosk that lets you stay in touch. You’re lucky if there is cell coverage (we have Sarah’s unlocked Sony Ericsson phone… “you’re gonna be a rock star…”.



Campsite at Sesriem

As for the desert, I like it but shit, I would never live out there. The constant dust in everything, the parched land and skin is unreal. At the same time, the beauty of the sun rising over the giant dunes between Sossuvlei and Sesriem is something that I will not soon forget. We got up at 4:30 so that we could pack up the truck and drive the 45 km to the aptly named Dune 45 where we climbed up the spine of the sand dune (not as easy as it sounds) with about 50 other people and then watched the sun come up from the top… And if that wasn’t enough, we then kept going the other 20km to Sossuvlei proper and hiked in to Dead Vlei, a totally surrealistic landscape of dead trees in a dried lake with majestic dunes serving as backdrop… totally stunning but man, oh man, very hot out there.

Dead Vlei

Checking things out in Homeb.

Sunrise at Dune 45.

When we left that park we were headed towards to Walvis Bay and had it been me, we would have just stopped at the first empty campsite we came too because we didn’t have a permit for that night and my mind was still working on the Canadian assumption that there are park wardens, etc. Well, if there are any in Namibia, we haven’t seen them… In any event, Philippe convinced us to push on to Homeb and after some scary incidents involving sand (full disclosure: we got stuck in some soft sand earlier in the day at the popular dune site and needed help getting out, so we were very leery) we made it just in time to set up before full darkness fell. A local man from a nearby village brought us some firewood and started it up for a small fee. I cooked some venison steaks and rice and we ate well far, far, far away from anything in the rest of the world.

When Helene and I first arrived in Windhoek a couple of days ago, we had to wait almost an hour and a half for Philippe to pick us up because he had made the car guys replace the 4x4’s two front tires. I am very glad for that wait given the roads we’ve been on. Luckily for us, Phillipe is used to driving long distances on gravel roads in Quebec and when he saw the wear on the treads he told them “no way.” We went to do a grocery and then 20 km later were in the outback… only gravel roads (the graders are heroes here as far as I’m concerned…) and magnificent scenery that continually changes as you traverse regions.

The Jack Bauer in the Desert look... ha ha!

We arrived in Walvis Bay this morning and checked out the waterfront while looking for flamingos that we learned later, are still up in Etosha National Park… After a quick trip to see a salt plant, we drove to Swakopmund, a German colonial town that will be Helene’s and my base next week as we job shadow a contact who does AIDS awareness with children. This place is crazy – SOOOO german and here in southwestern Africa… Namibia is truly a diverse country…

Here, I got to use some internet but may well be incommunicado for another week until we return on Monday next. I hope not, because being slightly connected helps keep me stress-free… and writing and reading emails from friends as well as news from home helps me deal with the culture/class shock, which is not inconsequential this time round…