Contrastful Namibia

In the evening of the first day of the arrival to the Namibia, while driving on the desert road, I saw a naturally colorful miracle: African sunset, which simply took my breath away. With no sign of any life forms in the middle of asperous nature and with shroud of stars above us in the night.

That is when I thought, isn’t Namibia the best place on earth? A place where you can fade into nature and leave all our troubles and routine behind, evoke forgotten ideas and feelings, to be with yourself and to hear how the silence sounds. Since there are less than two million people in Namibia and size of the country is truly large even if compared with the African scale (824,292 sq. km), everyone can find here much space for themselves. No surprise that even such Hollywood stars as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt found their shelter from media attention in the cozy Swakopmund town, hotel „Burning Shore“, where we also have visited. Though the biggest part of Namibia consists of deserts (Namib and Kalahari), the landscape of the country varies while traveling. We had the opportunity to get an eyeful of mountains, canyons, savannah...

Not so popular as neighboring South African Republic and really safe country (after regaining it’s independency from South Africa in 1990), with nice infrastructure, German order (you’ll rarely see any trash), vast accommodation offers (from castles, cottages, various category hotels, till ordinary tents), diversity of people, offers of active and adventurous tourism, the opportunities of hunting exotic animals – Namibia still is undiscovered pearl of tourism. The symphony of sand

Namib desert is considered one of the oldest in the world, whose dunes a thought to be formed 40 million years before. This desert has very massive sandhills, some of them reach even 325 meters of height. Why deserts attract artists and photographers so much? It all becomes so clear, after seeing these queens of sand, their subtle and colorful shades from the tint of apricot to the glaring color of brick and their graceful shapes formed by the prevailing winds.

We climbed to the one of the tallest sand-dunes in the world located in the Naukluft park, Sossusvlei area. When we entered the Dead Vlei a surrealistic view stood in front of our eyes: black stone-dead acacias (some of them - even 500-600 year old), contrasting with the glowing red sands and bright azure sky in the cracked white clay talus.

If you want to see the playfulness of the colors, sun and shadows it is best to arrive to Sossusvlei in the sunset or sunrise and certainly to climb on one of the dunes. It won’t be easy. Strong wind blew the dust into eyes and forced us out of our shoes. Our feet sank deep into the hot sand... No one has told us that the place was infested with snakes, so we shouldn’t take off our shoes. We took off them to make the climbing easier, but when we discovered what threatened us, shoes were back on our feet in a minute. Fortunately, we didn’t interest snakes much, only bugs, who were swarming here in the sand.

After climbing to the top of the dune a great feeling of freedom had overwhelmed me, so great that I even wanted to scream, seeing the vast sand infinity. There we had no difficulties going back, you can eventually slide down from them.

In the vicinity of Sossusvlei there is Sesriem canyon, another miracle of the nature, reflecting the vestiges of long lasting erosion, which formed a rift one kilometer long.

Multi-faced Namibia

It is unbelievable that in this sparsely populated country there is such variety of people. Here we can hear even 16 different dialects. Droughty Namibian lands were inhabited by San, Damara, Nama tribes dating to the oldest times. Nowadays the Namibian sun is shared by even 11 ethnical groups. Largest of them - Ovamboland. We were mostly surprised when we met people from Herero, Himba and Damara tribes.

Quite disassociated from civilization himba tribe is located in the mountainous Kaokoland region near Cunene river and the Namibia - Angola border. Himba tribe are the nomad shepherds traveling with their herds where they could find water and food for the animals. They not only know how to pasture animals now, but also to ask money for each photograph impertinently. Whereas beautiful himba women are probably the mostly photographed women of the Namibian tribes. If you won’t give money she will wiggle and move around and of course photograph won’t success.

The members of this tribe also distinguishes with it’s original hair style. Himba people plait their hair which is fortified with clay. Not less impressive are himba apparels made from leather, iron or shells.

Herero - tribe familiar to the himba. They also live from stockbreeding and speak the same language. Herero people live in the central and east side of the country. Their women prank themselves with colorful long-sleeved dresses despite the 40 degrees of temperature. In the XIX century, when Namibia was under German occupation, herero women started imitating german missionary women and eyed their long-sleeved dresses. To make that dress even 12 meters of material is needed. It is worn with six or even more under-skirts. The other inseparable part of herero people’s outfit is their head cover, reminding horns. This is like a sign which shows that herero people are the stockbreeders. Not believing in that I asked the herero cook in the hotel about his mother. Do they really wear that dress each day? He assured me that it was so. Whereas herero men doesn’t have special outfit.

From all the local people we met representatives from Damara tribe mostly. Damara people are one of the oldest Namibian ethnical groups. Their language belongs to Koisan language group (consonants are pronounced with specifical sound like click). Damara people are very friendly. Most of them work in hotels and it seems that they are masters of all works, because the same person can meet the guests with cocktails, bring their luggage, then cook some food in the kitchen and after dinner cheer up them with songs and dances. If you saw a Damara man driving it would always be their ordinary transport mean - cart, pulled by donkeys. They will have newspapers, blankets for sleeping and even radio there.

Who wants to communicate with Namibian tribes closer, the san tribe waits for them. Who are better known as Bushmen. You can adrift far away from civilization while being with them in their tents. Bushmen will gladly join you in hunting and allow you watch their shamanous dances and songs.

Adventures with cheetahs

Namibia’s wild nature and Atlantic Ocean soughing in the near are wonderful conditions for various animals. Namibia is famous for one of the biggest parks in Africa called Etosha. It is very huge park of wild nature, covering 22 270 square kilometers. 144 kinds of animals dwell in this territory, including: lions, leopards, elephants, zebras, giraffes and 340 kinds of birds.

It is best to watch animals when the rainy season is over, from April till December. If you won’t be able to see leopards or cheetahs in the Etosha park, you can take a look at them while traveling to the capital city Windhoek and visiting the Okonjima Afrikat Foundation territorie on it’s way. This institution deals with the rehabilitation of cheetahs (the biggest part of their population lives in Namibia). They take them from commercial hunting farms and accommodate in their own territory. It is so, because these predators annihilate some precious animals and this can’t be allowed.

We desired to see cheetahs and started our search before sunset. Then we sat down to the uncovered jeeps. A famous guide named Deen, who is working with the BBC “Wildlife” programme journalists agreed to escort us. Special antenna helped us to follow cheetahs, which loudly informs about animal’s presence. We felt like real wild animal hunters as we pushed forward through the bushes and trees with the jeep, holding our breath with eagerness.

We knew that it is a little chance to see a cheetah. Only half of adventurers get lucky to see that beautiful animal, bet very fortunately, we had an opportunity to look at it! Deen fed them near our car warning us to keep hands safe. He has somewhat tamed cheetahs, speaks with them in some language understandable for these animals, but also mentioned that if he startled a little, the danger for his life would arise.

Not all the tourists want only to admire wild animals. Namibia attracts hunters from the entire world with its vast hunting area and the variety of exotic animals. Namibia is oftenly visited by many hunters that’s why there are so much hunting lodges and the whole hunting process is quite simple and nicely tuned. Papers are quickly written at Windhoek’s airport, guns are usually brought by the hunters themselves, trophies prepared and sent with the plane. The hunting package consists of flight, accomodation, delivery, the hunt with the attendance of the professional, the preparation of the trophy and washing of everyday clothes for free. The hunting season lasts from February till November.

Atlantic Freshness

On our way to the second Namibian city by size and the capital of summer - Swakopmund, we saw unearthly landscape of moon and never-ending vastness of extraordinary shaped hills, which clearly reminded us the pictures from Mars. Swakopmund surprised us. It was very elegant, tidy and colorful, with luxurious coast villas, palm coppices, European style cafeterias and colonial architecture. This town is more similar to Mediterranean one rather to African resort.

Swakopmund is very favoured by the visitors, because of its Atlantic freshness, which is so highly appreciated after the sultriness of the Namibian desert. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie also enjoyed their holiday here. The atmosphere here is so quiet and relaxing: local people are playing chess on the coast, children are playing around and the souvenir sellers are calmly reading the newspapers, sometimes throwing their glances at somebody who is interested in their art. The time almost freezes.

This town is also like the capital of adventures for the others. Because here you can find much entertainment: like flying above the dunes with paraglider, riding the 4 wheeler, sliding down the dunes, flying high with air balloon or panoramic flight with the plane.

We have chosen the trip with the ship. It has started in the famous Namibian port - Walvis Bay. It was one of the most vivacious days of the trip. We had been to watch the dolphins and seals. However, we were unsuccessful to see the dolphins, because they, like our captain said – behave like the women – unpredictably. There were many seals though. The whole water was shimmering with these sweet animals. And some of them, the friends of our captain, even visited our boat, tenderly climbed on our knees and bravely made pictures with the people on the ship. They all were attracted by the fish in captain’s bucket. Perhaps it isn’t that romantic, but however, the view was like from a dream. The colony of Cape Cross seals consists even from 80-100 thousands of bellowing and constantly brawling beings. Only the one from four newborn seals survives, because the biggest part of them is swept by the wandering jackals and hyenas.

The lagoon has a stunning variety o birds: pelicans, cormorants, flamingos are always leading the ship during the trip. After it the savoury feast had been awaiting us with fresh oysters. The most delicious I have ever tasted. And all of this with the South African champagne!

The art of rocks and stunning vegetation

Near the Twyfelfontein (meaning "the doubtful fountain") we saw unique stone carvings in the Khorixa region. There were even about 2500 of them. It is also one of the biggest rock carving museums under the sky in the world. The carvings reflect various animals: giraffes, gazelles, lions. Cavemen also left various symbols on the rocks. Nobody knows what these carvings are for, but many scientists believe that this was like a school book for children, from which they were taught to recognize animals.

Namibia also astonishes with rare plants. Welwitschia mirabilis – is one of the rarest plants in the world, whose longevity reaches even 1500 years. The Quiver trees are also very outstanding, growing up to the 9 meters of height. Mahalani palms, whose fruits are sweet, serve the local people as the material for the strong "Amarula" liquor, which is similar to "Baileys". The joyful Namibian people like to sing about this liquor and they also make key pendants and beautiful baskets from the nuts of this palm.

Interesting facts:

Though the sun shines for 300 hundred days in Namibia, it is best to visit this country from April till June; it will be shiny with average temperature of 25° Celsius, the nights cooler. It is best to avoid the rainy season from November till February and the very hot summer, because the heat might be unbearable (sometimes more than 40° Celsius).

The journey around Namibia could be spiced by choosing unconventional transport mean: desert train, land rovers, house on the wheels or a private plane.

The official language of the country is English, but also you could hear speaking German or afrikaans languages.

Because, of the common history most of the tourists come from Germany, Netherlands or South African Republic and also many Chinese emigrants. Our guide solaced that the Chinese might retake the jobs for the local people by agreeing to work for 2.7 Namibian dollar (NAD) per hour. It is sad because the unemployment in Namibia is 30% percent.

The economics of the country stands on mining (the biggest diamonds are mined in Namibia), fishing (because of the Benguela stream Namibia is one of the richest fishing places in the world, there are also many oysters, molluscs, various fishes), tourism and agriculture.

The predial property in Namibia is not expensive, you can buy a house with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and 2 garages in Swakopmund resort for a less than 100 000 dollars.