Ways to call a lot of sand a country
Part II
PART II
My Toyota gives up in the middle of the desert
As usual I made the mistake of stopping too often in order to take pictures. Normally, the trip would be a 3 or 4 hour drive. The closer I got to the Blutkuppe the later it got and I was suddenly aware of the fact that I would not make it on time before sun set! To begin with – there was this wonderfully looking herd of zebras ….
Then I had to step on the brakes because – in the distance – I saw another herd: Oryx-antelopes …
Around 4:50 p.m. I was back on road C28 which leads from Windhoek to Sakopmund. There, at the crossing reading “Tinkas”, I took the turnoff to the right in order to drive over to Blutkuppe … theoretically. Practically, driving at 60 km/h, my Toyota broke down after about 15 km, which didn’t really amuse me a lot. Horrified I looked at the car’s dashboard and saw all possible lamps blinking away like hell! I slowly let the car roll to a halt on this bumpy small sort-of road. The first thought that raced through my mind was: SHIT … This is impossible … It can’t be true … This is not happening to me … Dear Lord, not now! H E L P !!!
Hoping that this was just a nightmare, I closed my eyes for a moment and turned the car key. It seemed to work – the engine was starting up and I was anxious to have a miracle emerge from wherever – which was simply not going to be on this day! As the saying goes: shit happens! Kind of desperate, I got out of the car raking my brains in regard to my next steps. Besides getting closer to sun set, I knew that I would even have to deal with the possibility that – most likely – not a single soul might show up in the next few days on this 4-wheel road since you even need a permit to use it! So, I opened the hood of the Toyota and checked as much as I could – to the best of my knowledge – as long as I had sufficient daylight. Unsuccessfully, of course! Damned, I found no obvious technical defects or malfunctions that had led to the motor breaking down!!
Unnerved I stood all alone, in the middle of rotten nowhere, without help and without a satellite phone. Again I thought: f**k, why does this have to happen to me? Why me? Just give me one good reason! The sun was already preparing to set quietly behind the mountains in a fabulous blood-red color but it didn’t even cross my mind to get the camera out of the bunk and to take a few pictures! No, I had a thousand of other thoughts racing through my brains. All that I could think of was something like: Do I have enough water? Is some food left? How long will the battery keep on working? And how, for Heaven’s sake, am I going to scream out for help?
After about half an hour of brainstorming, I decided to climb into the back of my Toyota and to help myself to a beer. After finishing the first bottle off, I generously granted myself a second Windhoek Lager and wrote my feelings down in my diary. That’s when I decided to walk back to the main street first thing in the morning and to await help there. But, on the other hand, the car rental people of Caprivi had warned me never – under nil circumstances at all – to leave the car unobserved because it would be more than likely stolen right away! Wow, goody – that’s one great perspective!
What really nerved me additionally was the fact that I didn’t have the slightest idea how far back the main street was. It could have been anything between 5 and 10 km or even 25 km! Therefore, how long would it take me to walk back? And what would I do if no vehicle passed by? In that case I would have to trudge all the way back to the car again before sun set. With these thoughts dashing through my mind, I suddenly fell asleep and woke up – oh wonder – on time to see the sun rise.
At first I wanted to start off immediately because I wasn’t really fit to face this dreadful situation, but then I realized that I might not get anything to eat all day long. So I sat down and had some breakfast – ham and eggs with a bit of dry bread which I had bought in Sesriem Camp the day before. The Nescafe reminded me very distinctly that there would be no WC within X square miles and also, that if I could see for miles around, I probably could be seen as well …. Weird situation!
After re-packing my photo-bag – I dumped the expensive equipment and stowed 3 bottles of water, bread, sun cream and toilet paper in it instead – I set out for the long journey dressed warmly, still hoping deep down inside that it would only be a few km-hike and never losing the car out of my eyesight! But it did take me almost 3 hours to get to the crossing with the sign reading “Tinkas”. Three damned hours of wandering around with my backpack, only to suddenly realize that I had not only left all of my pictures (on hard discs) behind, no – even my passport and all of my money was left back in the safe of the car! Apart from the wallet, which I usually carry around with me! To my utmost astonishment, not a single vehicle passed by within the next 5 hours. Sitting and waiting patiently aside the C28, which is supposed to be a main road (according to the street map), I struggled with my nerves and the midday heat not knowing how much water I should allow myself to drink.
This was the view from the place where I waited.....
And then, the first car … didn’t stop! About 5 minutes later the second car … did! A bit delayed because the driver probably wasn’t accustomed to a hysterically waving, screaming tourist, but anyway! As it turned out, it was a couple from France. Asking to be allowed to use their mobile phone, I was confronted with the fact that this would only function if Iridium-based. They carried one with them – for emergency cases – which they had bought 2 years earlier and had never been forced to use in the past. Uuaah, can you imagine my relief? Didn’t last long though because ringing the staff at Caprivi Car Rental and explaining what was going on took me 9 minutes and 2 seconds … even though we communicated in German!
The crux of the matter is – as you probably all know from your own experiences – that you have to know exactly where you are so that you can tell others – especially hand this information over to the potential help. Still, feeling sort-of relaxed I finished off my intimate conversation with the gems I had picked up on the way (e.g. a rose quartz representing my daughter, a white quartz = my wife). The nice French couple didn’t insist on any kind of payment for the call I had made, waved goodbye and drove off …
Well, it took the two Caprivi vehicles another 3.5 hours until they found me. On the way over to my wrecked Toyota, the driver from the Car Rental successfully tried to destroy all hope that it would still be there. The fear that all of my belongings, including photographic equipment, passport, hard discs with my pictures, was suddenly extremely realistic and frustrating – a nightmare! But then, popping up in the distance, I saw something looking very much like my Toyota. To have that much good luck in all this bad luck around, I gladly erased all negative thoughts of the past 24 hours. Unfortunately, the attempt of the mechanic to get the Toyota started again failed. So, after packing everything into the new Bush Camper, I was prepared to continue my journey.
The following 3-hours-trip over to Swakopmund seemed like the ultimate recreational tour. Driving on a dirt road with my Toyota loyally sticking with me … now, honestly, what more can one expect in life?? When finally reaching the city, I had the feeling of diving onto another level of reality: palm trees lining the main street on both sides, gasoline stations everywhere, countless shops and stores, a lot of human beings in the streets … simply fantastic … a bit unreal at the moment for me - but marvelous!
I immediately decided to re-fuel my friend, the Toyota, and was instantaneously surrounded by 5 natives who wanted detailed answers to questions such as: Where do you come from? Where are you heading to? And so on, and so on – the usual! The Hansa Hotel was found quickly and after checking in, I was as eager to have a hot shower as a baby would be for its feeding bottle… I stood in the bath-tub for at least half an hour trying to get rid of all the sand and dirt clinging to my body! After that I went over to the reception in order to ask for a recommendation of a restaurant serving good solid food. The lady there beat me to it by telling me that Scenic Flights had already called several times asking where I was! Damned. That’s when it hit me! Due to the car wreckage and the following 24 hours wasted waiting for help in nowhere land, I had completely forgotten and, of course, now missed the pre-booked flight over the Namib Desert. So, first things first, I ruefully went over to the office to explain what had happened. After a short exchange of friendly words, I decided to reschedule the flight and the young pilot – about 25 years old – promised to pick me up in time the next day: at 5:30 a.m. sharp!
Then I strolled over to the Brauhaus, a meeting place for local heavy drinkers with a touch of German lifestyle. There I enjoyed a Paulaner Beer served in half-liter glasses which immediately raised my spirits significantly after almost passing away in the desert. A pork leg and 3 beers later I switched to a tourist-safe bar recommended by the lady at the reception desk. May I point out that these bars are not of the dingy type – just plain local places where you can dance or simply drink and chat away. The usual activities – for alcoholics.
Since it was early in the evening, nobody – apart from a few funny waiters and me – was there and so after another beer or two I also left the place, returned to the hotel and snuggled into the wonderfully soft, great smelling bed. I had the impression of drifting through heaven on a cloud … considering the last 4 nights in the icy Toyota!I felt like a human being again!
PART III
The flight over the Namib Desert
In pitch-darkness around 5 a.m., I was startled by the ringing of the telephone. Completely disoriented, I picked up the receiver having no idea whatsoever on which planet I had landed lately! More in trance than anything else, I thanked the automatic voice machine for the wake-up call. Missing the bedside table by miles, I pinpointed the receiver to the floor and in the spur of a moment realized that the next two things I had to do were definitely within the bathroom region! First of all getting to the WC on time and, secondly, swallowing Alka Seltzer against my beer allergy. To make a long story short: after a hot shower and fresh clothes I didn’t really feel a lot better, but I resembled a, sort-of, human being again – visually at least. Very lucky, I thought, that I had bundled my photo backpack the night before and mentally went through my packing list to find out if I missed something …
Then I grabbed the 20 kg bag plus the tripod, left the room, looked the door and sleepwalked over to the reception area. Looking down to my right hand I was surprised that it held the tripod! What on earth was I going to do with that on the plane? Fed up with my exceptional foolishness, I marched back to the room and was more than astonished to find out that I had no room key … ah, yes … I had left it at the front desk … great! So over to the reception again to fetch the damned key, back to the room to throw the tripod in and – last but not least – I took the tour back to the reception through the garden. The nice night security guy guarding the palm trees there gave me a kind of suspicious gaze. I’m sure he had a lot of questions but none were asked… Once on the go, I nearly destroyed the front glass door of the hotel trying to open it with my head. I had just wanted to get into the VW-bus in front of the hotel in a hurry seeing that driver and pilot were already waiting for me. My I remark that I needed all 35 minutes to the airport for regeneration?
Once there, I was pleased to see that the pilot did a serious check on his aircraft. I stored my backpack in the plane, left it again, was just walking around the small Cessna and about to ask the pilot when we would be leaving … when a load of kerosene hit my face. The pilot, just checking on the tanks, had not seen me and apologized. He would never have reckoned me to be strolling around under the wings of the plane… Well, I thought … I couldn’t care less … it doesn’t really matter … and, what the hell, it doesn’t taste that bad!
After finishing all usual, necessary aircraft security checks, the pilot also inspected the inside of the plane to see if any scorpions or snakes have made themselves comfortable during the night since the door on the right side was missing … ?!?
5 minutes past sun rise, with only 15 minutes of delay, we took off and were already flying towards Sossus Vlei.
Within the next 45 minutes – that’s how long it takes from the airport in Arandis to the dunes – I was consciously confronted with the fact that a one-engine Cessna can be louder than anything else in the world. Considering the 6 beer I had the day before and also that I was not that sensitive – my ears were still honestly hurting like hell. The pilot, wanting to please, gave me the good advice to stick tiny little pieces of Kleenex into my earlaps, which I immediately did! On the first try I miscalculated the wind force which hit us with around 200 km/h in this open plane! The second try was rewarded with success. This reduced the noise level for about 30 dB – lowering my personal threshold of pain.Now perfectly well equipped, I was able to concentrate on a wonderful, unrealistic looking landscape every photographer in the world would normally die for.
A few minutes later, after passing over the mountain chain, the attentive pilot pointed out the place where the movie The Flight of the Phoenix had been shot. Well now, at least one of the last scenes where it took off from the ridge high into the air. It was absolutely breathtaking to be able to see this all out of an open plane. While the pilot, supported by GPS, headed towards the big dunes of the Namib Desert near Sossus Vlei, I was on the look-out for interesting sand formations and tried to take pictures with the VF 70-200mm along with the Kenyon Gyro-Stabilizer without wiggling the camera around too much for perfectly focused shots. This is hardly possible from ground level but a real challenge from out of a fast moving plane … you have barely seen something one minute and then it’s gone the other! This little aircraft travels at 200 - 250 km/h which makes shooting pictures more than difficult. But, apart from that, we did intend to reach our main destination – the Sossus Vlei.
En route I did a few experiments over the smaller dunes with the Fisheye, which led to below result …
Time actually flew by and after a 3-hour tour straight across the desert we were heading back home towards Swakopmund and landed in Arandis around 10 a.m. almost 4 hours after we had started off. Happy to have survived the adventure, I was anxious to find out if I had managed to shoot some sharp photos. In this euphoric state of mind, I let the pilot drive me over to the city office of the organizing bureau. This turned out to be the least funny part on the agenda today – namely, getting the final bill… After that I took a quick meal in the garden of the Hansa Hotel, dubbed the 30 GB of data I had collected during the flight onto discs and mentally prepared myself for the next phase of the journey. Direction: Erongo Mountains to the Ai Aiba Lodge.
PART IV
The Erongo Mountains
While driving towards the Erongo Mountains, I had a kind of negative déjà vu- feeling … no wonder, taking the latest adventures into consideration! I still, very clearly, remembered those 2 days when I was stranded at “Tinkas” because of the Toyota break-down. Therefore, I drove very carefully and didn’t stop at each and every nice however big or small rock on the way taking out my tripod and shooting pictures … no way! I had already gone through that all … Sun set was getting close and there was still a long distance ahead of me. I promised myself so to speak: … I am not going to do anything silly – not today …. As if I had been responsible for all the disaster!
And because of or lets say probably due to this, I drove slowly and didn’t speed over the dirt road with 120 km/h and more, arriving just a few minutes before sun set at the Ai Aiba Lodge. I was welcomed in a very friendly manner and got a lovely room – as so often before on this journey. This time I moved into half of a big, round brick-wall bungalow with a straw roof, set perfectly harmoniously into the stony landscape. My initial feeling was that not only an excellent architect but also a big investor must have gotten together to create such an extraordinary place with this tremendous flair … even evident for me, the spoiled hedonist!
In the evening I mentally recalled the sight of the great blue skies of the last days and I was absolutely certain that no-one would believe it back home. So, a few minutes after my arrival, actually dead-tired from driving around, I swooped up my Nikon along with my heavy Gitzo and shot pictures of some Rock Dassie hanging around on dark red tinted (by the sinking sun) rock formations right behind my bungalow. As usual, the pre-planned 1 photo metamorphosed into at least 200 pictures and I nearly not only missed dinner but also the manager who wanted me to take pictures of his lodge. Quickly getting rid of the photo equipment by throwing it all into the room, I raced over to the restaurant …
Getting there on time, I listened to the chat between 2 native women who kindly treated me to delicious South African red wine. After a few moments I was uncertain if the wine had already gotten to me – which was quite impossible – or if I was hallucinating out of other reasons because I heard these strange little clicking sounds in practically every sentence of their conversation. Trying to find out if I was really hearing clicks, I strained my ears and listened more carefully. Sure enough, there they were … Up to this very moment I had always thought that it was a kind of gag in the movies (e.g. The gods must be crazy…).
During the following meeting with the manager, I was informed that the language (Damara Nara) of the locals definitely does have the 4 clicks! Although a very nice waitress demonstrated the sounds to me, I still couldn’t believe it. But in nearly every single sentence one could clearly hear these clicks.
Fascinated by this unbelievable language, I tried exercising the sounds … Annoyed, I found out very quickly that the South African Shiraz in fact did loosen my tongue a bit but was no real help in the end. On the contrary .. the more I was clicking away, the less I was understood by the locals and after finishing off the bottle of Shiraz we all came to the same conclusion: that I should better stick to English to be on the safe side. I sadly accepted – on the basis of getting one more glass of wine. But from now on I did call the waitress by using the clicks, which amused all around and didn’t do any harm to the dry area of the Erongo Maountains.
The day next, my body demanded rest – the last 2 weeks had, obviously, been too much and so I slept safe and sound until 7:30 a.m. for the first time on this trip. Relaxed, I took a hot shower, dubbed the data of all memory cards redundant into the image tanks and re-charged the batteries. At 8:30 a.m. I had breakfast and enjoyed not having to dash around as usual. Feeling really comfy, I drank my coffee lying about how great it tasted, then swallowed down the eggs done sunny side up which had a bit of burnt odor with the same enthusiasm as if eating a Kobe steak. I thought – no critics – that living and eating at the expense of the house and not having to get up at 5 a.m. is more than generous. Can one really want more …?
Due to the fact that I had already shot all ordered pictures shortly after my arrival last night, my initial intention was to take the day off, lie lazily around in a lounger right in front of my bungalow doing absolutely nothing… well, maybe reading a good old Hemingway and knocking back a beer or two … well, that was on my mind a few hours earlier. But then it suddenly hit me: because tomorrow early in the morning I would be on my way to Windhoek and, therefore, to the airport again, I got my act together, stuffed the recharged batteries and other necessities back into the photo bag and thought: Hey, you could at least careen around the gargantuan national park right next to the lodge and try to eye a few wild animals and interesting land formations. Something might show up …
Here, like everywhere else in Namibia, it wasn’t a problem to find land, since there was only dull landscape around as far as the roaming eye could see. The photo-grapher’s problem was another one: how can you extract a tiny little section of this rural surrounding without automatically excluding the feeling you had taking the pictures? On the way I saw a few Monoliths lying around and was wondering on how to set them dramatically in scene. Unfortunately, all attempts failed because I didn’t have any measurement comparisons. What was, therefore, left for me to do? No sooner said than done and I decided on posing in the picture myself. But … how can I manage to get over to the Monolith in 20 seconds – which would be the maximum lead time of my Nikon? The first tries ended in kind of awkward looking positions because I was unable to hightail it to the top in time. Then, after the third try I was finally successful by running as fast as I could and then leaning cool and relaxed against the rock formation. From afar nobody would be able to uncover that I had been sweating like a pig and even had difficulty trying to catch my breath ….
Somehow or other that was the way I spent the rest of the day and then decided to stroll over to the rock formation directly behind the Ai Aiba Lodge, once again fully equipped with all the photographic equipment, in order to take some magnificent shots at the sun set from over there. Said – done! After about 5 minutes I reached the peak of the rubble heap and set up the tripod. Only a few centimeters until the sun optically touched the horizon ….
Strange that no positive feeling for the sun set materialized on this day. Okay, fair enough … I was in Africa … positioned on a sensationally sun lit rock … but the sun was still the same one I had back home… These were my very privy thoughts at the moment.
My last day in Namibia was now getting closer to the end. One more nice dinner where I could show off with my click-technique, one last night and then it would be time to wave goodbye. I arranged a wake-up call for 6 a.m., packed all of my bags in a jiffy – which took a lot longer than usual this time because I had to take the handling of the Check-In through the comedians at the airport into consideration! Then I stacked everything into the Bush Camper, drove over to the parking lot right in front of the reception, left it there and hurried to my already pre-pared breakfast table. After this I checked out and left very early – at 8 a.m. sharp.
The trip over to the Car Rental went smoothly and without problems. After handing back the vehicle, I arrived at the airport in Windhoek far too soon. And that led to what I absolutely adore when traveling … the endless boring time spent waiting! Has it ever crossed your mind that we tourists spend practically 90% of our time having to wait for whatever?! Nobody ever talks about or writes about that in any travel report I’ve ever heard of or seen although it definitely is one of the main activities of every tourist.
Need an example?
Okay – here it is: First of all one waits at the Check-In; then once more at the Passport Control section; furthermore at boarding time; in between in front of the WC when you have this urgent need; then in the plane waiting for the meal; again in front of the WC; and so on, and so on… This list can be endlessly prolonged. And, don’t get me wrong, this is not restricted to flights only. This happens all the time in every country in the world … waiting for breakfast: the eggs, the coffee… then again for the rental car or the driver. Or, when on you’re way, you have to wait patiently to maybe see an animal or two worthwhile taking a picture of … Finally, you are doomed to wait for your departure and so on … Let’s sum it up: a holiday is actually a sequence of waiting … no more, no less.
Seen in this light, the Chinese saying: … the path is the goal … gains a very different meaning. At least that’s my opinion. Maybe one should incorporate a company providing space for people wanting to have the ultimate holiday feeling but staying comfortably at home? How about an empty factory with folding tables and pretty posters on the walls where holiday-hungry folks could get prepared for upcoming trips? But even if this horror version might never come true, one thing is true: You can’t honestly talk about any sort of recreation traveling through the Namibian Desert. It was, though, very interesting, averaged expensive and the people I purposefully and coincidentally met were all basically friendly. Last, but not least, I am very happy and more than thankful for all of the terrific photos I was able to take in those 8 days!
Will I ever return …?
No, I don’t really think so. There are such a lot of gorgeous places in this world waiting for me to be discovered and far too little time left to do so.
In this sense … I hope you all have enjoyed the short report on Namibia und will look into my stories soon again. Next in line is going to be about my adventure in Nepal where I had been before Namibia.
Stay tuned guys ….