Tag: desert
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Oh Germany, some road rage, and a schooch
From the south west section of Namibia and Fish River Canyon, in one sentence I’m jumping north east to the Caprivi Strip. This 280 mile-long pan handle, sticks neatly-east out of the side of Namibia and borders at its most easterly end with Zambia. It was created in a way, by some naive Germans in…
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Liquid Insobriety, a Deserted Spa, and a little History
Located in the south of Namibia, close to the border of South Africa, Fish River Canyon is the largest gash in the African continent, and second only in the world to North America’s Grand. During the colonial era, there was much oppression, genocide and marginalisation in Namibia. The colonial authorities (mainly German) in the south…
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Nobody suspects a pigeon….but flamingoes?
We had driven through four landscapes since we left the giant dunes of Sossusvlei. We ambled leisurely through over 120 kilometres down to the coast. Venturing past mountains of rugged rock, more dusty flat pans as far as the eye could see, raggedy, stoned hills covered in tufts of hardy grass, and sporadic, stoic, shadeless,…
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Why did the one-armed man stab the pigeon-killer in the neck?
Side roads, unfit for any mediocre vehicle, lead to places the mind can’t imagine. It’s why we take them. A trip to Diaz Point! Awaiting us was a dilapidated shack of a cafe, some basic, eerily soulless and empty back-packer-esque dorm rooms which were falling apart, a weather-beaten, crumbling house, and some out-buildings which were…
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Leaving the sheep for some sand castles
Swakopsmund is slightly different to other Nambian towns. It has a certain charm about it being on the ocean. It’s a bit like Weston-Super-Mare, but it’s down with the kids. With plenty of busy holiday accommodation, lovely views, fishing trips out to sea, museums, good coffee shops, easy promenades full of arts and crafts wafting…
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Iconic rocks, OCD nooks and Look! A tree!
Packed around forced-manicured grass; a village of A-framed huts and boxy bungalows are agonisingly, tightly and tidily organised into poured concrete conveniences. All anti-organically strewn around an actually rather difficult place to live in an attempt at human consolidation. It just doesn’t quite feel right. When observing the officious people in Namibia in these OCD…
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Hobbits in the desert & checking out the ladies bathroom
It’s as if hobbits built a tiny second home in the desert, with a nod to being OCD and Christian. The accommodation at the border is possibly the most organised, most clean, most “model-village” that I have come across. It’s like a rather useful, miniature Hobbiton with grass that doesn’t quite belong. Welcome to Germany…
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WARNING: CONTAINS MASSIVE SOLIFUGAE…..but there is also a squirrel and a viking)
From Xade (pronounced Kar-déh), along a road with more sand than Sandy McSand’s sand-filled pockets after a day in the sandpit, we covered only 45 kilometers in an hour. Penelope did well, and as the sun began to set we decided to pitch camp in the wilderness buffer area, well before reaching civilisation in the…
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Awkward Nudists! A civilised cornucopia and Tortoise
After the rains, imagine puddles, wet wood, glistening greenery and frolicking beasts – but only for a short while. The sun reasserts it’s magnificence as fast as I can polish off a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. The Kalahari has a few surprises for us and it’s absolute treat. A spectacle that only happens…
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Mother Nature’s ooze
To a certain degree, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve is now familiar territory. While the weather appears to be so consistent in the CKGR, it is astonishing how different the desert can look and feel after visiting it multiple times. No matter what the conditions, or the wilderness, it always demands total respect. This landscape is…
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Fairytales and massive ears
The fourth morning of traversing through the Kalahari began early. The drive was roughly 200 kilometres through more sand and dust and Piper was to be our next camp to the north. Supposedly, we were travelling through one of the beauty spots of the Kalahari. Deception Valley and the iconic salt pans that are a common…
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A shocking privilege
Arriving at the Kutse gate of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve is somewhat of a relief. It’s been an intrepid drive of excitement and expectation, but what’s ahead is what we’ve come for. The drive is about to be left behind and the expedition and task is ahead. Very quickly it becomes apparent that the…
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To the Dessert! With rabies in the moonlight
Jumping back to Botswana, it has been a couple of days drive to reach, in my opinion, the last untouched wilderness on solid ground: The Kalahari dessert…. And it is, the absolute pinnacle of Pavlovas, a stuffed-strudel of a sequel after roaming through the melodramatic peripheral-wilds. It’s a bucket of creme brûlée (my favourite of…
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