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| Oryx |
While
we were in Chagos, a very large sailboat with a crew of about 8
people pulled into the lagoon one day, eventually launched a large
RIB and came ashore at Île Boudin, where a group of cruisers had
congregated at the 'yacht club'. The people from the mega-yacht were
friendly enough, a collection of crew from all over the world,
including one woman from Namibia. She was the first Namibian I had
ever met and not what I had expected a native Namibian to look like.
Not only was she tall and attractive, but fair-skinned with blond
hair and blue eyes. Many cruisers who sail around South Africa stop
in Namibia and I peppered her mercilessly with questions as it always
sounded so remote and wild to me. She said that it was a beautiful
country but the weather was frequently bad. The part about the bad
weather stuck in my mind as being the epitome of a 'fair-weather'
sailor, I prefer to avoid any place with a poor weather reputation.
However,
as we were preparing for our departure from Cape Town, we knew of
many boats in our 'fleet' that were intending to stop in Namibia so
we decided to do the same. After a harrowing departure from the
Royal Cape Yacht Club in 30 knots of wind (there was a lull when we
cast off the dock lines – it had been as high as 50), we made our
way to Robben Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site, where Nelson
Mandela had been imprisoned for many years. The sail there was
delightful as it was a downwind run and the winds had abated to a
moderate level. On the north end of the island is an anchorage which
is popular with fishing boats although much of the bottom was foul
with rocks. After spending so much time at dock, it felt good to be
on the hook again in a protected anchorage, but we were prohibited
from landing a dinghy on shore.
The
following morning we began the 3-day passage to Luderitz, Namibia, in
light winds. It was a combination of sailing, motoring and
motor-sailing but we arrived in Luderitz in the morning and our
friends on Amigo, who were already there, helped us tie up to
a mooring. The clearing in process was simple enough though we did
have to pay a small fee for arriving on a weekend. The South African
rand is accepted everywhere and is the exact same exchange rate as
the Namibian dollar. Together with Helga and René, we explored the
area, including a trip out to Kolmanskop, a 'ghost' town from the
diamond mining heyday.
One
of the 'must see' places in Namibia is the dunes of Sossusvlei which
is a solid day's drive from Luderitz. Helga, René, Ruthie and I
piled in to a rented 4-door, four-wheel drive pickup and made our way
over the mostly dirt roads, arriving at the Lodge at Sossusvlei just
as it was getting dark. We had no reservation but the lodge has an
excellent reputation for very high quality – along with a
reputation for very high prices. One thing I have learned about the
hospitality industry is that there is nothing as perishable as an
unrented hotel room. If it goes unrented for a night, there is no
way you can recoup that loss of income for that night. Many hotel
managers are compensated on the Average Daily Rate and this motivates
them to keep as many rooms occupied as possible, even if it means
discounting the room heavily. Towards evening, when most people have
already made their choices of where to spend the night, many front
desk managers are willing to make extraordinary deals. We lucked out
this time as they offered us a 50% discount for the night that
included a fantastic dinner buffet, breakfast and private cottages
for each couple. Even though we only stayed there one night, we
quickly got used to the luxury.
We
were up well before dawn as the conventional wisdom is that you start
your hikes up the dunes just as the sun is rising. The dune we
wanted to climb was in a remote part of the national park and having
four-wheel drive was no guarantee that you wouldn't get stuck. I
know a little about driving in rough terrain and I groaned loudly
when the truck in front of us slowed to a crawl and then stopped
completely in a particularly rough section. Keeping the engine RPM
high and shifting into low range, I was able to swerve around them
and keep moving – in the rear view mirror, I could tell that the
cautious driver was going to spend a good deal of the morning trying
to get his truck unstuck. Climbing the dunes was fun although coming
down was more fun that hiking up.
That
night we stayed at a farm that has rooms available for travelers,
which is common in Namibia, right next to Duwisb Castle. As we
toured the castle, we learned that it was built in 1908 from
materials wholly imported from Germany. Helga and René, who are
from Austria, were having a delightful time in Namibia as German is
an unofficial language that almost everyone speaks. Our host that
night kept us entranced with story after story, including one that
captured my imagination about the interment of thousands of men of
German ancestry from Namibia (then called German South West Africa)
into camps in South Africa at the beginning of World War I. This
left hundreds of women to manage the huge cattle stations that their
now-interned husbands used to operate – almost overnight. With the
harsh climate, the rationing of fuel and the enormous size of these
ranches, it was amazing that tough men could survive. That the women
where able to succeed and even take many of the ranches from being
heavily in debt to being profitable is nothing short of a terrific
basis for a remarkable book.
Someone
had told us that the Fish River Canyon was second in size only to the
Grand Canyon of the southwest United States and worthy of a visit.
It was on the border of South Africa and took us most of the day to
drive there, the flat tire we had on the way only slowed us down a
little (many people advise that when you're renting a car in Namibia,
insist that it comes with two spare tires – we hadn't). We paid
our fee to enter the national park but we came to a place where the
road forded the river, which is usually shallow and slow moving,
however, that day, due to some extraordinary rains to the north, the
brown river was raging, with high waves and much white water. This
meant that we had to turn around, drive to where there was a bridge
that went across the river and then make our way into the canyon, a
detour of about 300 kilometers.
Once
back in Luderitz, we cast off the mooring and made our way to Walvis
Bay, about 150 miles to the north. This was an important stop for us
as we would need to provision for our passage to St. Helena, the
small island in the South Atlantic, about 1,200 miles away.
Rendezvousing with Helga and René again, we rented a car and drove
to Swakopmund, a very German town about 30 miles from Walvis Bay.
Everything about the small city was quaint and charming, with
fabulous restaurants and great places for coffee. We were able to
buy good German sausages, cheeses and breads, promising passage meals
that would be unique and delicious.
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| Flamingos of Walvis Bay |
In
retrospect, I am worried that we almost missed Namibia based on the
woman we met in Chagos, who said the weather was bad. Not only was
the weather we had very good but we loved the country and really
enjoyed ourselves there. The spectacular beauty – often rough and
rugged – and the over-the-top friendliness of the people will be
memories that we'll never forget..
