We drove over 3500 km but the roads were so amazingly empty and in good condition that the journey did not feel that long.
Tuesday, April 3 2007, Day #1
On the day we left for Namibia, I had several meetings at the University. The last one dragged on almost to 4 PM. Minna had packed the kids, clothes and several pillows into the car that was waiting for me outside the UWC building. We negotiated through the Bellville rush hour traffic to N1 and headed North along N7. We were on our way.
The first couple of hours were along a familiar road through heavily farmed lowlands and over the first pass to Citrusdahl. Soon after that it got dark. Numerous lightnings kept lighting up the skyline. At one one point Matias counted that there were an average of 4 seconds between lightnings. The show went on for a couple of hours before moving further inland.
We did only three quick stops during the six hour diving before reaching Kokkerboom Motel on the outskirts of the town of Springbok. We had a booking there, so we just checked in, got into our beds and slept.
Wednesday, April 4 2007, Day #2
We got up at sunrise and headed to the town to pick up some breakfast. Springbok is a sleepy little town built around a small kopje and surrounded by mountains. Main attraction for visitors seem to be the flower season in the spring.
We were warned by a friend that the border formalities might take hours at worst. When we got there in morning it was a breeze. Brief visits to three numbered huts got the passports stamped, customs got cleared and the vehicle passed. A short drive over the Orange river bridge took us to the Namibian side. Another round of form filling and passport stamping cleared us to continue on tarred B4 main road going straight North.
We were first heading to Ai-Ais which is a spa and hotel with a restaurant at the Southern end of the Fish River Canyon trail. The main entrance road went due West from B4, but there is a smaller D (local) road the goes to North-West soon after the border. Only after passing the junction we realized that even if the road is slower to drive it is so much shorter than the other way, that it is worth taking. We turned around and took it.
This was our first experience of a Namibian dirt road. I have not driven a better one in my whole life. It was smooth, straight and wide. You could quite safely zoom along it at 130 km/h, which was considerably faster than the 60 km/h we had expected to travel.
We ended up doing most of our driving in Namibia on dirt roads. Dirt road in Namibia usually means three to four track wide level and almost straight road that often has an inch-thick layer of dust on it making it really soft to drive on. They are quite rightly called the best dirt roads in the world. Of course, when the road is occasionally bad, it can really rattle your teeth loose.
By the time we finished the ride, the sun was setting fast. We rushed to the canyon but it was already in the shadow when we got there. Nevertheless, it was an impressive sight. A meandering river had eaten itself through layers of sediment over millions of years. The tiny trickle of water was visible hundred meters below us. The canyon extends over a hundred kilometers.
We had an excellent dinner at the Roadhouse sitting outside under the trees. The night temperature was comfortably well over 20 degrees. This being the end of the summer, the nights were never cold. If you visit Namibia at winter time, you better be prepared to close to freezing temperatures.
The night was warm and humid under mosquito nets with a big fan trying to move the air in vain.
Thursday, April 5 2007, Day #3
Matias and I woke up before dawn and decided to make another trip to the Canyon before everyone else got up. The trees outside the lodge gave a loud buzzing sound: They had attracted hundreds of wild bees collecting nectar from tiny flowers.
There were pools of water beside the road this time. Once inside the conservation area, we stopped several times to gaze that animals crossing the road. There were kudus, springboks and ostriches. The latter started running on the road alongside us!
The viewpoint was bathing in sunlight. The whole area was empty and silent apart from a few birds. The canyon bottom was still in the shade and red light of the raising sun was reflected off the pools of ware at the bottom.
I decided to drive further along the road that followed the rim to a slightly higher point. The rough edges of the canyon continue to the horizon.
After a good breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed North again. This area had had quite a lot of rain during the night. There were several streams that flooded the road. Mud and water flew to all directions when we crossed them. The car now definitely had the proper bush look on it. Right after the wettest road section we spotted two tiny dots in the horizon heading our way: They were two cyclists, the first and last ones we saw during the whole trip. They must have been Germans, too. We had not realized before what an attraction Namibia was for German tourists. There is a 150 year history of German occupation in the area and German is widely spoken everywhere and by everyone. As a result busloads of German tourists can be seen everywhere.
The tar road lead us East to the town of Keetmanshoop and 40 km beyond it to Mesosaurus Fossil Park.
On the way, there are a couple of more tourist traps clamouring about a forest of quiver trees and "the giants' playground" dolerites. The place we went to was a low key one where the old farmer himself showed us around. His Panorama Farm had everything: thousands of quiver trees among dolerite blocks that were piled on top of each other. There is even a hundred year old grave of a German solder.
The main attraction was the 280 million year old fossils of primitive semi-aquatic lizards that used to live in the shallow sea catching fish and crustaceans. The half a meter long fossils are preserved where they are found. New ones are exposed by erosion every year.
The quiver trees and dolerite rocks are a bit further in the farm. Quiver trees (Afr. kookerboom) are the largest of the aloes. Their long trunks give them a tree-like general appearance. Looking more closely however you'll notice that all the details are wrong and the end result is that they look totally extraterrestrial. They are national trees of Namibia.
Dolerite is hardened magma that squeezed itself through softer stones to the surface and solidified. The vents are now exposed by erosion and the dolerite had naturally cracked into black cubes that are often stacked on top of each other. The farmer showed us one where he was able to play a tune "Frère Jacques / Jaakko kulta" by hiting the blocks with a stone.
Our late afternoon drive from the fossil park was due West along a tarred road to the South-Eastern edge of the Namib Desert. We had asked the reception at the Roadhouse to book us a night at Klein Aus Vista, an other lodge belonging to the same company. Staying there made the trip next day hundreds of kilometers shorter. The city of Aus (Ger. away) was the first respite for German settlers and solders crossing the desert from the harbour town of Lüderitz. The lodge houses face the plains of the desert where the sun sank creating another magical African sunset.
Friday, April 6 2007, Day #4
Again, Matias and I woke up early. We went for a walk towards the camp site that was located further away. We had realised the previous day that Matias had was on the trip without any shoes. He had to tread very carefully and avoid thorns. We were gone only for an hour.
Minna decided to drive the car next to the hut and pack up while we waited Milja and Dan to get ready for breakfast. A guest came after her and pointed out that the left back tyre was flat!
We got help from the hotel to replace wheel with our spare one, packed up and had our breakfast. We drove to the town where the puncture in the tyre was located and quickly fixed. There was still a sharp wedge of slate embedded in it. It must have come from the fossil park and slowly let the air out during the night. Fixing of the tyre, including labor, cost 40 Namibian dollars (4 euros/3 pounds).
Driving out North we soon saw red sand dunes in the Western horizon. The whole of the coastal area of Namibia between Lüderitz and Malvis Bay is filled with some of highest sand dunes of the world. Most of it is within Namib-Naukluft National Park boundaries.
The route took us briefly through the national park area. The entrance was open but there was a fence running on both sides of the road for a few kilometers to keep the animals from wandering away. A few springboks were in this corridor and bolted when the car approached.
The place to stay for the night was the Desert Homestead and Horse Trails just a few dozen kilometers from the Sesriem gate to the national park and all the dunes. The hotel setting was amazing. The main building was on a low hill with a string of grass topped huts at its feet facing the plains in the West. A mountain rose at West but to all other directions the view seemed endless.
A spot of lunch and the pool unwound us all in the intense +40 C heat of the afternoon. We wanted to go riding but all the horses were already booked for the evening. In the end, we decided to stay another night and booked a long sundowner ride for the next evening. India got a chance to stay on horseback for a few minutes before the other guests took off.
Matias, Dan and I went for a walk up the small hill between the lodge and the mountain. The path was not steep but on the top there was even better view of the desert. A few clouds were scattered around the sky and a full rainbow capped the Eastern mountains. As sun set, the colours just kept getting more intensive. The light show ended in a short shower during which the drops almost sizzled on the hot rocks and a burst of deepest possible magenta painted the rain clouds around us. Words are not enough to describe the scenery. Luckily there are the pictures.
After the dinner, we all retreated into our huts to get a proper rest before an early morning drive to the dunes. When everyone was just about to fall asleep, I saw something big scuttle from floor into a bed where Matias was reading to India. It hid in the fold of the duvet next to Matias's foot. Without saying anything I got up, grabbed my sandal, lifted the fold and hit. A hairy and scary looking solifuge (picture) died without anyone noticing. Shame. They are usually harmless and non-venomous relatives of spiders but can tear a wound with their huge jaws if harassed. This one was about 7 cm long with legs.
Saturday, April 7 2007, Day #5
To be at the dunes on time, we got up before 5 AM, picked up our breakfast boxes from the lodge and drove to the Sossusvlei gate. The gate opened at sunrise, at around 6 o'clock. I saw a few cars leaving the camping site that was inside the park, and go through the inner gate that opened an hour earlier.
We were first in the line, so we got the the office first and got our permit in no time. We drove into the initially wide but increasingly narrow plain between the dunes. The 60 km tarmac road that has recently been resurfaced leads almost all the way in. It follows Tsauchab river that has been forcing sand out of it way for thousands of years.
The first stop was at Dune 45. It puts its sandy tongue out close to the road. There is a car park right next it so that you can easily start climbing along its edge. We all did the climb. India needed carrying some of the way by Milja and me. There were clouds in the east partly obscuring the sun, so the dunes were not drawn out in sharp relief that I was expecting. Instead, the softer light brough out the subtle gradients in light and texture. The view from up there was - again - breath taking. We had been told we could slide down the dunes, but as we had brought nothing to slide on, we ran and bounced down the side of the dune and walked back to the car in the shade of it.
The last few kilometers of the road are drivable only by a 4x4. There is a shuttle service but we did not need it. I had fun driving the bouncing car through the soft sand. Light coloured sand, bushes and trees are squeezed to ever deceasing area between the red dunes until the clay covered Sossusvlei salt pan is the last flat area and dunes completely take over. In hundreds of kilometers to all directions there is very little apart from sand.
Although it was hot, I wanted to walk further into the dunes. The others remained in the shade of the camel thorn trees. The bushes were full of life. Birds flew around catching insects that were everywhere. Under the bushes, the more compact sand was full of mouse holes. All this activity was monitored by a Pale Chanting Goshawk standing on top of the highest bush.
Higher up, the side of the red dune was sparsely dotted by small plants and bushes of all kinds. Toktokie beetles, Tenebrionidae, were running around everywhere. Only the topmost part of the dunes was made of constanly moving soft sand. There were no plants there.
Down by the trees India and Matias had fun at driving the car. The automatic transmission drives the car forward slowly even if you do not press the gas pedal and the lower gear keeps the movement at crawl. Just right for kids to take turns at the steering wheel.
On the way back, all three older kids stood at the back while we jolted back to 2x4 car park. Even Minna, India and I had a go on this rollercoaster. There was one Nissan X-Trail on the way that had driven too slowly into the soft sand and got stuck.
It was really how now. We drove back to the gate, filled up the tank and stocked up with cold drinks. Only a few kilometers away in the south is Sesriem Canyon that has been carved into the earth by the Tsauchab river. The stony road rattled us badly but we got there when there was only one other car. A troop of baboons was slowly making its way along the other side of the gorge. It was only about 20 m wide but the dry river bottom could only be seen in places as it was at least 30 meters down.
After the main troop guarded by the alpha male had slowly passed, the stragglers were alarmed at seeing us humans standing there so close. They ran to the cover of the lonely tree that grew there and and then quickly after the others while giving us worried glances.
Back at to lodge, we swam and relaxed for the hottest part of the afternoon. I fell asleep in the shade and woke up an hour later with a red, almost burned face.
The few guests at the lodge were an European mix: French and Spanish families. Also, the there was a family whose language I could not place. It was not German, Africans, or Dutch. After my nap, I chatted a bit with the father of the family. They were Flemish speaking Belgians. I would not have guessed.
The sunset ride started at 4 PM. India got her own horse that was lead by our guide. The stirrups were at their highest position which, for the first time, gave her real support for sitting in the saddle. My horse would not start trotting when Milja and Dan had theirs up in speed, so Minna and I changed horses. Matias, who had bruises and cuts in his shins from the previous ride, was expecting his horse to be as difficult to handle as last time. Most of the first hour he was in panic waiting for something terrible to happen. He calmed down on on the way back.
The sun had just set when we made it the other side of the mountain where our sundowner drinks and nibbles were waiting for us. After a short rest, we rode back in darkness. The stars came out. There was no light pollution around us, just total darkness. The scene was excellent: I do not think I've ever seen so many stars in my life.
The guide was just telling Minna how the owners daughter had fallen asleep riding a horse on a similar trip, when they checked and realised that India was fast asleep but still sitting sturdily in her saddle. India was put in front of Milja again and we all arrived safely at the lodge.
After dinner, we headed straight to bed after packing away most of our belongings. We were preparing ourselves for an even earlier start than before, to be able include a brief detour of 200 km to the coast on our trip on the way back south.
Sunday, April 8 2007, Day #6
We managed to get up and into the car before 4 AM. The children fell asleep again. Minna drove keeping an eye on the stones and bumps on the road while I kept an eye on on the animals by the road side. There were some springbok, rabbits, and even a heard of zebras, that we saw briefly in the headlights.
To make it easier to find the way in the darkness, we took the same road back South to Aus that we had driven a couple of days earlier. By the time we reached Aus closer to four hours later, we had seen only one car. There was a traffic jam waiting for us in Aus. Three cars were driving very slowly when we approached the turn to Klein Aus Vista. I could not understand why before I saw that there was a black-backed jackal running in front of them. It turned to the road leading to the Lodge followed by two of the cars.
After Aus, the grassy plains of Namib Desert soon extended to all directions. We even saw three of the famous wild horses grazing near the road.
Just before the road reaches the coast, we came to Kolmanskop Ghost Town. For some reason all guide books we had seen claimed that you have to get permit to from Lüderitz to enter the town. In reality, you can get the ticket at the gate. Also, we had the impression that you have to join the guided tour at take place only at spesific times, but turned out not be necessary. We wandered around on our own.
Some of the houses have been restored into quite a good condition. Most were half filled with sand. It is a curious place. The others found the place amazing but I did not find it that interesting.
Lüderitz was only 10 minutes away. It was Easter Sunday so almost the whole town was shut down. By asking around, we found the Portuguese Market, which turned out to be a regular grocery store. Stocked up with bread, cheese and drinks we resumed driving.
On the way back, we stopped at the Garub water hole that keeps the wild horses of the desert alive. It was in a shallow river bed with a viewing shelter nearby. It was one o'clock and almost 40 C. A dozen horses, a few ostriches and a few gemsbok (Oryx gazella) were in the view.
After a short stop at the Aus Info we headed due South towards the South African border. The first 160 km was tarmac. That ended at the town of Rogan Josh, a zinc mining town. Not having seen too many things worth buying we bought a big woven basket from a street vendor. It turned out to be done in Zimbabwe!
After the town, the dirt road twisted and turned until it was next to the Orange River Conservation Area. There were quite a few great looking places to stop by the river at first. By the time we wanted to stop, it was impossible to find a place with shade and with some distance from the dusty road. The temperature was + 41 C which was a bit too much!
After the conservation area, there were a few farms before some truly magnificent hills on our left. Below the hills on the other side of road was a large township of grass huts. Beyond them there were large dark green fields of wine. The colour of irrigated fields was in stark contrast to the earth colours of the surrounding mountains.
The road from there on was clearly maintained to allow trucks from wine fields to drive fast to the main road. Even the dips that in other dirt roads have sometimes been jarring drops were just smooth undulations.
We made the the border just before dark. The border formalities were again easy and quick. The surprise came when a black Namibian police noting down the car registration number and drivers license details commented that he had the same first name with me. He showed his identity card; he really was called Heikki!
The explanation for his and his whole family's Finnish first names is that he is from Namibia's North West. Starting from late 19th century the Finns maintained a number of missionary stations in the Ambo Land. The Finnish influence and the continued involvement have more recently helped Namibian's independence struggle. The final independence process was lead by the future President of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari.
It was nine o'clock in the evening when we finally reached the motel at Springbok. The whole place was empty and there was no-one about. A phone call to the owner cleared out the situation. There had been no reservations for the night, so he had given the staff a free night. We got our room key from him and he even phoned around to find out where we could get food. We picked up pizzas from the Titbits Restaurant from the town, ate quicky and collapsed into our beds. We had traveled just over 1000 km that day.
Monday, April 9 2007, Day #7
For once, we had a lie-in. We started driving only after 10 AM. The road was good and familiar, and the drive uneventful.
When we reached Tygerberg, we drove into fog. The temperature plummeted to 18 C. For the first time in a week the car window was cool, almost cold, to touch. The fog cleared before long and sun was shining when we came home.
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