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TRAVEL SOUTHERN AFRICA A LETTER FROM AFRICA NAMIBIA part 1
My Dearest Friends,
I’m back from Namibia, having clocked 6,600 kilometers on
the speedometer and captured over 800 images on my Canon. Namibia, a vast
country spanning 318,259 square miles, is home to only 1.771 million people.
It’s bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Botswana and Zimbabwe
to the east, Angola to the north, and the South Atl TRAVEL SOUTHERN AFRICA A LETTER FROM AFRICA NAMIBIA part 1 antic Ocean to the west. You
can drive for hours on end without encountering a single building, car, or
person—just endless landscapes and wildlife, and I absolutely loved it.
Let me start from the beginning. I departed Somerset West in my trusty Jetta, following my friend Elzette and her husband Ronnie in their 4x4. We were in no rush, so we decided to spend the first night on the South African side of the border. Our stop was in a town called Springbok, located in the Namaqualand district—an area world-renowned for the wildflowers that blanket the landscape as far as the eye can see.
I’ve learned a lot from my previous road trips with the
Nells (Elzette & Ronnie) about how to properly prepare for such a journey.
This time, I made sure to have a flask of coffee and a stash of dry rusks—a
typical South African biscuit perfect for dipping in coffee. We often pulled
off to the side of the road for a break, stretched our legs, found a bush for a
quick wee, enjoyed our coffee, snapped a few pictures, and then got back behind
the wheel.
We set off from Springbok well before sunrise and reached the border crossing by 10:00 AM, heading towards Keetmanshoop. This is where Ronnie
would leave Elzette and me (Keetmanshoop being the closest town to their
ranch), while he continued on to their farm called “Gocharus,” another 150-mile
drive on a very rough dirt road. Elzette and I booked into the “Bird’s Nest
Hotel,” took a nap, and then set out for the Quiver Tree Forest before sunset.
These 300-year-old trees are indigenous to Namibia and are a sight to behold.
Right next to the Quiver Tree Forest was the “Giant’s
Playground,” where we saw rock formations that looked as though they had been
carefully assembled by gigantic hands. We wandered around until after dark, marvelling
at the surreal landscape, before stopping by a friend of the Nells on our way
back to town.ket.
There, we watched in utter amazement as our host ordered his
pet warthog to bed. This cute, chubby creature obediently trotted off and was
even tucked in under a warm blanket for the night. It was an unforgettable
sight!
We had a delightful dinner that evening and turned in early.
The next morning, we stocked up on supplies, knowing they would have to last us
for quite some time—after all, who would volunteer to drive back to town when
it’s 150 miles away on a terrible dirt road? Certainly not me!
I had a wonderfully peaceful time at Gocharus. Every
morning, Elzette and I power-walked in the bitter cold under clear blue skies,
breathing in mouthfuls of the freshest air. The days warmed up nicely, but the
nights and mornings were oh... so cold. Elzette baked fresh bread, and we
feasted on farm-fresh produce, barbecued meat from Gocharus’s livestock, and
milk that was still warm in the mornings—straight from the cow, as fresh as it
gets.
Gocharus spans 33,000 hectares and stretches into the
Kalahari Desert with its stunning red dunes. We took many drives up and down
those dunes, enjoying the beauty of the landscape. Of course, no game farm
experience is complete without a bit of hunting. Here, it's frowned upon if you
aim at game less than 200 meters away—hence the need for telescopes.
The following images were taken at Gocharus the day before Elzette and I departed on our road trip to the West Coast of Namibia.