Spring 2015 - Day 85: Namibia

The tour that I was going to try and get on left early in the morning. I went to the Union to meet the group. Apparently the rule is that if you are trying to get a ticket to a program on the day of you have to meet at the bus. That slipped my mind because it is never what I have done. I always meet with the group. 

Well my usual plan backfired on me this time. I am used to tours using the huge busses and so having a capacity of 50 or 60 people. This tour was a tour of the desert in 4x4 vehicles. Well, a 4x4 vehicle only fits about 11 people and there were 15 of us standing on the sidewalk. 

10 people already had tickets and Jasmine had gone and waited at the bus, so she got the last seat. The other 4 of us seemed to be out of luck. We were discussing what we would spend the rest of the day doing, which included sitting on the ship and watching movies, when the guy who owned the company said that they had another 4x4 that could take us. 

We were saved! Saved from having to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. All vehicles coming into the port have to have a permit and their second vehicle didn’t. So we took the little port shuttle outside of the port to meet the truck. 

While the 11 ticket holders had this huge, awesome, tan truck and the four of us had a normal sized jeep. I think we got the better end of the deal because we each had a window to ourselves and could see much better. 

We took the jeeps far out into the desert. Well, not that far, it was about a 20 minute drive to dune 7. Dune 7 is the very last dune on a huge row of dunes. It is said to be the 7th tallest dune in the world but that was really hard for me to believe. Then our guide told us that wasn't true. He said that it was called dune 7 because it is 7km out of town and people used to meet there all the time for barbecues and parties. It became a kind of meeting place and that is how it got its name. 

That was our first stop. We were given time to climb the dune, which I didn't partake in because I did not want to get all sandy. Our guide said that the record to get to the top was 2 minutes. That seemed like nothing to me, I was not impressed. It just didn't seem that tall. 

Eventually they called us back to them to show us a translucent lizard they had caught. 

It was so incredibly tiny. He was holding it in one hand to keep it in the shade. You could see all of its bones and organs. 

They released her carefully back into the desert once we all took a million pictures of him. Our guide dug a tiny hole in the shaded sand for her to dig herself a hole. 

We then all piled back into the trucks and drove into the desert. Periodically we would stop for our guides to wander the desert looking for tiny creatures for us to look at. They would tell us to be careful and how poisonous everything but then he would walk around in bare feet and dig around in the sand. 

The absolutely coolest thing that we saw was a chameleon. He was about the size of your palm and was incredibly delicate. We all sat in a circle around him and just watched him crawl around. He had a perfect curly tail and looked like the dark brown version of Pascal from Tangled.

At one point we stopped for a snack and a photo op while the guides deflated the tires of the jeeps. They needed to be flatter so that they would make it through the loose sand. A completely full tire would just spin.  

Our tour ended by the sea, which I think is the most poetic park of Namibia. It is a huge desert, with endless flowing sand dunes. But if you know where to go, and you crest the right sand dune, you will suddenly be at the ocean. 

I remember sailing by Namibia on my first voyage. We stopped off shore to bunker and when we were finished we sailed along very close to the coast. I was amazed the the sand just butted right up the water. It was like an endless beach. That awe and amazement was there again this time. Walking from the dune to the beach was just a matter of the sand getting denser, darker, and more packed from the water. 

We took pictures on that beach too and that was where I captured one of my favorites: a dead crab belly up, with the waves crashing in the background. It is still on my desk top almost two years later. 

We made it back to the ship in a reasonable hour and I ate dinner there. I was proud of my first day in Namibia, the tour was a lot of fun and I felt like I discovered some hidden secrets in the sand. 

Tomorrow? Sea kayaking!