If you saw The English Patient at the impressionable age of 15, as I did, you, too, would think of the desert as the most romantic place ever. The place where wars and people come and go, where the shifting sands and true love are the only constants.
But of course this is a travel article, not a romance novel. And I am no longer 15.
Still, I can’t deny the thrill I felt when our small plane flew over the desert and I could see its shadow gliding over the dunes, just like the movie’s opening scene. And, yes, I will admit the theme song was playing in my head.
But this was the Namib, not the Sahara, and our plane was a Cessna, not a De Havilland Tiger Moth. Also, unlike the movie, my story has a happy ending.
Wars may be great for big-screen epics, but in real life they’re scary. And with the Arab Spring not really changing into summer, where can a romantic soul in search of a desert adventure go? It will be a while yet before we can explore the Cave of Swimmers in Egypt, that’s for sure.
But we can wait, because in the meantime there’s the world’s oldest desert on our doorstep. The dunes of the Namib were formed millions of years ago, and unless the world comes to an end this October or in December next year, they’ll still be there long after we’ve all gone.
So put Namibia on your bucket list – you have to see the dunes before you die.
And they’re in a relatively stable country (kind of like South Africa, only with more Afrikaans and without Julius Malema), so you can go without worrying that you’ll be stranded at the airport come the revolution.
Forget regime change, go for a change of pace.
This is, after all, a country where there are more stars in the night sky than people on the ground.
The sense of isolation creeps up on you as the scenery changes from the grassland around Windhoek to the rock and sand of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, your first stop on Wilderness Adventures’ Namibia Spectacular package tour.
The plane lands at the sandy airstrip named Geluk, where the guide is there waiting to take you to your lodge. There are three Wilderness lodges near Sossusvlei – Little Kulala, Kulala Wilderness
Camp, and Kulala Desert Lodge, from the high end to the family market.
Luckily, the camps are far apart, so you won’t be jealous of the private plunge pools at Little Kulala’s “climate-controlled” tented units. Oh, to be paid in dollars or euros.
But never mind, like the units at Little Kulala, the (much smaller) chalets at Kulala Desert Lodge also have a rooftop where staff will make a bed for you so that you can sleep under the stars. There are some things money can’t buy: a crisp, clear night with a blaze of stars (you won’t even see so many in the Karoo) and the dunes, glowing dull red in the dark. Just don’t try it in winter.
But before sleep, there are sundowners. You arrive at the lodge, get some time to unpack (or have a lovely nap if you’ve been up since 3am to catch a 7am plane), and in the late afternoon the guide drives you to a perfect spot at the foot of the mountains from where you watch the sun sink behind the dunes – with the perfect gin & tonic in your hand. Petrus, our guide, makes one heck of a G&T.
The people – the friendly staff at the lodges, the knowledgeable guides – are an integral part of a trip to Namibia with Wilderness.
It sounds clichéd, but they do wait on you hand and foot. And the guides all have a story to tell.
Petrus, for instance, started with Wilderness as a maintenance man, worked himself up to become a waiter and cook, then went on a guiding course.
But, he says as we walk along Sesriem Canyon, with its intricate layers of sandstone and limestone, he knew most of the things anyway; his grandfather taught him how to survive in the desert.
He’s a fount of information – and he can spot a black-breasted snake eagle from a considerable distance where I can hardly see it with my binoculars – but that’s what eight hours in front of a computer screen every day does to your eyes. When your world narrows to a 15-inch PC screen, you know it’s time to go to Namibia, to let your eyes feast on the red sand sea.
Day two of our stay at Kulala is designated dune day. Early wake-up call – of course there are no phones in the rooms, so they knock on your door; it’s a nice personal touch.
Early breakfast, then you set off on the drive into the heart of Sossusvlei. First a stop, though, at dune 1, from where we watch the sun rise to set the dunes on fire. There’s an option to go hot-air ballooning in the early morning – they say it’s spectacular – but you’ll have to budget for that as it’s not cheap.
But a drive along the dune corridor is more than rewarding, too: mountains of sand rising on either side of the road; a lone gemsbok grazing; a herd of springbok leaping over the plain.
We pass dune 45 on our way to Big Daddy, one of the highest dunes in the world. People are already climbing it and I think they’re crazy – until I realise we’re walking towards it, too. It’s a tough walk up (even though we went only part of the way), but I’d do it again in a heartbeat, simply because going down is such fun.
The next day we are up again, in the air. It’s the flight from Sossusvlei to Damaraland – three hours of the most stunning scenery.
The dunes, golden in the midmorning light, hugging the coastline; the seal colonies ambling into the sea as the plane flies low overhead; the abandoned diamond mines. From Swakopmund it changes to flat desert, then we’re into the dramatic rockscape of Damaraland.
Richard waits at the airstrip to take us to Doro Nawas Camp, with its roomy chalets arranged around a small hill. During lunch, he tells us we’ll go searching for elephants. It is, after all, the main reason people go to Damaraland. We drive a while along dry riverbeds. The signs are that the elephant have been there, but we don’t see them. Then we hit a grassy plain, ringed by purple-red mountains. There they are – 26 of them, both the herds that live in the area.
There’s something peaceful about them, so we watch for a long time – until a game vehicle carrying a load of German tourists breaks down and we have to tow it out of the sand. So we miss most of the sunset, but we do have our G&Ts. And, yes, Richard makes a good one, too.
From the elephants on the plain to the elephants (and rhino, gemsbok, ostrich and giraffe) on the rocks at the Twyfelfontein World Heritage Site, the largest collection of petroglyphs (prehistoric rock art) in Africa.
The art is so clever; the Bushmen used these panels to teach their kids about animal tracks and water sources in the area, and how an ostrich bobs its head up and down.
That’s the morning of day two at Doro Nawas, and it’s devoted to exploring the geological marvels of Damaraland. There are many, and they are marvellous. When the supercontinent of Gondwana tore apart, there was great upheaval, and most of the interesting things happened in Damaraland, Richard tells us. “Burnt Mountain” is a huge chunk of blackened, hardened lava that pushed through the earth’s crust. The Organ Pipes are dolerite columns of rock that split so symmetrically that they look like, well, organ pipes. The petrified forest has pine trees from central Africa deposited by a river 280 million years ago. Don’t just stop at the first sign that says “Petrified Forest – Welcome!”
There are dozens of these, because the trees are all over. But there is an official entrance, and that’s where the biggest trees are. Look out for a brown signboard.
It’s not all dead trees and rocks, though. There’s also a visit to the Damara Living Museum, which offers a fascinating glimpse of how the Damara people lived hundreds of years ago. I’ve always been a firm believer in Western medicine, but as Bianca, our guide at the museum, talks about how they used this leaf for ear ache and that plant for stomach trouble, I start to wonder why we Westerners think we have all the answers.
Namibia is a humbling experience in many respects. You get some perspective, for instance, as the great dunes tower over you.
And when you fly over Damaraland to Etosha, the chocolate-brown mountains look so serene, though you can imagine the great forces that forged them – the tug and tear, the push and pull, all beyond human capability.
But before you get carried away on the wings of profound thought, you come back to earth with a slight bumpy landing at the airstrip for the lodges near Etosha National Park – Andersson’s Camp, Ongava Tented Camp, Ongava Lodge and the three-unit Little Ongava, which is one of the most exclusive camps in southern Africa and, so they say, where Chelsea Clinton spent part of her honeymoon.
This is more familiar territory for a South African: the game that come to the waterhole next to the lodge’s main area; the drive along Etosha’s dusty roads that recalls childhood trips to Kruger National Park.
The two days at Andersson’s round off the Spectacular tour, a tantalising showcase of the diversity Namibia has to offer: from the spiritual tranquillity of the dunes, to the awe-inspiring rock formations of Damaraland and the variety of game at Etosha.
It’s been more than a week since I’ve been back in front of my computer. But to paraphrase De Almásy in The English Patient, I can still see all the way to the desert.
l Magdel du Preez was flown to Namibia by Air Namibia, and hosted by Wilderness Adventures. - Saturday Star
If You Go...
l Rates: Wilderness Adventures has a special offer for Saturday Star readers, valid until October 31. R1 201 per person sharing per night. Includes dinner, bed, breakfast only. Excludes transfers, park fees, lunch, drinks, laundry and activities.
Rates are common-rated for Kulala Desert Lodge, Andersson’s and Doro Nawas. These specials can be booked only 30 days prior to travel and are valid for SADC residents living in SADC countries. Not valid for residents/citizens living abroad.
Namibia Spectacular (six nights in all three camps plus flights on Wilderness Air):
Until October 31: From R26 053For more information:
www.wilderness-adventures.com
Air Namibia flies twice a day from Joburg to Windhoek and six times a week from Joburg to Walvis Bay. It has the same schedule for flights from Cape Town – also to Windhoek and Walvis Bay. Joburg-Windhoek return flights are from R2 770 economy class. Joburg-Walvis Bay return flights are from R3 270
All fares are purely indications and subject to change/increase without prior notice. Terms and conditions apply.
For more information: