From Arandis to Zebra - A Few Very Busy Days in Namibia: Part 1

Now that the satellite is back in orbit, stars aligned, technology gods appeased, etc., I can catch everyone up on my very brief tour of some Namibian hotspots Friday through Wednesday.

First it was a trip to the coast and Namib desert in Swakopmund (Swakop if you're into the whole brevity thing...).

A few things to know about Swakop:

- It is on the edge of the oldest desert in the world, the Namib
- It is the “adventure sports capital of Africa” (at least that's what the brochures say)
- It is verrrrry German

So here's what I did:

A 5 hour combi-ride from Windhoek to Swakop. Anyone who has ridden combis from Lima, to Accra, to Delhi know what this is all about – cram about 15 people in to a VW van, drive like a twitchy poodle on crack, and hope no person, animal, or pothole gets in the way.

Side note on the trip. About 1 hour outside of Swakop, in the absolute middle of the desert, the driver takes a little detour to drop a local off in a tiny town called Arandis. As we pull up, I see three things:

1.A busted-up, vaguely military looking jeep, with what appeared to be a mount that you would put a heavy machine gun on;

2.A few small building with Arabic writing on them; and...

3.An enormous mural depicting, the late, not-so-great Saddam Hussein in all of his mustachioed, beret-wearing glory.

Needless to say, I had two immediate reactions – laughter followed by a brief sense of dread. Not that I really though that I had been taken to a den of Sunni insurgents in the middle of the Namibian desert to be held for ransom, but hey its a weird world out there. Inshallah, we pulled away without incident, but after getting confused looks by the locals when I asked, essentially, “WTF?”, I was left wondering what was going on.

So after my long trip to Swakop, here's how I spent my time:

- Hiking through some of the most spectacular sand-dunes I could possible imagine. Words can't quite capture it, so here's some pics:




My attempt at artistry...


Wow...



Is it just me or does that look like Mos Eisley in the distance?



Obligatory shot to prove I was actually there




And ending with a walk down to the ocean. There is truly something about the sunlight in Africa.

- Sliding down said dunes on both a piece of wallboard and an honest-to-god snowboard, in the Swakop tradition of “sandboarding”. Here's a few pics (with a few truly spectacular wipe-outs to be subsequently emailed to me by the very nice guides):



Preparing to begin our day of sliding to the bottom and
walking to the top... so naive and foolish

- Being talked into tandem-skydiving by a particularly amusing group of college students from Emory U. No pics from the free-fall, but here's an idea of what the dune sea looks like from 10000 feet:



Slightly digitally enhanced, but not much. Again - wow...

I finished off my weekend, by nearly getting pummeled by some less than polite German Namibians when I asked, not-so-innocently, if they knew the back-story to the Bob Marley song “Buffalo Soldier” that they were loudly singing along to (and mocking the local staff about). I know, sometimes I should keep my mouth shut...

Finally, I ended up having far too many shots of particularly ugly tasting “Jaeger Bombs” with a group of scary-looking, shaved-head S. African gents, who it turned out... were in town as extras in the HBO Films production of “Generation Kill” - about the Iraq War! Thus, Saddam poster explained, and I can return to Washington to let the DOD know there's no need to cruise missile Arandis, Namibia anytime soon.

Next up, some hot animal-on-animal action from Etosha National Park...