Namibia

Namibia is beautiful. To some people it’s the world’s largest kitty litter box, but to those of us that love the desert, it’s breathtaking.

When the Europeans claimed Africa in the late 19^th century, the current country was called Southwest Africa and was claimed by the Germans. The Germans then massacred the Herero natives—10s of thousands—and moved other native groups to a concentration camp on Shark Island near Luderitz. German nastiness did not begin with Adolf Hitler! Following WWI, what is currently Namibia was annexed by South Africa, which was under British control. Finally, in 1990, Namibia became an independent country. It’s rich in minerals and would be considered a fast-developing country.

The thing to remember, however, is that it is a desert. As Picture 1 shows, you see sand as you drive along the highways, with the occasional train.

We spent the first day visiting the Namib Naukluft National Park by 4 X 4. The setting is almost a moon landscape, as picture 2 and 3 show. There is no rain here, although there is life in the desert. Picture 4 shows the lichen that grows on rocks. Most lichen is flat and conforms to the rock’s surface. This lichen, however is 3-dimentional and turns bright green when watered.

The national plant of Namibia is the Welvitschia plant, shown in Picture 5. These plants grown very slowly, often living over 1000 years, and are unique to Angola and Namibia.

On our second day, we visited Sandwich Harbor, which can only be reached by 4 X 4. We traveled over dunes (Picture 6) and across salt flats to reach this lovely harbor, where the British landed. The first ship to visit was the HMS Sandwich and the harbor became a favorite because fresh water was available over the first set of dunes. Picture 7 shows sandwich Harbor, with its beautiful coastline and dunes.  If you look carefully along the edge of the water, the black material looks like rock. It’s actually petrified mud.

The question arose about how dunes form. Picture 8 shows small dunes forming. Plants imbed themselves in the sand and dunes form around these plants.

On our third day we visited Luderitz. This was a town built by the Germans.  Picture 9 shows the view down the main street. It’s a town of 15,000 people and provides basic services to the surrounding mining areas. It looks German, including the lovely Lutheran church shown in Picture 10.

Namibia is a great place to visit—beautiful scenery, interesting animals and a fast-growing tourism industry.

We’re off to Cape Town in South Africa. We will leave the ship for 2 weeks and wander to Botswana to see the animals and then back to Cape Town for wine tasting and enjoying the beautiful scenery of the Cape.