African Frontier

Outback Noah

We were not supposed to go to Namibia.  Originally our voyage was slated to visit Ghana and Senegal, two central African countries that were deemed to lie a little too close to the epicenter of ebola.  (At the time, it seemed to me that the Institute for Shipboard Education was being a little paranoid-careful, but now, having seen what students get up to in ports of call—fanning out into the hinterlands, hurling themselves off bridges and out of airplanes, jumping into shark-infested waters, etc. etc.—I have a keener understanding of the care that’s needed.)  Namibia was a good alternative, it seemed.  And so to Namibia Noah went.

You dock in Walvis Bay—pronounced “Valfish,” as in German Walfisch, i.e.,Whale-fish, i.e., whale (reflecting the region’s whaling history).  The nearest interesting town is Swakopmund, i.e., “Swakop-mouth,” the town at the mouth of the usually dry Swakop River.  The German history is clear in the language: this was one of their colonies, where South Africa, one country down, was Dutch and British.  It was also the site of the usual colonial exploitation, and more than usual, as the prototypes for WWII concentration camps were built here to quell Herrero uprisings.  As in South Africa, the painful ironies for a western traveler persist: poverty to the right of you, fanciful German architecture to the left.  We heard about and rued the brutal past; and we liked the beer and pastries, and I enjoyed practicing my rusty Deutsch.

But Namibia is so very different from South Africa—from any place we’ve been.  It’s the African frontier.  Even most of the indigenous inhabitants are relatively recent arrivals, all except the San: the small, lighter-skinned, smiling-eyed bush-people of southern Africa, still practicing elements of the oldest culture extant on the face of the earth.  The country is, like, twice the size of Texas and yet has only around two million inhabitants.  Huge expanses of the land—which mostly consists of desert dunes and scrub—are uninhabited.  Many folks live in villages or on family subsistence farms.  Where we went on safari in the north, the dominant currency is cows.  

Walvis Bay and Swakopmund are—what’s the polite way to put this?—sleepy.  On top of that, the four-day Easter holiday was shutting everything down.  Noah had some fun in Swakopmund—

Noah and Joseph at the Swakopmund Museum

We walked out the Swakopmund pier

Noah got grouchy because I was crossing the "kid bridge"

Whoo hoo for Namibia!

—but we were glad to head north— 

Long open roads like Highway 50 in Nevada

to Etosha National Park, for a safari adventure.  

Before sailing, we had purchased three big adventure-type trips from Semester at Sea: our Guilin, China trip that I previously reported on; this current safari adventure; and a bus tour in Morocco (yet to be enjoyed).  I am conscious as the photographer that there may be no more torturous experience available to humanity than sitting through someone’s safari photos.  So here I’ll just show some of the best, with Noah’s adventures highlighted, and save a longer picture exposition for people willing to endure that on Facebook.

To Etosha we went.  I personally loved the experience of driving around (you can’t walk, otherwise lions will eat you, and I am not kidding) and keeping my eyes open for highlights.  Noah saw beautiful animals great and small.  Etosha is a large national park, at the center of which is a great dry salt lake or “pan.”  All the “Big 5” (lion, buffalo, elephant, rhino, leopard) are here, and all the rest of the beautiful and amazing animals unlucky enough not to be singled out as among the Big 5.  It was a feast of antelopes, first for the eyes and then, later, at dinner, for, yeah, the tummy.  That fact was a weird little vestige of the old meaning of safari as a game hunt.  We didn’t kill any antelope, but on the menu in the lodge for dinner were farmed versions of many of the animals we “shot” with cameras: kudu, springbok, oryx.  

Kudu

Oryx or gemsbok, named for the beautiful "gemlike" facial markings

Springbok.  They really do spring like bouncing balls

Noah mostly had a good time, but alas on this trip it was just him, his mom and dad, and some students and lifelong learners.  On our first day, we drove in a big bus around the park; on the second, we got in an open safari truck.

Zooom!

Here are some highlights.

Lions in the sunset

Impalas

Baby giraffe

Black rhino

Big bull elephant

Old man elephant

Zebra

Noah really liked watching out the conveyance windows.

Whoo hoo!  Finally an elephant!

Springbok right outside the window!

Noah climbed an old signaling tower in the middle of the park:

And we greatly enjoyed the lodge where we stayed (Etosha Safari Lodge), which was sited on a hilltop overlooking the Etosha plain.  

Noah's beautiful birthday shirt

They had a great pool

Noah deliberately "behaving"

On the way home, we stopped at one of the big dunes and climbed up.  It was a highlight for Noah, especially because daddy carried him part of the way.  Sigh.

There she is!

Higher!

On top

The family in sand

Daddy pulled me all the way down

Namibia is an amazing place.  We recommend it wholeheartedly.  It's beautiful and interesting with amazing cultures and warm people.  

Noah is saying that he is ready to go home.  More and more, he's saying that he misses his house, his family, his friends.  One more country: Morocco.  Then a few days in the UK, then home.  We all are missing home, actually.  We hope to see all you faithful readers soon.