Sarah & Adam’s trip to Namibia – a guest blog by little P!

Julia and Ant have kindly asked me to write about our trip to Namibia in May. I hope I do the trip justice in my explanation because it was quite simply the best holiday ever!

Adam and I left home on the day of the Royal Wedding, passing lots of street parties on out way to the airport. I imagine Adam was pleased to be on a separate flight to me as I was finding it difficult to contain my excitement at seeing my sister and Ant for the first time in nine months.

A happy airport reunion ensued and once we’d freshened up we headed out to toast to the holiday ahead in the backdrop of a spectacular sunset over Windhoek. I feel that our first night was a good indicator of the days to come…pushing our own taxi along the road, drinking the local beer and eating a variety of superb steaks including Oryx and Ostrich.

The next day dawned with a surprise trip to celebrate mine and Adam’s birthdays. I wasn’t sure we’d make it when we turned off the main road to find a stretch of flooded road which had turned into a quagmire. Evidently I was wrong as it did nothing to phase JP the explorer who zipped the Rav straight through the mud and onwards to the day’s activities. Our trip was to a conservancy where we saw rescued Caracal, Wild Dogs, Lions and Leopards. This was a big treat as Adam had desperately wanted to see wild dogs but they are so rare now that this would be our only opportunity. The lions were the most feisty of the lot and repeatedly charged at us, roaring so loudly I almost fell over backwards. If I’d ever entertained the idea that I could survive a lion attack, it dissipated within seconds of seeing these three huge cats. Fantastic present and a good start to our animal adventures!

Only 2,000 of these left in the wild.

Onwards to Swakopmund, an odd German seaside town that looks like the set of a Western movie.

Quad biking in the dunes of Swakopmund

Here we tested our driving skills by quad biking in the sand dunes. After many “rollercoasters” up and down the sand dunes, the sun began to sink and we stopped for a glass of bubbly so Adam could gloat about how much faster his quad bike was than anyone else’s. Adrenaline fix sorted for the day we went out for dinner in an old tug boat for the freshest fish at a bargain price!

The next day started with a boat trip from Walvis Bay. Our marine encounters included cape fur seals, dolphins, flamingos and lots of sea birds. Adam enjoyed a close encounter with one of the seals which joined him on the back of the boat for a beer! Onward up the coast, we set up our tents for our first night of camping which was marked by some superb cuisine including chilli mielie (there is now no other way to eat corn-on-the-cob) and steak with pumpkin doughnuts. Bring on the braai!

Further up the coast we visited the cape cross seal colony – 100,000’s of seals stretched as far as the eye could see. A bit stinky but non the less impressive! From here is was a long drive to the desert at Palmwag. The exceptionally rainy wet season had washed a lot of roads away so our average speed was around 20 miles an hour and we had to negotiate a number of riverbeds rather than roads! We kept a look out for Elephants but all we saw were signs and poo! 

 

The next day we went to a Cheetah sanctuary at Kamanjab where they had some tame cheetahs and quite a few less tame ones! After an hour stroking Cheetahs as if they were domestic cats, we went out to feed the others. It was great to watch them in such a huge enclosure in hunting mode and in the setting sunlight. Our day was finished off with Ant’s homemade garlic doughballs to accompany our Braii.

Our next few days were our first safari adventure. Once Julia and Ant had shown us the ropes we were left to our own devices. We had a lot of luck on our side, seeing a black rhino, elephants and lions. After I embarrassed myself by accidentally beeping the horn at an oncoming angry elephant, we spent a whole afternoon watching elephants having a bath at a waterhole. Just us and 40 or so elephants was so amazing, we really couldn’t believe our luck the next day when we stumbled upon a pride of lions and watched them hunt (and fail) several times. Not forgetting the other animals and birds outside the big five, we could have driven around the park for weeks without getting bored!

After four days we made our way back to see Julia and Ant at their home in Otjiwarongo, via a camp where we pitched our tent in a tree and learned all about San bush craft. I was very excited to see where Ju and Ant are living and was pleased to discover that whilst small, their house is perfectly formed and very homely. The grassy lawn made for a very comfortable camping mat as well after the hard ground on safari. We did a trip to the Waterberg Plateau to stretch our legs for the first time in a week and after negotiating the spider webs we spent a relaxing afternoon by the pool. Julia cooked boboti – a South African speciality for us as part of our culinary tour of Southern Africa.

And so to our last day with Julia and Ant. We spent it in and around Otiwarongo, taking in their favourite coffee shop, meeting some of their colleagues and seeing the location. After a dinner of homemade pizza it was time to say a tearful goodbye and head off on the 16-hour coach to Livingstone.

The next few days flew by as we took in the Victoria Falls in Livingstone and headed off to Botswana on a second safari – my 30^th birthday present from Mum and Dad. The Falls were spectacular but unfortunately more so for the amount of spray there was than for the views! The rainy season’s deluge had yet to subside so we got very wet but couldn’t see much of the falls themselves.

Chobe Riverfront in Botswana was the location for our next dose of the animals. After crossing the river border between Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, we then went out on the river for a morning’s cruise. Fish Eagles, Crocodiles, Monitor Lizards and lots of Elephants were the order of the day along with the marvellous hippos! We then spent the next two days and nights in the bush, camping without fences and amongst the wildlife. We embraced the basic life fully but I wouldn’t want a sand-dug long drop on a permanent basis! Chobe was great though and we saw lots of new creatures we hadn’t already seen in Etosha.

After another quick stop at Livingstone we boarded the bus back to Windhoek and eventually home. What an amazing three weeks and I would recommend it to anyone.

Thank you Julia and Ant for a truly amazing adventure. If I could hop on a plane to see you tomorrow I would, but for now I’ll just keep looking through the hundreds of photos to remind myself of our African adventure! 

 

South Africa with Owen

Headed to South Africa for a couple of weeks we set off from Otjiwarongo bright and early. It was still cold and the car windows were steamed so Julia put on the heater. After a few seconds we saw a line spread horizontally from the windscreen crack we suffered in Damaraland like liquid. It didn’t obscure the driver’s vision so, not wanting to delay our trip, we continued with the heater off. A solid day of driving took us to the town of Springbok in South Africa. The difference between Namibia and it’s southern neighbour was quite dramatic. The flat, dry landscape and heat of southern Namibia changed to rolling green mountains and cold in the Northern Cape. As we only made an overnight stop in Springbok we can’t say much more about it other than it was freezing. 

Southern Namibia

A further half day of driving and we reached Cape Town. Table Mountain looked awesome, a mountain in the middle of a city. We met our friend Owen at our backpackers and spent our first evening in Cape Town exploring it’s bars. Owen had flown out from the UK to celebrate his 30^th birthday with us.

The next day we visited Robben Island, which as well as being a psychiatric hospital and leper colony in it’s time, was the home to Nelson Mandela for 18 of his 27 years in prison. We had both recently read Mandela’s ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ which added context and power to our visit to this world heritage site. The highlight of the day was being guided through the cells by a former political prisoner who was imprisoned on Robben Island for more than 10 years. That evening we met up with a friend from the Namib Desert Challenge for a few drinks, which was followed by more drinks at an Irish bar. 

Our Robben Island guide - a former political prisoner who spent 10 years on the island

 

Before we left Cape Town we drove to Boulder’s Bay via Chapman’s Peak Drive to see a penguin colony. I never knew there were penguins in Africa but this was one of half a dozen colonies on the Western Cape and Namibian coasts. Chapman’s Peak Drive was extremely scenic and the kind of road that would feature in Top Gear. Owen was due to paraglide today, a birthday present from his girlfriend Hayley, but unfortunately the thermals weren’t doing what they needed to be doing. It was time to find alternative adrenaline activities.

Boulders Bay

Chapman's Peak Drive

Off the coast of the Western Cape you can see dolphins, seals and at the right time of year whales coming in to breed. It is also home to Great White Sharks. We boarded our boat at Gansbaai, listened to our briefing and got into our wetsuits. A man spilled chum into the sea to entice the sharks and when a couple arrived we got into the water. A cage attached to the side of the boat was semi-submerged and we were lined up with heads above the water. On a man’s shout of ‘down’ we held a deep breath and ducked under to see the sharks swim past, feed on a tuna which was being thrown out by our guide, or attack the cage bars right in front of Julia. It was an amazing experience. 

For Owen’s birthday we opted for a refined day’s wine tasting. We visited 4 very plush wineries in Stellenbosch, Franshoek and Paarl and in all sampled more than 25 wines. We also finished with some cheese tasting. Solme Delta and Fairview were favourites and we took away some bottles to enjoy during the rest of our trip. It was a very, very good day. Over a glass of South African sparkling wine I asked Owen to be my Best Man. By the evening we were already discussing stag weekend plans. 

Stellenbosch

From Stellenbosch we went back to the coast and to Cape Agulas, the southern most tip of the African continent, and from there towards Mossel Bay and the start of the garden route. Our first stop on the route was Wilderness National Park. We camped by the river and cooked Owen his first braai of game meat, roasted pumpkin with cinnamon and sugar and braai bread. We had already introduced him to other South African traditions including biltong, bobotie and Springboks (an amarula and mint liquor shooter… tastes like an after eight mint!). The following morning we went for a forest hike up to some waterfalls and then headed to Knysna. We had another braai and I made some more braai bread to enjoy with a very good sparkling Shiraz and some cheese that we picked up in Stellenbosch. In July we are coming back to Knysna for the champagne and oyster festival where I am doing the Knysna forest marathon so I took the opportunity to get in a long training run while we were there. Julia took Owen on a township tour and we met for lunch overlooking the Knysna Heads before continuing along the coast to Plettenberg Bay. Our stay in Plett was short as we had Addo Elephant National Park in our sights. However we still managed to enjoy a pint of the locally brewed Mitchells, a great meal, and a game of cards by a log fire. We also visited Monkeyland, a 12 000 hectare sanctuary for previously caged pet and zoo primates. 

Cape Agulas - Africa's southern most point

Ring tailed lemur at Monkeyland

Into the Eastern Cape we stopped at Jefferies Bay for lunch and picked up a huge Cape Salmon for that evenings braai. Jefferies Bay is a renowned surfing hot spot but unfortunately the swell was poor that day so we stayed to the beach. We arrived at Addo at sunset and immediately found our first elephant at the camp waterhole. The following day we were up before sunrise for a days game drive. We were very lucky and as well as lots of elephants we saw a rhino, Burchills zebra and Cape buffalo. The buffalo is the most dangerous of the African big five, more so than the rhino or lion. This is because when it senses threat it circles behind it’s perceived attacker to counter-attack. Driving was a test not only because of the elephants crossing the road but because driving over elephant dung is not allowed. The dung provides the habitat for the flightless dung beetle which is protected by the park. 

A charging Cape Buffalo!

Dumbo and his family

We decided to return to Cape Town via route 62, the longest wine route in the world. The eastern half of the route was lined with orange groves and it wasn’t until we passed Oudtshoorn that we began driving past vineyards. Oudtshoorn is ostrich farming country. Unfortunately ostrich riding was not possible due to the rain. I didn’t know ostrich riding was a fair weather activity. We did enjoy excellent ostrich steak though. Here we visited the Cango Caves which were formed millions of years ago. The stalagmites, stalactites and other column structures were amazing.

Further along route 62 we stopped at Robertson for more wine tasting and purchases at Roodevandt and Robertson wineries. Robertson is a lovely, quaint town surrounded by vineyards.

As we reached Cape Town the weather was clear with blue sky over Table Mountain and no sign of the famous table cloth cloud so we headed to the cable car station. The views of Cape Town and Robben Island were awesome. After lunch on the V&A Waterfront we took Owen to the airport for a sad farewell. See you in a year… and let me know if you have anymore stag weekend thoughts! 

Cape Town and Robben Island from the top of Table Mountain

That afternoon Julia and I headed to Century City, the biggest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere, for some retail therapy and a new tent. Our tent had become a casualty of the trip. Driving through Cape Town we noticed advertising for the Good Food and Wine Show. The next day we went to the show, tasted lots of good food, more wine (our total must now have been over 50 different wines in 2 weeks) and Julia got to see celebrity chef James Martin - very exciting apparently. 

James Martin at the Good Food and Wine Show

On a recommendation we spent a couple of nights at Beaverlac camp in Namaqualand on our return to Namibia. To get there we had to take very wet gravel roads before going over a steep mountain pass and down a rocky track, all more difficult in the dark. The camp was very rustic and secluded with great nearby walks past orange groves to pools and the Olifants River. No wonder Lonely Planet describe it as one of the best camps in South Africa. On our second night we were the only ones there. 

Orange grove in Beaverlac, Citrudal

 

We returned to a much drier Namibia than the one we left. There had obviously been no rain and we were surprised how fast the landscape had changed from green to yellow.   

Development through sport

Last year while we were exploring different avenues to make use of ourselves I sent my CV to the Namibian Olympic Committee to see if there were any opportunities to provide voluntary support to sports teams in Namibia. My idea was to offer clinical support and health education to disadvantaged groups through sport.

I was contacted by the Namibian Netball Association and in December I joined them for a training camp and then travelled with the national squad to Singapore for the 2010 Nations Cup. Namibian netball gets very little government funding, about £8000 annually, and took part in the African Nations Cup last July without any medical support. The current squad is very young with most of the girls being from Katatura, a predominantly black and economically disadvantaged area north of Windhoek. The exposure of an international tournament, travelling outside of Namibia and professional coaching, health and fitness advice was a great opportunity for the girls to expand their horizons beyond life within their community. For me the experience was very enjoyable. Memories of singing the Namibian national anthem during the opening ceremony and watching the girls dance and sing African songs before games make the hairs on my neck stand up.

In April I was asked to join up with the Namibian women’s football team for their 2012 Olympics qualifier against Nigeria. The squad were again a group of young girls mostly from Katatura and one girl from a Himba tribe in the north. The Himba’s are one of Namibia’s most marginalised groups. During the training camp I delivered a couple of education sessions on injury prevention and healthy lifestyles. Making the right lifestyle choices is a major issue among young girls in Namibia with alcohol misuse, violence and unsafe sex common problems. Jackie the national team coach does a lot to promote good lifestyle choices during training camps and this message is being spread at grass roots level through the Gals and Goals programme which one of our friends Toyah is volunteering with. We lost the qualifying match against a much more physically developed and experienced Nigeria team so unfortunately I will not be going to London in 2012 with the team. 

Being busy!

At last, a blog update!!!  It’s been a long time and finally I have got myself into gear to update you on all our goings on here in Nam.  It feels strange to say this, but we’ve actually been quite busy here…all things are relative, it’s still rather quieter than life back at home, and it’s possibly because we have adjusted to the pace of life, however, things are definitely looking up!

One of the plans was that I should spend a week a month back in Okakarara.  This was to provide training and clinical support to the volunteer who is keeping the rehab department open, in addition to providing assessment and treatment to patients with more complex conditions.  All good in theory, but transport has been an issue due to the overspent fuel budget.  However, I have managed to get there to help allocate some wheelchairs that were donated to the local council, and to attend the presentation event in the town hall which is up a flight of 6 steps…very helpful for people using wheelchairs! 

I also went on a trip into the bush for a week, attending most of the secondary schools in the district to perform hearing screening on the grade 1 learners.  I have trained 2 nurses so that next time around there will be others who know how to press the buttons in the correct sequence and complete the screening – an important but rather laborious process!  It was an eye opener going into the schools and seeing the perception of teaching staff around students who had behavioural difficulties (some due to hearing or visual problems) and their approach to managing it – inclusive education has a long way to go!

All being well I am off to Okakarara again this week, this time to support our volunteer, Eben who is singlehandedly keeping the rehab department open with nothing but a free lunch and a pat on the back in return.  She’s doing a great job, it’s just a shame that currently she cannot get any other remuneration for her work.  Hopefully that may change though as we’re in the process of a national Ministry of Health restructuring and we have motivated for some significant changes in the rehabilitation structure so that it can function more effectively and be sustainable – otherwise there’s very little hope of Community-Based Rehabilitation ever working - fingers crossed.

We decided that as there is a lack of rehab staff across the country that a good way of increasing rehab skills in the workforce would be to try and influence the student nurse training programme.  The head of school thought this was a great idea and we were invited to deliver a week of lectures on the central and peripheral nervous system and special senses.   Neither of us has ever done any university lecturing before, and didn’t know what to expect from year 2 nursing students.  However, our preparation paid off, we received some positive feedback and have been invited back to deliver some more modules, including our own, designed specifically around disability awareness and rehabilitation.  

Final day quiz to test the nurses!

The main purpose of our work here is supposed to be to implement Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR).  Clearly this has been a huge challenge for a variety of reasons, not least because it relies on a network of highly motivated local volunteers who want to get more out of the role than the skills and standing within their community.  With 50% unemployment in Namibia and high levels of poverty, these people want to get paid – fair enough! However, there are some areas where CBR volunteers are motivated to work and generating their own income and are keen to learn new rehabilitation skills.  One of these areas is Osire, the refugee camp mainly consisting of refugees from Angola, DRC and Burundi.  The 4 CBR volunteers based here already provide a basic level of rehabilitation to their community but haven’t received any training since 2007.  We have agreed to visit Osire once a month for a few days and deliver some training and assist with any patients with complex problems.  Equipped with our tent, some food rations and a flipchart we made our first visit in March.  The 2 day training workshop went well and we even learnt some Portuguese in the process as everything had to be translated for the Angolan committee members!

Teaching the committee about muscles

Practical training session

This week we had the pleasure of attending a public service induction course – as exciting as it sounds.  We were pleasantly surprised by the trainers who were really interactive and tried to tackle the issue of ineffective 4 hour meetings (very much needed). However, it was shocking to see how many members of the regional management team were learning for the first time how many annual leave days they (and their staff) are entitled to, how to write a ‘to do’ list and the fact that driving a government vehicle under the influence is a major offence! 

Enough about work – we’ve continued to make the most of our time at weekends travelling around seeing the country.  The bat photos uploaded a few weeks ago were from a weekend away with a couple called James and Ursula, volunteers who we met during our UK VSO training course.  It was great to catch up with them and we went on a tour into Arnham cave, Namibia’s largest cave with 6 species of bat.  It was tricky making our way down into the cave without any rope or safety gear except for head torches as there were a few steep drops into bat poo hell!  The smell of the ammonia was incredible, but it was all worth it when we were ducking through low tunnels and bats were swooping past us, and then when we entered the large cavernous areas and there were thousand of bats flying around above our heads.  It definitely cured Ant’s phobia!

A couple of weeks ago we were down in the Namib Desert providing medical support for the Namib Desert Challenge.  Our friend, Mike, headed the medical team and we spent the week manning the checkpoints for the runners, pushing rehydration fluid, lancing blisters and treating some aches and pains.  The competitors complete 226km over 5 days, the longest day of which was 56km including climbing a huge sand dune at the end in up to 49 degree heat.  Absolute nutters.    It was great meeting some new people and hearing all the stories of why people choose to enter a race like this.   The Namib desert is an awesome place, unlike anywhere else we’ve ever been.  It is vast and the rust-coloured sand dunes seem to go on forever.  The Springbok and Oryx outlined in front of the dunes are iconic to Namibia and it’s definitely been added to our list of places to recommend to visitors.  Ant climbed Big Daddy, reputedly the largest dune in the world and reckons it’s the most amazing place he’s ever been (I was manning a checkpoint in ‘Deadvlei’ at the time, not just being lazy!).  

On top of Dune 45

Checkpoint 1, day 1

Across one of the pans in Sossusvlei

On top of Big Daddy/the world

We had a great time with all the staff and have been invited back next year and hopefully we’ll meet up with them in Cape Town before then too.  We had a celebratory night out in Windhoek with some of the guys from the challenge and had our first surreal experience in a totally Africana club.  The music was Africana pop mixed with old school rock like Status Quo and the dancing was based on ballroom with couples twirling each other around in a circle around the dance floor – all very weird!

Gary, the race manager also invited us to the Knysna Festival, a Champagne and Oyster festival in South Africa which combines with a whole range of outdoor activities and races which sounds great.  Ant’s entered the marathon and I’m hoping to be able to enter one of the trail runs depending on how training goes!

Weather wise things are starting to get a bit cooler here now.  There is still a lot of rain around and some areas in the north of the country have had to be evacuated because of flooding.  There hasn’t been this much rain in Namibia since records began and our clay house has sprung a few leaks so we’re hoping it won’t just collapse into a soggy heap.  There seems to be different insects appearing each week, and when they arrive, they come in large numbers.  One of the most recent is the armoured cricket which is about 6-8cm in length and looks like it belongs in a horror movie.  It’s apparently harmless, except it is a cannibal and will eat its friends – nice.  We have a family of these who keep trying to get into our house.

Armoured cricket sneaking into our house!

Dolly, our adopted cat, is about to have kittens.  Her last litter can only be about 6 months old so the poor dear seems to be a bit of a breeding machine.   She seems to have made herself at home here so I think we may be overrun in our little clay hut soon!

Our first visitors, Sarah and Adam, are coming out in less than 3 weeks time so we’ve been busy planning the trip.  I can’t wait, it’s going to be great seeing them and having a slice of home here in Namibia.

Well, that’s enough for now, I seem to have written a lot so I definitely won’t leave it as long next time!  Keep us posted with news from home.

Julia xx

The Namib Desert Challenge 2011