Warm sand, bare feet, and some of the Little Five
One of the reasons why I like Namibia is the Namib Desert. I like deserts. I like the stillness there; it feels like entering a cathedral. Feeling the warm sand beneath my feet is something I enjoy. And something Namibia has in common with the Yukon: sand. Lots of it.
My husband Martin, on the other hand, has had enough of dunes and sand in his life. As a documentary filmmaker, he has travelled a lot—to countries with sand and desert. But since we are in Namibia and looking for something interesting to see, he wanted to see a desert chameleon, the Namaqua chameleon, unique to Namibia and the fastest chameleon in the world (three kilometres an hour).
I have to admit, I am not keen on seeing little animals. I do not care for the Big Five, either: Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Thino and Buffalo, and we already saw them on a past trip to Namibia. I just have so much respect for elephants; I don’t need to come close to them, not even in a car.
This was the tenth time I went to Namibia. What brings me there every year is my social project Creabuntu, which takes place in Katutura, the township of Windhoek. Kids get a warm meal in the soup kitchen and arts and crafts lessons. They also participate in a drama project. I organize donations to pay the local teachers. So that was the main reason I went to Namibia in February, to visit the project.
After spending a few days in the township, my husband and I travelled to the town of Swakopmund on the coast of Namibia. Swakopmund was founded by the Germans (Namibia was a German colony from 1884 till 1915). It’s a small town with colonial buildings, which provoked mixed feelings in me: Is this still Africa? It doesn’t look like it; it looks like a town at the Baltic Sea in Germany. With a lighthouse, a German Brewery and Cafés where one can eat German cake.
On tour with Jürgen
We travelled off-season, at the end of summer in Namibia. So, we were the only guests on the desert tour with Jürgen, our German-Namibian tour guide. He tells us that he grew up in Namibia and spent a lot of his free time in the desert. We drive into the desert in his four-wheel jeep. He stops and we get out. The silence welcomes me—pure silence, warm sand, blue skies. It is early morning; the Atlantic Ocean is just a few kilometres away and we feel the ocean breeze. The special thing about the Namib Desert is that it sits right at the ocean.
Jürgen explains that the tour guides always stay on the same tracks with the car. Never leave toilet paper or litter in the desert because it takes such a long time to disappear. Everything takes longer to disappear in the desert. In some parts, you can still see the tracks of ox wagons from early settlers 100 years ago. Jürgen explains that the soil crust is fragile. Driving over the desert soil destroys the topsoil. Once the crust is broken, nothing rebuilds it.
Jürgen has sharp eyes. He spots a shovel-snouted lizard moving in the sand. He immediately stops the car, jumps out and runs as fast as he can up the dune—barefoot. He comes back with a little creature in his hand. It is a Web Footed Gecko, it looks transparent with its white skin. He is part of the Little Five of the Namib Desert: Web Footed Gecko Namqua Chameleon, Shovel Snouted Lizard, Sidewinder Puff Adder and Wheel Spider.
Drinking water with your butt
My favourite animal: the bug that drinks with its backside. Really, its name is the fog basking beetle. There is no rain in the desert, but mist in the morning because it lies so close to the ocean. The fog drinking beetle is a miracle.
On foggy nights, this small beetle climbs to the top of the sand dune, does a handstand and raises its rear end in the air, letting water from the fog trickle down into its mouth. Jürgen digs this beetle out of the sand. A lot of the animals, desert snacks included, are just lying in the sand, sticking their head out while the rest of their body is covered in sand. Well, we saw four of the Little Five, but no Namqua chameleon. Jürgen tried his best … for me it was enough, but Martin didn`t give up.
Back in Windhoek, my friend had a UV flashlight: apparently chameleons fluoresce under UV light, their skin glowing an eerie blue-green in the dark. So there was Martin, wandering through my friend’s garden at night, with a flashlight aimed at every branch and bush.
No chameleon. I suppose that means we have to come back to Namibia.
