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Traveldiary chapter 14 [July 2006 - September 2006] as PDF (South-Africa (west) and Namibia discovered with a rental car) |
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Namibia | South-Africa 2 | Top |
Photos: South-Africa |
On the evening of July 20, 2006, we boarded a
Malaysian airline plane that flew us from
Only 16 years ago, on Febr. 11, 1990 Nelson Mandela, the most famous political
prisoner had been released after 27 years. This week, he turned 88 and he
is still the national hero loved by everyone; blacks, whites, Asians and
coloureds. This term 'coloured', is how they call the people that don't
fit into any racial category, as bright skinned blacks or descendants of
mixed couples. The Boers used to call them "basters". Even though the
system of apartheid was officially in place "only ~ 43 years", it
must have been a fact of life here for far more than a century. The
history book tells how in 1893 Mahatma Ghandhi, then
a young solicitor, had been thrown out of a first-class train in
Whilst Portuguese were the first Europeans to see the
southernmost tip of Africa in 1487, the first white settlers arrived near
On the beginning of the 18th century, more and more
British settlers arrived and soon dominated politics, trade and finance, thus
challenging the less educated Boers. Tensions grew even more after the British
abolished slavery in 1833, a move that was generally regarded by Boers as
against the 'god given' ordering of races. Consequently, many Boers headed
inland in various directions, shooting their way free of locals, as they found
green and fertile land. Several wars between British, Boers and Blacks emerged
and only in 1902 a peace-treaty was signed, granting the British sovereignty.
The indigenous people still didn't get any voting right and 1913 the natives’
land act was enacted, setting aside 8% of South Africa's land of 1,22 mio. sq.
kilometers for black occupancy, whereas the 20% whites took 90% of (the
better)land for themselves.
Thousands of squatters were evicted from farms and
forced into increasingly overcrowded and impoverished "homelands"
(reserves) or into "township's" at the outskirts of cities and
villages. In this time, the ANC, the African National Congress was founded to
unite the rightless black people and now their opposition started
coalescing.
In the run-up of the 1948 election, the National Party
campaigned on its policy of 'apartheid' under the pretext to save the
country from communism and atheism and was voted in. After having been in place
for a long time, apartheid thereafter became institutionalised. Sex or
marriages between different races were declared illegal - even existing ones,
also between Asians and Coloured i.e. half-blooded people.
Separate, race segregated buses, hospitals, schools
and even park benches were created. To secure superiority of the white, they
had much better education than the coloureds and education for them was still
superior to the one for blacks who barely learned how to read and write.
Protests turned increasingly violent and the sofar
peaceful ANC started with armed wings after some massacres by the police. As
bloody riots continued, the international community started to put pressure on
the South African government, which finally split away from the
Nothing changed for the people and the ANC's vision of
a non-racial democratic state remained just that: a vision! Worse even; in 1962
the ANC and any undesired unions were banned and later many leaders, including
Nelson Mandela were sentenced to life imprisonment. In the sixties and
seventies, apartheid was being enforced even stricter and the country was going
into civil war.
We are glad we don't know about all the
atrocities, but it must have been a very tough time for all and many whites
realised that the civil war against the black majority could not be won. But
they still seemed to prefer this to giving in, to political reforms. Many upper
class and better educated whites left the country, to bring their families and
money to safety.
In the RSA brutal military and police action intensified and at the same time
the army also turned against
Finally 1990 a new president brought change; Frans De
Klerk abolished discriminatory laws and legalised ANC and other parties again,
freeing Nelson Mandela and many others. After months of negotiation, the white
minority approved of the change and herewith to transfer power to the black
majority. A new constitution was worked out between all races and
after elections were called in 1994, the ANC cast 63% of the votes,
whereby Nelson Mandela became the hero president. A nation of 45 Mio
people admired how humbly and forgiving he led this nation together
and convinced all South Africans to be forgiving and start a new life
together. Some white people openly confessed to us that they were very afraid
of the black people at the time. They feared they would take revenge and
slaughter the whites by the thousands. The whites too, admire Mandela that
he didn't have any hatred, after 27 years in prison.
Of course, the various races that have 11 different
languages registered, didn't start loving each other from one day to the
next. The gap between the poor, mainly black people and the rich, mainly
whites, is still very big today. Also tensions often still arise between
the different black tribes like Zulu and Xhosa. Therefore, crime is a major
problem but we were told that the country is now much more relaxed and
optimistic than a decade ago.
For us, however, the first impression of Capet Town was rather grim and cold, but
not only because we had returned to winter. During the weekend we couldn't believe
how empty and dead this town was. Everything had shut and nobody was strolling
around the streets. Iron shutters, like in a prison, secured most shop windows.
Only a few security guards and some dubious guys were standing around. What a
contrast to the lively streets of
Almost every building in
We stayed in a Backpacker's place at Longstreet in the
centre, which had a prison-like security door with a code, plus a night guard.
At least we were told that it was safe to walk along Longstreet's 800 m, thanks
to the many security guards patrolling this touristy street with many
restaurants, bars and accommodation. Each night, when we closed the door behind
us and heard this metallic clink, we joked: "... back to security of our
prison, where all inmates got a key..."
On Saturday afternoon, we walked down to the
waterfront, which was a big enclosed area, with shopping centers, boulevards,
restaurants and entertainment venues, both indoor and outdoor. It was located
just next to the working harbour and the atmosphere was pleasantly lively, if
touristy. The restaurants were packed with locals of whom about three quarters
seemed to belong to the black and coloured middle class. Normally, people went
out in groups and friends mostly belonged to the same race, even though mixed
groups of friends could sometimes also be seen.
After dinner, we took a taxi back, as it is not
considered safe to walk between the safe haven of the waterfront to the safe
haven of Longstreet.
The weather was lousy, with fog covering nearby
On Monday finally, everything opened again and life
returned to the city. We don't remember what we've expected, but Cape Town is a
city that looks entirely like a western city, only that the majority of people
were black and coloured (in western dress). But we found no exotic, no local
food or market, at best some African souvenirs. Here rushed the working people
and some seemed quite well off. It was visible everywhere, that security is an
issue, be it by the many security-guards, the secured shopwindows with metal
lattice or locked iron-grid doors on many shops. To gain entry, you had to ring
a bell and if the shopkeeper found your face trustworthy, he let you in. Most
small shops were locked like this, even second-hand bookshops – bigger stores
rather not. We bought some second-hand binoculars in a "cash converter"
shop and here we saw that they did not only secure all shopwindows and doors at
night with iron grids, they also emptied the shelfs from most second-hand
electronics to put them in a safe, as requested by their insurance company.
After all this, we couldn't believe that
We hired a car, a South African made VW Chico, which
is an old model Golf. What it lacked in creature comfort, was made up in
security equipment i.e. it came with a lockable gear stick. We were told we
should always empty the glovebox overnight and leave it open. We were also
recommended to lock doors whilst driving in the city and always to take out
everything, as thieves would even steal dirty socks!
After six days in the city, we left
Now we drove along the sea and then inland through
various small villages that looked much less fortified than the city. Suddenly,
we saw some zebras on a meadow and so Heinz jumped on the brakes. As we got out
of the car to picture them, some other animals appeared from the side:
beautiful Oryx gazelles, that South Africans call Gemsbok (no resemblance to a
Swiss Gemsbock whatsoever). They were very big and had long straight horns.
There were also Gnus, called Blue Wildebeest here and the slender Springbock
with its beautiful dark, brown and white markings plus an Ostrich couple having
fun together. We were absolutely excited about this first glimpse of African
wildlife, even though we realized that they were obviously kept on a farm.
Otherwise, around us it didn't look and feel very much like we had imagined
Africa to be - it rather resembled
In Franschhoek we
later found a guesthouse where we stayed for 3 nights. This village had been
founded by French Huguenots (Calvinists) who were fleeing religious prosecution
~ 1688. We are not sure if it's thanks to them, but eating out was the most
positive surprise to us about
Once Heinz ordered "Egg Benedict" in a chain
restaurant and you should have seen his face, when he was asked: "how do
you like your egg, Sir? Liquid, medium or hard?”
Franschhoek was the declared gourmet capital of
From here, we continued up north, direction
We later came into an area that mostly cultivated
citrus orchards and in Clanwilliam we
stayed in a luxurious 60 square meter guesthouse room that was four times
bigger than many local's matchbox house. The accommodation was fortified as we
have never seen on a private house, with doors and windows fitted with a
massive iron curtain with locks and wooden shutters with padlocks outside. The
entire property, which stood on an orchard, was protected with a three layer
fence. The outer side was 2,5 meter high, army type with barbed wire on top,
the middle part was a 2 meter electric fence and the inner part was a small
chicken fence, probably put up to protect the big guard dog from touching the
electric part. And this house was situated just outside a peaceful village that
was neither fortified nor had any security guards patrolling. As everyone told
us, it was perfectly safe here. The landlady told us that she had bought the
place like this and didn't know why the previous owner had secured it like
that.
Meanwhile, the landscape had changed from the green
fertile pastures to barren dry rocky mountains with many shrubs growing on
them. We were still within 100 km of the coastal belt that usually gets good
winter rain. We were told that in summer, temperatures regularly reach about 45
°C. Now on the other hand, it was wet and cold. The nice thing that it brought
with it, was that an immense variety of wildflowers sprung up. Their beauty has
made the area so famous, that many tourists are drawn to the
Our next stop was Kamieskroon, a
small and again peaceful village with unsealed roads, where we found a nice
little B & B called Gousblom. The lady didn't even hand out keys to the
rooms, only to the front door as we left at the same time as she did. She said;
"up here it's not 100% safe, it's 110% safe!" As Kamieskroon only had
a couple of coffee shops but no proper restaurant, the guesthouse cooked a
delicious meal for its customers every night. All guests sat together and
some wouldn't stop chatting until past their bed time.
The nights were very chilly but as South African
nights only get cold as in a fridge and not as in a freezer, they all
think there is no need for heaters. As in the last place, we waited for a day
to let a rainy period pass but as soon as we crossed the border to
South-Africa 1 |
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South-Africa 2 | Top |
Photos: Namibia - Etosha National Park |
Due to its barren inhospitable coastline, Namibia was largely ignored by European
maritime nations until relatively recently. Even though parts of the coast
had been seen by Portuguese seafarers 1486, the first white settlers were - who
wonders? Missionaries that arrived early 19th century. In 1867 the British
claimed some islands and 1878
After 1892, lots of German settlers arrived. A few
years later, the Germans, British and Portuguese governments, who occupied
already neighboring territories, drew the boundaries to their present size of
824’269 sq.km. In 1904 the various native tribes that are traditional enemies,
formed an alliance against the colonial power. However, the German
"Schutztruppe" (protection troop) wiped out 75% of the Herero
population and later also defeated the remaining guerrilla forces. After the
First World War,
After we had crossed the border into this country, we
were very surprised how sudden the landscape changed: it was much drier! Some
indigenous people were much darker, but others (Nama) were called the
"yellow" people. Of the 1.8 mio. inhabitants, there are 5 major
ethnic groups with subgroups plus about 100'000 white of German and Afrikaner
descent.
For the first night, we stopped in the small
The next day, we drove for most of the time on
unsealed road, the first of many more to come. The landscape was of hills
covered in loose red rocks and golden dry grass on the plains between them.
Along the way, some locals worked on a railway line and everyone waved at us,
even though they were usually covered in dust as we passed, depending on the
direction of the wind.
The first natural attraction we came to see, was Fish River Canyon, a deep gorge carved
out of a flat area. The river bends endlessly and a little bit of water was
flowing even now. Interestingly, there is a different climate here than a
little further south. We heard that summers get sometimes more than 50 °C hot
and there's a risk of flush flooding. Therefore, the 5 day hiking trail in the
canyon is only permitted to walk between May 1 - Sept. 15 to groups of at
least three and all must produce a health certificate of fitness. However, even
from the rim of the canyon, it was a very impressive sight and we enjoyed it in
pleasant 18°C degrees. Along the way in and out, we sighted our first wild
Springboks, Zebras and Ostriches.
As there was no ATM that would dispense money to
foreign card around this lonely area, we headed back to civilisation that
night. The Namibian Dollar is linked to the South African Rand 1:1, which
is legal tender in
Keetmanshoop was another place of many "fortresses", accommodating 15'000
people. Many of the outer village streets and pavements were actually not paved
and once the wind ceased after sunset at 5:15 pm, the dust of the passing cars
did not settle for a long time. We got a room in the "Schützenhaus",
which belongs to the German club, that used it for its "Turnverein"
(gym). Street names were often in German still, even though there was a trend
everywhere to re-name them after African people, i.e. Sam Nujoma (the 1.
African President) appeared in every village.
On our way north, we visited the quivertree forest.
The up to 9 m high tree is actually an aloe plant with long succulent leaves
that are situated at the tip of each branch in star form. They occur mainly in
black rocks that absorb extreme heat. And rocks were laying around there
everywhere. They were round or square, but the most bizarre was, how they were
piled on each other. This area of several sq km was called "Giants
playground" and in fact, we could imagine only Aliens having stacked
them up.
Nearby was also a big enclosure, where we could observe
two Cheetahs on a loop drive. We were lucky that they came to rest under a tree
close to the track just as we got there too. We both were impressed how tall
these predators are. Also other, smaller animals were around, as the Suricate
that is sometimes called Meerkat and belongs to the Mongoose family and is
famous because they like to stand up to look around on the hind legs, a bit
like humans. Then there were hundreds of Rock Dassies (Hyrax) that looked like
big fat Guinea pigs and a tame Eland antelope, one of the bigger species around
here. In the trees we could see the enormous nests of the social weaver. Many
birds breed in the same chunk of hey that's like a big apartment building for
them.
Overnight we stayed in Mariental, where it
wasn't easy to find accommodation. There were many guesthouses, but after this
place, that apparently has got the reputation of being the driest in the
country, has been flooded two months ago, many houses were still in a mess. We
visited the Hardap Dam Nature Reserve, where we were almost a bit disappointed,
as we "only" saw some more of the little Springbok, plus some
Ostriches. Not much later though, on our way up north, we sighted a large group
of rather big black monkeys along the roadside.
That evening we reached Windhoek,
the capital and only real city. We stayed in "pension Alexander",
about 1 km from the heart of the city. After seeing all these fortified small
villages, it came as no surprise that also
After dinner, we wanted to be cautious and take a
taxi, as we were told that this is much safer than walking at night. However,
as we stood at the side of the road, no taxi passed for quite a while. So we
went back into the restaurant that had its iron bar door guarded by three
security men. The manager just said "you're crazy to look for a taxi on
the roadside. Only crooks pick people up after dark!". He ordered us to
come back in, locked us immediately behind the iron bar and called his reliable
taxi-man.
The next night, we thought we can go to the taxi
stand, which we've noticed during the day. But after sunset, no taxi was there
anymore. So we asked the waitress of the restaurant where we had some
German type meal with Sauerkraut and Wurst, to call us a cab. Only then we
realized that a (black) driver had been sitting in that
restaurant all evening. On the way home he explained us, that he only
serves customers of this restaurant and one hotel. He would never pick up
somebody from the road at night, as only crooks take a taxi from the road ....
and he would be too afraid to get robbed or car-jacked. We learned that in
The city of
We dared walking along some residential area of whites
- the others' would have been too dangerous, we were told. Even in simple
houses, every window had its iron bars. A handful only had low railings around
their property, but most were lovingly decorated by two meter high fences which
were more often than not, topped up with army type barbed wire and/or electric
fences. They also all seemed to love dogs very much, particularly big nasty
ones.
Now we suddenly understood what was meant, when they
said in the LP travel guide, that
Now we headed north to Outjo. Along the
roadside we had seen probably hundreds of Warthogs grazing. As we approached,
they would always put their tail straight up and run away. As in many other
villages in
Early the next morning we drove up to the gates of Etosha National Park, which is 22'000 sq
km; half the size of Switzerland. This was our ultimate destination and the
reason for our trip to
With some Good Luck and a lot of patience with highly unmotivated
government employees and some insisting, we managed to get bungalows for a
total of 5 nights spread over all three restcamps and one night on a guestfarm
30 km out on the far end of the park. Despite all these hassles, we were very
lucky, because August is considered being the best month for a visit. The
climate was indeed perfect; the coolest and driest time of the year: ~25°C
during the day and ~10°C at night with the sun shining daily, as
throughout the country.
As it was in the middle of the dry season, the animals
had to come to the few remaining waterholes; some of them had natural springs,
others were fed by a solar powered pump. Of course in the interest of tourism,
some manmade waterholes were placed just in front of the rest-camps, where the
animals even tolerated floodlight all night long. We were surprised that on the
waterholes in front of the camps, the "spectators" were only
separated from the wild animals by a low wall. Much less fences than
against burglars in the villages. Of course they had built a simple protection
that hindered the animals from entering the rest-camps (wobbly wooden sticks on
wire).
The pond in front of the Okaukuejo tourist
village was very popular with animals. Sometimes big herds of Springbok, Zebras
and Gnus arrived in succession for a drink. A cloud of dust indicated their
coming over the hillside and after sipping from the water, they would disappear
into the other direction half an hour later. Usually the different species
drank very close to each other and didn't defend a territory. Only Giraffe and
sometimes Elephants preferred to have a pond to their own.
On four occasions we've been lucky to observe the rare
and endangered Rhinos. Once, there were two adults and a small one together and
they always arrived just after sunset at the water.
It was already very exciting to watch all these
animals around the rest-camp waterholes, but there was a road network of over
1'000 km along the parks southern part, that stretches for about 300 km as the
crow flies.
Between sunrise and sunset, which meant now in winter
from 6:30 am to 5:40 pm, tourists were allowed to drive out and watch animals
in their habitat from the roadside and on 27 waterholes. There were two days,
when we did "not see much" - which is still a lot in theory. But on
the other 5 days, we've been so lucky; we've literally met dozens of species -
hundreds of animals.
Most gathered around the waterholes but often entire
herds were crossing the gravel-road. The funniest we felt, were the Zebras that
often stood on or along the road - maybe waiting for somebody to paint a
zebra-crossing? They didn't even move when we slowly passed them and so we did
not always need the 200 mm setting of our compact camera zoom lens. There were
even occasions, where an animal suddenly appeared so close next to our car,
that we were too nervous to drive the zoom back to the 28 mm wide angle setting
to capture the entire lion or elephant.
Can you imagine how close they must have been? There
is good reason that nobody is allowed to leave the car but you can wind your
windows down.
On many occasions we could watch quite big herds of
elephants playing around the water and when they got agitated, we didn't quite
know how much is play and how much is fight. So we realized that for tourists,
elephants are probably more of a danger than lions who were mainly laying
around the shade during the day. At this time of the year diurnal animals are
roaming around all day, whereas in summer, when it gets more than 40 °C hot,
they can mainly be seen at dusk and dawn only.
The most common we've seen were certainly Springbok
and Zebras, followed by different species of antelope like: Kudu with great
spiralling horns on the male's head, Oryx with up to 1,2m long straight horns
in both sexes and beautiful marks on its fur. Black faced Impala, a gracile
brown antelope, of which the males only have horns in lyre shape and the bulky
headed Blue Wildebeest or Gnu and Red Hartebeest.
We were quite surprised about the big numbers of
Elephants, Giraffe and Lions we've seen. Next to them, there were also many
smaller species around, like e.g. warthogs (that didn’t run away), jackals,
mongoose and ground squirrels. Also many birds could be seen, either small and
colourful or big like eagles and ostriches that stand 1.80 m tall.
It was absolutely amazing how tolerant all these
animals in the park had gotten of cars and they really never run away.
It's just perfect how nature looks after herself here;
we have not seen a carcass, but of all those that get eaten every day, nothing
is wasted and all that remains are clean bones, which we have seen a few times
but often even those get chewed away by animals that need calcium.
Predators are only preying on healthy animals during
their own prime of life but they are often too lazy to make such an effort, as
they are more likely to be successful when hunting a sick or injured animal.
Thus, they help to prevent disease from spreading among the prey herds and
often provide a mercifully quick death for old or injured animals, which would
otherwise have to suffer the agonies of a lingering death, associated with
starvation or disease. This is the case for many species, as they loose their
teeth with age.
Almost daily, we've seen prides of lions dozing near a
waterhole. Interestingly, their presence did not disrupt the peaceful life of
the game in the area. They know that lions only eat every 3-4 days and as
long as they are in sight, they are usually not dangerous. Probably
for the prey herds it's just normal, that once a while one of them gets eaten.
Once, as we were parked on a waterhole, the driver of
a safari-tour bus had just informed us, that one of our tyres was flat, when
suddenly 9 lions got up from their place in the shade nearby and walked past
our car to reach the water. Some of them came even that close that they touched
our car. Brigitte nervously wound the window up a bit more. Had
worse come to worse and the lions would have attacked us tourists, we
would have needed to accept it, as we also ate meat of some animals
that occurred in the park, served on the nightly buffets in the camps. However,
we got away by driving very slowly back to camp 15km away, where we had our
tyre fixed.
It was also very exciting to see large herds of
elephants that often included some youngsters. On one occasion, three
small herds of about 15 animals each, arrived on a pond from different
directions. Just before reaching the water, they all started to run, creating a
big cloud of dust, as there was no vegetation around. Mostly they would only
drink, but on rare occasions they would also bathe and roll in the mud before
throwing dust over their wet bodies, powdering themselves until they were
beautiful enough for the evening. After about one hour, they all left swiftly
in the same direction.
Giraffes were walking very elegantly and despite the
fact that our animal-book said that they mostly live a solitary life, we had
often seen up to 10 together. They were joyfully feeding on thorny shrubs
and after that, they were thirsty. To see them drink was the most amazing
picture! Giraffes were quite shy in approaching water, as they knew they would
be most vulnerable when drinking because they need to stretch their long legs
to the side. Because of their long neck and legs, it takes big efforts and
they would fall easily if someone disturbed them. They frequently paused to
look around and if they were in a group, one animal was always guarding nearby.
Giraffes and elephants, as well as Jackals came to drink day or night, whereas zebras
and antelopes only arrived during the daytime.
The 7 days in
After one week in this animals' Garden of Eden, we
plunged back into Namibian life. We often saw families on their way with
donkey-driven carriages, friendly waving to us. In the central-northern half of
the country, many people originate from Herero tribes. In Otjiwarongo, we've recognized some women of them, as they
wear huge long dresses and a pillow-like hat.
The next day already, as we drove south to Swakopmund on the coast, we reached an
area where the black population mainly belonged to the dark Damara and "yellow" Nama ethnic groups. But more than them, we noticed the
Germans here. Swakopmund is really quite pretty but fortified version of a
modern German village. In most shops we were routinely greeted in German, after
we gained access. In the white area, which means in the centre, German was by
far the most common language. In various places, they still organize
Bavarian-style carnivals that are said to be jam-packed with multicultural
revellers. A famous German comedy theatre; Ohnsorg, was presently touring the
area.
Here even more than in the rest of the country, food
was still heavily influenced by its former colonialists. On the positive side,
we have to mention that we really enjoyed nice bread and sausages. Cakes were
made still the same way they had been done 100 years ago in
Speaking of languages: it should be mentioned that
In Swakopmund we spent 6 days in an apartment, where
we were able to receive German TV, as the owners had mounted a satellite dish.
This made the world look much bigger suddenly.
Many German pensioners started buying retirement homes
there, as the
\One day, we went sight-seeing 30 km south to
We continued along a good gravel road for 260 km down
to Solitaire, where we stayed in a lodge, relatively close to
From here it was still another 150 km on partly rattly
- partly sealed road to Sesriem, where there was only camping. After paying the
visitors fee for the Sossusvlei
National Park (170 N$ - 18 Euro) to a
grumpy employee, we soon drove into a valley between red dunes. As they have
had good rains three months ago, there was surprisingly green vegetation with
flowers everywhere.
The most scenic area of the dunes was around some
saltlakes and the biggest one still held water, a sight that sometimes cannot
be seen for many years. Climbing up the hilltop of such a pile of red sand, we
realized how much we were in the middle of a sea of dunes. As far as we could
see, there was nothing else! Upon leaving, it was fascinating to observe how
the light had changed with time and the appearing shades made the dunes look
quite different now, especially those with these beautiful bended sloping
crests.
A 4x4 Safari-shuttle drove us back to the carpark from
where we returned to Solitaire.
Next morning, we continued with our Golf along a good
gravel road further south. Although it was such an excellent road, there
was almost no traffic, as most fellow-travellers most probably took the 300 km
detour along the sealed road. Often they rented big expensive 4x4 with
rooftop-tent that regularly could be seen driving in convoys, as
recommended by intrusive travel agents.
For our rental car, we paid 150 Rand per day (16 Euro)
and it did the job quite well on these roads. Insurance cover on them could at
least be negotiated, whereas many of the big 4x4 vehicles were not even
covered. None of the car-rental companies offered generous insurance protection
anyway!
Although temperatures were above 20°C during
days, at night they often got close to freezing. So for most
people, it was too cold for camping. Many tourists only realized this
upon arrival and therefore, budget accommodation was often booked out and all
those big 4WD camping vehicles (Landcruisers) blocked the parking...
Back to the 420 km of gravel road: at lunchtime we
stopped at the small
Overnight, we got a room in a house all to ourselves
in a village called Aus. Nearby, we went to Hotel Bahnhof (station),
where we got a delicious dinner. In
From there we drove along a large forbidden area of
~100x200km, called "Sperrgebiet", because the area must be full of
diamonds. There is a big company called CDM (South African owned by De Beer's
Group), that has a monopoly on diamond mining and now accounts for no less than
90% of Namibia's tax revenue. Thanks to this, the government can afford to be
the biggest employer. Every 5th job is a government job that consists mainly of
non-white people. As in RSA, private businesses are still predominantly owned
by white, but there is a law now, that requires every big company to employ a
certain percentage of people of all colours, also in the management. This
causes sometimes big head-aches we've heard, because there are not that many
qualified black people yet and furthermore, even the coloured and black people
seem to trust a white professional more, than one of their own. This is a
consequence of apartheid, because during that time, whites got a much better
education than coloureds and coloureds got a better education still than
blacks.
It is still a fact that most well paid jobs are held
by whites and most inferior jobs by others, for those in the middle, most
whites tend to prefer to employ coloureds, rather than blacks, because of their
education and as they tend to be more motivated than people from black
ethnics. Because unskilled labour is so cheap, most white households and the
few blacks that can afford it, employ a maid and gardener, which are easy to
find in countries with such high unemployment; Namibia 30%, RSA 42% (2004).
The drift in wage between skilled and unskilled labour
is still enormous. Whereas skilled labour is rewarded with western salaries, a
helping hand often doesn't get much more than 100 Euro a month. This is barely
enough to feed the entire family and there is no social benefit in either
country. The problem only gets worse, as hundreds of people want to
move from the countryside into the cities. According to local tradition, a
family is obliged to look after everyone of its extended family that might join
them in their already too small house, that often is only a government sponsored
matchbox. This way, poverty grows and with it crime. Unfortunately, this also
applies to
In both countries, whites are quite well off and most
of them own a car, whereas coloureds and blacks can always be seen walking and
hitch-hiking along the streets, as they can neither afford public transport (if
there was any) nor a bicycle or motorized transport. In both countries, a small
but growing coloured- and black middle class developed. Cultural differences
between the races are big and black people seem to be much less interested to
start their own business than white and to a certain extent the coloureds do.
Most blacks would probably still prefer to live on subsistence farming and be
content with that. In today’s society, of course there is no stepping back and
so they are forced to find work and somehow fit into the present
day western system. In
Our next destination was called Lüderitz after the German explorer and was an appealing coastal village that had
grown thanks to the diamonds. It has an important harbour and as everywhere,
the (formerly compulsory) town-ship at its outskirts. Moving dunes often cause
problems in the area, as the wind blows sand onto the access road and railway,
during frequent sandstorms that regularly last three days. We were glad we
could experience calm and sunny weather and continued one day later on a gravel
shortcut that was in the process of being sealed and so the biggest section was
a brand-new perfect "highway", almost down to Rosh Pinah. After a
quick lunch, we proceeded through several scenic mountain ranges, on a
sometimes muddy gravel road along the
This river forms the border to
South-Africa 1 | Namibia |
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Photos: South-Africa |
Just for comparison, we drove into each of South Africa's northern
villages, to get confirmation that the security prevention with big fences and
guards was really much less than up in
The first night we spent again in the nice guesthouse
in Kamieskroon. A
letter we had posted from
The big area between the northern coast and the ranges
a few hundred kilometers inland, were still covered in beautiful spring flowers
among the arid bushes that covered these hills. Apparently it's been raining
many times during the 4 weeks we've been up north and soon we saw big clouds
again too. We headed inland to Calvinia that lay
high up on a plateau. Around the village, the mountains were cooling the nights
to freezing and as an exception, there was a heater provided in the house we
rented. So it was at least comfortable as we waited for a day for better
weather. The village was very charming and some guest houses and café's were decorated
like one hundred years ago. Among a lot of old collectables, we saw fur of
some animals, hunted long ago hanging on the wall, including one of a
monkey. Ironically, from that day on, we've seen monkeys daily along the road.
Baboons seem to cause problems as they sometimes enter homes if a door or
window is open. If the wind closes it, the monkeys panic and damage everything
they can get hold of.
Through the
There were many fine dining options in town and as
typical for
Through green scenery that could just as well have
been in
We could observe them through the open door of the
restaurant where we had breakfast. Just as in
We went for a side trip to a small village called Mc
Gregor and as common in the south west of the country, there were many
beautiful old houses with thatched roofs that were built in the "
Just out of Montagu, is a beautiful narrow gorge where
the road even passes through a short tunnel that was cut out from the rock.
Lots of baboons live there and can easily be spotted from the roadside. To protect the
monkeys on the windy road, the speed limit was set at 60 km/h, as they really
often cross the street. Also we had to slow down and so it happened that a
young speeding local bumped into our car's back. Luckily, there were only a few
scratches on our golf, so we could drive on after fetching a police report for
the car-rental company.
We reached the coast in Hermanus that is
only 120 km east of
Our sea-front apartment was booked afterwards, but we
still could get an original old fisherman's cottage for the same price. It was
quite big and had thick walls. Once upon a time it must have stood all by
itself, but now it was surrounded by the resort's other buildings.
We phoned the car-rental company and could arrange
that they came to fetch the car right here. Before we returned it, we still
went for a last drive along the fascinating coastal road to
The next day, we arranged to visit Eva and Jan whom we
had met during our first visit to the Gousblom B&B in the north five
weeks ago. They were among the very open minded people and they had left us
their Hermanus address on the breakfast table, as they left early. This couple
was very interesting to talk to and they seemed to always be busy visiting
lectures on the University for the 3rd age, of which they were telling us very
excitedly. As they also love to travel a lot, they sometimes get into a
self-made conflict of interests as they have to miss some lectures. When we phoned
them, we could arrange to meet them the next day. After bringing us to a nice
restaurant for lunch, they showed us their house which is superbly situated
overlooking a rivermouth and the sea. Also their garden was wonderful and they
had altered many things on the house to their liking, since they bought it four
years ago.
We almost couldn't stop asking them questions about
the past and present situation in
This small country within
We didn't get much information about the AIDS problem
in
In Hermanus, we just relaxed for 10 days, took time
off travelling and soaked the good things up this country has to offer. Another
pleasant thing was the Southern Right Whales that could be seen just in front
of our door step and we loved to watch them every day for a while. At least one
could be seen most of the time but there could be 10-20 showing up and waving
their flukes or fin and sometimes even jumped out of the water.
We also enjoyed the culinary delights and not
only those, but also all the good and bad things we've experienced here, needed
to be digested. Also writing down this travel diary has certainly helped
us to comprehend those controversial and contrast loaded countries
In the beginning, we were shocked about the high crime
rate, but after a while, we got used to all those fortified towns and villages.
In a country where almost 80% of the population lives on the rim of poverty, it
is rather astonishing that the crime rate is not worse! At least in
As a fact, in both countries the worst crime hit
areas, are those with the most poverty. That means, in the slums outside the
cities and in the former township areas, which are inhabited by the
coloureds and black races. In the predominantly white areas and in popular
tourist spots, guards ensured security (in exchange for money).
However, all is relative, also South
The peoples of
On the last weekend, Hermanus was amazingly lively, as
many city folks flocked in for some leisure time and to watch the whales. Never
before, we have enjoyed it so cognisably, to be amidst other people, than after
having seen so many villages that became virtually "ghost towns"
every evening and every weekend.
Now we are happy to be back in
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