DAY 4-QUIVER TREES AND THE DESERT LANDSCAPE

Slept really well..after a breakfast of eggs, juice and fruits, we set off. Our first stop is the “Fish Bridge” over the Fish River (what else?).

Spot some cheetah in areas fenced off by barbed wire. Namibia has the largest population of wild and healthy cheetahs but they are in danger from the farmers who lay traps to kill them to protect their livestock from them. In order to protect these cheetahs from extinction, those that are captured on these farms are turned over to cheetah sanctuaries. The other extreme is the abundance of elephants in the Kruger National Park in South Africa. There are an estimated 14000 elephants in the Kruger National Park and some conservationists and park officials believe that culling is the only way to control their numbers. Their increasing numbers represent a threat to the vegetation and the water supply that support the other rare species.

To fill up on gas and buy some other essentials, we stopped at the town of Keetmanshoop. It seems to be an important town for travelers, having many gas stations and gambling seems to be a favorite pastime of the people here. We passed many buildings in the town that read “gambling house”! Check out the photo!

Next on the itinerary is the Kokerboom forest. The Kokerboom trees are also called quiver trees-so called because their branches were hollowed out and used by the Bushmen as a quiver for their arrows. These trees are indigenous to Namibia and South Africa and the Kokerboom forest region where they grow in abundance is a national park for the conservation of the quiver trees. The quiver trees have no commercial use and coming from India and more particularly Mumbai, the commercial capital of the country where the real estate prices are one of the highest in the world, I just could not imagine all the area of the Kokerboom forest being utilized to preserve trees that are not particularly useful-the place could have been better utilized to for a mall or housing complexes. I know this thought of mine was scandalous and “capitalist”. Then I thought that only if the efforts and the will that can be seen in Namibia to protect the wildlife, flora and fauna could be seen in India too-our tigers would not be on the verge of extinction. Being winter, some of the quiver trees had yellow blooms and lent some colour to the desert.

The social weaver birds build nests on the quiver trees that can house upto 400 birds. The entrances to these nest face downwards and the huge nests are a marvel to watch.

On our way to the Stampriet Historical Guest House, we stopped at the town of Mariental. Just outside the toilets there was a picture that showed a flooded Mariental in the year 2006. Jojo told us that these floods took place because of human error-the gates of the Hardap Dam were not opened to allow the water into the Fish River for a period of seven days! What a tragedy!

Today is the first time that we also passed through the Kalahari Desert which covers Namibia, Botswana and South Africa and is home to the San people or the Bushmen.

DAY 3-CANOEING AND A NATURAL WONDER

Yippee!-today we canoe down the River Orange. Get up at 5.45 AM to catch the spectacular sunrise over the River Orange. No photograph can do justice to the beautiful sight.

Shorts and flip-flops, our attire for the canoe ride. We sign that dreaded indemnity form again! Spend an enjoyable three hours on the River Orange. The fiber glass boats have three buckets that are to be used to throw out water if your boat overturns and fills up with water. We use them to store our camera, camcorders, sunscreens and drinking water, hoping that we don’t have to use them to throw out water.

Rowing is an awful lot of hard work. Most of the time you row on both sides; however if you want the boat to turn in one particular direction, then you need to row only on the opposite side. A couple of times Adi and I ran into weeds and then had to “reverse row” to get out of the weeds. At times, we let our fibre-glass boats idle to observe some unique flora and fauna of the River Orange The last stretch before we hit “home” had very fast flowing water with a huge rock right in the middle of it. One of the boats carrying our group members overturned, discharging the occupants. But luckily, the water was only waist deep and they were soon “rescued”. But it was definitely a moment of panic for the group.

After a quick lunch, we leave for the Fish River Canyon to reach it before sunset. The Fish River Canyon is the oldest canyon in the world and also the second largest after the Grand Canyon in the United States.

En route, we stop to admire the beauty of the desert-the silence in the desert can be “deafening”. We sit in the middle of the never ending desert road to enjoy the solitude but we soon have to get up at the sound of an approaching car. Even the desert is not untouched from the effects of modernization. The Namib Desert is the oldest desert in the world and home to a large variety of wildlife-Kudus, which are deer-like creatures, springbok and the oryx which is the national animal of Namibia.

The entire road to the Canyon is gravel road-not easy on our joints and bones but some excellent driving by JoJo gets us through without much damage.

The first view of the Fish River Canyon is awe inspiring. We do not bother taking pictures for the first 15 minutes-my eyes are trying to take in every topographical detail of the canyon. Since it is winter and the dry season, the river bed is almost dry; there are some puddles of water. A place still untouched by the effects of commercialization. We walk along the rim of the canyon, stopping every couple of meters to see the play of the setting sun on the canyon and admire its beauty from a new angle. Nature at its powerful best!

Darkness falls and we have to tear ourselves from this natural wonder-we have miles to go before we sleep and all on a gravel road too! Our lodge for the night is Seeheim Hotel. It resembles a castle out of a fairy tale. We lose our way in the dark and cannot find our room situated at the top of a steep flight of steps. Conservation of energy is important in this place in the middle of nowhere. They use solar energy and the guests are advised to take showers in the evenings when the water is nice and hot.

Dinner that night is at the restuarant of the lodge. Though everyone is tired, the delicious dinner soon has everyone talking nine to the dozen. This is the first night that we all get to each other a little more thanks to the "gypsy"

DAY 2-BORDER CROSSING AND A SPECTACULAR SUNSET

Had to go without breakfast today. Were up early but Adi and I had yet to get used to the pace. When Jojo came knocking at our door, we were still grappling with our packing.

We leave Citrus Creek at 7.00 a.m and ride the next 30 minutes in complete darkness. Pass the Olifants river, harnessed by the ClanWilliams dam. Drive through Namaqualand and stop for a lunch of sausages-no, Adi and I have not turned given up vegetarianism. Liz, our cook for the tour, assures us that they are vegetarian sausages. I am still not convinced but she shows me the packet and on reading the finer print, I realized that the ingredients are indeed vegetarian like wheat protein, wheat flour etc. The brand is Fry’s, a home-grown South African company run by a husband-wife duo. Hey, I could get addicted to these sausages-they are delicious!

Today is the day that we crossed into Namibia from South Africa. This is the first time that Adi and I are doing an overland tour and it is very exciting.At the South African border post, things go smoothly and quickly -except when we are directed to a cubicle to get our fingerprints done. Apparently, this is a new requirement that has been introduced-but the official only takes down my passport serial number. I later learn that from our group that Marie was the only one to have her fingerprints taken-when she put her finger on the fingerprint machine, it just conked off. She was the butt of merciless teasing afterwards as to how she was a “wanted” terrorist and once her fingerprints matched there was no need to take anyone else’s.

At the Namibian border, it takes us much longer- JoJo tell us to be extremely respectful towards the officials and always keep a smiling face…? My jaws are aching by the time my passport is stamped-trying to fake the smile.

Before we reach the border, we stop for some final shopping at “Springbok”, the last major town before the South African border and for hundreds of kilometers into Namibia as well. I buy a small tube of Nivea face cream for R 62 (approx INR 350)-have to compare the price in Cairo and Mumbai for the same tube. Feel right at home when we see a Tata Motors in Springbok-a slice of India in South Africa!

That night, we stay at Felix Unite -each of us are shown into independent “huts” overlooking the Orange River. An extremely cozy place but initially, there is a moment of anxiety for me when we spot a huge lizard on the wall in our hut but thankfully after some gentle prodding by Adi, it goes away on its own.

The sunset over the River Orange is nothing short of spectacular.

Dinner that night is special with Liz serving pap, a staple food of southern Africa, made from maize. The delicious dinner is conducive to some interesting conversation- “What are the number of continents in the world? Are islands a part of continents? New Zealand is part of which continent? Israel is in Asia or Europe?” –These questions maybe part of a geography lesson in school and they are now part of our dinner talk. No definitive answers that night.

DAY 1-PETER TORCHE, MALARIA AND COLD ROOMS

We get up early – my excitement and apprehension wakes me up much before the alarm goes off. I lie in bed thinking of all the things that can go wrong-lizards in my room, no hot showers, being bitten by a desert scorpion or snake, malarial mosquitoes etc. But then I think of the possibility of seeing the most wonderful landscapes, experiencing the silence of the vast desert and the starry desert night and I quickly jump out of bed.

After a quick breakfast at the hotel that we have been staying in, we walk over to the tour operator’s office-with our knapsacks on our backs and the daypacks in our hands. We are asked to sign an indemnity form-basically signing away our right to any action against the tour operator in case of any adverse eventuality! Gulp!

We head out to the “truck” in which we are to spend much time in the coming days-no luxury bus for us. Our truck had been modified to make it comfortable for traveling long distances and is lovingly called “Peter Torche”. Check it out!

Our tour leader JoJo briefs us about what to expect in the coming days and then drops the bombshell (or so it seemed to me!!!)-MALARIA! He hoped that we had taken the recommended malarial prophylaxis. I was glad to hear some negative responses apart from ours; safety in numbers. When we looked worried, he tried to assure us that in the last three years, none of his clients had got malaria. But there is always a first time!!!!….

Since it was the first day, we had only a visit to an organic wine farm scheduled-the only one of its kind in South Africa. Got an insight into the wine making process and the right way to taste wine; a “heady” start to our trip, indeed.

Reached Citrus Del at 3.30 p.m., where we were to stay for the night. A small town, less than two hours from Cape Town, it is situated on the banks of Olifants river. The town boasts of a nine-hole golf course. The town is very small-the coffee shop here closes at 5.00 p.m. because it opens at 8.00 a.m.!!

Stayed at Citrus Creek- has independent units with well-equipped kitchens. We closed all the windows and kept the door closed so that the mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies could not get in-my phobia at work again! But inexplicably, it was cold inside the rooms but outside it was much warmer.

Around a bonfire, we got to know our fellow travelers better - the teacher for children with special needs - Joyce, the enthusiastic and entirely loveable Swedish -Marie, the retired teacher who divided her time between two continents-Suzy, Renata who had visited Africa before was there with her partner Gerard, Virgini from Luxembourg in whom I found a “friend for life”, the wine teacher Yihun and the sisters from Germany. Our extremely efficient crew - Jojo, the energetic tour leader, Lizelle-the “happy-go-lucky” cook and Anjia –the practical translator.

Had dinner in a million-star restaurant; our first look at the star studded desert sky.