DAY 5-BUSHMEN AND AN INTERESTING PIT STOP

The Stampriet guesthouse is aesthetically built with the one storey rooms being named after the famous towns of Namibia. The lobby has a number of interesting books on the African continent and is very tastefully done up, with clippings from old newspapers laminated and used as table mats to keep you occupied while you wait for your made-to-order eggs to be brought to your table.

After a hearty breakfast, we leave for the “Bushman walk”. I am very excited at finally meeting “THE” bushmen about whom I had read a story while in school. Unfortunately, the Bushman walk is a disappointment in more ways than one-more on that later, but yet it is fascinating to hear them in speak in their “click” language.

Lunch in the town of Mariental. With a huge tree providing the shade and a chilled Diet coke for company from the freezer in “Peter Torche”, we enjoy a quick “working lunch”. On our way to the town of Hammerstein, where we are to stay for the next couple of days, we stop at the town of Maltahohe for a “pit stop”. Hotel Maltahohe had an interesting sign put up –“No Pee for Free”. But the sweet lady at the front desk allowed us to go ahead and use the toilets without a charge.

Our home for the next two days-the Hammerstein Lodge is situated close to the Sesriem Canyon and the gateway to the Soussusvlei Dunes . We reach there around 4.30 p.m and after depositing our luggage, we have a steaming mug of coffee while watching a spectacular sunset. Once the sun had set, the temperature quickly drops and we know the biting cold of a desert. At dinner that night, everyone sits with their chairs very close to the bonfire to get away from the chilling desert cold. With the delicious pasta inside us, we are sufficiently warmed to try our hand at roasting marshmallows. I had wanted to do this for a long time – roast the marshmallows, then sandwich then between chocolate bars and bite into a slice of heaven. A childhood desire fulfilled.

Though we were having a lot of fun, we do not linger long since we have an early start the next day. We are to visit the Sossusvlei dunes, the world’s most picturesque dunes. The Sossusvlei Dunes are on protected land and we want to reach the gates before they open at 6.30 a.m. and hence the need for an early start.