Join us on a 6500km flying adventure through Namibia starting at Rundu on the Angolan border and ending at Oranjemund;the quirky mining town of the Sperrgebiet
The call of the Namaqua sandgrouse echoed across the valley and flocks of Communal weavers swept across the front veranda like shoals of fish; it was another surreally beautiful morning in the Namib. Although reticent to leave Desert Camp we were equally excited about our next destination; the Namibrand Family Hideout http://www.hideout.iway.na/
We had been to Namibrand a year previously on a driving holiday and had fallen madly in love with the old farmhouse on the desert plains. We were looking forward to four days in this desert wonderland where the silence is so deep you can hear your own heartbeat.
The scenery between Sesriem and Namibrand is spectacular with the huge and ancient dunes washing away into grassland plains and then into the rust red hummocks of the pro-namib. The Nubib mountain range rears up in the west and adds perspective to a vast landscape that seems at times to consist more of sky than of land.
Hot air ballooning near Sesriem
Flying into Namibrand
The Nubib Mountains
Flying into Namibrand
We had organised for Ricardo, the camp manager to pick us up at the desert airstrip and give us a lift to the old farmhouse. We came in on a wind and a whisper and Ricardo didn’t even hear us land as our wheels touched the soft desert sand.
Jay and Ricardo on the Namibrand airstrip
Stepping into the old farmhouse, feels to me like coming home. My body, mind and soul find themselves at peace and wherever I look I find myself lulled into a dream by a landscape that defies description.
It is a very basic place with a gas stove and fridge, solar geyser and lights. During the day the old stone floors are cool under your feet and at night the wide walls that have been baked by the desert sun for close on a hundred years keep you warm.
An aerial view of the farmhouse at Namibrand
The old farmhouse at Namibrand
A view from the veranda
A view from the veranda
It was full moon that evening and the landscape was painted silver. We carried our bed out into the desert in front of the house and snuggled up under the duvet, staring up at the stars. Then the magical happened; a herd of Oryx on their way to the waterhole silently made their way around our bed, their horns and beautiful painted faces highlighted in the soft light. We held our breath in absolute wonder as the soft hoof falls dwindled into the night.
There is a profusion of life at Namibrand; in the house and out on the dunes. There is a gecko living under the kitchen cupboard, a cheeky bat eared fox that may chance its luck and raid the dustbin, a rock kestrel that hunts the grouse at the waterhole. Herds of Oryx and Springbok come down each day to drink and when one walks the dunes they are covered in spoor of insects, reptiles and mammals.
One wishes you knew more about spoor when on the dunes – Like a blind person trying to learn braille, I found myself touching the tracks hoping to make more sense of what creature could have possibly made them.
A lone Oryx on the golden grasslands of Namibrand
A Springbok Ram pronks near the waterhole just outside the farmhouse
A sand lizard in the dunes
Spoor on the dunes never cease to intrigue
A corn cricket makes its way across the dunes
Every morning we wake early and walk to the dunes in the dark with our torches and wait for the sun to bath the landscape in colour. We do the same each evening with the moon. There is something profoundly special about having the desert to yourself.
The Nubib mountains across the dunes
Jay walking across the dunes one late afternoon
Jay dune boarding
The days went by all too quickly and we found our four days at Namibrand over before they had begun. We took off early in the morning and headed south with a heavy heart wishing we never had to leave and promising ourselves that we will come back.
The strange landscapes south of Namibrand
Fairy circles
Beneath us the golden grasslands glowed, the grasses parting in strange shapes called fairy circles, an unexplained phenomena of the Namib……
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