Beware of Freak Waves
After visiting the big sand dunes of Namibia, we headed back to the west
coast to Swakamund. This was the biggest city we'd been in for awhile.
The campsite was booked, so Tina our courier had arranged for us to stay
in a not-quite-yet-ready guest house. There were no beds, but the floor
was carpeted. There were some great hot showers and best of all- no sand.
We celebrated our return to civilization with a dinner out on the town. I had
some deep fried squid as a starter and ostrich as the main course. Ostrich is
quite good, you'd think it would be like chicken, but actually it is more like
red marbled meat. Our return to civilization was also greeted by the local
thieves. They broke the window on the truck's cab and stole the driver's
dirty laundry, the courier's camera, and a few other things from one of the
passengers. Luckily they didn't find any of our stuff below the false floors
on the truck.
Neil and his first fish.
Our first adventure activity in Swakamund was "deep-sea" fishing. About
8 of us went out in two small speedboats. Not exactly the size of boat you
picture for deep-sea fishing, but it got us out there. The fishing was pretty
brain-dead easy, stick a bit of fish chum on a hook, drop it down to the
bottom, wait for the fish to hit. It wasn't long before we were filling up the
boat with cob. Neil even caught his first fish ever (how you get to be 24
without ever catching a fish is beyond me, but I'm from Minnesota, we have
to fish, it's the law!).
So after all day on the boat, by time we got ashore, I had to really take a
piss. So I wandered towards a secluded part of the rocky jetty. I selected
a good stance on a big rock and starting taking care of business. As I'm
whizzing, I notice this alarmingly big wave working its way towards the
sore. Hmmmm, that is a big wave, damn big. I knew several seconds
beforehand that I was going to get soaked, but I was caught with my pants
down as it were. I got wet up to my chest, lucky I didn't get swept out to
sea I suppose (but what a funny way to go!). I shook it off, oh well, I
might as well finish up.
The next day, we had our second adventure activity: sandboarding. The
basic idea is to climb to the top of a high sand dune and then zip down it
on a snowboard. Being a fairly competent snowboarder on more
conventional mediums, I picked it up rather quickly. It was quite slow
and you if you carved too hard you submarined the board and got a
face'o'sand.
The truck crew on their quad-bikes.
After several hours, we were covered with sand, but it was great fun.
We were then whisked away for our last adventure activity: 4 wheeling
(quad-biking to the British-impaired). We donned our protective gear,
and blasted off into the dunes. To prevent any additional damage to the
dunes, there is a set track through the dunes and you have to stay
behind the guide. It was fun, but I can't help but think that it would be a
nice place to go walking if there weren't so many yohoo's zipping
around with 2-stroke engines blaring.
Sunset somewhere in Nimibia.
It took awhile to scrub the sand and grit off our bodies but we managed.
Our clothing was in a sad state, so next stop was the laundromat. This
was the coolest laundromat ever, it had video games, TVs, pool tables,
a casino, a bar, and more. It was also the last time our clothing would
get anything but a hand washing for the next month and a half.
Jackal on the prowl for some sea lion cubs.
The next day it was back into the truck, we headed north along the
coast. We stopped at the seal colony at Cape Cove. There are thousands
and thousands of seals sprawled out on the rocks. They spend their days
lazing around, barking and showing their teeth when another seal tries to
move in on their favorite sunning rock. Occasionally they head out to the
ocean to catch some fish. They also produce a truly horrific oderific
emanation (the stench can only be described as roughly comparable to an
evening at Vertanen deer camp). We also saw a few jackals slinking around
the outskirts of the seal colony. They were waiting for an opportunity to
munch on a young seal cub.
That there is a heck of a lot of seals.
Now that looks like one happy seal!
Later that day, we stopped at a site home to a collection of native
rock paintings. All the typical game animals were depicted, as well
as a few of the big cats, and a few of humans. It was really
self-explanatory, but we had this guide who kept insisting in a loud
voice. "I am a teacher! Ask me questions!" We tried a few questions,
but never learned more than was obvious. The drawings that looked
like giraffes, they depicted giraffes. Oh really.
After driving all day, we reached our campsite at a cheetah park. The
cheetahs apparently cause problems for the farmer's livestock.
Sometimes they live trap the cats and this park takes them into its care.
The husband and wife who run the park have about three cheetahs that
are tame. They called the cats over and we got to take turns petting them.
While I was near one of them, the cat sort of sat up and started to
look at me funny. I could imagine a little cartoon bubble over his head
with a picture of me fading into a picture of a juicy steak. Apparently
they have not completely lost their wild instincts, I summoned up my
courage and slowly backed away. They just wouldn't let you do this
sort of thing in the states, holy liability batman!
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