Sunday 2019/12/29
Swakopmund – Welwitschia Drive – Moon-Landscape – Gobabeb – Homeb
Great little informative trip. Among other things a experiment with lichen. If you sprinkle black lichen with a little water, they swell and turn green. There are some other small sights/stops/viewpoints on the Welwitschia Drive. However, we do not drive to all of them, as we have seen the Welwitschia plant many times already, a biological phenomenon, of which it is still not clear whether the water is absorbed solely through the leaves. The plant can live up to 1500 years.
On the way to Walvisbay we make a small detour to a dune. Climbing up is more laborious than expected and the sand is burning hot. Wolle is feeling a bit bad and so he has to fight his way up and he's quite exhausted up then. Still a great experience!
Then we make a detour towards Walvisbay to buy some cola for Wolle, who is hoping for relief from drinking it.
Then our route is continuing on a partly sandy slope on a side road towards Homeb, more or less along the Kuiseb river, of which you can actually see nothing, but often have beautiful views to the sand dunes in the south. We see a lot of corrugated iron huts along the street and suddenly a sign appears with the inscription "Private Road". We ask two schoolgirls if they speak English, which they do of course, and they tell us that we can continue on the road.
We have read that it is now compulsory schooling for children in Namibia. The only exception is for Himba children, half of whom are traditionally allowed to stay in the village, the other half has to go to school. In the Himba village, we visited, we were told that mostly the girls choose to go to school. And since there are about 25 languages in Namibia, English is also the language in which many Namibians communicate with each other. Nevertheless, you occasionally meet people who don't speak English, but instead e.g. Afrikaans.
The entire country is crossed by generally dry rivers. Often you can only see from the slightly greener vegetation that there is some underground water source.
Our campground today is next to a small farm, without administration, but we are still doing well. Unfortunately, many visitors do not take their garbage with them, so that the whole place looks a bit neglected.
Wolle is not particularly good in the evening and he has to vomit twice, but a long sleep brings some improvement. He will suffer from it for a few more days.