Any One for Desert?

The start of a lot of desert in Namibia.
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I'm sure I've mentioned before that Africa is a big country but the one time when you really start to realise it is when you get into the desert. Mile upon mile of unrelenting sand and scrub, scorching heat and sunshine.

On the plus side, it tends not to rain much either.

Did I mention the sand?

After the joys of Swakopmund we headed for the Namib desert which is on the west coast of Namibia, stayed overnight at a place called Sessume and got up at the crack of dawn (or rather just before) so that we could drive 50 km to the imaginatively named Dune 45 to see the sun rise.

Desert with hills.
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We'd expected glorious scenery, beautifully coloured sands, and hills swept clean by the winds of all traces of human activity. What we got was pretty much that (provided you read 'lots of sand' for 'glorious scenery' and a tough hike to the top of the dune just in time for dawn. Incidentally, there is a Namibian legend which says that a crocodile comes along each evening and eats the sun which is why it gets dark and then 'expels' it each morning which is why it gets light. I'm sure this can't be true as the sunrise was really rather good.

Dave looking remarkable relaxed in the middle of .... lots of desert.
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On, forever on. The following day we headed off to Aus somewhere in the middle of the desert to see ..... more sand. As we pulled into the camp site you could hear the group morale hit the floor. The camping area was a kilometre or so from the reception / bar area and there was nothing obvious to do. In fact it turns out the area is really quite famous for people who want to come and do three and four day hikes amongst spectacular ... sand. Aus is undoubtedly a great place to do this but after the joys of Swakopmund, the group limited itself to the hike the bar.

The desert at night - aaah!
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Another day, another desert and we did a baking drive across to the ghost town of Ludderitz to see an old and now deserted diamond mining town. People used to work there on two year contracts without being allowed to leave and then had to take laxatives before leaving the site to prove they weren't stealing the diamonds. In return they got a skittle hall, gymnasium, board and lodging in an 800 bed bunk house whilst the management got a champagne bar and nice houses with a great view of - yup, sand.

The desert in the morning.
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If you are going to spend time in the desert, you might as well do it right. We spent the best part of a week at various sites and at one point recorded a temperature of 44C /110F - in the shade during the day and 33C (whatever that is in old money) in one of the tents at night. That's hot.

We subseqently discovered that there are about six weeks of the year when Namibia at its hottest. Anyone want to guess when we were there? Or what better time of the year than to arrange for  people to do an 18km canoe ride down the Orange River? Or how much it costs to drink six litres of juice and water a day just to slake the thirst?

The morning excitement continues.
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(Or whether Annette and I were smart enough to duck out of the rafting on the grounds of 'what a bloody silly thing to do').

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Nothing really to do with the trip but I was browsing a bookshop in Cape Town after we finished our travels and came across a book about how famous people died. It turns out that Mr Farenheit did his initial experiements on temperature by testing on himself with an alcohol based thermometer how much heat and cold people could cope with (he reckoned around a hundred degrees and zero degrees respectively). He then switched to mercury based thermometers and subsequently died of mercury poisening.

The ghost diamond town near Ludderitz.
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(Althoug if he went to the restaurant we went to in Stonetown, Zanzibar, he could well have died of Freddie Mercury poisening - although that's probably only funny if you've read the review under 'The Spice Island of Zanzibar').