namibia: namib-naukluft national park

I walked from my accomodation to the Cardboard Box, where I'd booked my next tour. Even though my tour wasn't through the hostel, that's where the company did their pickups. The guy picking me up was 20 minutes late, which didn't surprise me, I'd gotten used to these sorts of delays during my trip.

The driver ended up being the guy in charge of everything, but he wasn't the guide/driver. He took me to a supermarket, where we met up with a couple ladies from Luxembourg, and our driver/guide. I took advantage of a few minutes free to go into the supermarket and pick up a few snacks. There are never enough snacks.

From there we drove out of Windhoek. The landscape and road turned very rural very quickly after we left the city. Namibia is mostly desert, though with a wide variety of desert landscapes. While we drove, I got to see mountains in the distance, which were gorgeous. I'd love to go back and hike there. The road was unsealed, which meant our driver had to watch carefully nearly the entire time, so we didn't puncture tires.

We pulled over at a sortof rest stop along the way for lunch. I say sortof rest stop because it was just a couple tables on an overlook. There was nothing else there, but with the views we had, I didn't need anything else.

Our lunch was cold cut sandwiches, yogurt, and orange juice. While trying to capture the views I realized I need a wide angle camera. From this viewpoint we could see the house where the Farmers Union meets every so often. We could see down into a valley, surrounded by mountains. This sortof rest stop was basically at the top of a pass.

From the top of the pass we drove down into the wide valley floor. The road was full of switchbacks, and was 'paved' with stone bricks. It was actually in better shape than the road we'd already driven.

Eventually we got to a small town called Solitaire. It wasn't even really a town. More of a rest stop with a campground and small motel, bakery, and petrol station. There were old, abandoned cars and trucks everywhere, fun to take photos of them. The desert is not kind to old cars and trucks.

After our guide/driver had a tire fixed (it turns out the road is bad enough that punctured tires and tubes happen pretty much everytime you drive,) and got more petrol, we started driving again.

We entered Namib Naukluft National Park, (the first national park established in the country,) and found the campsite. A few minutes later, we piled back into the car, and our driver/guide took us to the foot of several sand dunes. We climbed these dunes in an effort to chase the sunset. It was definitely a workout, which was nice to have after a day of riding in a car. Everytime I got to what I thought was the top, I could see another crest a bit in front of me. I never really caught the sunset, but I tried. As the sun fell lower and lower I really enjoyed the colour of the light, and the peaceful feeling in the area.

While we were doing this climb we were there at the same time as another tour group, which was a bit bigger. It was a mixed group, with Japanese, Koreans, a chick from Ohio State, and a guy who attended the University of Michigan. All of that group was on a longer tour through more than just the national park.

On my way back down the dune I realized my Luxembourger mates hadn't made it as far up the dune as I had. They had gotten confused about the time at which we would meet our driver at the bottom, so they didn't climb as far up.

Back at the campsite our driver/guide cooked dinner for us. We had (marinated) pork steak, and canned veggies. Unfortunately, we didn't have any light, so we weren't able to see our food very well. It was good, but I wish we'd been able to see. What I could see were the stars in the sky, which were pretty incredible.

There was a lodge, where I went to hang out for a little bit after dinner. I used the plugs to charge my phone, and used the light to read on my kindle. There were people there who seemed intent on getting drunk, I wasn't one of them. When I got back to the campsite I found the Luxembourgers had already gone to bed, even though it was only 2100. I tried to take a few photos of the sky (SO MANY STARS) but I don't know how to use my camera well enough for those to turn out well.

I had my own tent in which to sleep, which was awesome.

The next morning my alarm went off waaaaay too early. It was just at the time when I had set it, but it was only 0430, so it was still dark, and cold. Not so fun. Nevertheless, I got ready to go, because I was excited about what was on the itinerary for the day.

We all hopped into the van, and got to an interior entry gate, and waited in queue with other vehicles. The interior gate opened at 0530, and our guide drove with a lead foot. We got to where we were going first.

Dune 45 has the name because it is 45 kilometers from the entry of the park. (I think.) This is a dune where nearly every tour group comes to climb the dune and watch the sun rise. We were the first to start climbing, but we were definitely not the first to reach the top. How do people go so fast up a hill of sand?!? Climbing dunes is a good workout, especially in the dark. In a way I didn't mind being behind a few people, as it was actually easier to follow in their footsteps.

At the top of the dune we all took photos, and people were generally polite in helping others take photos. It is a beautiful, but unreal landscape. I can see why movie studios use this sort of a landscape to make an audience think we're on a different planet. At one point nearly everyone climbing sat on the ridge of the dune and watched the sun rise. Beautiful. The colours of everything seem to change constantly, depending on where the sun is in the sky, but generally you can say that the sand is red on this dune.

Dune 45 is 170 meters high, and the sand is 5 million years old. More than a little of it ended up in my hair. The wind constantly recreates the shape of the dune.

I 'walked' down the dune (definitely easier than coming up, and far more fun) back to the parkplatz. Breakfast was yogurt, juice, cereal and milk, etc...

After packing up the food, we drove a bit further down the road, Eventually we pulled over into another parkplatz, and our guide/driver went to buy us tickets. We didn't know what these tickets were for, but soon found out. We needed these tickets to get on the 4x4 vehicle that drove us to the next spot.

The road to the next stop is a road requiring 4 wheel drive. Even with the proper vehicle, you need to know what you're doing, as the sand is easy to get stuck in. After getting on our vehicle, we saw several stuck vehicles as we drove along.

The dropoff point for our next stop didn't seem special in any way. I wouldn't have known anything special was there. We followed our guide, who took us over another small dune, into another gorgeous area.

This new area was called Sossusvlei, or Dead Vlei. A looooooong time ago there was a river here, so there was more than just sand. At one point in history, the route of the river changed (or it dried up completely,) so all life was lost.

All you see now are the fossilized remains of the trees. They are mostly still standing, in what little clay remains.

It's really quite strange to see the trees, with the blue sky, red sand, and white clay. I was one of quite a few people taking photos, some of whom had giant, professional looking lenses. I don't know if you need that much of a lense to take a photo of something only a couple meters away, but if that was my job, I could probably justify it. I'm pretty sure I took a photo of nearly every tree in the area, trying to keep other people out of the photos.

As we were walking back toward the area to catch the 4x4 again, the wind picked up, a LOT. It wasn't easy to walk with wind/sand blowing directly at me. It's the kind of walk you make somewhat blind because your eyes are almost closed.

It was sortof a relief to get to the parking area, except that there was no shelter for anyone except a couple trees. At that point it was hot, very sunny, and very windy. That's when I learned that there is no orderly way for catching a 4x4 going back the other way. Groups of people wait around, and you hope that one of the 4x4s will come close to your group with room enough for all of you.

There is no designated pickup place, and there is no area for queueing. Well, that's not true, the entire area is for waiting and 'queueing,' much to the frustration of pretty much everyone. The guides form relationships with the drivers, and you hope that the friendship your guide has is stronger than someone else's. There is a lot of dashing across the area when one of the 4x4s stops for a pickup, hoping you can get on. I saw more than one person get really angry, pounding on the vehicle and yelling at the driver. I was getting dehydrated, sunburnt, windburned, and sandburned.

Finally, we got a ride back to our vehicle. Then we drove back to the campground, for what we thought would be a short stop. We packed up our camping stuff, and went inside the lodge to cool down and find ice cream. It was more than two hours before we saw our guide again. It turned out he had gone to get a tire fixed, and grocery shopping, but didn't tell us this, so we spent the time wondering what was going on. Argh.

Our next stop was a canyon. It's not wide, or even noticeable from far away, but when you get there, you can't help but be impressed. It's called the Sesriem Canyon, and is about 2 kilometers long. The bottom is mostly sand, and you can wander through a lot of it. There is some water in some areas, and when it rains they say you have to be very careful for flash flooding.

We didn't have much time in the canyon, I wish we'd had more. If anything, I kinda wish the guide had dropped us off at the canyon while he did his errands, which would've given us much more time to explore. Oh well. I know what to ask for when I come back. The Luxembourg ladies didn't seem to want much time at anything we were seeing, I don't know why.

After leaving the canyon, we drove back to Solitaire. This time we stayed there overnight. I was excited, as it meant I would get to have a treat at the bakery. Unfortunately, we arrived too late for that to happen that afternoon. Darnit. There wasn't much to do there, not even much in the way of places to walk, so I was rather bored.

We chatted a bit with some others camping there, there were a couple RVs with German couples traveling around the continent for 5 months. That sounds like an amazing trip to me! The Luxembourg ladies spoke German (and French, and Luxembourgish, and English,) so they were much better able to communicate, and did some translating for me.

This time we had some light by which to eat dinner. The food wasn't as good, but I loved that I could see what I was eating. We were eating while an amazing sunset was happening, so a couple times I got up and ran off with my phone to try to take a photo.

We were in separate tents again that night, only waking up when the vehicle of a different group was turned on at 0500 in the morning. I'm generally a heavy sleeper, but those overland trucks are loud. Argh. I couldn't get back to sleep, even though it was still dark, so I stared at the ceiling of my tent for a while. Eventually it was light again, and I started reading my kindle again.

Breakfast was the same we'd had the day before. Yogurt, cereal, and toast. This time the bakery was open, so I went with the Luxeumbourg ladies to try it out. I ended up with an apple something or other, and a cup of tea. Pretty tasty.

While we were eating, our guide was packing everything up. After a while, we hopped back in, and started the long drive back to Windhoek. Since we'd come back to Solitaire the night before, our drive wasn't going to be as long. At least, we didn't think it would be that long.

It ended up being that long, and more, because we had to stop several times because of the tires. Several times at least one of our tires went flat, and at least one of those involved a punctured tube. Argh. The road is mostly in the middle of nowhere, I'm just glad we were close to a car shop of sorts when we really needed help. That stop was at least 45 minutes.

Eventually we got back to Windhoek. The guide dropped me off at the front door of my next accomodation, and I said goodbye.

I'd LOVE to go back to this national park. I would skip the sunrise and sunset climbs, or at least do them on different dunes. I want to see Sossusvlet when there are far fewer people around, and see more of the area in general. Plus, I loved the stars at night, I want to see more of those!

gunung rinjani

When I arrived in senggigi, I thought I’d be staying two nights, so that’s what i paid for at my hotel…it turned out that I signed up for a rinjani trek starting the next morning, so I arranged with the lady at the hotel for my payment to cover the night I came back from the trek…she also said she’d put some fruit in the fridge for me to grab in the morning, since breakfast isn’t served that early…YAY!!

0500 pickup…ugh…I wasn’t thrilled about that, to say the least…to make sure I was ready to go, I had my alarm set for 0400…I wasn’t going to be taking everything with me on the trek, so I needed a bit of time to separate things, and I never move fast at that hour, though I do function…the taxi (I was surprised it was a taxi) picked up another trekker just down the road, a British student named Richard…then it took us two hours to a village called senaru…senaru is where all the trekking companies have their offices, and it’s always the starting or ending point of treks up and down the volcano…

Richard and I had arranged to start our trek in a village called sembalun, off the western edge of the volcano…after leaving stuff behind, a ute took us to sembalun with our guide and porter, where we got our official national park entry tickets, and signed the book saying that we were trekking…(safety, I guess?)…this was when I found out Richard was only 20 years old!! He’s in Lombok and Bali for a couple weeks with his mom…then she goes back to the UK, and he travels overland up to Mongolia…

The first bit of the trek was through flattish ground…always aiming up a little, but nothing strenuous…everyone was sweating because the sun was behind us and quite strong, but it wasn’t hard…yet…we broke for lunch not long after the trail got steeper…it was still an easy path, just a bit more steep…I wondered why we needed a guide, because there seemed to be just one path, it wasn’t as if we could get lost…lunch was basically ramyeon, with rice as well…and pineapple and tea…most trekking companies break for meals at the same places along the trail, so we met several others who were doing the trek in the same direction we were walking…one American geologist couple who live on Sumatra, a Swedish/French couple…

After lunch we kept going, for another hour or so before taking a break…this was where the ground got steep, there were lots of roots and rocks to watch out for, climb over, etc…our guide told us it would be another three hours to the top…by that point we were all feeling it a bit, and well aware we’d be knackered when we got to the top…when the guide said three hours, I gave myself four hours in my head, as I know I’m slower than most trekkers…slow, but steady…I don’t like taking breaks, and apparently my guide and Richard did…at one point I stopped taking the breaks with them, I just kept going…I wanted to get to the top, and I knew that every time we stopped it got harder for me…it was hard going, and I wanted to be finished for the day…after not too long, we hiked into the clouds…clouds have a strange way of completely muffling sound, I couldn’t hear anything but my footsteps…

Surprisingly, three hours later I did get to the top…the crater rim, that is…I guess all the break taking slowed others down, though they were faster hikers than I was…just before reaching the top I broke through the clouds, so I could see where I was going, and I could see the peak we’d be going for the next morning…what I couldn’t see was anything down either side of the crater…I knew there was a lake in the crater, but I couldn’t see it at all…not surprisingly, our porter made it up before we did…I don’t know how they do it, carrying everything, and only wearing jandals…he had both of the tents set up, and had water heating to make tea…not only does everyone break for meals at the same place, just about everyone camps in the same area…some tents were definitely nicer than others…lol…people who’d signed up for the luxury treks had little stools on which to sit, the rest of us sat on the ground when we weren’t in our tents…I was rather surprised at the amount of trash on the ground, I guess porters don’t clean up all that well, which is really disappointing…that, and they use trees to make fires, instead of bringing stoves…I get the impression that environmentally, the ways the treks are being done right now won’t be sustainable for much longer…

About 45 minutes later Richard made it up, I was sitting in our tent, writing a letter…just as he got there, our porter brought us tea…yum…about an hour after that, dinner was served…fried rice with a fried egg on top…and a giant prawn cracker…and a piece of fried chicken…normally I like prawn crackers, but this one seemed particularly fishy tasting, so I only had a couple bites…and I’m not big on nasi goring (fried rice) so I only ate about half of that…Richard and I went to be almost as soon as we were done eating, I think most people did so as well…we knew we had to get up early (REALLY early,) and the hike had worn people out…plus, there was no view to enjoy, with the clouds covering everything…

0230 came pretty early…that’s when our guide woke us with tea (and coffee for Richard)…that and a few crackers was our predawn snack…at 0307, we were on our way…up…up…up…the idea was to go for the peak of the crater rim, which is at 3724m I think…3700m+, and I earned every one of them…almost from the beginning of this part of the trek, the path was made of soft sand/dirt/scree…there weren’t many strong footholds, so it took a lot more effort to make forward progress…plus, it was pitch black…I had my head torch so I could see where to put my feet, but I didn’t have any sense of where I was…challenging, to say the least…I had no idea where my guide was, again…somewhere in front of me, until he was taking a break and I kept going…I kept going slowly and steadily until I got to a really windy spot…REALLY WINDY…the kind of wind where you have to turn your head to the side, because you can’t see (if it was light anywho) or breath properly…the path was really challenging the entire way…I briefly stopped behind a rock, along with about 15 others…the rock blocked the wind very nicely, you didn’t notice how strong it was until you stood up again…I think people were waiting out the wind, or maybe waiting for sunrise…either way, I didn’t want to keep waiting…I knew the distance left wasn’t great, but it was only going to get harder, so I stepped into the wind, and started moving forward again…

Not long after that rock, the going got really really hard…I have no idea what distance I had left, but the path changed again, into even less sturdy stuff…the rocks were completely loose, there was no traction whatsoeva…combine that with the vertical aspect, and quite a few times I was essentially on a natural treadmill…taking steps, but not making any forward progress at all…at all…so frustrating…plus, the wind was still going strong, so I couldn’t stand up straight…each time I picked up my head to see where I needed to go (by this point the sun was starting to come up, I could see shadows) the wind would catch me and push me a bit…which wasn’t good, considering the path was fairly thin, and it would’ve been easy to fall over either side of the crater…I cried more than once, when I wasn’t making any progress…sometimes the wind got so strong I was sliding down the path without picking up my head at all…I was so unhappy…eventually, I made it…four hours after starting the hike, I made it to the peak…a ray of light shown on the peak, which was quite nice…the view from the peak wasn’t any better than what  I’d seen on the way up…I did it, and that’s about all I can say…it wasn’t worth the physical pain, the mental stress, or the views…it turned out that because of the crazy wind, not many people made it to the top…only 7 of us…no guides…I was number 4…a lot of people got to the rock I mentioned earlier, or just a bit farther before turning around, including Richard…about the only reason I made it to the top was because I didn’t want to say I didn’t make it…that’s a terrible way to find motivation, but that’s how it worked for me…

The way back down hurt…as tired as my legs were from going up, they weren’t ready for going down…the soft stuff was fun to go down, there was almost no impact…with each step I’d land on my heel, and sortof slide a bit…a few times my legs kindof gave out on me, so I fell/sat…surprisingly, my guide was waiting for me behind the rock, and came back down to camp with me…given how weak my legs felt at that point, it was probably a good thing he was there…the hardest point was right before reaching camp, as there were a number of actual steps down, and my legs weren’t supporting me very well…lots of falling on my arse…I was so tired…

Breakfast was tea again, (I only dumped 8lbs of sugar into itJ) and banana pancakes…sooo good…lots of sugar, which I sorely needed…after eating, I dumped out my shoes…there was an amazing amount of dirt/sand in them…I tried wiping off my backpack and coat, but that didn’t do much…I used two wet tissues to wipe off my face, they were both black when I was done with them…and I knew I had dirt in my nose…my nose always runs when I’m going up steeply, and all the wind had added a bunch of dirt…I had dirt coming out of my nose for the next two days!...

About 45 minutes later, we packed up, and started making our way down into the crater…my legs were not enjoying this down, it wasn’t s smooth path…every foot had to be placed, and it was a constant game of picking out the easiest way…and none of it was easy…my quads were screaming with every step down…after a little over an hour, the path evened out a bit…it was still going down, but not so steeply, and it was more of a dirt path, not rocks and roots everywhere…

Two hours and fifteen minutes total after breakfast, we got to the lake at the bottom of the crater…it felt like a lot longer than that, but that’s what my watch told me…the flatter parts of the path were surprisingly easy for me, but the steep, step picking parts were really hard…our guide showed us where we’d be eating lunch, then took us to some hot springs…the springs are right next to a lovely waterfall…the locals have built different pools, all of them rather small…people sit in them for as long as they like…Richard put on his togs, and hopped in…I had a bikini with me, but wasn’t completely comfortable putting that on, so I just stuck my feet in the hottest pool…it felt wonderful…putting my shoes and socks back on afterward didn’t feel so wonderful…

Lunch was the same as the day before, and I gobbled it up…

Our afternoon hike started along the edge of the lake, which was really nice…there is very little shoreline in some places between the lake and the crater wall going up…lots of locals fishing…In an area with more space between the lake and the crater wall, I saw a few fish being cooked over a fire…it looked sooo good…my guide said that the fish are sometimes sold to trekkers…too bad, we didn’t get any fish…eventually the guide started us on a path up…just like the second half of the day before…up…up…up…climbing up roots and rocks, very little flat area…lots of step picking…lots of using my hands as balance on various rocks…it would’ve been hard to begin with, but combined with what I’d done earlier in the day, and the day before made it even more difficult…fortunately, the guide had figured out that I go slowly, and steadily…he only took a couple breaks, during which I drank a whole lot of water…we never went fast, so my breathing never got crazy…more than once I hoped for a magic fairy to come and fly me to the top…thankfully, there were lots of great views over the lake, and the little volcano in the middle…

Two and a half hours later, we got back up to the crater rim…our camping spot was right on the edge of the rim…there was room for just two tents, and two more tents about 10m away…I didn’t know where others were camping, but it felt a lot more private this evening…dinner was again served at 1800, again preceeded by tea…and again Richard and I went to sleep almost as soon as we were done with eating…10.5 hours of hiking in one day…very little of it was “easy”…

Our third day was the easiest, but that’s just a relative term…we did get to sleep in, all the way to 0630…I could hear the guide and porter moving around at 0600…after breakfast, (banana pancakes and a sandwich made with white bread – the crusts were cut off) we started making our way down around 0730…the first two hours and some were steep…lots of steep, step picking…going over and around roots and rocks…where as my legs had been really tired, and not functioning so well the day before, they hadn’t been too painful…this third day every step hurt, and my feet hated me…I wonder if I’ll lose any toenails…after a couple hours of this steep stuff, we got a few patches of smoother trail, which felt like heaven…still going down, but I didn’t have to worry so much about falling down a mountain…

We passed numerous porters, guides and trekkers going the other way, and I was glad I wasn’t them…we stopped a couple times for water, and once for the last pineapple the porter was carrying…good, and I wasn’t keen to eat a full lunch anywho…

About 5 hours after starting, we got to the end of the trek…a van picked us up and took us back to where I’d left the rest of my stuff…then it took us back to senggigi…I’m amazed Richard could stand to be in the same van with me, I know I smelled disgusting…layers of sweat and dirt…yuck…he had a flight to catch that night with his mom to Bali…thankfully I didn’t have much to do, I didn’t need to worry about reorganizing my stuff so fast…

A shower has rarely felt that good!