That doesn't mean I don't get to highlight some of the awesome things in Nam (be we going there or not!) as a store for future adventures.
1) Etosha National Park
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| Ariel view from Wiki - look at that salt pan! |
2) Fish River Canyon
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| Also from wiki. |
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| Lots more awesome pictures where this one came from. |
Another one we'll have to skip (boo) and perhaps my top pick for Namibia (so we'll just have to go back!) is Skeleton Coast originally know as "The Land God Made in Anger" by Bushmen of the Namibian interior and "The Gates of Hell" by Portuguese sailors. How awesome does that sound! The cold Bengula current hits the coast causing really dense fog which, back when boats were a more regular form of transport and people didn't know better about this area, lead to many shipwrecks - the skeletal remains of more than a thousand of which still litter the coast. Whale and seal skeletons from when whaling was still active also cover the beach so basically it's just all about the bones! I have a macarbe sense of what is awesome.
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| Wiki showing us the tourists that visit the meteorite. |
The way our route is currently planned we will get to see this which is going to be grand as it is FROM SPACE! It is the largest known meteorite (as a single piece) known on the earth. How cool is that?! Smart science people estimate that it fell less than 80 000 years ago and as it remains in tact it must have slowed to terminal velocity (I had to look this up but it means that the downward pull of gravity and the upward force of drag were equal leading to net force on the object as zero meaning it had an acceleration rate of zero and could therefore remain in tact...). It's flat on both major surfaces so it might have skipped along the top of the atmosphere like a skipping stone, effectively slowing down along the way. It's discovery was just by chance way back in the early 1900s when a farmer was tilling his land and hit this lump of rock and metal. Pretty cool!
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| Top of the plateau. Wiki once more. |
The Waterberg Plateau is largely inaccessbile and so in the early 1970s lots of endangered species were moved here to protect them from poachers and allow them to breed. It now supplies many other parks with these rare animals - which is pretty cool. It has over 200 different species of bird so it's a bird watchers paradise! Other than the wildlife interest geological this plateau is very interesting as the rock strata is over 850 million years old and dinosaur tracks were left there 200 million years ago!
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| Look at all those sand dunes! |
The Namib Desert covers a long stretch with the Skeleton Coast along the North and the extensive Namib Sea Sand along the central coast. The Sea Sand boasts the largest sand dunes in the world which would be really really cool to see! Due to erosion that happens in the Orange River Valley and further south lots of sand gets dumped into the Atlantic along this central coast and then is washed back up on shore thanks to the currents. The prevailing South West wind then picks this sand up into the massive dunes. Some well travelled sand basically.
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| This awesome image is from here. |
We definitely get to go through here which is cool. It's the little outcrop off the North East of Namibia named after Leo von Caprivi who succeeded Otto von Bismarck as Chancellor of Germany in March 1890. This section of Namibia is really interesting as it is wettest region of Namibia and very tropical with lots of rivers and swampy areas. Beyond being a lovely place to see it has had a fascinating (and somewhat chequered histroy). Initially it was known as Itenge and under the rule of the Lozi kings. Then in the late 19th century the strip of land was administered as part of the British protectorate of Bechuanaland (Botswana). Then in 1890 the Germans wanted British Zanzibar and the Berlin Conference settled that Zanzibar could be British and the Germans could have Caprivi - hence its name as Caprivi organised the annexing of it to Nambia (at the time German South-West Africa). During World War I, the Caprivi Strip again came under British rule and was governed as part of Bechuanaland but it received little attention and became known as a lawless frontier. It's not that anymore (thankfully) but it has a certain ring to it....
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| Image from here. |
We intend to stop at these. They aren't really falls, but a series of rapids in the Okavango River, caused by a rocky ledge. They are most impressive in the rainy season when they drop three metres but otherwise they are just rather pretty and apparently, the place we have in mind has a cage for river swimming. Yes indeed, river swimming in the Okavango. EPIC!
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| This is the part we haven't seen I'd say.... |
The Kalahari stretches through Namibia, South Africa and Botswana. Its huge size means it has really arid parts and really rather more lush parts. The more lush parts, are the parts we've seen as they encompass the Karoo - apparently known as the Succulent Karoo which has 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic - in fact, one third of the world’s succulents are found in the Karoo.
10) Cities
We're going to miss the big three cities - Windhoek, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund - I suppose we should try and see these sometime but on this our African adventure we probably don't need to see another city. This being said - Swakopmund has an interesting museam and Walvis Bay has all sorts of adventure activity options and Windhoek is the main city, it must be interesting right? If I'm really honest though I'd say these are number 10 for a reason, probably a should-see even though I'm not that bothered that we're missing them. Apologies to everyone that lives in these cities!
As always the great wise wiki has given me much of this information. Blame him if it's wrong.
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