Hello Everybody,
A quick update… Since the last time I wrote, I was in the village for a little, but traveling a lot and spending as much time as possible with Claire before she finished her service. We have now parted ways; I am heading back to the village, while she will take the “long way” home, all over northern Africa and Europe (rough life, right…?). Here are some of the wonderful adventures we shared in the past 3 weeks:
We started in Lusaka, where we hitched to Livingstone (home of Victoria Falls). From Victoria Falls, we hitch hiked in 3 successive rides to the border of Namibia. From there, we were passed on the road by an older white woman, driving an EMPTY 15-seater Safari transport van. I have done my share of hitch-hiking in Zambia, and have a very calm and relaxed attitude about traveling on some else’s time. However, it is always frustrating seeing someone in an empty vehicle pass going the direction you are trying to go. In this instance, the woman gave us a look that said “I’m sorry”, which of course meant nothing at the time. After she passed, we hustled to the Namibian immigration office to get our passports stamped. Low and behold, we ran into this woman in the parking lot.
Now of course, I had to say something. I know many of you who know me best think it might have been smart-assed, but I’ve learned a little bit in the past few years. So I started with ‘hello’ and a characteristic Hostetter smile (ear to ear, thanks Mom!). The woman softened up, and agreed to give Claire and I a ride, as it just so happened she was also heading to Windhoek (about 1500 KM away). So, this 65-year-old woman, a white Namibian with a thick German accent, glorious mullet, and a mouth that would make a sailor cringe, took us onboard.
The wonderful part of our luck is that she was a freelance safari and tour guide. So, while she gave us a free ride, she gave us the low-down on all the flora, fauna, and wildlife we passed along the. She was even so kind as to open her window every 10 minutes while she smoked a cigarette, having recently rolled it on the steering wheel while maintaining control with her Forearms. I guess that’s Namibia’s alternative to doing your mascara in the rear-view on the way to work. She understood we were on a limited budget, so she stopped with us at a waterfall and the three of us camped out that night (Claire and me in the tent, She in the truck). She even ate pasta with us around the fire, and told us stories of ridiculous tourists and the outrageously ignorant questions they ask (don’t laugh, its been me, and it will probably be you someday – if it hasn’t already!).
One of the best moments of the trip was watching the sunset with Claire in my arms over the Okavango River, on the tent platform we camped that night (about 10 feet off the ground, just high enough to have a picturesque view un-obscured by the trees). You would think this moment might have lost its romance, but our Tour Guide seemed to now just when to find something else to do, or somewhere else to be. We really came to enjoy her company, as she told us about the many adventures she has had in 30 years of guiding in Namibia. What respect I have for a woman who can keep at that kind of work at 65! Hope I look that good in 40 years…
From Windhoek, Claire and I rented a car (thanks Papa Albrecht!), and drove to Swakopmund. This town, claimed to be “more German than towns in Germany”, was not as cultured as it might sound. Despite its location, nestled on the Atlantic Ocean, there was no fresh seafood to be found. The architecture was German, and the language had German’s customary, angry feel, but the effect ended there. Unfortunately, the local Namibian flavor of the culture was drowned out by the chilly wind off the ocean, and the guys selling curious who followed us into the Grocery Store desperately trying to sell us “dagga” which we clearly stated we did not want.
From there, we drove to Sossusvlei, one of the most desirable tourist destinations in Namibia. Here, I am short of words to describe what we saw. The park consists of sheer desert (about 200 KM on either side). But when we reached the dunes, we found out what all the hype was about. We climbed a dune about 400 feet (vertically) from the road. At the top, we watched the sunset as it threw colors across the dunes, changing in tone seemingly every second. In the morning, we managed to hitch to the last driving point on the dunes (called Sossusvlei, 4x4 needed). We arrived there before anyone else, at about 5:30 AM. Before the sun rose, we saw lots of Oryx and Springbok, just enjoying the dew on the plants that was soon to be evaporated by the sun. As we watched the sunrise over the dunes, taking pictures and trying to capture the moment, it dawned on me (no pun intended) that the real beauty of the moment was just being there, with Claire, and watching the colors change on the sand. We put the cameras away, and watched the sun rise on one of our last days together in Namibia.
From there, we hitched to Cape Town. At the hitching point, the first person to offer us a ride was a kindly white gentleman with stained teeth, a buzz cut, and a pair of shorts so far up his thighs that people watching a Lakers game in 1974 would have taken notice.. He was driving a semi – unreliable, slow, and painful transport, and only headed about 200 KM up the road. But he stopped, not for the family waiting ahead of us, or the elderly African woman with a head wrap and all she owned strapped to her back, for me. To pretend this was not a racial issue would be too American – in South Africa and Namibia there isn’t much doubt. But, I pestered this gentleman into giving the elderly woman a ride, since she had been waiting longer than us, had things to do, and was heading near to his destination. He tried several tactics to put me off, but enough persistence and blunt wording left him no choice but to give her a ride, or take a seat in my history book next to Strom Thurman…
I think that Karma caught up to us after that, because a Van came along and gave Claire, Myself, and the family ahead of us all a free ride to Cape Town. In Cape Town, we found a beautiful, large, ‘actual’ city, with Skyscrapers and everything! I know that probably sounds uninteresting, but live in Zambia for 2 years and then we’ll talk. There, Claire and I enjoyed our last few days together (for now). We went to the local museum, ate fancy meals and pretended to be ‘grown-ups’, and climbed table mountain (a beautiful cliff standing less than a mile from the Atlantic Ocean). It was truly a beautiful trip, shared with a wonderful person.
