The title is of course a play on the lyrics of the band America’s classic song “I rode through the desert on a horse with no name”! It refers to our perfect day in the desert. A very special perfect day. Otherworldly world class light. Green Grass in the normally arid desert. Extraordinary cloud systems in all directions. Magenta Sun Setting. Blood Red Moon Rising. Rain. Yes. Rain in the desert! It rained for two minutes and we all got out of the truck and celebrated this perfect day! More later, first a recap of my first 3 adventure filled days in Namibia:
Arriving at Windhoek
At Windhoek airport you step out of the plane straight onto the runway. Dry warm desert air caress my body, strong harsh sun light re-energises my soul. I immediately fall in love and I do a movie-like 360 degree spin looking at the sky and taking it all in. An American woman laughs and says “You must be happy to be home!” “Well, feels like home” I tell her! Customs only take two minutes, I pick up my bag and meet my good friend Gudrun and her cousin Kyra. We drive to Kyra’s house and I meet the rest of the family, the husband Etienne and kids Andre and Maxine. Their hospitality and friendliness knows no end. I switch to shorts, shirts and thongs. I sit in the garden literally inhaling the lovely weather and sunshine. Certainly feels like home! Cricket games in the garden, great barbecue (called braai in Afrikaans) for dinner, mozzie bites after 10 minutes. Certainly feels like home!
Windhoek
Capital of Namibia with an estimated 300,000 inhabitants. City centre is very small, the suburbs are spread out over the hilly landscape. I only did a few hours sightseeing but found a nice laidback country atmosphere, outback and relaxed as I like it. A quick snapshot from Independence Avenue:
Veld Wedding
My friend’s family and a pair of their friends are attending a wedding held in the bush – bush is called veld here and pronounced ‘felt’. Since it is the Easter holiday they are making a bush camping trip out of it. So off we go on Good Friday, to the farm where the wedding is held which is in the bush about 30 k’s out of Windhoek! The setting for the wedding is gorgeous and the bush camp is lots of fun as I struggle to keep up with a thousand campfire jokes told in Afrikaans.
Perfect day in the desert
Saturday, Gudrun, Gudrun’s mother and stepdad and I drive from Windhoek to their home, the coastal town of Swakopmund. We take the scenic dirt road route straight through the desert. We end up taking more than 8 hours as we keep stopping on this magical one out of a million day. A perfect day. Out of this world light. Huge rays of “god beams” showing the way. Green Grass on the desert plains. Magenta Sun setting. Blood Moon Rising. Two minutes of rain. Gudrun’s mother having lived here her whole life says this is unbelievably spectacular. Too good for words. Will never ever be repeated. This drive deserves a long blog post of it’s own some day when I get the RAW files developed. Developing 5D Mk II files on my old laptop is like watching paint dry, so for now I’ll just leave you with this small jpeg preview of desert travelling on a perfect day:
Swakopmund, between the ocean and the dunes
I am now in Swakopmund on the coast. Our front yard is the ocean, back yard is huge sand dunes – literally down the end of the street! My eyes must be lying I tell myself but witness this snapshot from inside the car, driving along the coast:
More to come about Swakopmund and the surrounding area. The world’s largest sand dunes in the world’s oldest desert are on the menu from Tuesday! See ya!
22 Comments on “I rode through the desert and it started to rain!”
Wow, it looks beautiful out there.
Thanks for your comment, and yes it sure is gorgeous here!
Lovely update! Keep us posted and lots of photos – please!
Darr
Cheers Darlene, will keep you updated as much as possible!
Didn't waste any time to have fun 😉
Safe travels.
Thanks André ! No I got right into it straight away, not a minute wasted 😀
Sounds like Namibia is taking a place in your heart as well, close to Aus. 🙂 Can't wait to see the pics
Cheers Sebastian, and yeah, some of the landscapes here are out of this world stunning, giving Australia a run for the title 😀
love the bottom image here Flem!
very clean and the complete opposites on either side of the rd make for an interesting shot.
i really like it 🙂
Thanks heaps Stephen! My quick snapshot doesn't do it justice, you should see it in real life!
Having lived in ZA for nearly 4 years I so wish I was there. Funnily enough, it's the top image that reminds me of Hilbrow, when it was safe, alas. It's looking like a good few months overseas for you, see you in a years time @ Karijini. Southern Africa does share some likeness to Western Australia in the photography stakes. Somewhere there are some WA photos that could have been taken near Hartebeestspoort Dam and look just like the Central West of WA.
Tot seins.
Cheers Matthew, tot siens!
And you had a Braai, as well, did you have boerewors too? I miss boerewors, it's not the same here (in Oz), way too strong a taste.
Tot seins.
I've had some amazing braai !!! Boerewors??? I don't remember what that is?
This sounds and looks like an amazing place and experience Flem ! I look fwd keeping up with your adventures and the eventual images !
Have fun 🙂
Thanks Tony, it truly is an out of this world experience.
Making a camping trip out of a wedding! Those are so my kind of people.
Incredibly green, Flemming. Keep 'em coming!
Thanks Charlene 😀
Safe travels Flemming. Hope you have a great trip.
Cheers Thomas !
Mmm, boerewors, if you're there and having a braai look for a long but round spiralling sausage which is cut up after cooking, I think it translates to 'farmers sausage' but I'll post you a link, it has quite a strong gamely taste.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boerewors
enjoy:)
Ahhh yes forgot the name, now I know it well, have had boerewors many times and yes good stuff!