Empty space

-->

27/04/10

Namibia. Miles and miles of nothing and hot as hell. No chance of getting car sick today, haven’t turned a corner since we turned onto this road 3 hours ago. We stopped for a bush toilet stop a while ago and there was a distinct lack of ‘bush’. Not even a mound to duck behind. That is apart from the Mordor like mountains that darken the horizon but never get closer. Boys were told to use the front of the bus, girls behind the bus. Strangely I was the only one who was willing to bare their bum. I don’t care if it’s undignified, I’m not bumping along on dirt roads for 3 hours with a full bladder.

Every so often we pass a mountain sized mound of brown dirt and there’ll be words 6ft tall written in English in white stones on the side of it. Strange when we’ve not seen a sole in hours, even stranger when you realize there isn’t a white rock to be seen. Who puts them there, and for whom to read? Another odd thing is the fences. There have been fences on either side of the road the entire journey so far. To keep what in or out I don’t know. Not seen anything out there move, let alone pose a threat to the barren land on the other side of the fence. It’s how I would imagine the surface of the moon to look, only hotter. And with fences.

This morning we had a lie in. 7.00 breakfast before climbing onto a bus that looked like an old fashioned train and driving 12 km up river. We had had a good night’s sleep at the beautiful Felix Unite campsite by the Orange River, and were taken to kayak down it. I was slightly concerned as canoe and rapids had been mentioned. Now rapids perturb me, but not as much as canoes. From experience I have found that getting any form of forward propulsion out of a canoe is beyond me. Kayaks I’m better with, them being better at straight lines and not having the tendency of trying to turn you on your head. I sat in what I was told was the ‘engine’ seat and Nick went behind in the ‘captains’ seat. This seemed to work well. Power I can do, steering I can not. Mostly it was nothing more than a sedate paddle/float down stream. We only encountered two rapids which were less scary that anticipated. The start of the journey was most dramatic though, the wide and smooth river mirroring the blue sky and the 300 high escarpment that the river had cut its way round. This passed and we were left with walls of green vegetation on either side that go back from the river bed until the reach of the water stops and all you’re left with is brown dust stretching to huge black dunes. We stopped for a startlingly refreshing swim halfway on a sand bank in the middle of the river. Seems a world away now we’re baking away in a cloud of dust in our huge great green tin can of a bus.

Ended up in the absolute middle of nowhere. Not a sole for 4 hours. Gone so far into nowhere that the fence has gone. Even the fist sized black rocks that were used in replacement of a fence are gone. Not sure how rocks work as a fence, but at least it’s some sign of civilization. Now there is just brown. Brown rocks everywhere. Any undulation or feature is made by piles of small brown rocks as far as the eye can see. Even the road is made of brown rocks, doesn’t make for comfy riding, just bone shaking.