Sunday, January 21, 2007
Home Stretch
R&R
Imagine a holiday where you get up in the morning and walk with the children along the beach, exploring tidal pools and catching such things as crabs and pipe fish, where seals lumber into the sea ahead of you, pelicans and flamingos fly overhead, and you can pick your own mussels for dinner. Well, that’s how we are ending our holiday!
We had to leave the place we were renting in Swakopmund as the owners came back early. This, however, was a bonus, as we decided to end the final days of the hols in a small place between Swakop and Walvis. With the desert behind us and the Atlantic in front of us and access to a pool and water slide, it is a great end to a great holiday. Not only has this holiday been very restful (staying in one area and pottering around as a family) but the cool weather has been a bonus for David. The children have loved swimming and Mum and Dad have enjoyed trying their hand at some dune boarding (clocking up speeds of over 70 k/p/h).
BOOKS
I have enjoyed reading the books I took. One was the first Insp Felse by Ellis Peters, another was a Daziel and Pascoe. The biography of the pioneer missionary to Owamboland (56 years), Nakambale (see an earlier posting), was very moving and encouraging – compared to their lifestyle, we have a soft life! Now I am reading the biography of Dr Broughton Knox (An Enigmatic Life by Marcia Cameron, Acorn Press). I had the immense privilege of studying under Dr Knox in 1992 and my life has never been the same again, for which – and for whom - I thank God. We have both found the example he set by his life to be challenging.
HOMEWARD BOUND
We have 2 more days before the long trek home (10-12 hours in the car). A bonus conclusion to our holiday is David’s Mom flying in from South Africa to Walvis Bay and we shall be taking her home with us for two weeks. It has been a year almost to the month since the children last saw Granny.
We look forward to seeing Owamboland looking greener than we left it. Did you know that there are NO stones in Owamboland? Any building material has to be made by hand from the mud or brought in from elsewhere.
ROUTINE
We will then start the home-schooling in earnest. Étienne is learning to play the recorder (he called a ‘crochet’ a ‘cockroach’!). Caris needs longer fingers before she can join in.
David has managed to put together a sermon in Oshiwambo whilst we have been on holiday. We have enjoyed spending time together and talking about our hopes and plans for 2007.
POST SCRIPT
We are safely home. It took about 11 hours but it was a good trip. Thank you for your prayers.
The weather never rose above 20 degrees when we were away (so cool at the coast). We came home to 38 degrees in the EVENING! David says Swakop is the ideal temp for him!
Imagine a holiday where you get up in the morning and walk with the children along the beach, exploring tidal pools and catching such things as crabs and pipe fish, where seals lumber into the sea ahead of you, pelicans and flamingos fly overhead, and you can pick your own mussels for dinner. Well, that’s how we are ending our holiday!
We had to leave the place we were renting in Swakopmund as the owners came back early. This, however, was a bonus, as we decided to end the final days of the hols in a small place between Swakop and Walvis. With the desert behind us and the Atlantic in front of us and access to a pool and water slide, it is a great end to a great holiday. Not only has this holiday been very restful (staying in one area and pottering around as a family) but the cool weather has been a bonus for David. The children have loved swimming and Mum and Dad have enjoyed trying their hand at some dune boarding (clocking up speeds of over 70 k/p/h).
BOOKS
I have enjoyed reading the books I took. One was the first Insp Felse by Ellis Peters, another was a Daziel and Pascoe. The biography of the pioneer missionary to Owamboland (56 years), Nakambale (see an earlier posting), was very moving and encouraging – compared to their lifestyle, we have a soft life! Now I am reading the biography of Dr Broughton Knox (An Enigmatic Life by Marcia Cameron, Acorn Press). I had the immense privilege of studying under Dr Knox in 1992 and my life has never been the same again, for which – and for whom - I thank God. We have both found the example he set by his life to be challenging.
HOMEWARD BOUND
We have 2 more days before the long trek home (10-12 hours in the car). A bonus conclusion to our holiday is David’s Mom flying in from South Africa to Walvis Bay and we shall be taking her home with us for two weeks. It has been a year almost to the month since the children last saw Granny.
We look forward to seeing Owamboland looking greener than we left it. Did you know that there are NO stones in Owamboland? Any building material has to be made by hand from the mud or brought in from elsewhere.
ROUTINE
We will then start the home-schooling in earnest. Étienne is learning to play the recorder (he called a ‘crochet’ a ‘cockroach’!). Caris needs longer fingers before she can join in.
David has managed to put together a sermon in Oshiwambo whilst we have been on holiday. We have enjoyed spending time together and talking about our hopes and plans for 2007.
POST SCRIPT
We are safely home. It took about 11 hours but it was a good trip. Thank you for your prayers.
The weather never rose above 20 degrees when we were away (so cool at the coast). We came home to 38 degrees in the EVENING! David says Swakop is the ideal temp for him!
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Swakopmund (pix to follow)
Background
Swakopmund was founded two years later than Windhoek, in 1892, as the main harbour of German South West Africa. Increased traffic between Germany and its colony necessitated establishing of own port as Walvis Bay, located 33 kilometres south, was already in British possession. The choice fell on Swakopmund where water could be.
The original Nama name for the Swakop river was 'Tsoakhaub' ('excrement opening'); a description of the waters when floods carrying masses of mud, sand, pieces of vegetation and animal corpses came down to the sea. The Nama name was changed to ''Swachaub'' and with proclamation of Swakopmund as independent district in 1896 the present way of writing came into use (‘mund’ meaning ‘mouth’ as in the mouth of the river).
Some historical dates.
1892. First building (army barracks) erected in Swakopmund
1894. 19 inhabitants.
1897. First post office in town.
1899. Introduction of cable telegraph service.
1901. Telephone service established with 40 subscribers.
1903. First wooden pavements.
1905. 1 433 inhabitants.
1911. Shipping connection with New York.
1914. Shelling of the harbour by British naval cruisers.
1915. Occupation by SA troops.
1926. Railway bridge opened over the mouth of Swakop river.
1930. First guano platform constructed.
1959. Opening of salt road to Walvis Bay.
1960. 4 701 inhabitants.
1967. Tar road from Windhoek reached Swakopmund.
1970. Tar road to Walvis Bay opened.
1973. First 3 traffic lights.
2006. 31 425 inhabitants.
I am reading the biography of Nakambale (see earlier posting). It took him and his family 2,5 months to travel from Ondangwa to Walvis Bay (33 km south of Swakop) by ox wagon (in order to have some R&R by the sea). In the process they nearly died of thirst at one point, had to say farewell to their oldest surviving child (only 3 out of 9 made it to maturity) as he was sent by sea back to Finland from Walvis for schooling, and his wife bore (and lost) a premature baby girl. How easy we have it today. We are (gratefully) able to build on the foundations of these pioneers, with Christ as the cornerstone.
Being in Swakop overwhelms my senses. It is the first big town with lots of shops I have been in since leaving Windhoek last March. I even found a BOOK shop! I have enjoyed speaking German (SO many folk here speak it as their first language). Prices are a bit higher here. But the choice is overwhelming!
We went to see the museum-piece steam engine. It was brought here to carry folk between Swakop and Windhoek … but broke down on its maiden voyage, never to go again. It was thence nicknamed ‘Martin Luther’ (“Here I stand”.)
The children LOVE the beach. Apart from the odd seal carcase to avoid, there are some sheltered spots with break-waters from the wild waves of the Atlantic. The weather is rather cool for me (hence ideal for David) here. Each morning mist rolls in from the sea.
We have had one visit to the dunes but did not get far as we became bogged in the sand. Next stop: Dune 7 down at Walvis!! …
Dune 7 was HIGH! It is exhausting climbing in (almost vertical) sand because your feet slide down each step you take, so you end up taking far more steps than would be necessary on firm ground. Étienne, of course, zoomed to the top, dashed around, ran down (great fun on such a slope) and rushed up for another go. We took the children quadding on the dunes. As we had the children we did not really go over more than a few mild humps but they enjoyed it tremendously.
The afternoon was spent on the beach looking in rock pools and collecting mussels for dinner. Caris, especially, enjoyed the marine life.
We are relived to hear that the longed-for rain has since started to fall in the North so people can sow their crops. It is a month late and we hope it continues as long as necessary.
Swakopmund was founded two years later than Windhoek, in 1892, as the main harbour of German South West Africa. Increased traffic between Germany and its colony necessitated establishing of own port as Walvis Bay, located 33 kilometres south, was already in British possession. The choice fell on Swakopmund where water could be.
The original Nama name for the Swakop river was 'Tsoakhaub' ('excrement opening'); a description of the waters when floods carrying masses of mud, sand, pieces of vegetation and animal corpses came down to the sea. The Nama name was changed to ''Swachaub'' and with proclamation of Swakopmund as independent district in 1896 the present way of writing came into use (‘mund’ meaning ‘mouth’ as in the mouth of the river).
Some historical dates.
1892. First building (army barracks) erected in Swakopmund
1894. 19 inhabitants.
1897. First post office in town.
1899. Introduction of cable telegraph service.
1901. Telephone service established with 40 subscribers.
1903. First wooden pavements.
1905. 1 433 inhabitants.
1911. Shipping connection with New York.
1914. Shelling of the harbour by British naval cruisers.
1915. Occupation by SA troops.
1926. Railway bridge opened over the mouth of Swakop river.
1930. First guano platform constructed.
1959. Opening of salt road to Walvis Bay.
1960. 4 701 inhabitants.
1967. Tar road from Windhoek reached Swakopmund.
1970. Tar road to Walvis Bay opened.
1973. First 3 traffic lights.
2006. 31 425 inhabitants.
I am reading the biography of Nakambale (see earlier posting). It took him and his family 2,5 months to travel from Ondangwa to Walvis Bay (33 km south of Swakop) by ox wagon (in order to have some R&R by the sea). In the process they nearly died of thirst at one point, had to say farewell to their oldest surviving child (only 3 out of 9 made it to maturity) as he was sent by sea back to Finland from Walvis for schooling, and his wife bore (and lost) a premature baby girl. How easy we have it today. We are (gratefully) able to build on the foundations of these pioneers, with Christ as the cornerstone.
Being in Swakop overwhelms my senses. It is the first big town with lots of shops I have been in since leaving Windhoek last March. I even found a BOOK shop! I have enjoyed speaking German (SO many folk here speak it as their first language). Prices are a bit higher here. But the choice is overwhelming!
We went to see the museum-piece steam engine. It was brought here to carry folk between Swakop and Windhoek … but broke down on its maiden voyage, never to go again. It was thence nicknamed ‘Martin Luther’ (“Here I stand”.)
The children LOVE the beach. Apart from the odd seal carcase to avoid, there are some sheltered spots with break-waters from the wild waves of the Atlantic. The weather is rather cool for me (hence ideal for David) here. Each morning mist rolls in from the sea.
We have had one visit to the dunes but did not get far as we became bogged in the sand. Next stop: Dune 7 down at Walvis!! …
Dune 7 was HIGH! It is exhausting climbing in (almost vertical) sand because your feet slide down each step you take, so you end up taking far more steps than would be necessary on firm ground. Étienne, of course, zoomed to the top, dashed around, ran down (great fun on such a slope) and rushed up for another go. We took the children quadding on the dunes. As we had the children we did not really go over more than a few mild humps but they enjoyed it tremendously.
The afternoon was spent on the beach looking in rock pools and collecting mussels for dinner. Caris, especially, enjoyed the marine life.
We are relived to hear that the longed-for rain has since started to fall in the North so people can sow their crops. It is a month late and we hope it continues as long as necessary.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Day 1-3
To make reading all this info about our trip easier, why not copy and paste it into a word document and read it when you are off-line! I shall be adding more pix to illustrate info below.
We left Ongwediva on Jan 3rd. We had to stop in Oshakati to buy something and Caris asked if we were at Swakopmund already!
The pix below show some of the different terrains we passed through on our way down to Swakop.
Most of the 1000 km drive was ‘gravel travel’ – windy, bumpy dirt roads.
Our first stop was at Opuwo and the OvaHimba (see pix above include ‘round hut’)) who still retain their traditional way of life and dress.
We slept the first night in Sesfontein (6 springs – there are thermal ones in the vicinity), 100s of kms from electricity (they had a generator). Sesfontein, on the edge of Damaraland, is gateway to KAOKOLAND (search on google/World book/library for more info on places in caps). The ruins of Fort Sesfontein can be seen, built in 1896 as a control point for cattle disease. (Cattle equal people in Namibia – 2 million of each. In Australia cattle outnumber people by 10 to 1.)
You can see the house on stilts in which we slept. Unfortunately, ‘slept’ is not quite true as the place was a mozzie haven, But it was still an adventure – esp as the place had a pool! It is SO isolated out there, yet with a beauty in the mountains.
The next day we passed into SKELETON COAST Park. We stopped at some baby dunes (see pix). We are yet to see the big ‘uns in the sand part of the desert. However, the landscape was so desolate and dry we could imagine the horror of people in the past that survived a shipwreck … only to be faced with a totally unsurvivable landscape.
Animal life we saw included oryx (gemsbok), kudu, springbok, ostrich, jackal, and zebra. We also saw lots of WELWITSCHIA (see pic). It bears a single pair of leathery, green leaves that spread over the ground. They grow in length for the life of the plant. Older plants appear to have many leaves because hot winds, blowing sand, and age split the two leaves into long, ribbon-like shreds.
Welwitschia plants grow slowly and often live 1,000 to 2,000 years.
The salt road of the Reserve was the best road we met in our travels going down. We saw places where they produce huge mounds of salt to be used commercially.
As we travelled down it got cooler and windier. We stopped at wreck (1976) and the children paddled in the cold sea. It is called the ‘skeleton’ coast because of whale, ship and (shipwrecked) human skeletons washed ashore. We camped at Mile 103 the 2nd night. Going north from Swakop there are little ultra-basic camsite and/or fishing spots as Dec-Jan draws fishermen from all over the world. There is no electricity and one must bring one’s own water. There is NO water occurring there. Mile 103 (103 miles north of Swakop) had the advantage of petrol (not many places along the route with petrol!). Our vehicle carries fuel for 1000 km straight driving but the terrain etc caused higher fuel consumption.
The wind had dropped by the next morning and we enjoyed the last stretch to our destination. We stopped at CAPE CROSS (a cross was erected there in 1486 by a Portuguese explorer) and saw both the cross and the humungous seal colony. Étienne was not impressed by the smell (poo and decaying bodies of baby seals whose mums never made it back from the seal in time for the next feed). But we were amazed by the noise as 1000s of mothers called for babies and 1000s of babies replied. We stopped for lunch at HENTIESBAY, a small seaside town and reached Swakopmund that afternoon.
We left Ongwediva on Jan 3rd. We had to stop in Oshakati to buy something and Caris asked if we were at Swakopmund already!
The pix below show some of the different terrains we passed through on our way down to Swakop.
Most of the 1000 km drive was ‘gravel travel’ – windy, bumpy dirt roads.
Our first stop was at Opuwo and the OvaHimba (see pix above include ‘round hut’)) who still retain their traditional way of life and dress.
We slept the first night in Sesfontein (6 springs – there are thermal ones in the vicinity), 100s of kms from electricity (they had a generator). Sesfontein, on the edge of Damaraland, is gateway to KAOKOLAND (search on google/World book/library for more info on places in caps). The ruins of Fort Sesfontein can be seen, built in 1896 as a control point for cattle disease. (Cattle equal people in Namibia – 2 million of each. In Australia cattle outnumber people by 10 to 1.)
You can see the house on stilts in which we slept. Unfortunately, ‘slept’ is not quite true as the place was a mozzie haven, But it was still an adventure – esp as the place had a pool! It is SO isolated out there, yet with a beauty in the mountains.
The next day we passed into SKELETON COAST Park. We stopped at some baby dunes (see pix). We are yet to see the big ‘uns in the sand part of the desert. However, the landscape was so desolate and dry we could imagine the horror of people in the past that survived a shipwreck … only to be faced with a totally unsurvivable landscape.
Animal life we saw included oryx (gemsbok), kudu, springbok, ostrich, jackal, and zebra. We also saw lots of WELWITSCHIA (see pic). It bears a single pair of leathery, green leaves that spread over the ground. They grow in length for the life of the plant. Older plants appear to have many leaves because hot winds, blowing sand, and age split the two leaves into long, ribbon-like shreds.
Welwitschia plants grow slowly and often live 1,000 to 2,000 years.
The salt road of the Reserve was the best road we met in our travels going down. We saw places where they produce huge mounds of salt to be used commercially.
As we travelled down it got cooler and windier. We stopped at wreck (1976) and the children paddled in the cold sea. It is called the ‘skeleton’ coast because of whale, ship and (shipwrecked) human skeletons washed ashore. We camped at Mile 103 the 2nd night. Going north from Swakop there are little ultra-basic camsite and/or fishing spots as Dec-Jan draws fishermen from all over the world. There is no electricity and one must bring one’s own water. There is NO water occurring there. Mile 103 (103 miles north of Swakop) had the advantage of petrol (not many places along the route with petrol!). Our vehicle carries fuel for 1000 km straight driving but the terrain etc caused higher fuel consumption.
The wind had dropped by the next morning and we enjoyed the last stretch to our destination. We stopped at CAPE CROSS (a cross was erected there in 1486 by a Portuguese explorer) and saw both the cross and the humungous seal colony. Étienne was not impressed by the smell (poo and decaying bodies of baby seals whose mums never made it back from the seal in time for the next feed). But we were amazed by the noise as 1000s of mothers called for babies and 1000s of babies replied. We stopped for lunch at HENTIESBAY, a small seaside town and reached Swakopmund that afternoon.
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