Light and Shadow in Namibia. Everyday life in a dream country by Anna Mandus

Author:Anna Mandus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Namibia, Africa, Desert, Dreamland
ISBN: 9783946205098
Publisher: Palmato Publishing GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg
Published: 2016-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Modern Nomads

Why nothing compares to camping in Namibia. And – will the country’s nomads eventually benefit from the tourism industry?

I love travelling with a tent. For me, it is the best way to travel in Namibia. When I told my mother over the phone that we would go on a camping tour to the Caprivi, she was horrified. “Should I send you some money, Dear? So you can pay for proper accommodation? I had no idea things were that tight.”

However, it was not about money. Yes, camping is a lot cheaper than driving from lodge to lodge. For many Namibians it is the only way to travel in their own country. Prices for overnight accommodation are high, even by European standards, and the majority of Namibians, who earn considerably less than Europeans, can simply not afford it. The special rates for Namibians offered by some lodges do not help much. Camping is affordable though – and we are talking high-level camping here.

I can understand my mother’s reaction. Camping in Germany often means sharing limited space in a petit-bourgeois setting. I once visited friends on a campsite at the Baltic Sea in Germany and was horrified by the neat rows of caravans, the communal ablution facilities and the people in tracksuits and flip-flops, who behaved like they always lived there – the flair of the place resembled that of a mass housing complex.

The total opposite applies to camping in Namibia. While the lodges are islands of civilisation in the wild that look like little villages, campsites are in the middle of the bush. You usually have a lot of space to yourself. You can see your neighbour’s car, but you cannot hear him snore or see what he has put on his braai. The campsites in the south of the country are particularly beautiful. You get so-called private campsites, where you have your own little outhouse, often a proper brick-and-mortar construction, with a toilet and shower. My favourite site in the Kalahari has an open-air kitchenette with a sink and running water, where you can do your dishes.

When I look around, I see about ten of these little buildings spread widely over the softly rolling Kalahari dunes. We park our 4x4 in front of one of them, open the roof tent, take out the wood and braai grid and some chairs and within minutes we sit at a romantic campfire in the middle of the Kalahari. We listen to the evening sounds, the birds and insects and hope that perhaps a family of oryx will make an appearance on the next dune, to peacefully watch the humans.

If we weren’t so dependant on the luxury we find here, we would feel like the descendants of the Bushmen, the San, who used to roam these shallow dunes. This was their living space. A few kilometres to the east, the border to Botswana crosses the Kalahari, where Xi from the movie “The Gods Must be Crazy” tried to get rid of a Coke bottle by throwing it over the edge of the world.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.