Email this page to a friend
Africa
Travel Newsletters > Namibia
1. Namibia - A Bountiful Harvest Awaits the
Adventure Traveler
Namibia
is a largely arid country of stark rough-hewn beauty. The most
vivid
images are those of a haunting technicolor landscape of swirling orange
dunes, shimmering mirages and treacherous dust devils. The
apparent
desolation is deceptive and plant and animal life and even man has
adapted to this environment. The country is designed almost
specially
with the active and adventure seeker in mind. Timeless deserts, thorn
bush savanna, desolate wind ravaged coastlines, majestic canyons,
and
sun-baked saltpans are the bounty that awaits the traveler.
Namibia's
top draw is the Etosha National Park, rated as one of Africa's
finest
game sanctuaries. The birding experience in the country is truly
superior. The range of
Namibia adventure
safari activities you can indulge in the unsurpassable
physical environment is truly impressive. Ballooning over the desert,
skydiving over land
and sea, paragliding, whitewater rafting and sand
skiing along coastal dunes are good activities for starters. More fun
games to pick from include
abseiling - that most spectacular of rock
sports, coastal and fresh water angling, desert camel riding, scuba
diving, 4x4 desert runs, hiking and
mountaineering.
Namibia has
four distinct geographical regions. In the north is Etosha Pan, a great
area for wildlife and heart of Etosha
National Park. The slender
Caprivi Strip is nested between Zambia and Botswana and is a wet area
of woodland blessed with a few rivers. Along the coast
is the Namib
Desert, which at the age of 80 million years old, is said to be the
world's oldest desert. At the coast, the icy cold Atlantic meets
the
blazing African desert, resulting in dense fogs. The well-watered
central plateau runs north to south, and carries rugged mountains,
magnificent
canyons, rocky outcrops and expansive plains.
Namibia,
one and half times the size of France, is very sparsely inhabited and
carries only 1.8
million souls. The people are as unique as the land
they live on. The most intriguing are the San, otherwise known as
Bushmen. These most hardy of
people have a highly advanced knowledge of
their environment. It is a marvelous thing how well they are adapted to
their difficult habitat. Just pause
and think that these are the only
people in the world who live with no permanent access to water. In the
Kalahari Desert, one of their domiciles,
surface water is not to be
found. Tubers, melons, and other water bearing plants as well as
underground sip wells supply their water
requirements.
In
Namibia today, Bushmen number about 50,000. Historians estimate that
they have lived, mostly as hunters and gatherers, for at
least 25,000
years in these parts of the world. Bushmen speak in a peculiar click
language and are very gifted in the arts of storytelling, mimicry,
and
dance. Namibia's other people, who are indigenous to the continent, are
mostly of Bantu origin. They are thought to have arrived from
western
Africa from about 2,400 years ago. The African groups include the
Owambo, Kavango, Caprivians, Herero, Himba, Damara, Nama and
Tswana.
The
Africans aside, other groups comprise about 15% of the population
and
have played an important role in the emergence of the modern nation.
White Namibians amount to about 120,00 and are mainly of German
and
Afrikaner heritage. Germans arrived in significant numbers after 1884
when Bismarck declared the country a German Protectorate.
Afrikaners,
white farmers of Dutch origin, moved north from their Cape settlements,
especially after the Dutch Cape Colony was ceded to the British
in
1806. This strongly independent people, whose ancestors had lived in
the Cape from 1652 resented British control.
Two other
distinct
groups complete the spectrum of Namibia's people - Basters and
Coloureds. Coloured in Namibia and southern Africa refers to people
of
mixed racial heritage, black- white for example. They have a separate
identity and culture. This makes sense considering that Namibia was run
by
South Africa after the First World War. Even in pre-Apartheid South
Africa, racial classification was a fine art. The Afrikaans-speaking
Basters,
descended from Hottentot women and Dutch settlers of the Cape.
Alienated from both white and black communities, they trekked
northwards, finally
founding their own town Rehoboth, in 1871. Baster
is actually derived from "bastard", but it is not derogatory, and the
Basters are indeed
proud of it.
Attentive service
