Tues. 5/25/10: Day 3 Windhoek, Namibia

The trip to Namibia has been a long, uncomfortable journey. Tucson to Atlanta to Amsterdam to Johannesburg (overnight in hostel) to Windhoek. I remember reading about Ben Franklin traveling overseas to Britain for 4 or 6 months at a time. He made this trip several times in his life which would mean he spent years of his life in transit. He probably enjoyed the journey because how else could you handle sailing for that long? The same crew every hour of every day for months might drive me crazy. The plane was okay since not only did I have Scott to travel with, but also because we were able to sit in exit row seats with more leg room for most of the flights. Amsterdam to Jo burg was difficult in a regular seat and a Dutch guy taking up more room than necessary while reading his newspaper.

Jo burg had a lot of billboards getting ready for the World Cup but I didn't see much of the city. We just checked into our hostel and bought beers at a nearby Portuguese restaurant because it was the only place open.

Windhoek seems like a typical small city with lots of expensive tourist traps, street vendors selling trinkets, very few restaurants, and no bars that I saw. I ate at a tourist cafe with a fellow range student, Spencer, and Steve, who just finished a semester in Singapore. The tomato, mozzarella, and pesto sandwich with garden fresh salad was a delicious masterpiece.

We camped at a campsite with an expensive restaurant that offered game animals like Kudu, Oryx, and Giraffe. Oryx seem abundant so I tried it and really enjoyed the fresh, juicy taste of the tender meat. It was very comparable to fillet mignon crossed by pork. The native woman who seemed to be in charge at the restaurant seemed burned out by tourists and was extremely rude and unhelpful. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt (especially when I feel like a visitor) but she was so rude it was comical. She consistently answered questions before they were asked with an unamused, "No!" We asked her how the giraffe tasted and she told us that it was very tough and we wouldn't like it.

Today we went to Daan Vintergult Reserve to get our first taste of southern African wildlife. We drove into the park and stopped on the side of a slope looking down at a large water hole. We first spotted a wildebeest, which seemed very cow-like as it stood still and stared at us unamused. It was probably 200 or 300 meters away. Actually we first spotted a zebra, which completely stunned me. I watched it walk up a grassy hill away from us with its beautiful black stripes perfectly lining the posterior of its body. It was a gorgeous animal. We saw the zebra again ten minutes later when it was bucking and standing on two legs in what appeared to be a playful gesture to another zebra. We also watched two oryx walk by with their straight horns rising up at a similar angle to their body.

A water hole less than 1km up the road displayed a group of wildebeest standing off to the side with baboons walking around and picking insects off each other near the water. A large, hump-backed animal with beautiful spiral horns walked toward the water accompanied by a female. This outstanding animal is called a Kudu.

We had lunch in the parking lot and then took a walk through a wash where we saw two skinks and lizards nearly a meter long with yellow and black heads! The lizards mostly sunned themselves but also interacted by bobbing their heads up and down and jumping to other rocks to perch on.

According to Dr. Wilson (Tom), we will see these animals and others up close at Etosha National Park. This was a thrilling day for me, getting a chance to watch the animals and see a landscape similar to the southwest really come alive with life. I noted to the other students in my vehicle that I have literally been waiting my whole life for this African experience.