As I was in Swakopmund for such a short time, I decided that I would forego the extreeeeme sports like quad biking and sand-boarding to go and see some of the more unique features of the namib desert. I signed up to two tours, one of the dunes to see the hidden animal life that live in this barren landscape, and another to see the more rugged side of the desert, with the varied rocky landscape of the canyons further inland.
An early morning start was needed for the dune tour, as Chris our guide uses the tiny tracks left by the mostly nocturnal wildlife that live in the seemingly empty sands to find them in their daytime hideaways. As the day goes on and the sun rises the sand dries out from the morning dew and the tracks are blown away.
With his trained eye, Chris was able to see tiny disturbances in the sand like the delicately made silk door of the dancing lady spider which is no larger than my thumbnail. Carefully he then excavated the sand to reveal the silk lined tunnel that went back over a metre into the dune and at the end of it was the nocturnal spider itself, stunning.
From a dune landscape that at first glance seems completely devoid of life, we were able to see beetles, lizards, chameleons, a gecko, a snake and a kestrel that was just sitting on the top of a dune – very unusual to see a bird of prey just sat on the ground like that – but there is simply nothing here for it to perch on!
The dunes made for pretty exciting driving, even in a Landrover, but being a conservationist, Chris was careful to use existing tracks to minimise our impact on the animals we were now aware were living below the sands surface.
In the afternoon I joined a tour of the more rugged desert beyond the dunes… despite appearing tougher, the arid scrub land is actually much more delicate. The dunes are constantly shifting and renewing, whereas the dry rocky landscape further inland has not changed for centuries, even small bushes grow so slowly that they are often hundreds of years old. So every new tyre track or damaged plant of tree will take years and years to recover, and with Swakopmund holding the Guinness world record for having the largest number of quad bikes, the unchecked use of them will leave scars that will stay long after the thrill seekers have gone home.
Georg was our guide through the dry river gorges and valleys, which had spectacular changing geology, there had been a crack deep down through the earths crust thousands of years ago that left a seam of iron rich solidified magma, as well as mica which flakes off in wafer thin sheets and feels like plastic sheets that you’d find on an over head projector.
After seeing wild kudu, klipspringer, and more chameleons… we stopped in Georg’s secret hideaway for a coffee and biscuit, and we were joined by local birds and dassie rats which looked like squirrells, who were after some of our food.
An amazing experience seeing some spectacular sights, and I’m glad that I took the time to get back to nature and learn about it all from two such experienced local guides.
