Coast to coast across Southern Africa

6 Apr '07 10:50 am

I will cheat, and start my story in a previous holiday: in May last year I attended the local Rotary Convention in Maputo, Mozambique, together with a group of Rotarian friends. Then we spent two days on the coast at Bilene, north of Maputo before setting off on the exciting and at times hair-raising journey across the recently opened Transfrontier park, where the famous Kruger Park has been connected to a huge track (no pun intended!) of land on the Mozambique side. Compared to Kruger it is still very underdeveloped – 4x4s mandatory! – and we saw very few animals. It is odd to make your way along a sand track looking for an international border post, and we were very relieved when suddenly we chanced on it!

Mozambique was tropical, green, very flat in these parts – in fact we passed through rice paddies in marshy areas. But as you move west across Southern Africa it gets progressively drier. Already much of the Kruger is prone to drought, and then up against our mountains it is wet again (the second wettest area in SA lies about 30m from here). Mountains affect the rainfall, but by and large every 50km one travels west it gets drier, until beyond the Kalahari Desert in the northern half of Namibia tropical weather systems influence the rainfall and one finds arid rather than desert conditions. But towards the coast these systems have no influence and the Namib is one of the driest deserts in the world – except for one thing: the Benguela Stream flows up from the Antarctic, bringing icy waters up against the very hot land. The result is regular fog in a narrow belt along the coast, and remarkably cool conditions right up against the coast (and of course for them as what fish… ideal conditions for surf fishing!)

I travelled south from the farm towards Johannesburg where I joined my parents and we set off for Namibia in my father’s car. With the completion of the Trans Kalahari Highway some 8 years ago and the Maputo Corridor about the same time there is now a highway that leads from Walvis Bay harbour in Namibia across to Maputo harbour in Mozambique, cutting through the capital, Pretoria, just north of Johannesburg.

We slept across the border in the Botswana capital, Gabarone. It was a bit of a side-track, but I got to see this dusty town for the first time. Then the long trek across the Kalahari followed – the “sand Kalahari”, the desert proper, lies south of the highway, and after the last two good summers it was often difficult to imagine that we were crossing a desert. However from the air, coming back along much the same trajectory, the minimalistic sculpting of the land is fascinating; I wish I really understood the geomorphology of my world! As we approached Namibia the clouds started appearing and ironically we actually travelled through rain (well drops anyway) in the Namib at the end of our journey…

We slept the second night just across the border in Namibia at a place where there were two kudo, hand-reared and as tame as gentle cattle – beautiful, proud animals, perhaps the most impressive antelope in all Africa…

I love Namibia. The landscape is always huge, there are usually hills on the horizon and often dramatically beautiful, rugged mountains. And the light is so clear that you can count the leaves on a bush a mile away… (Waiting for a second post are the photos I took on my return to Windhoek and my flight home, complete with rainbows in them hills!)

As we travelled east it again became drier. The last 120 odd kilometers we took a shortcut to Henties Bay on a gravel road. Whether it was the lack of tar I don’t know, but immediately one had a sense of being in the desert. And the dramatic Spitzkoppe loomed nearer and nearer. From there I let the photos tell my story. Words can not capture the ever growing desolation, the emptiness, the whitening of nature’s palette, especially on the cloudy day we crossed the last bone dry (now I understood the word!) kilometers. It was as though the rain could not possibly affect the landscape – its bonedryness was its very essence. And remember, when looking at the photos, that last year saw record rains, and in the dry air an opportunistic tussock of grass can remain intact for ages…

Suddenly buildings like broken teeth line the horizon. Because there is nothing in the flat white emptiness to give scale, you don’t know how close they are. But you can see by now the horizon where grey sea meets grey sky. And you arrive.

Henties Bay is a holiday community, a place where everyone from the hot hinterland comes to revitalise in the cool air. Houses range from horrendously grand to dilapidating shacks, with many spick ‘n span seaside cottages – all arranged in a narrow strip never more than a few hundred meters deep between the churning waves and the silent desert. And (finally: a GARDENING comment!) in this strange, inhospitable place there are people who GARDEN – and garden beautifully and successfully. But that is the subject for another posting.

7 Apr '07 5:35 am

Before showing you gardens, I must share this strange coastline with you. Many photos were taken on the 70km drive between Henties Bay and Swakopmund, a flat stretch with many many fishing and even camping points along the way. Old Swakopmund is an amazing place, with beautiful German Colonial architecture dating back to the German occupation before 1914. The German influence and language is still strong, nearly a century later. Things don’t change fast in Namibia! Swakopmund is in many ways the cultural capital of Namibia despite being so isolated and much smaller than Windhoek. Beyond Swakopmund the dune desert starts and the harbour of Walvis (=whale) Bay lies about 20km south, with an amazing new development between them where the REAL Neauvou REAL Rich have gorgeous homes packed too close together with an unswimmable sea on one side and an impenetrable desert on the other… baffling.

Last year’s record rain saw streams flowing from the desert to the sea for the first time in recorded history, and many of the plants photographed look as good as they do because a year on they still draw on their reserves. .. The little hummocks of huddled leaves of varied shades of green, presenting the smallest possible surface to the drying winds, have a unique beauty.

7 Apr '07 9:50 pm

I think by now you have some idea of how extreme the conditions are at Henties – yet perfectly good water is available in the town, pumped from a dam which is apparently not too far away. It is expensive, and in Namibia everyone understands that water is a scarce commodity, but irrigation is possible – and remember the coastal fogs!

A great many houses are used during holidays only, some by groups of men only on fishing trips. Hardly likely to have good gardens. But there are more and more permanent residents, people who have sold their farms and retired to the sea. They have time and money. And many garden. In fact there is a remarkably well stocked nursery in the town. I meant to go back and photograph it – but there is nothing like doing nothing to end up doing nothing, if you get my drift…

The use of rock is noticeable – in particular strangely shaped rocks known locally as ‘hollow stones’ that are collected from a spot in the desert. I think one passes through it on the way to Swakopmund – a sudden field of large boulders stretching away to the horizon. My guess is that they are volcanic, and the hollows are where gases were trapped in bubbles when the stone set. Then, as so often at the coast, rounded beach pebbles are popular. But Namibia, with its amazing skeletal topography is a rich source of interesting and varicoloured stone, and obviously these make their way into gardens, especially where live groundcover is a liability.

Tricks to extend the range and shades of colour are also noticeable, including some of the most bizarre painting schemes on houses I’ve ever seen. One house was painted a mustardy shade of lemon yellow with purple trim!

8 Apr '07 5:46 am

An absolutely fascinating narrative ,Jack ...Particularly showing us a part of Africa we would not otherwise see ...completely separated from the endless parade of politics that we normally get on the news.
I love the subtleties of the lichen ,and the quirkiness of stone gardens.
The ornate splendour of picture 17 arrived unexpectedly in your series -I do love old-style architecture - It has such elegant charm..
Dixie

9 Apr '07 4:14 am

Ditto what Dixie said, "An absolutely fascinating narrative"! Indeed, it is! Most interesting and captivating! Thanks so much, dear Jack! Thanks too for sharing all those amazing and incredible pics, covering so...so many aspects of the wonder and awesomeness of Africa! Those lichens really intrigues me so...love them!! Very Happy

9 Apr '07 4:44 am

Here are a few pics of public gardens in Swakopmund. The first two are on a pavement outside a hotel and famous coffeeshop at the heart of the town. The next four are in the grounds of the local medical centre – the first two between main road and parking area, the others at the refreshment kiosk.

I collected slips of various plants in Henties - including the groundcovers in the third pic - and end with a pic of my slips, planted in river sand and perched on my kitchen window sill where they will get morning sun.

9 Apr '07 8:26 am

Hi, Jack! What an experience! And a very colourful one for us, really! Not only through your delightful photos, but your lovely narrative as well..

I was mostly fascinated by your sunset and the stonewall! The Bougainvillea photo is very ...Greek-like..

9 Apr '07 2:09 pm

I'm impressed with the contrast compared to what we have here.
At our hottest and driest we can't come close. And it's interesting to see how folks get around it.

17 Apr '07 7:57 pm

Hi, Jack!

Thanks so very much for posting these pictures of an area about which I knew nearly nothing! It's absolutely fascinating to see these pictures of lichen reserves, etc. from an area that here in Canada, we rarely think about, much less in terms that include caring for tiny lichens, which are so absolutely common here! Of course, like everywhere, it's the politics and crime that make the news, so it was refreshing to see such a positive and "real" report on this part of Africa! While we take care of river deltas and large animals like bears, we usually forget about smaller living things like salamanders and lichens.

I loved the picture of having lunch under the bougainvillea vine - I've seen these plants outside only a couple of times while on trips, and I really envy people who live where they can be easily grown! And the wonderful, quiet beach scene taken near sunrise really touched my soul Thanks for that!

Cheers!

gordonf

18 Apr '07 7:36 pm

It has taken a while for me to get the last leg of the journey ready for posting! At the end of March I left for Windhoek and the flight home with Heidi and Wynand, my sister's stepdaughter and her husband. He has become a professional gardener since I described their garden last July, and it was wonderful taking this beautiful trip under these amazing circumstances, with thunderstorms and a rainbow, with fellow spirits. They loved my enjoyment of their beautiful country. We took a slightly different route back, going via Swakopmund and thus not taking the gravel road through the desert, but the official Trans Kalahari Highway route that links through to the harbour at Walvis Bay.

There is little that is stricktly 'garden' here, but as a travelogue and a story about the conditions under which plants WILL grow and people WILL garden, I do believe it contributes to our wonder at the miracles of nature we celebrate when gardening...