No Fixed Abode: Walkabout

Sun 19 Jun 2016 - Alta Kalkofen lodge

Desert winter mornings have a slight chill to them. Although there is endless blue sky, no cloud and the sun shines, a fleece is required for an hour or so and our porridge is welcomed. Sitting outside having breakfast encouraged several little birds to swoop down to our empty bowls and help themselves to any remnants. We have a resident little animal not unlike a squirrel who hops around our courtyard and seemingly has its den close by.

As Namibia essentially closes on a Sunday we stayed within the grounds of the lodge/farm today to enjoy the day of rest. Whilst Glenn visited the main farmhouse to try to establish internet connection to release his blocked credit card with the bank’s fraud dept via Skype, Yvonne enjoyed some housework making beds, cushion plumping, curtain tieing back and general tidying up, something she’s not done for months, and forgetting there would be a maid here to do it so when she arrived it was nice to give her a Sunday off too.

Glenn returned frustrated at both internet and bank having been unsuccessful in reaching both simultaneously. We are becoming very appreciative of our technology back home, something you just expect to be reliable and it is.

We donned our wide brimmed floppy hats, sunnies, short sleeved shirts, short shorts, socks and hiking boots looking the epitome of a white African in the desert and headed towards the start of a trail for a desert walkabout within the endless grounds of the farm. As we joined the sands just outside our lodge we noticed several animal tracks which we followed to a small watering hole the farm has established. This clearly needs more investigation at sunrise and sunset when the animals come out.

The trail start passes under a bridge for the single railway track which runs through the farm. One of the things listed to do on the farm is trainspotting, however, we haven’t seen one train on the line since we followed it here from Fish River Canyon yesterday so we think it is meant to be a joke. We assumed the line is a relic from the lime making heydays. We then followed red dots clearly painted on rocks or tin cans imaginatively flattened and strung up in bushes and trees. Frikkie and Hilde have clearly been busy not only with the red paint but also making labels out of tin for the trees and bushes bearing their common and latin names. Many of them are covered in long thorns or short spikes and although several looked dead in this barren desert of sandy soil we learned to spot green leaved Acacia; Wild Ebony; Camel thorn bushes with, bizarrely, mistletoe although it had pretty red flowers similar to our honeysuckle; and, our favourite, Wild green hair trees, aptly named.

We grew excited at noticing recent hoof and foot prints and of course todays fresh spelt, we realised there are plenty of animals around this farm which we just don’t see. We did spot a pile of bleached bones and investigated them recognising various parts of vertebrae, ribs, ball and socket hip joints but no skull although with a further closer inspection we recognised a few feathers as ostrich. OMG this really is out of Africa stuff.

The heat of the day was beginning as we ended the trail and as we arrived back for a cuppa the wind started to blow quite fiercely whipping up the sand to make dust bowls causing us to wonder if this was going to be a sandstorm, which are prevalent at this time of year. This lodge has been designed to totally keep the sun out, no sun enters this place at all but there is a small courtyard area cleverly designed to have a small patch of sun and as we opened the door to step outside bits of bush debris and dust flew in and settled. The maid will not thank us for that tomorrow.

Luckily a sandstorm had not materialised so Glenn battled the wind and sand to the farmhouse to try again with technology and Yvonne found the porch area warm and sheltered from the wind. We spent a long time searching through our binoculars for animals and once the sun set we admired the bright full moon and the colours and mood of the desert and bush changed to a subtle golden hue.