PARTING SHOTS

Swallow tales, find the Little Five, a buffalo kicks butt, and a letter from Windhoek.

NAMIBIA, 1964

FERDI SCHOEMAN from Pretoria writes: In the summer of 1964, when I was doing my honours in botany at the University of the Orange Free State (now the University of the Free State), we went on a field trip to South West Africa (now Namibia) in a Taunus kombi, travelling 5 000 km in 14 days. There were three undergraduate students also on the tour, and we were chaperoned by our professor, Dr EM van Zinderen Bakker. The purpose of the trip was to collect botanical specimens for the department’s herbarium and to find suitable sites to take soil cores for palynological research. Our route took us from Bloemfontein via Prieska to Augrabies Falls. I remember the intense heat and how the hot sand burnt the heck out of my bare feet. Back then there were hardly any facilities. We camped in tents throughout the trip, mostly next to the road or in the desert. Our professor believed that onions would keep us healthy so we had endless meals of bread, raw onions and tomatoes. From Augrabies we travelled to Upington, then we crossed the border and carried on to Karasburg, the Fish River Canyon, Keetmanshoop, Windhoek, the Waterberg, Uis, Usakos, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay, the Kuiseb Desert research station, back to Windhoek via the Khomas Hochland and finally home. One of the places we visited was the Gross Barmen thermal spring some 25 km west of Okahandja. As seen in the photograph (top) it was a peaceful place of palm trees and reflections. Some decades later I visited it again, but all I recognised were a few of the old palm trees. It had become a popular resort with indoor and outdoor pools, chalets, campsites and a restaurant. During our trip, we also visited Spitzkoppe. En route we had to dig the kombi out of the sand (right). Not a pleasant task in the heat of February! Other highlights included seeing the Hardap Dam (relatively new at the time), the hot spring at Rehoboth, the Windhoek Museum, the petrified forest near Welwitschia and the rock art at Brandberg. During our time in the Namib Desert, we were accompanied by a 4x4 from the South West Africa Museum, which assisted us with fuel and helped us out when we got stuck in the sand. Ever since that field trip all those years ago, I’ve had an affinity for the desert and for other semi-desert areas in southern Africa, like the Karoo and Namaqualand.