Driving in Namibia must be approached with extreme caution, as both roads and vehicles are often in poor condition and wildlife lives in such close proximity to man. The only paved roads are main routes or highways between major cities. The majority of roads are dirt or gravel. These roads can make for very difficult travel in the rainy season. Therefore the 4x4 pickup truck, or "bakkie" as it is known in Afrikaans, is the main mode of transportation. It is not unusual for roads to be filled with potholes, lined with washboard style ruts, deep standing water and large mud puddles. Another daily hazard is the multitude of wildlife and cattle on the road. We learned that travel in Namibia is very slow going. A trip that might take two hours in the US could take up to 8 hours in Namibia.
On this trip we covered a large part of Namibia, traveling over 1000 kilometers across the scorching deserts of Namibia on dusty roads seeing only eighteen other cars and one tortoise per day. After our two week volunteer stint at CCF we drove from the capital city of Windhoek to the beach resort of Swamkupmond on the west coast, then from Swakump to the desert dunes of SSvlei, and from SSvlei back to Windhoek.
No comments:
Post a Comment