Log in
Join travelers community
Your Profile
Logout
Skeleton Coast - 2001
Skeleton Coast - 2001
Jacek Pałkiewicz2006-06-18 23:04:01
Displayed times (last time: )
wrangles, civil war and the end of the Cold War. It was not until March 1990 that the democratically constituted nation state of Namibia was born, led by President Sam Nujoma, who was re-elected in 1995.
But the process leading to nationhood is hardly enough to explain the Namibians' love for their country. And its barren terrain would seem unlikely to arouse patriotic feelings. Fifteen percent is made up of desert, and a lot of the rest is dry steppe. Only the north receives fairly regular rainfall, making farming possible.
Our land rover jolts over bumpy farm tracks. The meager grass crop has withered to hay on the stem, turning the surrounding plains a pale yellow, with occasional patches of ochre where the barren, stony soil shows through. In the distance, mountains rise up, their brown and red rocks ablaze in the late afternoon sun. A single quiver tree, a species native to Namibia, raises yellow, candle-shaped flowers into the deep blue sky. We get out hesitantly and tread carefully. Among the sand and rocks, delicate flowers are managing to survive: fragile blue bell-shaped blossoms, bright yellow daisies, the white tufts of Namibian edelweiss.
Light, color, space, the vitality of a seemingly hostile environment, the overwhelming variety of what appears to be a wasteland - all this creates a unique magic. The fascination is there -even without the spectacular scenic highlights.
They're there nonetheless. For 180 kilometers, the road runs through deserted rocky plains south of the provincial capital Keetmanshoop. Fences divide the inhospitable wasteland into lots, electrical cables stretch from mast to mast in the seeming emptiness, while the railway tracks, deserted stations and solitary farms admit at least the possibility that people might live here.
And then, the ground drops away before our very eyes. The Fish River has dug itself a bed more than 500 meters deep -the second-largest canyon in the
...
See photographs from:
Namibia Gallery
