Half a World Away

I'm in Swakopmund, a small town on the coast of Namibia . I have come to Namibia to give birth to Brad Pitt's (second) love child . . . er, I mean, to see the largest sand dunes in the world. (For what it's worth, Swakopmund is about 40 km from Walvis Bay, the place where the much anticipated first love-child was born.)

Instead of the fancy game camps I had previously visited, this time I'm on an overland (read: budget) safari. Basically, eight of us piled into a Land Rover and drove ten hours out into the Namib desert. I spent the last two days camping in the desert, and to my surprise, it turned out to be real camping -- not this faux camping that the other places offer -- with sleeping bags, tents, the whole nine yards.

Now, I'm not much of a camping person. In fact, the last time -- and only time -- I went camping I was probably 7 years old. But, the camping went surprisingly well. The only wrinkle occurred on the first night, Monday.

It being the desert, I consumed probably about four liters of water on Monday. Even so, I felt really dehydrated. I went to bed kind of early, since we were waking up at 5 am to see the sunrise on the giant dunes. About three hours later, the four liters of water kicked in, and I woke up desperately in need of a bathroom. But, our guide had warned us about the jackals that come around the camp at night. So, I spent the better part of an hour in the tent, debating whether I would be eaten by jackals if I trekked across the camp to the building with the bathrooms. Eventually, I decided that this must happen to other people and they don't get eaten, but that walking across camp was still too risky. (Surely our guide would have told us that story.) Finally, I ended up availing myself of the natural desert facilities near our tent, but the whole time was freaked out that a jackal was going to jump up and bite me in the arse. (At least I didn't see any porcupines.)

Anyway, minor unpleastantries aside, the dunes were amazing. The area with the dunes looks like something from a science fiction movie -- one hundred foot tall dunes made out of red sand. Hiking up one of the dunes is pure torture for your legs. I was thinking that if I could find a way to recreate the giant sand dunes in LA, masses of starlets and bored housewives would give up their trendy stripper pole workout for the ultimate uphill sand dune workout.

In addition to the dunes, the extended time driving around in the Land Rover gave me a chance to see other parts of the Namibia. The landscape varies from huge sand dunes, desert plains, multi-colored rocky mountains, and slate blue lagoons. It seemed like most of the country was untouched. Oh -- and in addition to the beautiful landscapes, the nighttime sky out in the desert was amazing. Minimal light pollution for miles and miles, so you can see hundreds of stars and comets. I've never seen the sky so clearly.

Oh, and I saw a bunch of ostriches. (Or is it: I saw a bunch of ostrich. Either way, that's what I saw.)