In Windhoek, Namibia to be exact, where my son, Tim is working at the University with a team setting up the first Pharmacy degree course here. I had a smooth journey out of the dark and cold of Nottingham via Cairo and Johannesburg,to a warm, sunny country, green with the new rains.
After a couple of days chilling out, downloading the books and Christmas presents that had endangered my luggage allowance, we went off to the Skeleton coast for the weekend at SWARKOPMUND.
The journey led from green thorn bush, over a high plateau, up to 5000 feet, gradually drying out to desolate srub, then bone dry hard sand desert with only a few dark shrubs looking like a scattered flock of black sheep. The scare life up here is sustained only by condensation from incoming coastal fogs for a few miles inland. There are no permanent rivers or surface waters. David Attenborough filmed part of his series on extreme environments in this area. Life used to be a great struggle even at the coast. At one point as we began descending, the road, a railway, power lines, telegraph lines and a huge water pipeline all ran along together. Without them modern life could not be sustained.
Africa is full of surprises and Swakopmund was one. No wrecks or skeletons to be seen but a surprisingly english seaside resorty sort of place only full of stolid circa 1900 german buildings and streetnames. The Altes Amtsgericht (Old Magistrates Court) on Bahnhofstrasse (Station Street)for instance. The weather was pleasantly warm with cool misty mornings, a cool breeze bringing in huge atlantic rollers. What fun sea bathing while hearing of yet more snow in Nottingham. The sea fishing here is supposed to be excellent but we spent a lot of time fishing small people out of the waves as they tried to boldly go to S America!
Back in Windhoek, also showing many signs of previous life as a german colony I enjoyed the great museum of ancient and modern history, geology and life forms. Really fascinating. It was good to see that the modern state has not tried to hide the past but seems able to look back without bitterness. Amazing considering some of the terrible things that were done in the colonial and apartheid times. More exploring of the city and game parks to come!
