Day 1.5

It takes a long time to get from Philadelphia to the Namib Desert.  About 28 hours.  We left our house around 6 a.m., drove to JFK, took a 14.5 hours flight to Johannesburg on South African Airways, took a 2 hour flight to Windhoek, Namibia (also on SAA), then had a 40 minute car transfer with a very nice Namibian gentleman named Jimmy to Eros Airport (also in Windhoek) where we boarded a six-seat Cessna for a 70 minute flight at 8500 feet to the Sossusvlei airstrip (about 2 miles from our lodge).  (We would have just flown from Windhoek airport to Sossusvlei, but this weekend was the Windhoek air show, which limited the amount of small commercial flights available out of Windhoek).

Overall, the travel was not bad.  The flight from JFK, although long, was fairly comfortable with decent food and an okay movie selection (don’t bother watching “Run All Night” with Liam Neeson and Ed Harris).  Jen and I were both able to sleep on and off for a few hours and there were no screaming toddlers this time (see Qatar Airways).

On the flight to Windhoek I was between Jen and a very large dude from Montana named Frankie, who was actually quite pleasant and jovial, despite having political views that were quite different from my own.  He was an outfitter to Alaska and the Yukon for years and lives on a farm in Montana – so he and I are probably close to equals in terms of manliness.  We talked about grizzlies, wolverines, mountain lions and lynx – you know, guy stuff (although Frankie seemed slightly off-put by my not having ever hunted – as if non-hunters are some sort of spies or communists).  Frankie was going to Namibia for a two-week hunting trip with a whole gang of dudes that seemed to shop at the same stores Frankie must shop.  The plane to Windhoek was full of hunters – probably three of four groups of middle-aged white dudes from the U.S. and Germany all suited up with lots of guns in their checked baggage.  I don’t get it …

The third plane was very small – the smallest in which we’ve ever traveled.  We actually had to repack our suitcases into duffel bags that the airline had because they were too big for the tiny rear hatch for stowage.  (We’ll pick up the suitcases at the Windhoek airport on the way to Cape Town – allegedly).  I’m sure there was a size restriction in our trip itinerary from &Beyond that I must have ignored.  The plane ride was fairly smooth – I was expecting much more turbulence.  There were only a few moments where your stomach dropped out.  

The landscape was incredible – 550 million year old, pristine desert with sandstone mountains that have been blown into peaks on one side and sloping hills on the other from years of relentless winds.  Almost no cars – almost no buildings – pretty much nothing but red sand and rock with thousands of trees and bushes tossed across the landscape that appear as little black specks.

The landing strip was on a plain in between two mountains and was just flattened rock.  The landing was fairly soft considering.  We survived!  We were met by Seigfried from &Beyond, who took us in a Range Rover over to the lodge (a couple of miles away).

It takes a long time to get from Philadelphia to the Namib Desert, but it’s worth it.  Our lodge is spectacular.  The lodge has ten separate houses lined up in a slightly curved row that overlook a desert plain and distant mountains.  Every house has its own patio with lounge chairs were you can sit and look at the landscape - and every house has a sweet outdoor shower.  

This picture doesn't even begin to capture how beautiful the view was.

We watched a few zebra and oryx amble across the landscape while we had coffee, then some pinotage (a red wine made from a uniquely South African grape).  To say a shower felt good after all of that travel would be an understatement.  After some relaxing, we went over to the main lodge for dinner.  We met our ranger, Peter, at the bar where we had some drinks.  I was curious about a bottle of sambucca with a large antelope on the label – which ended up with me, Peter, Ronnie (another ranger) and a young guy on vacation with his wife from Zurich all trying a shot.  It tasted like licorice – not bad.  We then went upstairs for dinner, overlooking a now dark sky which was overloaded with stars (more on that in a second).  Dinner was awesome – a butterbean and tomato soup, pork or filet with smashed potatoes entre, and a ridiculous milk tart dessert.  Ruth, who will be looking after us while we’re here, is the sweetest woman!

After dinner we walked up the hill to the observatory that they have on premises where Doug, a professor from Oregon, is the resident astronomer for two months out of the year (during the U.S. summer).  Due to its low population and southern latitude, the Namib Desert is one of the darkest night skies in the world – which means that everywhere you look there are dozens of massive, bright stars in the foreground, surrounded by smaller, more distant stars, and against a backdrop of shiny dust that represents even more distant stars.  All of these stars (and many more that you can’t see) make up the Milky Way, which is but one galaxy in the universe, which is composed of billions of galaxies.  Our sun is just one tiny star in the Milky Way. 

We looked at Saturn through a telescope – you could actually see its rings – and Doug pointed out various constellations using a laser pointer.  Due to the curvature of the earth, many of the constellations that you can see down here cannot be seen from the northern hemisphere.  He pointed out the Southern Cross, which is composed of very bright stars that are 100 light years away.  Meaning if you could travel the speed of light, it would take 100 years to get there.  As an example of how quickly light travels, light from our sun takes about 45 minutes to get to our eyeballs after reflecting off Saturn.  When we look at the stars we are actually seeing a collection of light all of which is in the past, and which ranges in how old it is.  For a star 100 light years away, the light that we are seeing is 100 years old.  For Saturn, it is 45 minutes old.  For other, smaller stars – like a globular cluster that we saw through the telescope – it is 160,000 years old.  If a star 100 light years away blows up and extinguishes, we will continue to see it shine for 100 years before we see darkness where it used to be.  Crazy stuff!

Our night of star gazing was cut short by the moonrise, which filled the atmosphere with light that polluted the backdrop of the sky.  I’ve never actually seen the moon rise before.  With a line of cliffs in the foreground, we stood on the observatory and watched the moon come up over the cliffs, growing noticeably larger every second.  The speed with which the moon came over the cliffs was demonstrative of the fact that the earth is constantly in rotation at about 900 miles per hour (we just don’t feel it because we are on the earth and there is rarely an object close enough to measure the rotation with relativity – like the moon).  Doug put some filtered lenses on the telescope and we were able to look right at the moon’s surface, seeing its massive craters and plains – not too unlike the Namibian landscape. 

We then walked back to our lodge, not even needing our flashlight because the moon conveyed a soft light on the landscape, making everything in the foreground look gray against black cliffs in the distance.  We sat outside for a bit – there is no noise here.  There is almost no wind.  There is nothing – only an occasional grunt from a zebra in the distance of a smattering of hooves on rock as the few animals sleeping in the plain outside the lodge reconfigure themselves.  (There are no lions, leopards or hyenas here – although a group did see an aardwolf yesterday, of which I’m very jealous).

It was a lot of travel, but well worth it.  It is beautiful here.  Tranquil.  I’m writing this on Monday morning my time (4:45 a.m., which is 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, Eastern time).  We are getting up early today to head out for hot air ballooning…