Namib Naukluft Park

What can I say, how can I start a post on one of the most spectacular places I have ever been to in my life? The Namib Naukluft Park should be a compulsory trip to anyone who is a nature lover and appreciates the beautiful sceneries of this little planet we live in.

To recharge one's batteries some people enjoy outlet shopping (!), others amusement parks (!!), some others enjoy radical sports (!!!), the list is endless.. As for myself, I really appreciate being close to nature. Preferably in the company of my family and in beautiful and unspoilt locations.

Living in this part of the world makes me completely spoiled for choice as I have rarely seen so many amazing landscapes before moving to South Africa in 2006. Actually the love affair started in a visit to Cape Town in 2000. The overwhelming beauty of that city was a first sample of what would become routine once we moved down here for Patrick's job with BA.

But back to Naukluft.. the reserve is home to the world's most beautiful and best known sand dunes. There is no exageration when I say that they are really as majestic as people have described them in travel guides and online forums. However, the mountains and plains are as spectacular and considered by astronomers as one of the two best star gazing spots in the world - the second being the Atacama desert in Chile.

Again, the sense of isolation and absolute silence are mind-blowing. Absolutely divine to say the least.

Below some pictures of paradise.

Windhoek

Arriving at the International Airport in Windhoek was a first taste of the kind of "isolation" we were going to experience in Namibia. A right turn taken after the parking lot and... desert! And a starry sky like I have rarely seen before.

Our hotel was an old castle conversion. Comfortable and exotic and I am still asking myself who the hell would build a castle in the 1900s - the time when the Germans landed in that part of the world. A castle in the 20th century? Oh yes, this is the Namibian answer to the Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria, built in the mid/late 19th century by the megalomaniac Ludwig II, who forgot he did not live in the middle Age any longer. Those Germans... tsc tsc tsc

Well.. at least that castle served as an inspiration to the Cinderela castle of Florida's Disney World. So.. Hurray!! Thanks Ludwig! As Obama would say: "you were the man!"



Jokes apart, the Heinitzburg was a great place and a lovely start to our trip.



Windhoek per se was not mind blogging exciting. It was a small German town, clean and quiet, organised and sterile. As our President Lula so kindly said on his visit to Namibia a few years ago: "it is so clean, it doesn't seem we are in Africa at all". Touche'!! With one little sentence our beloved President manage to embarrass 180mi people in one go. Thank you, Lula!! As Obama said: "You are the man!"

But forgetting about this horrendous faux pas of our Luis Inacio Lula Molusco da Silva and his total lack of diplomacy, he was kind of right about this town. So, to close on Windhoek: I am too polite to say it was a tad boring the place... and as I am going through a "ladylike" phase, I'd say it that 2 nights there were 'quite sufficient'.

Next stop: Namib Naufkluft Park and that's what we went to Namibia for.

Finally a good reason to be back

I felt like writing on the blog many, many times in the last months but life has been hectic and I just couldn't find time for it. I then started blogging for "O Globo" on being a Brazilian supporter on World Cup land. I had fun with it but honestly don't know if I am comfortable writing to a big audience. I rather keep it cozy, you know.. Gemuetlich, if you may say..

I then made a promise to myself that I would start writing again when I had something really wonderful to talk about. And now I have it. And that is Namibia.

We came back last night from an amazing trip to one of the world's most overwhelmingly beautiful countries. Beautiful as beautiful can be. And rough. Cliche' rough.

To start with, it is Germany in Africa surrounded by lots and lots of sand, with lots and lots of space. The country has 1,2million inhabitants in a country 4 times the size of the UK. According to stats, that is 2 persons per square kilometer. And - we love this one - with 2million seals as residents on its coast. Yes, sir, like British Columbia (with bears), Namibia has more seals than human beings.

German is spoken with no accent as is Afrikaans and English. Plus the other many tribal languages and Portuguese (lots of it) from the Angolans galore we found on Windhoek and Walvis.

We thanked them for the marvelous restaurant "O Portuga" we visited on our first day. Delicious "authentic" Portuguese food, drop dead cold beer and a marvelous spot for anthropological research. It had it all.



Best of all, on his way to the bathroom, Patrick made an amazing discovery, which I will here share with you....

Michael Jackson has been to Namibia! Yes, he did and he had lunch at "O Portuga".





OBS: Attention to the proud smile of the "Portuga" cook side by side with the King of Pop.



And when asked by the waiters what he though about the country, he replied: "It smells strange!" huahuahuahuahua

Jacko your forte was definitely not PR!



Was there a better way to start our trip?


PS: More posts on Namibia tomorrow, folks. Stay tuned.