On the Way to the Namib Desert

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Not all the wildlife in Namibia is of the large, four-legged variety. As we head north in buses for the desert and a two-night stay at the Namib Desert Lodge, every stop along the way brings new surprises. One is a large and beautiful beetle, perched on a pink gladiola flower. It has the unfortunate name of “stink beetle,” since it will spray you with a smelly goo if you get too close. 

It has a voracious appetite, and we watch it devour much of the flower in the short time we're there.

A bit later, we happen upon a camel thorn tree with an enormous bird’s nest taking up a good portion of its branches. It belongs to over two hundred sociable weavers, who have adapted to a land with few trees by learning to live together. They’ve even managed to coexist with wasps, whose smaller nests dangle from beneath the weaver birds’ straw apartments. 

Everyone took photographs here as the birds, but mercifully not the wasps, came and went.

One unexpected stop follows Carroll Moore’s report of a cheetah basking by a nearby tree. It's one of several tamed cats on a farm, and we're invited to watch them feed. As the owner goes into their feeding pen with a generous serving of springbok legs, she tells us, “if you don’t come inside, you won’t see anything.” Most of us stay outside, but those of us who go in see cheetahs more up-close and personal than at any zoo.

Finally, we settle in for the last leg of our drive to the Namib. The grasslands become more sparse, and mountains grow larger and closer. White sand replaces sparse grass, and then we catch our first glimpse of the Namib. Red mountains in the distance aren't really mountains at all. They're dunes in the world’s oldest desert, a dramatic preview of our next adventure.