Sealed with a kiss

In 1486, the first European (a Portuguese bloke) set foot on the coast of Namibia.
Well, he had trouble actually setting foot on the coast of Namibia where he landed because of all the seals. The site, known as Cape Cross (115km north of Swakopmund - if that helps) is the largest breeding area of Cape Fur Seals.

Lots...

...and lots...

...and lots of seals.

Usually fluctuating in numbers between 80 000 and 100 000.

These images are all female "cow" seals and their babies. It is not mating season so the "bulls" are all off eating their fill, bulking up for the next season of good lovin'. Cows weigh about 75kg (although a lady never tells) but the bulls try to get up to 360kg so they can impress the girls. The bulls are considerably lighter after all their defending of territory, herding of females (up to 25 cows each) and making of hay while the sun shines. Naturally enough, then, it's back to the sea for the blokes after their conjugal visit.

The ladies, meanwhile, mate, get pregnant, get the embryo to lie dormant for a few months, gestate for a further nine months, give birth, mate, get pregnant, get the embryo to lie dormant... You get the picture. So the cows are in residence at Cape Cross pretty much all year round.

Great for a tourist attraction.

Not so great for a tourist attraction is the smell made by 80 000 - 100 000 seals. Oh My Goodness!!

For my midwifery friends - and any other interested parties - seals come on to land to give birth to their single pups (no water births here). Most of the pups are born in November or December (wouldn't that make rostering a breeze?). Pups weigh 4.5 - 7.0kg (gestational diabetes, anyone??). Pups suckle within an hour of birth (without the aid of lactation consultants) and keep it up for about a year (no bottles. Straight to solids) but cows will only suckle their own young (apparently, they only stick together in such large numbers for safety - they don't actually like one another).

Here is an interesting fact: Cape Fur Seals have ears. Technically, all seals have ears, but these seals have external ears.

All the better to hear you with. (All the better with which to hear you - for the pedants)

These ears must come in handy. Early on, the cows will leave their babies while they go off for a bit of foraging and when they return from sea the cow and pup find each other by calling (VERY LOUDLY!! x 80 000 = much noise. They are better at making a "Baa" noise than a sheep).

But those ears don't seem to alert them to the fall of the axe. Well, technically it is a club, not an axe, but I digress. The mortality rate of seals at Cape Cross indicates that they do a pretty good job at self-regulating their population (causes of death include premature birth, being trampled by other seals, drowning, being trampled by other seals, abandonment, being trampled by other seals, mum-rolling-on-pup-while-feeding, being trampled by other seals and being eaten by predators (jackals, hyenas and sharks top the bill) - not to mention being trampled by other seals (there are a lot of seals!). However, (and here's where I get all controversial on you) authorities feel the need to add to the mortality rate through human-led culling. Every year the country sees the second-biggest seal cull in the world (that's the second biggest cull of seals, not a cull of the second biggest seals). 

Sensitive readers - look away. The culled seals are sold for their fur, their oil (which is extracted for use as omega-3), and their meat (which goes into animal feed - because bovines naturally include seal meat in their diet, right?!). Their genitals are sold to China for traditional medicines (it's always the genitals with those traditional Chinese herbalists. What is with that?). Namibia's seal pelts are sold to one man. An Australian! (Shame, Turkish/Australian man. Shame)

The Namibian government allegedly allows tens of thousands of young seals and several thousand bulls to be culled (clubbed and shot respectively) between July and November each year. The exercise, which is condemned by animal rights groups, is necessary for the survival of Namibia’s fishing industry, government officials have said (all those seals eat a lot of fish).

Time for a nice picture of a cute seal.

This (not so) cute seal cornered my six year old and frightened him to tears (although later he denied the tears). Fighting a fleeting urge to institute a spot of culling of my own to protect my young, I managed to shoo her off the people-pathway and she returned to her own kind (much to her obvious annoyance).

So, after a morning of communing with some of nature's beauties (many of whom have their future sealed), we moved a little bit away from the waft of the seals and settled down to our packed lunch of (ill-considered in hindsight) club sandwiches. (Too far?)

Writing in the sand

There is a lot of sand here in Namibia.

The entire coast is like a sand sea. This is a result of a clever cyclical process of erosion that take place in river valleys during "rainy seasons". There isn't much rain here, but when it does rain, sand-laden rivers drop their suspended loads into the Atlantic. Onshore currents then deposit the sand along the shore. Then winds pick up and redeposit the sand in the form of massive dunes - the largest sand dunes in the world.

In areas where the supply of sand is reduced, like river mouths, the winds scour the land to form large gravel plains. In many areas of the Namib Desert there is little vegetation aside from lichens found in the gravel plains and in dry river beds where plants can access subterranean water.

I will be home-schooling Atticus while we are here - and I expect there will be plenty of grains of sand to count - and who needs paper when we can write in the sand.

Where are all the people?

Namibia, with its 2.1 million inhabitants, is one of the least populated countries in the world. That's a mere 2.2 people per square km.

No. No people here...

...or here...

...or here...

...or here.

The name, Namibia, comes from the Namib Desert, one of the oldest deserts in the world.

The Namibian Landscape consists basically of 5 geographical areas: The central Plateau; The Namib Desert; The Great Escarpment; The Bushveld and the Kalihari Desert. 

The Namib Desert is an expanse of dry gravel plains and sand dunes that stretches along Namibia's entire coastline. It varies between 100 to many hundreds of kilometres in width.

I will be spending most of my time in the Namib Desert.

There are one or two towns where the desert meets the sea. Fortunately, we will be living in one of them - Swakopmund.

First Impressions

Namibia is a considerable distance from Australia. My 6 year old son, Atticus, was a delightful travelling companion. But I just want to reiterate that Namibia is a considerable distance from Australia! Nuff said.

So...

two months worth of missed cuddles were re payed at the international airport, where Bert had come to meet us. As we drove away from the airport towards Namibia's capital, Windhoek, we stopped to pick up a hitchhiker because it's what you do here. Few people have cars and, for many, hitchhiking is their only means of transport. We were still exchanging introductions with the hitchhiker when Atticus piped up "Look, Mum and Dad. Monkeys!" The hitchhiker laughed, ruffled Atticus's hair and said "No, baboons." My first Namibian photo was of the baboons in the tree five minutes from the airport in the major city. First impressions? Impressive!

We stopped for petrol in Windhoek and I was surprised and somewhat delighted to encounter full driveway service: windows washed, oil level checked, fuel filled, tyres pumped, water filled, lights checked...It was like we were undergoing a racing car pit stop because all of these things were rapidly attended to by a smiling team of uniformed driveway staff. These people were not, however, employed by the petrol station. Commonly seen in Namibia are crews who "own" a lane of a petrol station and they live on tips alone. We happily tipped handsomely, assured in the knowledge that our car was road worthy for the long drive ahead.

This is how some people get around.

Mountain pass

Grassy plain

Our accommodation en route

Plains meet desert

"Lion King" lookout

Red earth

An orphaned zebra recuperating after being

viciously kicked by a wild alpha male stallion zebra

First impressions? "Lion print" says Atticus

Why Namibia?

Why Namibia?
Why not?

My husband, Bert, is involved in the production of a movie that was scheduled to be filmed in the dusty, dry, red-sandy desert of the Broken Hill region in Australia. However the dusty, dry, red-sandy desert region of the Broken Hill region of Australia is not particularly dusty, dry, or desert like at the moment due to unprecidented precipitation in the region. It won't stop raining. Great news for the people of the Broken Hill region, who are somewhat tired of a dusty, dry, red-sandy desert environment, but not good news for a film production which has a plot requiring a dusty, dry, red-sandy desert.

So, the director upped sticks and relocated the whole shebang to Namibia - where there has been no real rainfall for 20 years. It is dusty. It is dry. It has red-sandy desert. It is...in Africa.

Bert had been in Namibia for 2 months before we were able to join him. I spent some of that time googling Namibia in preparation for our arrival. This is my potted History of Namibia:
The Republic of Namibia is in southern Africa. It shares borders with South Africa, Botswana, Angola, Zambia and the Atlantic Ocean. The original inhabitants were Bushmen, Damara and Namaqua, and Bantu and others joined the population during the 14th century. Germany busted a move in the 1880's and decided it should be a German Imperial Protectorate. The end of WWI put paid to that. Then South Africa took over - imposing all of its rules (including apartheid). Not surprisingly, the natives became restless and fought to become an independent nation. The Republic of Namibia gained independence in 1990. They are proudly celebrating 22nd year of independence this year. Celebrating the "freedom to live independently in our country as we strive for just and fair market competition."
Namibia's 2.1 million people enjoy stable democracy, driving on the correct side of the road, and English as the official language (despite the fact that only 7% of the popluation speak English). Things they don't enjoy include having more than half the population living below the poverty line and having more than 15% of the population infected with HIV (some of which originated from vaccination programs). Malaria is present in parts of Namibia, with 50% higher chance of death due to Malaria if concurrently infected with HIV. Orpanages are subsequently a fact of life.

That's enough history for now, but I'll add more throughout my blogs.

So, Why namibia? Why not indeed.

Next blog will talk about my arrival here.