Exploring Namibia

Rachel Crowther, brought up in Audlem, is well known to many and has just returned from an amazing expedition to Namibia in south west Africa. Do click on the photos to get their full glory. Rachel writes:

At the British Exploring Society, I am used to waving all our excited young Explorers off on their expeditions at the airport each summer.

It was therefore a very odd sensation for me to be in a pair of desert boots, handing my phone to a colleague and going through customs myself and joining the group I'd just checked in. It was true! The Director had let me out of the office (brave chap) and I was off as an Assistant Leader to Namibia!

Nothing could have prepared me for the boundless environment I was walking in after 72 hours travel. Truly no one had ever ventured here before (there is a population of only 2.2 million) and yet, here we were, creating a cosy canvas community by the empty Ugab river and sharing our new found homeland with the likes of geckos, scorpions and Elephant Shrews (cuteness overload by the way!) not to mention the many footprints of big game that littered the river bed.

A country with no end

Namibia seemed to me to be a country with no end and its immense beauty assaults your senses from all angles. The sight of the majestic Brandberg Mountain at sunrise and sunset had the power to silence even that chattiest of us and the plethora of stars we were so privileged to witness every night left me astounded by our world and beyond.

The starry blanket twinkled whilst we slept and gave way to the comforting warm orb of a new day's sun each morning, changing the shapes and sounds of the grasslands once again. This was nature's routine on an incomprehensible scale and suddenly I was working within it.

Camp life itself was not quite so poetic! The expedition for our teenage explorers began with acclimatisation week and with temperatures ranging from -2 to 42 degrees centigrade, it did taking a bit of getting used to!

British Exploring Great British Bake Off

After splitting into smaller groups we spent time preparing for the long trekking phase we had in front of us. A 'British Exploring Great British Bake Off' competition was held and the groups were challenged to create the best loaf of bread they could with basic rations and an open fire.

The results were outstandingly creative and 'Mary Berry' (yours truly) had the tough task of choosing the winning loaf.

After a brief visit to the local 'village' of Darust (say 'Da-roost') which contained six people and two huts (it made Audlem look like a frantic urban jungle!) to thank them for our water which we decanted into giant containers (before the elephants got to it!) my group were dropped off a few hours from base camp courtesy of an ancient German tank and left to walk from the middle of the deserted grassland to the Skeleton Coast.

100 year old maps

The maps we used were 100 years old as so little has changed out there and for seven days we trekked and trekked and trekked some more ( and dodged a fair few snakes along the way too).

Carrying all our food, water and shelter was certainly a challenge and in just one day we'd cross everything from moonscapes to red rock terrain to endless sandy horizons. The sweltering heat eventually gave way to cool salty winds as we steered towards the coast (I always knew my Scouts navigation badge would have its time to shine!) and a few days later we were crunching along the salt plains of the Skeleton Coast which stretched for 100 miles down the north west coast of Namibia.

It's known as such because of the deadly riptides which have washed up unlucky ships and their crew for centuries. Anyone washed up alive almost certainly perished as the land offers nothing but hugely disorientating salt plains and is completely void of shelter or human life.

The Coast

Reaching the coast after all the dry, desolate ground was a moment of pure joy and a race quickly ensued to see who could take off boots and socks and run into the sea first. We wandered along the shore taking in the jagged shipwrecks (most notably where we were the doomed 1942 Winston).

It was too cold to hang around for long and fortunately the trusty tank (this thing could drive on and over absolutely anything in its path) was making its way across the beach to return us to base camp.

Exhausted but elated we settled back into basecamp life (the other groups had now set off on their treks) and had seemingly endless days of discovery and adventure ahead of us,

Herd of elephants

This culminated in our group scrambling up a gorge on the last day to make way for the small herd of elephants (complete with two babies) that unbeknown to us were a mile behind as we walked down the river bed – not a bad way to end our Namibian experience watching wild elephants feast on the trees just down from where we were sitting!

We sat in silence drinking in these enormous creatures until at last it was time to head back up the dry river, pack up our tiny tent town and start our long journey back to the UK.

Showers and Towels

Having worn the same clothes for the entire duration we were all dreaming of showers and fresh towels but there was a definite hesitancy in the air about returning back into the crazy modern world after several weeks of complete isolation, peace and solitude.

Thank you Namibia for being so welcoming despite your desolate and intimidating exterior, an incredible experience was had by all!

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