And that’s probably because we were.
Our 4 hour journey to the lovely coastal town of Swakopmund highlighted a few of the reasons why Namibia is called “the land of contrasts.” As we left the lush green mountains of Windhoek, the land became a bit more flat and at one point we passed a few giraffes! About halfway there, the landscape made a pretty quick transition to tan with some plants and then eventually just brown as far as the eye could see, dotted with small bushes. We had hit the Namib Desert and it was beautiful in a whole new way! I was particularly mystified by the miles of sand interrupted by random mountains…it made me want to study geology. (I hope my roommate from school appreciates that!) Then of course we finally reached our destination and could see the waters of the Atlantic Ocean spreading out in front of us.
If I begin to write about this short trip, I may not stop. So instead, I’m going to highlight our days with pictures. You can check out the rest of my photos on my picasa page!
The beautiful sunset we arrived just in time to see.
Sand, flat, sand, flat, Mountain?
The Rossing Uranium mine pit. As deep as the Eiffel Tower is tall. Nearly a mile long!
This is the old bucket used for shoveling. The new ones are even bigger!
The lagoon is formed by a long sand peninsula sheltering it from the ocean.
There were so many flamingoes and they were beautiful!
We climbed the second highest dune in Namibia, Dune 7!
For our free day, some of use went sea kayaking and saw tons of seals.
We thought the top of the dune was a pretty cool place for our VALPO picture!
So our trip was amazing, but it wasn’t all just fun and games. We continued our theme of Nation Building, Globalization, and Decolonizing the Mind by touring the mine, hearing from speakers about economic policy, and visiting some wellness centers for adults and children. Check out these links to find out more about where we went!
I wish I could have spent my whole semester there, but we are back in Windhoek and back in the swing of things for a week before starting nearly 3 weeks of travel. Just have to make it through these 5 days!
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