Quad Biking in the Namib Desert

The Namib Desert stretches for more than 1000 miles from the southern border of Namibia, the Orange River, up to Angola north of the Kunene River, the northern border of Namibia. A variety of landscapes such as huge sand dunes, beautiful mountains and plains form the Namib Desert.  The Benquela current flow at the western side of the desert brings the cold waters north from Antarctica and dries the air.  In general, the area is described as barren although fresh water, fauna and breath-taking landscapes are part of the desert.  At times dunes can be as high as 1000 feet. Namib is a word in the Nama language and means ‘’wide open spaces".

 

The Namib is a desert on top of a desert, which with petrified dunes buried beneath the sands of the top. The forerunner of the present desert was formed 180 million years ago on the super continent Gondwana before the break-up of South America and the African continents took place. About 130 million years ago, the continents separated and the Atlantic Ocean developed. The western border of the Africa continent, the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern escarpment then were formed. At the time of the separation, this area was fertile and huge herds of animals roamed this area.

Five to eight million years ago the Benquela current was formed. The Benquela then carried sand, brought by the Orange River from the inland to the sea and then washed out on the western beach where a strong Southwestern wind took it to the land where the Namib was developed. 

Fanie du Preez, the owner of Kuiseb Delta Adventures picked us up in his car at the Yacht Club and drove us to the edge of the desert and the waiting quad bikes. 

Fanie has been guiding these quad tours, almost on a daily basis, for more than 11 years. He knows the Kuiseb delta like no other. He is passionate about Namibia, but more so about this unique part of the Namib desert.  He had a small building where he described the geology of the Namib Desert, explained about the ancient Khoi people that lived here and did a short safety briefing.

The Khoi were originally part of a pastoral culture and language group found across Southern Africa. Originated in the northern area of modern Botswana, the ethnic group steadily migrated south, reaching the Cape approximately 2,000 years ago.

The Khoi initially came into contact with European explorers and merchants in approximately AD 1500. The ongoing encounters were often violent. Local population dropped when the Khoi were exposed to smallpox by Europeans. Active warfare between the groups flared when the Dutch East India Company enclosed traditional grazing land for farms. Over the following century the Khoi were steadily driven off their land, which effectively ended traditional Khoi life.

We all donned shaded goggles and Fanie, Emily and I (in that order) zoomed into the dunes for our private tour. Along the way, we stopped several times and Fanie explained that there was underground fresh water aquifer at some places less than 2 feet below the sand.

He showed us the desert fruits, the !Nara and the Sirub, explaining how the plants adapted to this particularly harsh environment. The !Nara (the ! denoting a palatal click in the Nama language) performs the important function of stabilizing the dunes, collecting sand around it to form hummocks. It is leafless to reduce water loss by transpiration and photosynthesis takes place through its stem and long paired thorns. We sampled what the fruit tastes like and how it is harvested and used by the Topnaars (descendants of the ancient Khoi inhabitants) as well as by the animals. 

Fanie showed us several species of beetles and explained how the Tok Tokkie beetles get their water from the fog, and how quickly the Namaqwe chameleon has to run in order to catch these beetles, which are his source of water. He also showed us how the sidewinder snake hides away in the sand to catch the dancing lizards. 

 

We drove down and stopped on a low barren area. These flat areas where called middens (old living places).  I suddenly realized that we were standing in the middle of a graveyard of the ancient inhabitants of the delta - the Topnaars or ‘People of the !Nara.’ These historic human skeletons have been exposed by the wandering dunes and within years will be reduced to sand by the relentless desert winds.  Fanie informed us that the Topnaars buried their dead exactly where they lived. “Look carefully and you will see pieces of their pottery, the different kind of beads they wore, as well as stones that they used as tools,” says Fanie.

We were shown numerous fossilized tracks at the site - not only of humans - but also of nearly all the land animals of Namibia, including elephant, rhino, buffalo, eland, kudu, blackbacked jackal, and so forth. It was clear that this delta was a paradise before the dunes of the ‘Sea of Sand’ crossed the river 4 million years ago, and killed all the vegetation on its way up north. Today, the only desert animals found in the area are the oryx, springbok, ostrich, brown hyena and jackal. He also showed us an old ostrich eggshell that was used to hold water.

These old skeletons of the ancient khoi people are exposed and covered again, from time to time by the ever shifting dunes. We decided that before we dried up and got blown away, we should head back. 

It was a blast to speed along the desert sands and up and down the big dunes. We learned how to break/slide down the steep faces and Emily charged over without fear.  Another memory to log away…

Tom