Scorpion in my bathtub

One of my previous post I was saying how you were missing something if you had never experienced an African morning, but I have to admit that sub Saharan mornings have their down sides too.

This is what I found in my bath tub this morning.

This is not a photo from the internet somewhere. This is the actual photo I took this morning. I didn't want to put my finger near it for scale so you have to guess its size. But I have to say that it was small, quite small really.

Ai Ais Hot Springs, Namibia

As I said in my previous spot Ai Ais Hot springs is not one of those places you go to for the accommodation. The campsite is Ok, though most spots have no shade, which in Namibia can make a difference, but then of course at least you have the springs. Most of all we were lucky because New Year, and in general summer I am told is a quiet time of the year. But apparently in winter the place can be packed, full to the brim with people camping pretty much on top of each other. The hotel has an interesting design (sorry no photos) with a long central hall where pools of different temperature are set and along each sides there are two storeys of room opening onto the pools. This unfortunately, I am told, and I easily believe, makes for noisy rooms.
The semi-detached cabins are just plain boring, very square, plain and "normal".

If you have the equipment camping is really the way to go. But if you don't go anyway and stay in in one of their accommodation, which ever you can afford. It is not as if you are likely to spend much time in your room!

The springs are in a valley, the Fish River Valley. In fact this is the end point of the famous Fish River Canyon hike.

The "resort" is on the side of the valley which is not very wide at this point. When we were there is never rained so the valley remained dry but flash floods are known to rush through.

There are interesting walks/hikes with beautiful views, but for me this was a "rest and relax" holiday so I didn't do any hiking. In summer (New Year is summer on this side of the equator) the Fish River Canyon hike is closed due to possible flash floods and possible dangerously high temperatures.

The campsite is fairly typical of southern African campsites where everybody is meant to be next to each other. In Canada if you can see the site of your neighbor you consider the site to not be great, in southern Africa the vegetation does not allow for this type of privacy, you just hope for  little bit of shade.

Typical South African tents (I saw the same set up in Australia) with the tent on the roof of the vehicle.

The facilities where OK. but again this is not why you want to be there.

We did manage to get good shade, and we were right by the pool. You can't see it but we traveled in comfort and in fact have 2 tents.

For some reason I didn't take many pictures of the pool itself. Probably because it just looks like a very large totally normal pool. The real treat is when you get in and the water is just perfect!

When we were there the place was very quiet and it made for beautiful days, but particularly beautiful mornings.
You are missing something if you have not experience a sub-saharan African morning.

My new favourite wallpaper picture

This one is from Devil Marbles in Australia. I am using as my wallpaper these days. The framing of it a a bit off but my favourite part about it is that when I see it, because it is my shadow and I recognize it as such it sort of feels like I am there, actually there.... I can see my shadow in front of me so my brain process that I must be there. This is what a photo of my shadow can do for me that a photo of myself cannot.
I hope I make it back to Devil Marbles again and get to sit again at sun set and smell the smells and get the wonderful feel of being there.

Driving to Ai Ais Hot Springs - Namibia

For New Year I drove to Ai Ais Hot Springs in Namibia. First I drove from Johannesburg to Springbok. I love the drive to Springbok, especially the part from Upington to Springbok, you get fabulous road "mirages". Vehicles coming over the "mirage" seem to float and even have a reflection in the mirage entirely as if this was water.

Then with my friend R. From Springbok, and using her vehicle which is much more practical than my "toy" car and her camping equipment we drove to Ai Ais Hot springs in Namibia.

To cross the border you have to cross the Orange River.

As soon as you cross the river the landscape changes drastically and you can just tell that you are in beautiful Namibia.

We stopped along the way a few times to enjoy the views, for me to look at the rocks etc. An I found this pretty amazing grass hopper..... do you still call it a grass hopper when there is no grass? Look at the size of it!

The entrance into the actual park (Ai Ais Hot Springs) is a complete non-event. the big difference is that out of the park there are fences all along the road, inside the park you are in a fence-free area, always a treat.

It wasn't a dream it was Ai Ais National Park

This is out camp at the hot springs.

Now you're going to have to wait for me to blog about the actual hot springs. For now all I will say is: if you have a chance to go, do not hesitate and go. You can camp or rent a room or a small semi-detached cabin. This is not a place you go to for the accommodation, you have to go there for the surroundings and the fabulous warm water. The temperatures I would guess were around 40C (104F) in day time and probably as low as 18C (64F) some nights and in either temperature the water felt wonderful... but then again I am a hot spring junky.

Go out and watch the Northern (Southern?) Lights

Just in case you have not heard, there should be some fantastic northern (or southern) lights right now.
Apparently the sun is having huge solar storms.

This is what CBC News says about it.

Kalahari desert melons

Once again I crossed the southern tip of the Kalahari Desert on my way to Springbok and this time I saw some wild melons by the side of the road. A friend who lives around here tells me that they get as big as watermelons which is not surprising since they are meant to be related to watermelons.

They are called tsammas, but it seems to me that a all bunch of kalahari melons are called tsammas so it may not be a very precise name.

Regardless of whether or not they are the tsammas related to watermelons, some tsammas are and in fact watermelons are native to this part of the world. They are the water storage equivalent to cacti in North America and in fact some Kalahari people claim that it would have been impossible to cross the Kahalari without tsammas. Note that most species included into the name tsamma are in fact quite bitter.

The one I saw where quite small.

The leaves are very small, thick and very leathery.

They ran along a thin wine pretty hard to see, in fact it looked dead in parts.

One of them had already been eaten by some animal rather.

You can see how the melons stand out.

This website has some interesting information.

ADDED MUCH LATER (after buying a book about South African wild flowers at the 2nd hand bookstore): The latin name of the tsammas is Acanthosicyos naudiana and they belong to the Cucurbitaceae Family.

Rose Quartz

I had seen before a old abandonned mine where they used to mine rose quartz and amazonite (a green feldspar) but it was not spectacular. This time I came across a fabulous outcrop. The top of the mountain was a thick vein of rose quartz. I just had to go and see it up close and personal.

I guess the top doesn't really show in this photo but you can at least see one of the large boulders.

This was one of the very rare time in my life I was traveling with a friend so I actually have pixs of myself on the side of the mountain.

My friend who stayed down wanted to see how pink it could get so I threw one over and let it bounce on its way down.

I am actually useful as a scale for the rose quartz boulders in that photo.(I am tall)

What a fun afternoon that was.