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Welwitschia mirabilis - Trail im Westen der Namib |
“Pumba!! Wait, wait, a warthog! “We receive an answer for our shouting. Sydney stops the bus. Luckily the warthog stays calmly. In the distance it peers to us and shows itself to us from all its sides. We are excited! Although there are many warthogs in Namib, it is the first one that keeps remaining quiet.
When we continue our trip, I see some more warthogs. These, however, are more active and so they aren't worth a stop. At least we'll see some more hogs on the way to Etosha Park and Windhoek.
Heading the coast, the landscape becomes more and more barren. Only a few bushes get along with the little rain in the centre of Namib. In addition the soil is very salty und inedible for plants. But in spite of this you can find one of the most exquisite plants of the world here: the welwitschia mirabilis.
Ok, on the first look the plant doesn't look appealing at all. It rather resembles a bunch of leaves. But as soon as you know that the welwitschia does only consist of two leaves which are separated into two stripes and only grows 2 mm a year, this plant becomes more and more interesting. The welwitschia can reach an age of a few thousand years and indeed we are able to see welwitschias that are aged some hundred years. In order to survive the climate of the dessert this plant takes humidity out of the fog of the Benguela-Stream which comes from the Atlantic Ocean by the west wind.
The next sensation we get to see is the moonscape. Like the stops before we are exposed to strong east wind. The air is extremely dry. Luckily we have put some sun cream on our skin! The view on the cliffy and hostile landscape is very impressing. No wonder this landscape is called moonscape. It strongly reminds us of the surface of the moon! If the NASA played us a joke and they didn't land on the moon but here? Rather not. There are no craters and the “moonscape” was built by the Swakop which has destroyed the soft rocks. It was a long time ago that this happened but having a closer look you can still guess how it used to look like.
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