Students enjoy lunch under shaded rock walls, Palmwag Concession
November 26, 2012
By Annie Seder (Oberlin College ’14)
We celebrated Thanksgiving in the bush in both planned and unexpected ways. The day of Thanksgiving itself was a respite from game counts and discussions, but what this actually meant was more time to dedicate to Grinnells – which we were thankful for, don’t get me wrong, but wasn’t necessarily the time of our lives. We did pull out a couple of stops at dinner, when Maggie and Miles concocted a sweet potato, squash and ginger dish to complement the classic rice and stew combo and Kristen, Molly and I mixed up a little guava-peach-apple cobbler, compliments of our sumptuous can selection at the time.
We enjoyed dinner and thanksgivings under the campsite’s colossal Mopane tree and retired to our tents with little idea of the cascade of surprises awaiting us.
In the morning we took off deeper into Palmwag Concession for our last bush camp of the semester. Basalt rock fields and shrubby grasslands spread out around us and hills rolled and jutted in the distance, pushing and distorting the horizon. Around noon we turned off the track towards a deep riverbed, greenery just peeking out above the canyon walls, and disembarked, notebooks in hand, ready for a natural history lesson. Instead we walked down into the canyon to find – wonder of wonders! – moving water and a waterfall, sliding down the rocks. After a brief period of deliberation, consensus was reached: this opportunity was too good to pass up. Too eager for suits and towels, Sergei led the charge of shorts-clad, dirt-encrusted students into the heavenly water before us: a small, neck deep pool garnished with lush algae beds and an undeniably suspicious smell. But, oh! It felt so good.
It was Miles who pushed unrelentingly downstream to discover unimaginable wonders. This pool was deeper and clear! So clear that we could see hundreds of five-inch long fish lurking just under the surface. After much speculation as to their intentions we hopped in, and they disappeared into the shadows under the rocks. Cliffs rose up above our heads as we floated and paddled, and soon the group was standing high above the water debating the finer points of risk-management. We hardly noticed Kristen until she was flying through the air to land with a splash and emerge, triumphant and unscathed. Much screaming ensued and adrenaline flowed like wine.
We climbed back up the rocks, hungry, warm and content, and settled into cars for the trip to our lunch spot. This was actually at an overlook that Dulaney, Molly, Amanda and I had visited before, having taken a wrong turn a couple of game drives ago. The road-dead ended at a small crease in the plain. Vehi led the way towards it – and into it! We climbed down, down, and sixty meters of solid basalt unfolded around us, the remnants of molten tears in the crust of Namibia as the ancient continents shifted and pulled apart.
And the secret inside this prehistoric canyon in the middle of an arid Namibian plain? Steep cliffs diving into a pool of clear, cool water, so deep that no student has ever found the bottom. After lunch – how was it possible to wait so long? – we ventured in the bulb of the cul-de-sac shaped pool, where entertainment consisted of floating to gaze up at the sky, trying not to imagine toe-nibblers in the depths beneath us, and the challenge of challenges: climbing out of an expanse of water surrounded by sheer, smooth, guano-painted cliffs. It’s amazing what becomes fun. In this case, it was scraped hands and stomachs, aching shoulder muscles and bird poop where it had perhaps never been before. Sergei won the contest, followed by Miles and Maggie, but many others were to successfully scale the imposing walls. The cliffs also offered a good spot for jumping off, but if you could pick between a fifteen foot cliff jump and spending twenty minutes struggling to pull yourself onto a slippery, sloped patch of rock a foot and a half above the water, which would you choose?
We thought Thanksgiving was over and done with, but instead it snuck up on us in the form of what was generally agreed to be the best day ever. What more could we have asked for?
Students point to which direction the animal who left tracks in the sand was traveling
Annie scans the horizon for wildlife
The following photos are from motion-sensored cameras set out at water holes. Enjoy!
