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Desert
decked out in Green Finery - 02.03.06
Large parts of Namibia have experienced such substantial
rainfalls that even fringe areas of the desert are covered
in lush greenery. Many of the ephemeral rivers flooded
and thereby blocked quite a few tourists on their way
to the next accommodation facility. The country’s
dams – vital for the supply of drinking water
– are full, some of them literally to the brim. |
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Open sluice gates at Hardap Dam. |
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The sluice
gates of the largest reservoir, Hardap Dam in the south,
fed by the Fish River, had to be opened altogether in
order to reduce the strain on the wall. 200 houses and
shops in the town of Mariental and more than 80 farms
in the lower-lying surroundings of the dam were waist-deep
under water as a result of the deluge; the damage is
estimated at more than N$ 60 million (about 8.5 million
Euros). The main artery road to South Africa was impassable
at times. About 400 km further downstream, the Fish
River flooded the camping site at Ai-Ais in the Fish
River Canyon – and this despite the high protective
walls which were built after the previous flood in 2000. |
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Many tourists had adventurous experiences due to flooding
rivers. |
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Rainfalls in
other parts of the country caused less damage, but nature’s
spectacles were no less spectacular. Lakes formed in
the huge pan of Etosha National Park in the north; the
masses of water churning down the ephemeral Ugab River
in the northwest made it into the Atlantic Ocean. The
swollen Swakop River in the central parts of the country
missed its mouth at Swakopmund by just 20 km. The flood
waters of the Kuiseb River passed the Desert Research
Station of Gobabeb on their way from the Khomas Hochland
Mountains through the Namib and came to a halt less
than 4 km from the salt production fields south of Walvis
Bay. |
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These
days, Namibians and tourists encounter a green desert
and a lake amidst the sandsea around Sesriem in southwestern
Namibia. For the first time in five years the Tsauchab
River, responsible for feeding famous Sossusvlei, carried
so much water that the parched clay pan filled up again
during the last weekend in February. |
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tourists had adventurous experiences due to flooding
rivers. Often they found the way to their next
accommodation facility blocked. The road between
Maltahöhe and Helmeringhausen, for example,
had turned into a slippery, impassable mass of
mud, and Zaris Pass between Maltahöhe and
Sesriem became inaccessible. Washed away gravel
roads posed a problem for those travelling by
city car even after the floods subsided. During
the rainy season (October to April) it often makes
good sense to rent a slightly more expensive all-wheel
drive vehicle – thanks to its generous ground
clearance a 4x4 will effortlessly continue where
a city car is too low. |
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Good rainfalls have transformed Gondwana Namib
Park into a green paradise. |
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The four
desert parks of the Gondwana Desert Collection have
turned into a green paradise. In the Kalahari Park 350
mm of rain were recorded in January and February (the
annual average is just under 190 mm), in the Cañon
Park 180.5 mm (usually 80 mm per year), in the Sperrgebiet
Rand Park 163 mm (otherwise about 80 mm per year) and
in the Namib Park 185 mm (annual average about 50 mm). |
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