Education – Page 7 – roaming.kiwi

The Petrified Forest and Omatozu Safari

After the awesome elephants, Daddy wanted to get to Windhoek, (the capital of Namibia) to get some new parts for the car. So we started driving south. We drove slowly because we didn’t really have brakes. On the way we stopped at a Petrified forest. We got a guide to take us on a tour. We walked up a small hill and found some fossilised trees. They were huge, one was 40m long. It had cracks in it because of earthquakes. There were pieces of trees everywhere! On one stone tree you could see the rings to show how old it was. The trees were 125 million years old.

Then our guide showed us some plants that were used for traditional medicine. There was one tree, called a butterfly tree, that you had to pick 10 leaves and make a tea to drink. It would stop you having diarrhea. Another tree was called the Bushman’s Candle. Our guide squeezed out some sap and said you could rub it on mosquito bites. She said that the Himba people mix it with ochre to make sunscreen.

Then we stayed at a campsite called Omatozu Safari. We did a 7km walk on our own. We saw some warthogs and some rock hyrax. But the best thing was seeing some giraffes. The next morning we did a drive around the lodge. Mummy and I sat on the roof for a bit, the view was good, but we stopped when there was a camelthorn tree in the path. Mummy got some thorns in her hand, but I was fine. We saw a few antelope and warthogs, and we got really close to more giraffes. We were hoping to see a cheetah or a leopard, but maybe next time.

Now we are in Windhoek.

May 13, 2019 3

The Skeleton Coast

*** Delayed Post – internet is not always available in Namibia ***

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After Swakopmund we drove north, and went up the Skeleton Coast. It is called this because there are lots of skeletons, animals and ships.

There were lots of shipwrecks marked on our map, but most of them have disappeared. There was one ship that we saw that was still obviously a ship. It was wrecked in 2008, and was called the Zeila. It was a fishing boat.

Some of the shipwrecks only had a few bits of metal left. On one you could see the engine.

We got stuck in the sand and Mummy and Daddy had to do some digging. We also saw some wild african dogs. There were lots of animal tracks. We thought they might have been made by hyena, jackals and wild dogs!

May 13, 2019 1

Swakopmund

*** Delayed Post – internet is not always available in Namibia ***

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After Walvis Bay, we went to Swakopmund. Daddy’s knee was a bit better. He gave his crutches back to the hospital.

We did a drive called The Welwitschia Plains – A Scenic Drive. To begin with, we couldn’t see very far because there was a sea fog. The sea fog is important because it gives water to the plants. It looks like there is nothing growing in the desert, but when we looked closely, the ground was covered in lichens. We gave them some drops of water from our water bottles, and they opened up. The lichens grow really slowly, less than 1mm a year. It was important not to stand or drive on them.

We also saw 2 different bushes. One is called the dollar bush because its leaves look like money. The other was called the inkbush.

We drove through an area called the moon landscape. It had lots of furrows caused by erosion of the ground. We also saw a stripe of dolerite rock.

Then we went to see a really old plant. It is more than 1,500 years old! It is called a Welwitschia Mirabilis. It looks like it has lots of leaves, but actually it only has 2! This was easier to see on the smaller plants. The leaves get all shredded. I thought they were cool.

May 13, 2019 2

Ghost Town!

Today was a fun day. First we went to a ghost town called Kolmanskop. This used to be a real town, but now the desert is reclaiming it. Lots of the rooms were filled with sand. The town was there because of diamonds. We learnt about diamond smuggling. One person tried to hide diamonds in his shoes. One person fired diamonds out of the area with a cross bow. Some people put diamonds on homing pigeons. But this wasn’t so good because the diamonds were heavy and made the birds tired, so they didn’t fly all the way home.

After this we went to Agate Beach for lunch. We did a big walk along the beach and found lots of pretty stones. We think some of them are agates. An agate is a semi-precious stone. They look pretty when they are polished.

After this we drove back to Aus and we saw horses on the Garub Pan.

We stayed at a nice campsite and saw lots of stars. I can recognise Orion’s Belt and the Southern Cross, with pointers. I could also see the Milky Way. There were so many stars!

April 29, 2019 1

Mesosaurus Fossils

We went to a farm to see some mesosaurus fossils. A mesosaurus is a creature that lived before the dinosaurs. It lived in the swamps. It looked a bit like a crocodile. The farmer’s son found the first fossil, but they are not allowed to open any more, in case they damage them. You can see the bones of the ribs, tail and feet. The head has disappeared. There was also fossilised poo called copralite!

He also showed us some very cool rocks, called dolerite rocks. They were formed when the magma from a volcano bubbled up through the soft clay, but didn’t reach the surface. They are covered in desert varnish which is manganese dioxide. It is black and very hard. It makes the rocks ring. He played us a tune…. See the video!!

We also learnt about quiver trees. They are called quiver trees because the bushmen hollowed out the branches to make a case for their arrows. This is called a quiver! It is actually an aloe – like the national flower of Lesotho!