Kaokoland Landscapes: Wild and Rugged

I’m always exited when I find a blog post on Namibia, and with this one the pictures were so true to my country, and beautiful, of course. So do enjoy this post and support awesome Namibian exposure and tourism!

itinerant memes

In a recent trip to the far north-west of Namibia, I came across some of the most spectacular scenery, amazing people and got up close to some dramatic wildlife. So much to say and show, but bite-size chunks means I’ll get it posted quicker.

The Kaokoland area is known for its remoteness, ruggedness and tough off-road tracks. This in a country that is sparsely populated and where much of your driving is on gravel roads. Over the past two-years I have seen a lot of Namibia, and it is a beautiful nation. But I had my mind blown in Kaokoland. There is something about the area that just feels bigger, wider, and empty of people.

The area is populated, mainly by the Himba people many of whom continue a very traditional lifestyle and dress. But on the road, where you may see, possibly, one other vehicle all day, the expansiveness of the area…

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Incredible Iceland

This place; it is amazing. No adjectives can do it the justice that it deserves. A young slice of earth geographically, it feels ancient. Perhaps all the more because it is so young, it carries a remembrance of what earth must have looked like millennia ago. I imagine dinosaurs crossing the dark ashen grounds, the mountains beyond capped with white, clouds striping the sky above.

A rugged earth stretched ahead of us, dipping and sweeping below the horizon that seemed to go on for eternity. My mind roamed, looking for words to describe it. What equivalent is there? The landscape feels fit for a fairy tale, the perfect setting for an other-wordly film or fantasy.

The summer sun sets here at eleven. That gives us ample time to explore the beautiful surrounds. We started slowly. The day had broken long before, and it seemed unnatural to get up later, with the sun so high already. It played peek-a-boo with the clouds all day, jumping out from behind the fluffy whiteness and dappling us in its warmth, then dissapearing again. We enjoyed the light when it was there, but the cloudyness nonetheless added a certain drama. Only at evelen a.m. did we eventually begin our drive. By then some had already made an exploratory walk to the small waterfall that feeds the river running alongside our camp. It is idyl.

High up in the mountains, we drove alongside massive glaciers, the white of their snow emphasised by brown streaks that framed the volumptiousness of it all. The mountains, of course, black as soot, as ash, spewed across the landscape from the bowls of the earth, from volcanoes’ ruptured centuries ago, or just a few years. You remember the ash cloud that covered Europe in 2011? It was from a volcano right here in Iceland. We drove through the area yesterday, on our way to our camp. The farming community is still active, with the only semblence of a natural disaster the fresh museum irriged in honour of Mother Earth’s vengeful volcanic strength.

Some places we were the only people, others we were part of a crowd. The dissapointment of Iceland is that so many others have found its charm. They flock in tour busses, as if to see the leaning tour of Pisa, or the Eiffel, no account for how their vehicles could have dared the dark and difficult roads. What they do not know, however, is that the true beauty of this place is when the sun dips low. The magic lies in those places, far from hot springs and gazers, where there is no other soul except your own, where the land you stand on is high up and the air around you is in cloud. That is the world we claimed for ourselves tonight.

A Tour of the Ancients

You can’t hold a good girl down

Today I woke up with a sore throat. Don’t think for a minute that I let that stop me. We were out and about, Sharre and Piero taking us around the area to some fabulous places, such as the village of Montefalco, as well as the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.

Meet the Saint

Saint Frances of Assisi is kind of a big deal in these parts. He lived way back in the 12th century, born into a rich family but decided to give it all up and become a monk. He is famous for having spoken to birds and wolves. I have a little bit of a theory that the man may have been a little bit cuckoo, but perhaps that’s what it takes to become a saint? Who knows. Either way, he is admired for his tireless work in preaching to communities and living in purposeful poverty. Again I say, was this man mad? Environmentalists and Greenies have him as their patron saint. He lived in this area of Italy, preaching to the folks here, and thus in following his footsteps one can get a pretty nice tour of the history of the area, especially if churches are your thing. If you don’t think they are, well, what don’t you like about dramatic atmosphere and beautiful fresco’s? What, in other words, is wrong with you? Kidding.

Montefalco

First stop on our itinerary for the day was coffee in Montefalco at the church/museum famous for its fresco’s of Saint Frances. The fresco’s are especially famous because of the fact that they were some of the first to show depth of field. Previous works were flat, whereas these looked so 3D that they fooled me into believing the decorations on the wall were real. They were painted by famous artist Benozzo Gozzoli. The imagery in that church was so beautiful, I would recommend it to anyone, especially since the whole town is kind of sleepy when it comes to tourist traffic (bar the hordes of middle-age walking tours that flooded through in too short shorts), leaving one in the silence necessary to really appreciate the place and its ambiance. If you are however not going to Italy any time soon, here’s a website I found that has all the fresco’s.

We ate lunch in Montefalco at Piero and Sharre’s regular haunt in the piazza, Federico II, right across the way from the house in which Piero had lived as a child. The menu’s came in Italian and English (how considerate!) and they even had gluten-free pasta for me! Ag, sometimes you know, I am glad when a place gets the cynical touch of tourism. A further bonus was the fact that our food was divine. I wouldn’t have expected any thing less of our hosts’ taste in restaurants.

Assisi

Don’t be a sissy and miss Assisi! Sorry for that, I couldn’t help myself. Anyways, so we left Montefalco and drove the crazy Formula one track type curvy roads that led us to Assisi. At this point I was zonked out, sleeping all the way after trying to keep my eyes open but finding they just went cross eyed and made everything double.

Assisi is like the religious capital of the area. Religious folk from around the world come here to live as monks or nuns, or merely to pay their respects to Saint Frances. Most famous in Assisi is the Basilica built for the saint, and which is unique in that it is actually two churches on top of each other. Look, they didn’t have modern architecture back then, so my guess is that they just lost track of the building process and before the builders knew what was happening, boom, two churches on top of each other. It sounds crazy to believe, but it actually works, and it isn’t too confusing to navigate. Why you’d need two churches that close to each other, however, is beyond me. I mean, I studied in a town with a church around every corner and a sect for every type of prayer, but man, none of them were so strapped for space as this.

The basilica is not just attractive to pilgrims and saint-to-be, but attracts the usual crowd of tourists as well. So expect souvenir shops and loud Caucasians in too short shorts. The scenery makes up for it, though. It is so darn picturesque. I haven’t had time to upload my own pics from the day, but let me tell you that every corner featured the perfect angle for a good shot. Here is just a google image, sorry for that.

 

Sad to say goodbye to the Pink House

Today was our last day in Umbria. Tomorrow Piero is taking me and my mother to the train station. We go off to Venice next, stopping over for a couple of hours in Florence. While I’ve been here I had the benefit of unlimited wi-fi access, but I don’t know how reliable the next few days’ internet access will be, so forgive me if you don’t read anything again for a while.

In farewell of the fair country side (that I have truly in this short time come to love and feel at home in) as well as to the two wonderful people who hosted us and treated us to such attention and love, we were over at the yellow house at sunset. This was nine pm. Champagne glasses clinked and we sighed. Snacks of left-over Risotto (the flavors had time to marry!), watermelon, green Roman olives and salad. Music as performed by Piero on his very own beautiful mini grande piano.

A fantastic end.

The terrific Todi

There’s no place like Italy
A true highlight for me today was seeing the wonderful views from atop the ancient wall surrounding the lovely village of Todi, Umbria, which we visited for lunch today.
Its hard to believe that so much of this area’s heritage stretches back into ancient times, as with Todi, which is about a thousand years old. Contrast that to Johannesburg’s buildings that have been built only within the last century or so.

Now, to fully appreciate the panoramas that we enjoyed today, allow yourself to picture the most fantastic Hollywood scenery of the Italian countryside; all rolling green hills and aged villas. Now imagine that image as ten times better and you have the real thing.

Up we go
To get to Todi,we parked at the foot of the hills on which the village is perched. Leading up the hillside is a little elevator/cable-car, into which we piled and took up. My first image of Todi as we climbed out was of the little park that opened before us, which happened to be the site of what some refer to as knitt-bombing, or the graffiti of knitting, where knit pieces are made to fit lamp posts, trees, or any other public structure. In this case it was far more creative than just that, with little knitted owls in the trees, and a woolen web spanning the park’s center, with large colorful spiders smiling from a nearby tree. So interesting,but not what you’d expect of an ancient city. More surprises were yet to come!

Stone steps, arches and ancient spaces
Being that Todi is built on the hillside, the village is rather a bit of a climb to explore, but this allows for a photographer’s dream. Leading off of almost every cobbled road is another, smaller pathway, defined by the darkened and dusty brick archway that announces its presence within the surrounding facade.
Moreover, the buildings are specimens of beauty themselves, some derelict and forgotten, others with patterns of the existence of previous doorways and windows left in their dermis. Some are painted, some are au natural.

A charming descent
Our trip to Todi accumulated with a reservation at La Scalette restaurant. Unbelievably, I was not all too hungry, but the pizzas fromthe other tables did look delicious, even if I wasn’t to taste them. Instead I tried a vegetable platter, which turned out mouth watering. It seemed that us girls were all a little bit stuffed still from the previous evening because we merely ordered veggies, while Piero chose a local soup for starters andthe meat platter for mains. My eyes were already drooping by the time we had coffee, so to get my system up and awake, I opted to walk off lunch with my mom by taking the stairs down to the parking lot from above. Its quite a steep walk, and the steps were not always in the best condition, but it was worth the effort to feel a sort of magic as we crossed down the front of the town wall, the massive trees around us, the stones beneath our feet covered in moss. One could almost imagine you were Juliet sneaking out to meet your Romeo.
Needless to say, all the drive back to San Terenziano I sat in the back with my eyes closed, ready for my siesta.

Love, from Italy

Am I really here?

Its already almost eight as I type this, but outside the birds are still singing and the sun has yet to set. Its day-light-savings time in Europe, and here in Italy the summer is well and truly underway. I can only pinch myself that I am really in Italy. Last night at around this time I was on the airport in Namibia, with still two stop-overs to go. Our route went like this: Windhoek – Frankfurt – Milan – Rome – Umbria

. Well, the last leg we did by car, with my mother’s lovely friends, Cherrie and Piero, whom she met before Piero retired from Diplomatic work and they moved to his native Italy.

A little Pink House

Cherrie and Piero have handed us the keys to a charming three bedroom house two hundred meters from their own yellow house, which they usually rent out. I can already see myself spending lazy Summer days here, out by the pool, the warm breeze bristling through the olive tree leaves. Oh, yes, if that sounds too much like fiction to you, well, guess again, because the movies don’t lie, my friend, this is Italy!  I had to rub my eyes at the sight: rolling hills of green before the soft yellow sun that hugged a horizon lazy with the day, all as seen from the garden I sat in.

Now is the time for food

Yes, Italy is the country best known for its pasta, and with our sundowner’s (the African tradition of drinking alcohol while watching the sun set) already fizzing in my bloodstream, I cannot wait for Cherrie and Piero to take us out on the town, or shall I say, the village. Although it be small, San Terenziano has many a family owned restaurant flavorful and bursting with undiscovered treasures. I cannot wait. I have quietly snuck up stairs to complete this blog, and I know that I have so much else to still write, but its all been so overwhelming that right now the basic needs have taken over and that includes hunger. To the first degree.