Research Update and Swakop Round II

This is a look of the scenery on my way back to Windhoek from a wonderful weekend in Swakopmund on C28. Too bad there is a smoke fog from all the prairie fires, but it still has great color quality.

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Greetings Everyone!

I hope this finds everyone well! I’m currently extremely busy right now with trying to piece together a methods research paper for my economic surveys in the Etosha and Loxondata conservancies and contacting farmers to be interviewed. My goal is to be out in the field next week conducting interviews and hopefully camping in Etosha again trying to see a lion!

Last Thursday, Chris and I left for the Etosha Conservancy, which is the largest commercial conservancy in Namibia with 52 members measuring a total of 430,000 ha or just a tick over 1 million acres. There are 23 game farms and 10 guest farms operating within this conservancy, thus the ranchers outnumber the ecotourism operators, but they still work together.

Chris and I were on a mission to gather the contact information of all the members and ID non-members who are bordering the conservancy to be interviewed. It was a huge success, but nearly suicide for the amount of driving we did in one day.

We left Windhoek at 7:30 AM and drove all the way to the south side of the Etosha National Park to have diner with Tim Osborne and his other half. This couple is originally from Alaska and California and they met in college after Tim returned from an Africa trip where he fell in love the landscape. His newly found interest in Africa led him to move to Namibia and purchase this farm they currently operate as a 100% eco-tourism and hunting lodge. By the looks of things they’re making good money.

The smell of fresh baking bread greeted Chris and I after we drove through what was many miles of gravel roads. I have a completely new concept of what “living out in the boonies means” after driving to these farms. A large thatch roof building houses the diner table and chairs looking out over the veldt. One can see the Etosha National Park from this couple’s farm.

It was a perfect setting to start the discussion of the study and land use values in Namibia.

In stroll 3 hunters who are hungry for lunch. They have familiar accents and we
quickly learned they were from Alaska and on a hunting vacation. Two worked on the North Slopes and the other was a corrections officer, but they were thoroughly enjoying themselves and were taking nice trophy game off the farm. This farm only markets itself in Alaska and started in California now, but even the recession hasn’t stopped people from booking people well into the future.

Its such a small world and I have to go to Namibia to discover this, but one of the Alaskans knew someone from Burwell, Nebraska! I swear every week there is a Nebraska connection popping up. Last week, a new german friend has a sister living in Omaha, Nebraska and she said Nebraska doesn’t look like a lot of fun, but then I started talking to her about our ranch and the tone changed.

But Imagine a lodge located on top of a large mountain overlooking a beautiful woodland prairie with a watering hole where kudu, ostrich, and other critters come to water during the day. Conversation would be interrupted by wildlife coming into drink. Even the ostriches had names. This couple knew their wildlife like children.
We had the best lunch with freshly taken kudu and oryx meat taken from the farm and processed on the farm, matched with the baked bread we smelled, and salad greens. The hunters were sharing their hunting stories and Tim’s jokes about meeting his wife in college and Africa travels had everyone’s stomachs rolling with laughter.

Later on we sat down with three maps I collected from the Ministry of Lands and we ID’ed people who are not in the conservancy and black emerging farmers. Basically, there is little or no information about how much the commercial lands contribute to conservation and tourism in Namibia and that’s why this study is so important. We’re also going to look at the land reform farms, consisting of black farmers returning to the land through the assistance of bank loans. Chris and I suspect the way the loan structure is set up now on top of cattle loans, this group can’t even begin to think about having game lodges and ect. and helping wildlife populations because many are forced to leave the land after 5 years from default payments.

Overall, we’re very excited about the study and I sure have my work cut out for me but I’m loving this challenge and what awaits in the end results. My interviews will be conducted on site with the managers/owners and I can only imagine the stories and conversations I'll be able to tell when I return.
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So, I knocked off a little early to head to Swakopmund with my new friend Tina, who is
an intern here in Namibia from Germany. She’s really into journalism, horses, traveling, and photography, so we’ve had a lot to talk about.

We rented a car and were off to enjoy the ocean city’s restaurants and wildlife viewing opportunities with a CD of the Red Hot Chili Peppers I burned for the journey we probably listened to 15 times.

We dined at The Tug and woke up early Saturday morning to go on a great ocean tour. This one was much better then my last experience and provided much more of a context to the experience that many tour places here lack. We also were a lot closer to the dolphins and oil rigs, so there were many great photo opportunities.

The weather was a little chilly on the boat, but we sucked it up and warmed up with coffee and german cake when we arrived back in Swakop. We then decided to go check out the dunes, specifically Dune 7, the largest dune in the area. It took us about 20 minutes to climb to the top and take in the view for awhile, and probably only 3 minutes to run down. LOL.

Later, we dined at The Lighthouse and later walked around town taking in the nightlife. I kept thinking this might be the last time I’ll be in Swakop, but then its only more motivation to go to grad school and come back!
Sunday was another early riser and we wanted to take in the C28 highway between Swakop and Windhoek. It took us nearly 7 hours but it was well worth it. The landscape changes so much and there are normally springbok and other critters running around. We were lucky enough to see some giraffe!

We switched drivers half way through and Tina got our little 2 wheel stuck in a loose gravel area near a waterbed, but luckily we only passed to farm houses close to the road and this incident happened right in front of one which =’s great timing on her part. I take partial fault too, because this ranch kid knows better when it comes to loose gravel on a road and owning a Dodge Neon.

But there was a really nice farm worker who went out of his way to make sure we were on our way again. We only had a rope to pull the car out and I was worried it was going to snap and we’d be shoveling the rest of the evening, but we lucked out.
We laughed a long time about everything and counted our blessings.
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That’s all I really have right now for a weekly recap. I’m also working away on college grad school applications and have a World Symposium on the Ecologic and Economic Benefit of Hunting I’m excited about going to this week. Many of the speakers will have direct applications to tourism in the Great Plains and hunting. Also, Chris will be giving a presentation about the Sustainable Use of Wildlife as a catalyst to conservation and development in Namibia. I need to make sure I have enough business cards for this one.

Here are the most recent pictures I’ve taken. I normally don’t like taking pictures from a moving car, because you see motion in the picture, but some of these motion shots have a neat composition I’m starting to like now. There is a UNL photo competition coming up and I need to sit down and submit photos now, because every week I have new photos to choose from and its driving me wild picking two out for each category. I’m just going to print out the finalists in my eyes and have my coworkers vote on their favorites.

Please enjoy the photos and thank-you for stopping by the blog!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

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Pelican waiting for a fish to be thrown:



Sea Gulls:



A good look at the oil rigs and oyster farms:



Bottle Nose Dolphins from sea tour:





The Light House by Pelican Point:



Me shooting HD video with my Flip:



Tina took this one:



Good human and environment interaction shot:



More flippers:



A local oil rig. The South African Navy had their ships near by:



Tina and Google:



Dune 7 and climbers:



Another shot from Dune 7:



Classic railroad tracks. The Townes Van Zandt lyrics came to mind. "There's not a stronger wind then the one that blows down the lonesome railroad line."



Me:



Tina:



Driving back to Windhoek:







A motion picture but still on the way to Windhoek: