The jury is out re Swakopmund. Some are OK with it, others think it distinctly odd, even uncomfortable. I would say that its incongruities are the thing I will recall. The clashing cultures are perhaps uppermost. On the one hand we saw and heard an utterly German/European standard and way of life, with expensive e.g. clothing, food, cars, hotels and real estate on offer, but co-existing with Namibian nationals struggling to make ends meet by car-minding next to supermarkets, selling really rather fine artwork for next to nothing from either a ramshackle stall or the back of a bicycle, carving patterns onto small nutshells etc., or simply sitting, looking at the day, as they would say on The Emerald Isle.
Hugely apparent the further south we go is the size of the average male frame. Not long from now, we will enter South Africa, and we were forewarned weeks ago that the high-protein diet, and the volume thereof, hoovered in by Afrikaaners as the norm, makes for an overweight nation. Half of them must be on vacation in Namibia. Every time one enters a supermarket, one is faced by battalions of 20+ stone leviathans lumbering round with grotesquely over-filled trolleys. The shops, of course, go out of their way to make hay from this phenomenon; the massive range of top-quality produce on offer is totally in your face at every turn.
Despite meteorological appearances, it got really hot as the day wore on, leaving the unwary Al overheated in the evening. The freezer section in the bungalow kitchen proved to be an excellent solution just before bed. Quality sleep was ensured. Result.
No comments:
Post a Comment