Virtual Sicily

EXPERIENCE A VIRTUAL SICILIAN SIGHTSEEING TOUR

Sicily, Italy by Fyllis Hockman: “It happens all the time with Overseas Adventure Travel. I start out expecting to write about the trip itself – in this case, Sicily’s Ancient Landscapes & Timeless Traditions – and I end up writing about all the things that are not on the itinerary – what OAT refers to as Learning and Discovery.”

Virtual Antarctica Adventure

EXPERIENCE A VIRTUAL ANTARCTICA SIGHTSEEING TOUR

Journey to the Bottom of the Globe by Ed Boitano: “After setting foot aboard the deck of my vessel to Antarctica, I began asking guests why they chose to take an eight-day cruise to the coldest, windiest and driest continent in the world; a landscape which is 98 percent thick continental ice sheet and 2 percent barren rock; a continent so cruel and unforgiving that almost no life can survive on it. The overwhelming answer from my fellow cruisers was simple: ‘Because now I can.’ It was a good answer. The more I thought about it, I realized it was my reason too.”

ED BOITANO’S ARTICLE ON ANTARCTICA

Virtual Hemingway’s Paris

EXPERIENCE A VIRTUAL HEMINGWAY’S PARIS SIGHTSEEING TOUR

A Magical Walk Through Hemingway’s Paris by Richard Carroll: “Magically enchanting and much-loved Paris, the Urban Empress of Europe, remains eternally young and amorous. Occasionally vain, always passionate, and with a long and turbulent history, the legendary city has a special flair for life that has captivated many of the world’s most inspired artistic talent.”

RICHARD CARROLL’S ARTICLE ON HEMINGWAY’S PARIS

Virtual Churchill Museum

EXPERIENCE A VIRTUAL CHURCHILL MUSEUM SIGHTSEEING TOUR

2 Lumps of Sugar Make This Churchill Museum Unique by John Clayton: “Are several lumps of sugar worth putting in an historic museum? That may sound like a funny question, but the fact is that yes they are – especially if they’re part of the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms (CWR) in London.”

JOHN CLAYTON’S ARTICLE ON THE CHURCHILL MUSEUM

Virtual Aran Islands

EXPERIENCE A VIRTUAL ARAN ISLANDS SIGHTSEEING TOUR

The Aran Islands: A Living History by Ed Boitano: “In Robert Flaherty’s brilliant 1934 documentary film, Man of Aran, we see an Irish man smashing limestone rocks to bits, while his wife gathers seaweed from the shore below the island’s steep windswept cliffs. Meanwhile, their young son scavenges for animal manure and precious particles of dirt that have collected between the rocks, blown from the mainland. These four ingredients will be used to create the soil in order to grow potatoes – the family’s main source of subsistence. This is the Aran Islands; a landscape made almost entirely of solid limestone rock.”

ED BOITANO’S ARTICLE ON THE ARAN ISLANDS

Virtual Frank Lloyd Wright

EXPERIENCE A VIRTUAL TALIESIN WEST SIGHTSEEING TOUR

A Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West by Susan Breslow: “Taliesin West should be an inspiration for everyone who faces another birthday and thinks: I’m too old to follow my dream. Frank Lloyd Wright, who had achieved public acclaim back east for his architectural designs (as well as public disdain for his scandalous affairs), was 70 years old when he arrived with a few apprentices in the foothills of Scottsdale Arizona’s McDowell Mountains in 1937.”

SUSAN BRESLOW’S ARTICLE ON TALIESIN WEST

Virtual Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway

EXPERIENCE A VIRTUAL LYNTON AND LYNMOUTH CLIFF RAILWAY TOUR

2 Classic Trains in England by John Clayton: “Growing up in Great Britain, I loved the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway. Situated in a setting of steep, ruggedly rolling green hillsides alive with unequalled beauty, below which lies a perfect picture postcard sea, and enriched by a town that looks as if it stepped out of a Beatrix Potter book.”

JOHN CLAYTON’S ARTICLE ON THE LYNTON AND LYNMOUTH CLIFF RAILWAY

Virtual Bluesman Phil Gates

EXPERIENCE A PHIL GATES CONCERT

Phil Gates – Following Tradition by T. E. Mattox: “Bluesmen have been lacing up their walking shoes and relocating to Europe for generations. So, when L.A.-based guitarist Phil Gates packed his bags in 2016 and moved to the Swiss countryside, he was just following in the footsteps of a long-standing blues tradition.”

T.E. MATTOX’S ARTICLE ON PHIL GATES

Virtual Skeleton Coast

EXPERIENCE A SKELETON COAST SIGHTSEEING TOUR

Exploring the Surreal Skeleton Coast by Skip Kaltenheuser: “The Skeleton Coast is one of the most appropriately named stretches of land in the world, a place where many hapless sailors of centuries past have mingled their bones with whale ribs and shipwrecks.”

SKIP KALTENHEUSER’S ARTICLE ON THE SKELETON COAST

Virtual Berlin

EXPERIENCE A BERLIN SIGHTSEEING TOUR

Berlin: Yesterday and Today by Ed Boitano: “I can still recall in detail my first arrival to Berlin. As the cab driver raced passed Tiergarten; the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe; the Reichstag; and Brandenburg Gate, I asked about the new Kennedy Museum, now located in the Mitte (middle) district). Without hesitation, he offered his own personal narrative about JFK’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech of 1963: ‘Over 90% of the people in West Berlin were on the streets. None of us had ever seen anyone so charismatic.'”

ED BOITANO’S ARTICLE ON BERLIN

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There was at one time no margin for error for sailors rounding the Horn of Africa and heading north through rough seas past this vast expanse, which stretches along the northern third of Namibia’s coast. The region borders more vast expanses, among them the world’s oldest desert, the Namib. One wonders whether whalers and sailors who somehow made it ashore after reefs had thrashed their ships found a moment to appreciate landscapes that would have challenged even the surreal imagination of Salvador Dali.

Along the coastline are immense flat plains, broken in places by lines of small cones denoting abandoned diamond mines. The plains yield to giant, orange-yellow sand dunes. The wind etches geometric patterns on their long curves and slopes.

Walking across a flat plain from our vehicle – a Land Rover with old airplane chairs strapped to the roof – my companions and I step in each other’s footprints to minimize the impact on the tiny blades of vegetation that suck moisture from the ocean fog.

After hiking up a dune’s long backside, we slide down its steep interior slope. Suddenly, the sound of the wind is drowned out by the eerie monotone crescendo of a double bass. But there are no double bass players in sight.

The musicians, in fact, are us. The dunes’ uniquely shaped sand grains emit a deep roar as they grind together. Delighted, some of us take long leaps down the slope, adding staccato notes.

Struggling back up the huge half-bowl slope, the solitude of the coast hits home. Despite a huge concession set aside for the Skeleton Coast Camp – which is where we are staying – it is limited to 12 visitors at a time.

I keep imagining the challenges shipwrecked sailors would have faced. If I were in their shoes, would I have been able to overcome fear and march up the coast, giving my skeleton a run for its money?

Yet there are those that survive in this environment. The wildlife is fascinating in how it has adapted to the desert conditions. Up on a ridge facing the ocean breeze are several gemsbok, or oryx, weighing nearly 230 kilograms each. A type of antelope, they hyperventilate in the ocean air in order to cool their body temperatures. Their horns are like scimitars, forcing the region’s desert-adapted lions to think twice. Fresh lion tracks in a river bed make me think twice when, separated from the only other vehicle, I collect flat rocks to jam under tires bogged down in dry sand. A bit inland, amid arid canyons and valleys, are ostriches, jackals, mountain zebras, baboons and foxes.

Even the bugs are amazing. I saw a beetle that satiates its thirst by using grooves in its back to build up a drop of water from condensed fog.

Desert elephants sometimes venture to the coast and surf the dunes, creating their own symphonies. We track the elephants on foot – they’re always just around the bend, judging by the fresh elephant dung – but the sun reflecting off the walls of a clay canyon beat us back. Our vehicles cause us to throw in the towel as well, as an unexplored river bed that might leave a vehicle stuck becomes too forbidding near sunset. There are no tow trucks here.

But the greatest survivors are the members of the Himba tribe, some of whom reside just outside the park. Scattered across northern Namibia, they make up less than 1 per cent of the population. They haven’t changed their nomadic lifestyle in centuries, raising cattle and living in huts of dung and sand.

The women are particularly striking, wearing only goat skin aprons and jewellery that glows red from a mixture of ochre and rancid butter, rubbed daily over every square inch.

With their braided hair coated with mud and hardened like a helmet, these women work hard while the men count their cattle. The women’s true beauty is rooted in their physical strength and a meticulously tended traditional appearance that, according to anthropologists, maintains their cultural identity and protects them against the vagaries of modern life. Their refined beauty is framed by the harsher beauty around them.

Horrors such as the diamond wars farther north in Angola, the heartbreak of AIDS orphans, tribal conflicts and deprivation magnified by an envy of wealth have missed the Himba in this neck of Namibia. The elements of their neighbourhood are so tough no one hungers for their land – it’s safety in lack of numbers.

A couple of decades ago, a drought – the term is relative here – killed enough cattle to drive some Himba into the towns. They didn’t fare well – alcoholism and prostitution were often the byproducts of poverty and culture shock. Much farther east, a proposed dam threatens the Himba way of life. But on the Skeleton Coast, it’s likely that in 50 years, the headman’s progeny will still be tending the holy fire, a smoldering log that is said to help departed paternal ancestors bring good fortune to the tribe.

At night, I stand watching the sky, stealing glances at the silhouette of a jackal slipping around my tent, which by Himba standards is as luxurious as the Taj Mahal. Before the morning fog, the night is moonless but bright. The stars are the brightest and most numerous I’ve seen, and shooting stars abound.

None of the hemisphere’s constellations are familiar. It’s an alien world, beautiful as long as I know a prop-driven aircraft will eventually alight on our desert runway with ample provisions.

GETTING THERE:  Tour operators such as Wilderness Safaris, which operates the Skeleton Coast Camp, offer flights into the park in small bush planes from various points in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa, and Skeleton Coast Camp for a four-day, three-night safari package.

For more visitor information, visit the Namibia Ministry of Environment

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