Vacation Memory About Namibia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Vacation Memory About Namibia - Essay Example John is an American who had come to Africa in the seventies and had attempted to hike from Cairo to the Cape Town. However, when he had arrived in Botswana, he had fallen in love with the country and had chosen to settle. John had taken the liberty of hiring a vehicle for us and we all went to spend the night at his magnificent house on the outskirts of the city. Early the next morning, we left Gaborone and traveled south until we came to the Trans-Kalahari road, which connects all the countries that have the Kalahari Desert within their borders. It was here that my preconceptions of Africa being a backward place, a jungle, were forever shattered. The Kalahari Desert has a diverse ecosystem with some parts of it being semi-arid and inhabited by cattle keepers who own large ranches. Other parts are filled with sand dunes as far as the eye can see and within these, one is likely to find antelopes that have adapted to life in the desert. After every two hundred miles, there is a picnic area where long distance drivers take a break before continuing their journey. This is a measure that the government of Botswana has taken to ensure that accidents due to fatigue are avoided. We reached the Namibian border after eight hours on the road and the friendly customs officers quickly cleared us to cross into Namibia. Immediately one enters Namibia, he is struck by the level of organization that the people of this country have. One will note that all the buildings and roads are built in straight lines and that everybody is very orderly in all their activities. We were told that this characteristic was inherited from the Germans who were the first people to colonize Namibia after the partition of Africa. However, the place that fascinated me the most in this country was the city of Windhoek, which is the cleanest and best-organized city I have ever seen.