The old dunes and the sea

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This was published 13 years ago

The old dunes and the sea

Old style ... the Desert Express dining car evokes a more genteel era.

Old style ... the Desert Express dining car evokes a more genteel era.

Aboard the elegant Desert Express, Gavin Bell looks for wildlife amid fierce yet beautiful landscapes.

AT FIRST, I think it's a mirage: a lone figure, shimmering in the heat, loping through the emptiness of the Namib Desert. In the distance it's a dark spectre, diminishing as it jogs towards a towering sand dune.

I rub my eyes. I have just woken on the overnight Desert Express train from Windhoek.

Is it a trick of light, heat and dust or the spirit of a long-dead San Bushman returned to his hunting grounds? Neither. It's Cedric, a steward on the train and a keen footballer. He's running up the dune to make sure it's safe for passengers to trek up after him and view the Atlantic Ocean from its summit.

As with most sightseeing trains, the Desert Express is not an express service. On weekends, it trundles between the Namibian capital, Windhoek, and the old German colonial seaside town of Swakopmund, stopping way for game drives, dune excursions and lion-feeding along the way. A few times a year it continues north, on longer trips to Etosha National Park.

On the face of it, the Namib is hardly the most inviting place to build a railway.

The San hunter-gatherers who once roamed its bone-dry gravel plains and shifting sands called it "the land God made in anger". Early Portuguese mariners whose vessels were wrecked on its aptly named Skeleton Coast dubbed its hinterland "the sands of hell".

Later, Charles Andersson, a 19th-century Swedish naturalist and explorer, recorded his first memorable impression of it: "A shudder, amounting almost to fear, overcame me when its frightful desolation suddenly broke upon my view. Death would be preferable to banishment in such a country."

German soldiers and settlers decided, in 1897, to lay a railway across it. They had little choice: at the time, there were no roads worthy of the name in what was then called German South-West Africa and the only way of travelling was by ox wagon. When an epidemic of rinderpest, an acute viral disease, wiped out 90 per cent of the oxen in the country, engineers completed the 370-kilometre Staatsbahn between Windhoek and Swakopmund and began running passenger and freight services in 1902.

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Windhoek's railway station, tucked in a cul-de-sac off Bahnhof Street, its ornate facade embellished with gables and a pillared balcony, stands aloof from the modern office towers nearby. Signs are in Gothic script and one on the platform indicates the Ladies' Waiting Room.

Cue Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard for their fateful meeting in Brief Encounter. I half expect a tea lady to ask if I'd like a cuppa before the 5.40 to Churley arrives.

Instead, the Desert Express pulls in, its nine coaches in smart blue, orange and white livery with hexagonal windows. Its design is reminiscent of the 1950s and it looks like the kind of train the star-crossed lovers of Brief Encounter might have taken to go on honeymoon.

Four coaches are sleeper cars accommodating up to 48 passengers, and the rest comprise a bar and lounge, restaurant, bistro, conference and recreation facilities. The first impression is of light and space. Clean lines of polished wood and glass doors and panels engraved with desert motifs create an ambience of casual elegance. The lounge has comfortable leather armchairs and the airconditioned compartments are spacious, with washrooms fitted with showers.

This is the way all first-class sleeper travel ought to be. With 35 passengers on this trip, the public coaches are never crowded and a troop of high-spirited but well-behaved children adds to the sense of fun.

My only regret is that steam locomotives in Namibia puffed their last in 1960, replaced by diesel-electric engines. There is, however, a bell that clangs to announce our departure and soon we are out of Windhoek and chugging through low green hills.

As if glad to be free of the city, the train slackens speed and proceeds at a pace that an arthritic giraffe could match. An hour into the journey, we spot a troop of baboons preening one another on a hillock. Then we see a flock of vultures, wheeling in the sky like scraps of burnt paper above a carcass. Next, springbok and kudu, wildebeest and zebra grazing in a private game reserve. The highlight is a giraffe, barely 18 metres from the train, regarding us with polite interest.

Okahandja, a town of dusty roads and weather-beaten stores, appears suddenly and is quickly left behind. The hills recede into the distance and now we are in vast grasslands dotted with termite mounds - skyscrapers of the insect world.

It is late afternoon when the train halts in the middle of nowhere. Beside the track are two safari trucks. We pile in and bounce along dirt roads for several hours.

Supposedly, there are white rhinos and giraffes in the bush but all we see are a few bucks, two ostriches and a family of donkeys.

The latter serve as guards against leopards; apparently, their braying scares the daylights out of the big cats and keeps them from preying on game on the reserve.

The best part of the drive is Oropoko Lodge, where we arrive for sundowners and snacks. From its hilltop vantage point, we gaze over an unbroken green sea in which craggy hills loom on far horizons like tsunamis. A raptor is hovering above a thicket in the hope of a takeaway meal, which reminds us that dinner time is approaching.

Back on the train, we tuck into freshly prepared game of the kind we have been admiring. It seems a shame to cull graceful creatures such as springbok but their meat is lean, tender and delicious, especially when served with a berry sauce and a refined South African merlot.

Sleeping on a moving train can be tricky but, in a quiet siding outside a desert town, it isn't. Some time during the night, I become aware that we have begun to move but by then I am in the arms of Morpheus and drift back to sleep. When I wake, we appear to have passed through a space-time continuum and have landed on Mars.

The hills, savannah and camel thorns are gone. In their place is an endless flat nothingness of sand and rock and in the grey half-light of dawn it has a reddish tinge. The sense of an extraterrestrial experience is heightened by a line of yellow lights twinkling on the horizon, like a lone settlement on a hostile planet.

This is the land the Nama people call Namib, meaning "plain without end". It stretches for more than 800 kilometres from north to south and 120 kilometres from the Skeleton Coast to the grasslands of the Kalahari.

There is no shade, neither are there trees or rivers as there's no rain of which to speak. Giant dunes driven by wind march across the desert, swallowing settlements that become ghost towns choked by sand.

Beside the train, the monotony is broken only by two lines of wooden telegraph poles, marching into infinity, that deepen a sense of loneliness. It is here that we stop for breakfast and the lone dune sprinter appears.

In days gone by, this was a place of death for mariners, their ships impaled on reefs and their bones bleached by the sun. Now it is a tourist playground. Led by train staff, we climb a massive dune.

From the crest is a view to the ocean, about five kilometres distant, shrouded in fog created by the convergence of desert heat and the icy Benguela Current. Close to shore, a vessel hovers in the gloom like a ghost ship suspended in mid-air. Behind us lies a panorama of haunting beauty.

The Namib is 2 billion years old and its stillness exerts an almost spiritual influence on travellers who take the time to stand and stare. This is nature in its primeval magnificence. It is also a place of fun. Running down a dune is easier than trekking up it, especially when you bound in great leaps and fly through the air.

The yellow lights in the distance turn out to be the outskirts of Swakopmund. The seaside town has grown over the years but still retains some of the look of a German Baltic-style resort of the past century.

The ghosts of Schutztruppe cavalry who trotted through its streets are long gone but happily the railway they left behind survives in the land God made in anger.

A GREAT TIME ON THE TRACKS

How long? The overnight safari is a 1045-kilometre round trip.

Buffet or banquet? The train has excellent international cuisine in the silver service dining car, with local specialities such as springbok fillet with berry sauce.

Sitting comfortably? Light, spacious compartments with old-world charm, although the seats are a bit too firm and small but perfectly formed ensuite WC and shower.

Time to read? If the sand becomes monotonous, Namibia by Chris McIntyre (Bradt Travel Guides) has a good introduction to the country's tumultuous history and myriad cultures.

Time to listen? The joyful jazz of Miriam Makeba, the empress of African song.

When to go? Any time, however July-October is the best period for game viewing. The train does not operate Windhoek-Swakopmund or longer safari journeys between December 5 and February 10.

Take a five-night journey on the Desert Express as part of a 14-day tour that includes a wildlife safari in Etosha National Park in the north of Namibia and Fish River Canyon in the south. Priced from $12,026 a person, twin share, it includes airfares from Australia. 1300 664 170, bunniktours.com.au.

Travel tip Make sure you pack a sun hat, good-quality sunglasses and hiking shoes.

Trip notes

Getting there

South African Airways flies from Sydney to Windhoek via Johannesburg priced from $1924. 1300 435 972, flysaa.com.

Staying there

Windhoek has a good selection of accommodation, from guesthouses to large hotels. namibian.org.

Touring there

TransNamib operates the Desert Express. It departs Windhoek at noon (1pm in summer) on Fridays and arrives at Swakopmund at 10am next day. In the reverse, the train departs Swakopmund at 3pm on Saturdays and arrives at Windhoek at 10.30am next day. Tickets are priced from $270 a person, twin share. Fare includes dinner, bed, breakfast, tax and excursions. +264 6730 4716, namibiareservations.com.

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