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Hiking to Refugio Frey and Beyond

Hiking to Refugio Frey and Beyond

It’s no secret that my heart is linked — inextricably — to the mountains, that something in them draws my soul like a moth to a flame. They’re magnetic, potent, and irresistible to me — intoxicating and terrifying in the same moment. For this reason, Patagonia has long been a dream of mine to visit, a dream which was at last realized last week when I finally made it to the town of San Carlos de…

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Classic T-shirt

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Christmas Letter 2019

New Post! Christmas Letter 2019 -- what happened this year, and what's next!

Looking back at the end of another year, it’s striking to see how differently things went from my expectations. This time last year, I was frantically preparing for a move to China, where I would be teaching English and potentially managing a department of foreign teachers in a language academy in Yangzhou. Now, as I write this, I’m sitting in a co-working space in Sevilla, Spain, getting ready…

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My Walk Out of the Woods

My Walk Out of the Woods

It’s been almost 3 months since I posted original content on here, making it my longest break from blogging since I started The Open Road Before Me in 2011.  There was good reason for that.  April and May could best be described as a gauntlet, during which I decided to break my contract at Shane English in Yangzhou, China and come home more than 7 months early.  There were many reasons for this,…

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The Haunting on Jangsa Beach

The Haunting on Jangsa Beach

*The following story is based on actual events*

Just a short walk from the highway by Jangsa Beach, the house lurked at the base of the hill. To its right, a pavilion lay in ruin, collapsed roof and pillars leaning amid the rubble. On its left, a shop boasted graffiti in bloody red; the Hangeul for ‘devil’ and ‘ghost’ looked hastily scrawled. The house itself lurked between the two structures,…

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Dealing with Depression Abroad

Dealing with Depression Abroad

Behind every smile is a pain, behind every pair of eyes a story that will break your heart.

It’s hard to remember that sometimes, especially when we put up the ‘gram-worthy facades that make it look like everything is peachy-keen.  Remember when Robin Williams died?  It shocked everyone, that behind the mask of the Jester who made the world laugh was a sad, broken man grappling with perceived…

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Which Flight Deals Site is the Best?

Which Flight Deals Site is the Best?

Traveling around the world has always been a dream of mine.  Eight years ago, that dream made the transition from imagination to reality when I packed up and moved overseas to South Korea.  I’ve managed to keep that dream alive — living in Korea, New Zealand, Mongolia, Georgia, and now China… with no plans of slowing down.  But a huge part of travel is having the money to afford it.  How the heck…

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Climbing Huangshan During the Spring Festival

Climbing Huangshan During the Spring Festival

Take a look at a traditional Chinese painting.  You probably know the style I’m talking about — impossibly sheer monoliths and granite ridges with twisted and gnarled trees clinging to their flanks.  Winding rivers flowing past thatched huts, with scholars lounging and debating on their banks.  The colors are simple, the lines heavily stylized — steeped in fantasy.  Surely, they can not be…

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Ten Awesome Things to Do in Guanacaste

Ten Awesome Things to Do in Guanacaste

In the northwest corner of Costa Rica, tucked just under the southern border of Nicaragua, is the province of Guanacaste — a place of volcanoes and rainforests, rivers and beaches, classic colonial architecture and extreme water sports.  Covering almost 4,000 square miles, the province has much to offer visitors; here’s a guide of ten awesome things to do in Guanacaste!

All trails seem to lead to…

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Reasons to Visit Georgia in 2019

Reasons to Visit Georgia in 2019

The country of Georgia has been making waves in the travel industry lately, ever since its inclusion on the Lonely Planet ‘Best Places to Travel’ list for 2018.  A small nation nestled between Russia and Iran to the north and south, and the Black and Caspian seas to the east and west, it is a curious place.  With a rich history stretching back millennia, a unique cuisine steeped in tradition, an…

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Christmas Letter 2018

It’s been a few years since I’ve done a Christmas letter.  Perhaps that’s because my last one didn’t go over too well with relatives back home.  Perhaps it was just the craziness of my schedule at the end of 2016 as I geared up for my third year in Korea.  Perhaps it was just laziness.  Yeah, there was a bit of that.  But when I think about 2018, I feel a need to do this, if only for myself.

You…

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Mountains are the sirens of geologic formations — luring in adventurers and enthusiasts with a rugged beauty that draws a veil over the hazards they contain.  Soaring altitudes, inclement weather, and unstable terrain… these things and more have wrought tragedy upon countless backcountry explorers drawn inexorably towards the mountains.  But there is one breed of peak that ups the danger ante to insane levels with pyroclastic flows, lava, and Earth-shattering eruptive force.  Volcanoes.

All Nature’s wildness tells the same story: the shocks and outbursts of earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every sort, each and all, are the orderly, beauty-making love-beats of Nature’s heart.” — John Muir

Guatemala has at least 37 volcanoes — the highest concentration in Central America.  While many are dormant or extinct, there are several active ones, of which Volcán de Fuego is perhaps the most infamous.  This is especially true in 2018 after a June eruption killed more than 150 people and displaced thousands.  While that eruption was Fuego’s most powerful in over 40 years, the volcano is nearly constantly active, belching out smoke and fire day in and day out.  Crazily enough, there are companies that lead tours up the adjacent Volcán de Acatenango and even onto the treacherous ‘Knife Ridge’ that is leveled at Fuego’s fiery gullet…

Kevin Sebold, photographer [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)%5D, from Wikimedia Commons

One of the most well-known of these companies is OX (Outdoor Expeditions).  Their Double Whammy tour offers the chance to both summit Acatenango and walk along the Knife Ridge towards Fuego.  After doing some research into their safety practices and watching some videos of the volcano in action, I bit the bullet and booked my tour.  I would be climbing Acatenango and Fuego, making for one of my largest summits and my first active volcano experience, respectively.

Climbing Acatenango and Fuego

We set out early, meeting at the OX headquarters in Antigua at 7:00 in the morning to pack our bags and eat a quick breakfast.  From there, it was just over an hour to the trailhead.  The ascent was merciless from the get-go, with an exposed slog through cornfields comprising the entire first leg of the hike.  Since the track starts at just under 2,500 meters in elevation, altitude is a factor,  so we went slowly and took plenty of breaks to rest and hydrate.

After the sun-baked grind through the fields, entering the cool shade of the cloud forest was a welcome reprieve.  Thick tree-cover hung with ferns and vines kept the sky from us, save for the stray beams of sunlight that dappled the forest floor.  It was strange to think that we were on a volcano which had erupted as recently as the ’70s; indeed, it felt more akin to a rainforest far removed from any sort of life-purging flame.

The shift from cloud forest to alpine forest is sudden, as if all the lush vegetation mutually decided that none of it would grow higher than this elevation.  But the shift in flora didn’t make for a barren landscape.  The sweet tang of pine needles filled our nostrils, and alpine flowers blossomed in purples, reds, and yellows along the dusty path.

Solitary Volcán de Agua loomed in the distance, its 3,760-meter bulk dwarfing the surrounding hills.  But not our Acatenango.  Acatenango reaches a height of 3,976 meters, while Fuego tops out at 3,763 — give or take a few layers of transitory volcanic rock and ash.

After a lunch break during which we hoovered some fantastic sandwiches, we carried on as the first clouds of the day gathered around us.  The wind picked up as well, and it wasn’t uncommon for a wisp of cloud to be harried past us before disappearing around the shoulder of the volcano.

When we (at last) reached our Base Camp, Fuego lay before us — a titan of smoldering menace intermittently shrouded in cloud.

Every few minutes, a puff of smoke would burst from its cone, roiling black and thick through the cloud cover.  Occasionally, the spectacle would be accompanied by a low rumble, followed by the clattering of searingly hot stones cascading down Fuego’s flanks.

After a short break at Base Camp, two of us set out with our guide, Miguel, towards that rumbling, fiery giant across the valley.  The descent down Acatenango was frenzied — a literal sprint down a steep slope with thick layers of fine, volcanic stone.  After the first few, terrifying steps, the experience became exhilarating, feeling for all the world like cross-country skiing down a volcano.  It basically was, sans any skis.

But that descent only meant we had to climb back up to reach the Knife Ridge of Fuego, and we set out from the saddle between the two peaks with weary steps.  A sea of clouds broke against the flanks of Acatengo behind us, and the glow of the sinking sun tinged them with gold.

When we crested the ridgeline and saw Fuego smoldering in barely contained fury before us, I could feel a chill go through me — and not just from the cold!  The path dropped sharply to either side, and Miguel made a point of showing us which way to fall if we lost our balance.  “Don’t fall this way, you’ll die.  If you fall this way, you’ll just slide for a very, very long time.”

Thanks, dude.

Other groups trudged behind us, and we all stopped just beyond a scattering of fresh rocks from a recent eruption.  Because, you know… safety.

The sun dropped further towards the horizon, and we huddled on the safe side of the ridge to take shelter from the wind.  I had a thermal layer, a fleece, and a windbreaker, but I was still freezing.  Waiting became a war of attrition, and I alternated which hand I kept exposed to work my camera shutter as I tucked the other as deep into my pocket as I could manage.  Miguel stood staring out over the clouds, oblivious to the elements.

In the distance, Volcán de San Pedro loomed over a cloud-covered Lago de Atitlán, where I’d spent the last few weeks staying in Santa Cruz la Laguna.

Darkness fell, and Fuego’s eruptions turned fiery, lending credence to its name.  In Spanish, it literally translates to Volcano of Fire, while the Mayan name of Chi’gag translates to, ‘Where the Fire Is’.  Apt.

We descended Fuego and made our way back up Acatenango in total darkness, picking our way gingerly down the steep slope and practically crawling the last several hundred meters up into camp.  Dinner and a fire waited for us, followed by a cold, windy night on packed earth as Fuego rumbled and shook in the distance.

Morning came much too soon, as we all got up at 4:00 am for a pre-dawn ascent of the summit of Acatenango.  Bleary-eyed and groggy from a restless night at altitude, we trudged up the slope as the sky began to lighten, cresting the rim of the crater just minutes before sunrise.

The sun rose just over the shoulder of Volcán de Agua, painting the clouds below and the neighboring peaks in soft reddish-orange light.  Fuego sent up its regular plumes of ash and the occasional belch of lava, prompting cheers of “FUEGOOOOO!!!!” from gathered onlookers.

Lake Atitlan was visible behind us, with its vanguard of smaller volcanoes dwarfed by the shadow of Acatenango.

As we’d learned the night before, sometimes the easiest way to descend a volcano is to run straight down, so that’s what we did.  A steep pitch covered in a deep layer of loose stone made for a surprisingly safe ‘ski’ slope.  We took giant, leaping steps down, sliding up to a meter per step down the scree.

We took our time eating breakfast while Miguel and Milton broke down camp.  When it came time to bid Fuego farewell, we waited for one last eruption before heading back along the trail.  Behind us, the Volcano of Fire rumbled on, sending ash and fire into the clear blue expanse of the sky.

Review of Ox Expeditions

Climbing Acatenango and Fuego with Ox Expeditions has undoubtedly been the highlight of my trip. Not only was the experience extremely epic and satisfying, but the guiding expertise and overall organization of the trip by Miguel and Milton were exceptional.  They handled our group of 14 with aplomb, easily adapting to the different hiking abilities present in our group.  The food was better than I expected and having the crew set-up/tear-down camp AND prepare all the meals was a welcome surprise.

The administrative side of Ox was a little less organized, as my hike was rescheduled at the last minute — forcing me to frantically adjust some travel plans because of the inconvenience.  That said, Ox made good on the snafu and organized my transport to Antigua AND comped my pre-trip night’s sleep in their dorm.

I’d definitely recommend them as a tour operator and would highly encourage you to use them for climbing Acatenango and Fuego when you eventually visit Guatemala!

What to Bring

Good hiking shoes.  I use Merrell Moab or Chameleon hiking boots and have always been impressed with them!

A windbreaker.  I use the Arc’teryx Incendo hoody and love how I can just stuff it into my pocket when I’m not using it.

Thermal layers.  Bring these for top AND bottom, as it gets very cold up on the peaks — sometimes the temps are sub-zero!

Tough, breathable long pants.  You’ll be sweating a lot, so jeans are a strict no-no, while the rough volcanic stone can chew up flimsy materials.  Get something comfortable, tough, and protective for the hike up — I use Coalatree’s Trailhead pants.

A fleece jacket.  Columbia makes great quality fleeces for affordable prices.

GLOVES! I forgot these and ended up having to put wool socks over my hands to keep them warm.

A warm hat.

Snacks.  While lunch, dinner, and breakfast are provided, snacks are not; so bring some chocolate, nuts, berries, or your favorite hiking food to snack on during the many breaks you’ll take on the way to the summit.

Sunscreen.  Needless to say, there’s not a lot of shade on top of the volcanoes, so you’ll be getting some prime exposure to the sun while at altitude — a recipe for a gnarly sunburn if you’re not prepared.

Things Ox Can Loan You

OX has gear to lend or rent for those who don’t have their own.  Here’s all the stuff I borrowed:

Sleeping bag

Sleeping pad

Backpack

Eating utensils

More… check with Ox if there’s something you need.  They might have it on hand for you to borrow/rent.

Hiking sticks are available to rent for 5 quetzales at the trailhead.

How about you?  Have you ever hiked a volcano?  If so, how was your experience?  Would you do it again?  Let me know in the comments below!

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Climbing Acatenango and Fuego Volcanoes with Ox Expeditions Mountains are the sirens of geologic formations -- luring in adventurers and enthusiasts with a rugged beauty that draws a veil over the hazards they contain. 

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Guatemalan Cooking Class in Antigua

Guatemalan Cooking Class in Antigua

It’s hard to fully explain how much I love food.  An ex-girlfriend of mine had some idea when she accused me (I kid you not) of loving food more than her.  Needless to say, she wasn’t too happy when I made no effort to deny the accusation, and we broke up a short time later.  My love for food is not a superficial love, however.  I don’t just love to consume it, I love the creative process that…

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REVIEW of Acacia Africa: Desert and Delta Express Tour

REVIEW of Acacia Africa: Desert and Delta Express Tour

Last month, I got to fulfill a childhood dream and travel to southern Africa.  My sister Alisha and friend Sejeong went with me, and after a great deal of research on Alisha’s part, we decided to make this journey with Acacia Africa.  There were several reasons for choosing them.  They have a reputation for sustainable, responsible travel, and they cater to a younger crowd — camping tours…

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Why The Whitsundays Should Be At The Top Of Your Travel Bucket List

Why The Whitsundays Should Be At The Top Of Your Travel Bucket List

If there was ever one reason why you should visit Australia, then the Whitsundays would win, hands down. Many people think enjoying big cities like Sydney or exploring the Australian outback are some of the best things to do in Australia, but the truth is that the Whitsundays outstrip their competitors in a number of ways. Here are some of the reasons why the Whitsundays should be at the top of…

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The Great Pacific Northwest Road Trip

The Great Pacific Northwest Road Trip

I love a good road trip.  There’s nothing quite like the feeling of setting off to some distant place, knowing it will take you days to reach it, not knowing what adventures await you along the way.  There are many reasons I enjoy living outside of the US, but few places can rival my homeland’s epic assortment of road trips just begging to be embarked upon.  Several years ago, my friend Brandon…

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My interest in Namibia began with nature documentaries.  For some reason, deserts fascinated me  — I think it was the utter foreignness of it.  I’d never seen a place that was seemingly so barren, so devoid of life.  But I quickly learned that these dry places that seem so desolate on the surface can be home to a whole host of life, hidden beneath the sands.  Perhaps my favorite desert to read about was the Namib.

Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on Earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. But how do you begin to describe its magic to someone who has never felt it? How can you explain the fascination of this vast, dusty continent, whose oldest roads are elephant paths?” — Brian Jackman

I loved learning about the Namib dwarf sand adders, tiny buggers with highly toxic venom.  I was fascinated by the way they burrow down into the sand to lie in wait for prey, with only their eyes and tail tip peeking above the sand.  The odd-looking antlions, neither ant nor lion, but rather an insect whose larvae digs sand traps to catch other insects on which to feed…

Needless to say, when the opportunity to go to Namibia and explore the Namib — as well as places like Etosha National Park — with Acacia Africa came up, I couldn’t say no.

Day One: Arrival

We arrived in Etosha after a brief stopover in Windhoek, the country’s capital.  A large national park in the north of the country, Etosha is characterized by a massive salt pan in its center, covering an area of 4,760 square kilometers.  Despite the arid nature of the area, a number of water holes (one of which is directly next to Okaukuejo Camp, where we stayed) sustain the diverse population of wildlife which calls the region home.

Perhaps the most common species — at least of larger fauna — to see is the springbok, South Africa’s national animal and a denizen of my dinner plate the night before.  It was midday and stiflingly hot, so the ones we saw were clustered under small trees and bushes, making use of whatever shade they could find.

We got our first up-close and non-rushed look at an ostrich as well, pausing to watch one strut away from us while fanning its plumage.   Far from useless, an ostrich’s wings help it balance while it runs and are also used in courtship rituals and other displays.  Now either this ostrich had something for one of those springboks, or its display was one from the ‘other displays’ category.

By the time we saw the giraffes, I was beginning to get a really good feeling about our time in Etosha National Park.  Seeing several of the ‘dainty dorks’ — as my sister so eloquently calls them — feeding on the trees was awesome, as we’d mostly just seen them far off in the distance while exploring the Okavango Delta and during our river cruise in Chobe National Park.

A little closer to camp, we found one last surprise: a herd of zebra, first crossing a side road, then paralleling the main road as we drove slowly past.  Several young foals regarded us warily, while more inured adults seemed barely to notice us.

We rolled into Okaukuejo Camp, at last, setting up our tents over several spots and making camp.  Then it was off to the watering hole at the edge of the grounds, where we’d heard we could almost always see some sort of wildlife.  There were some elephants there, but I’m going to save my pictures from the watering hole for a little later. 😉

Day One: Evening Game Drive

We left the confines of Okaukuejo and set off into the depths of the park, keeping our eyes open for wildlife.  We spotted a few familiar species — kudu, oryx, and the like — but nothing much of note until Khumbu swerved off the main road and along a dusty path towards a cloud of dust in the distance.  It was a trio of elephants in the middle of a dust bath.

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We managed to peel ourselves away from the elephants (despite seeing so many at Elephant Sands, we still weren’t sick of them) and had only just made it back along the main road when Pili Pili’s keen eyes spotted something in the grass.

“Lions, look!”

We did, and there were — three of them passed out in the middle of the open plain with nary a care in the world.  A black-backed jackal lingered daringly close, digging, scratching and doing other jackal-y things while the alpha predators behind him slumbered.

We saw another jackal further on at the first of several watering holes maintained by park authorities.  Zebra and springbok jostled for water as the jackal trotted through their midst.  Some of the animals seemed ambivalent to its presence, but others started and bounded away in alarm.

Jackals aside, the coolest sighting of the night was our first close-up rhino sighting.  It was coming towards us through the brush, plodding unhurriedly along.  An oryx loitered a short distance away, content to let the bigger animal pass.  That feeling wasn’t shared, however, and the rhino mock-charged the oryx, sending it fleeing through the shrubs.

Rhinos are not to be trifled with.  Noted and remembered!

The drive had one final surprise for us as dusk drew near and the threat of the gates getting closed on us became more and more real.  “Hyena!” someone shouted, and there one was, just to the side of the road in all its awkwardness.  Hyenas have a bad rap (thanks, Disney), but they’re really interesting animals and don’t always feed on carrion.  They hunt as well and are known to bring down zebras, wildebeest, and more.  And, despite their stubby little back legs, they can actually move quickly — up to 60 kilometers per hour!

Just as we were about to pull away, our presence unnerved the lone hyena, and it trotted on across the road with its derpy lope, and I had my squee moment for the day.

We made it back to the compound just in time, as the gates were about half-closed already.  A weary cheer sounded in the bus as we rolled through and into camp.

Day One: Around the Watering Hole

But the advent of dusk is by no means the end of a day of game watching in Africa, and we made our way to the watering hole after dinner.  The atmosphere there was muted; the tension level, high.  The whole viewing area was filled with tourists waiting with bated breath for animals to come for a drink.  Anything uttered at more than a whisper was shushed immediately, and all you could hear was the click, click of camera shutters and the hissing of whispers when something drew near.

There were already some giraffes around the pool, but we didn’t have to wait long for something else to join them — a female rhinoceros and her calf materialized out of the gathering darkness and made their way to the pool’s edge.

Watering holes are like the United Nations of the savanna.  Species of all kinds gather in one spot, for one purpose, though they are often at odds elsewhere.  There is a fragile peace that exists there, balancing on a knife’s edge, the threat of violence constant.

There was none that night, but the following night would see two rhinos — normally solitary animals — dueling at the pool’s edge.

We were just about to leave when one of the giraffes — which until then had been lingering some distance away from the pool — approached, looking as if it wanted some of the luscious liquid in the pool.  “C’mon, c’mon, go for it!” we whispered, urging it onward until, at last, it splayed its legs out and stooped down to sip out of the pool.

Dainty dorks, indeed.

Day Two: Morning Game Drive

Our second day in Etosha National Park was to be a long one, with a 4-5 hour game drive in the morning and a 2-3 hour drive in the evening hours before dusk.  Little did we know that, despite the awesome sightings from the previous day, our second day in the park would have some of the best individual moments of the entire trip…

One of these was a huge rhino we saw moving through the brush just off a side-road.  Khumbu got ahead of it and stopped the vehicle, allowing the beast to lumber past us, then cross the road just ahead.

Just epic.

Once the rhino wandered off, we made our way back towards a watering hole, only to be delayed by a herd of zebras filing past in single file.  There were several lions lounging in the bushes nearby, and a few of the zebras stopped to — presumably — stare them to death.  By the time we made it to the watering hole some minutes later, the staring zebras hadn’t moved.

But then, neither had the lions, so… mission accomplished?

The morning drive was long and seemed to drag on forever, I couldn’t even guess how much ground we covered over the course of five hours.  After a seemingly endless stretch of barren landscape as far as the eyes could see, we came upon a grove of withered and dry trees.  Behind them, something moved, its patchwork markings making its body difficult to make out behind the branches.

This camouflage was spoiled, however, by the giraffe’s neck and head jutting up above the tree like a watchtower as it silently regarded the humans it was definitely fooling with its top-notch concealment.

Shortly after, we experienced another one of those trip-defining moments.  It started innocuously enough, with Pili Pili calling out, “Oh hey, look, some dik-diks!”  Sure enough, two of the little antelopes were standing in the shade of a nearby tree as we came to a stop.  “Dik-diks are very unique because when they mate, they mate for life,” Pili told us.  “Very romantic.”

As if to lend credence to his words (or disprove them entirely, take your pick!), this happened…

Very romantic, indeed!

Another long drive took us to the edge of the Etosha Salt Pan, which looked for all the world like a sheet of ice stretching to the horizon.  Near its edge, a herd of wildebeest grazed — our first up-close sighting of these animals.

We’d finally reached the end point of the drive, and turned back towards Okaukuejo along the long, dusty road, stopping at another watering hole on the way.  There, a zebra and oryx scuffled as some springbok and ostrich scurried to get out of the way.

Watering holes really do seem like the UN, sometimes…

Day Two: Evening Game Drive

Our evening drive was just with Khumbu, as Pili Pili stayed behind to work on dinner.  The drive was mercifully short compared to the beast of a drive we’d done earlier, but we spotted a pride of lions napping by the roadside, so that was okay.

At first, it seemed to be only a couple of lionesses with their accompanying cubs.  One of them got up and plodded languidly in our direction before flopping down in the dust and grass for another nap.  A different lioness seemed to have an uncontrollable bout of yawning and bared her fangs for us on multiple occasions.

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But then someone spotted the male, a few meters removed from his pride and under the cover of some brambles.  He stirred, seemed about to rise, then did so.  Injured, he limped out from his lair and proceeded to defecate in plain view of us.  The yawn which occurred during the proceedings was photo gold, though I like to think it was a roar of effort.

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder after taking a picture.

When we arrived back at camp, Pili Pili had a braai nearly ready.  Soon, the meat was crackling and spitting over red coals, and the smell of it was enough to set our bellies to rumbling.

Day Three: Departure

When we left Etosha National Park the next day, we squeezed in just one more game drive — a short affair that consisted of a small loop on our way back out of the confines of the park.  It was sad to be leaving — we’d seen so much wildlife over the previous two days, it had been insane.  But more adventures lay ahead, and Pili Pili assured us that the place we were headed is one of his favorite places in all of Africa…

How about you?  Have you ever done a game drive in Etosha or elsewhere?  What were some of the animals you encountered on the way?  Did you get any awesome or hilarious photos?  Share your stories in the comments below!

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Game Drives in Etosha National Park with Acacia Africa My interest in Namibia began with nature documentaries.  For some reason, deserts fascinated me  -- I think it was the utter foreignness of it.