November 11 - FIRE!!!

FIRE!!

11 November

0 Miles

W.P.'s Farm (Herzog)

Steph:

Well, we stayed the next day anyway! Haha! We just like these guys so much and love it here on the farm and talking to them and I don't want to leave. Ever. :)

Erik:

Today started out very easy and relaxed. We walked out to the sheep and got to hold some lambs. We talked about Namibia and the state of the country, which was very interesting. WP made a delicious lunch of chicken around noon. We all spent some time in the pool. Afterwards we played with the horses. WP and I caught a foal that was about a week old to pet him. He was cute. At 5pm, some of their friends came over for tea. WP brought out his champion stallion to show him off. He was pretty cool and majestic. Steph wants one.

Johan and I 

Baboons running across the road

Took awhile, but we caught him

Playing with babies!

Steph:

Two hours later, we were standing on the back of this "tanked out" (by 'tanked out' steph means it is a heavily modified toyota) pick up truck (baaki), in the dark, charging towards some pretty big, brightly burning flames. FLAMES! I was filthy black, covered in scratches, hanging on for dear life as we rolled over trees and thick brush.

How, on earth, did we get into this?

We were in the middle of the Kalahari Desert very actively FIGHTING A WILDFIRE.

Haha! At one point, we found each other in the chaos, surrounded by flames and people running around and couldn't help laughing. This was ridiculous.

In the middle of the Kalahari Desert, in Africa, on the border of Namibia and Botswana, surrounded by ~40 farmers and workers, fighting very tall, very fast moving flames that were threatening wildlife, cattle and these people's livelihoods.

Ahhhh! How bad ass are we?

Erik:

When the people came over for tea, the lightening had been going on for a while. We saw some smoke and realized it was on WP's land. Johan told us to put on shoes and pants and the workers started filling up the water tank on the back of WP's "Kalahari Spider". This thing is a toyota pick up truck that has been converted into a steel topped tank, specifically designed to go through the bush.

Once the truck was filled, we headed towards the fire.

Steph:

I was really nervous. Erik wasn't because he's trained for this and has actually experienced fire before. I had never even really seen one up close. As we drove out towards the smoke, another baaki sped past and ahead of us. The other farmers had heard and were already on their way to help. It was still light out at this point so we could only see smoke, but when we got closer, we realized that it was two seperate fires. We split up and the spider turned off the dirt road and into the bush. It was crazy how that thing just plowed though anything in its way. WP was driving and expertly navigated through the maze of trees and heavily thorned bushes. There were 5 others in the truck. Erik, hree farm workers (Chappi, Markus and Hans) and myself. When we arrived at the fire, Chippa jumped out with the hose. While he sprayed the big flames, Erik helped clear the hose over bushes and trees. Markus and Hans had shovels and were putting out the remaining flames or those that had jumped back up by shovelling sand and dirt on them. I had nothing to do so I followed Markus and Hans and just used my feet to kick out the small stuff. It was intense!

Erik says that it took about an hour to get that one out. I'm not really sure. I thought it was less. The next one was big. The sun was starting to go down, so we could see a faint red glow in the distance. We met up with Fanny and switched out water tanks with the one he brought. There were a lot more of us hanging off the back of the spider and whenever we got close to one those thorned bushes (called "wait-a-bit") we would all have to duck or be ripped apart. Fanny didn't see one in time and got a whole branch stuck in his arm. It was completely covered in blood.

When we reached the next fire we all realized how big it was. No one really knew how to approach it. The wind was very strong and I was shocked at how fast the flames were spreading. You only see this kind of thing on TV. But by now I was excited and pumped though and ready to get to work. For this fire I had a spade and actually felt like I was contributing!

As the number of people helping grew, so did the number of fires. The sun was going down as well so it felt like everywhere I looked, there was the red glow of another one. Everyone was so well organized and knew exactly what to do and where to go. All we had to do was hang on and put out the next one.

Erik:

By now, there were about 6 other pickups with us. It's good, because those last two fires were big.

Steph, Johan and I played cleanup. But the winds kept changing directions. At one point, Johan and I were putting out flames on one side when the wind changed direction and the flames came right at us. I side stepped but he had to jump right through the flames. This one took a long time to put out.

So now there was only one left. And it was HUGE and deep in the bush (far from the dirt roads). It was also the first one to actually threaten the cattle. We drove bumpily towards the fire through very thick brush. When we finally got there, we split up, 2 trucks went north and 3 south. About 30 minutes into it, right in the middle of everything, we ran out of water. But just before that, we hit two large warthog holes. One after the other. The tank bounced onto my foot and slammed me into the side of the truck. I thought my toe was broken, it hurt so bad. Luckily it wasn't, but the bruise on my quad is rather bad.

Ok, so we ran out of water and had to head back to fill up. It was about 30 min getting bounced around. By the time we got out of the field and filled up, the fire was dying and a rain had started.

We headed back to the house. Johan made us some soup and we crashed into bed.

The scenery that night was insane! Everything was aglow in red. When the rain started, the white steamy smoke covered everything and made it tough to breathe. It was amazing to see everyone work together to get the fires under control. All said and done, we went to bed around 1am.

Steph:

It was very dark and very bright at the same time. The most prominent light was the intense yellow and red of the actual flames. These fires were big enough that you could see the flames from very far away. Then there was the glow above the flames, a light orange. The smoke would catch a more subdued version of that color and carry it up to the sky where it would light up the bush around it. It was like a full moon without a moon. The trees and brush in front of them were beautifully sihluetted in black against the bright red, oranges and browns. And then on top of that, lightening was still going crazy ALL around us. Completely breathtaking. I stood on the back of the spider as it sped down the sand roads and didn't want to blink. I know that none of what I'm writing will ever do it justice. I'm not a good enough writer to describe it, but man... the colors, the noise of the trucks, the shouting of the men, the crackle of the trees, the wind, the heat of the flames and then the cold rain...

It was an incredible experience.

Us after the fire. 

These are photos that we found online of fires in the area that represent what things looked like.