Rat's Around-the-World Adventure on Semester at Sea: Namibia

R.A.T. Your Rodent Around-the-World Traveler (a.k.a. Raz)

Hi, My name is R.A.T., which stands for Rodent Around-the-World Traveler (I like to think it stands for Rodent Adventure Traveler), but everyone here calls me Raz for short. I would love to share my adventures with you. I left my rat family in early January to seek adventure. Everyone said "head west young rat," so that is what I did. I headed west to San Diego, California where I ran out of land and had to hop on a ship to continue my journey. It turns out that the ship I found was going west around the world--a dream come true! The MV Explorer is home to the famous Semester at Sea study abroad program. My shipmates include 629 college students and about 150 faculty, staff, lifelong learners, and family members. Things are really busy here on the ship and even busier when we are in port. Come follow me vicariously as I take this incredible journey. Yours, R.A.T.

P.S. I had such a great time on the voyage that the adventure continues!!!!

Thursday, May 15, 2025

RAT in the World: Namibia

Made it to Namibia. Here I am in Swakopmund at the old prison known as Alte Gefängnis, designed in 1909 by architect Heinrich Bause.

This looks like I'm on another planet!

Cool--a Welwitschia! With just two continuously growing leaves, some of these plants can live for up to 2000 years!

Off to see a lot of orange sand!

Here I am at Sossusvlei, the largest sand dunes in the world. So pretty in the early morning light.

Time for an early morning hike up the dune.

Preparing to run down it!!!

At the bottom, Deadvlei with 500 year old camelthorn trees!

And a stop at the Tropic of Capricorn, the dividing line between the Southern Temperate Zone and the Tropics. Didn't see any line on the ground though.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Namibia - Desert Dunes

Namibia was out next stop. We stopped in Swapokmund to see some amazing German colonial architecture. Can you guess what this building was used for? Probably not, so I will tell you. It is the prison!


There were a lot of birds in Walvis Bay where we docked. We were off looking for a huge group of flamingos, but first found these guys.

Our next stop was the dunes. On the LONG road trip there we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. Here is the proof!

We arrived at the dunes right at sunrise. The sand was a beautiful red!

Here is Sossusvlei

We then climbed to the top of a dune. It was hard work, but well worth the view.

From the top we could look down into Dead Vlei, a lake that has been essentially dead for 500 years!

We then ran down the sand dune for a closer look.

The dry lake bed is filled with acacia trees that have been dead over 500 years!

On our way back to Walvis Bay we stopped to take a look at the "moon" lanscape!

We also stopped to take a look at some Welwitschia, the national plant of Namibia. They can live to be well over 1000 years old.