Ongiini !!
(for those of you who don't speak Owambo, that's a big HELLO to everybody.)
Chapter 5
Swakopmund is a tiny town, a short drive from Walvis Bay. It looks
like a set from Hollywood - with boutique shops, and brick paved
side-walks and mutant stunted palm trees that max out at a height of 8
or 10 feet. (apparently genetically modified by request of the city
council)
And in this tiny town the shops all close at 5. There isn't much
violence or crime; for that matter, there isn't much of anything going
on. There are some very fine dining options though - and my research
has been thorough. Ah, last night's giant fillet of fish and fresh
salad comes to mind.
I had jotted down a few thoughts about the landscape while on location -
"An unending, straight dirt road stretches out almost north-south,
till the horizon. On one side are wooden poles with electric wires,
some flat land, and then thousands of beautiful undulating hill-sized
sand dunes that stretch westward for miles. On the other side of the
road is a rail track running parallel to the road and then NOTHING.
It's flat parched land as far as the eye can see. Not a tree or bush
anywhere in a 360 deg view, no sign of life, no vegetation....."
Having made these notes - I noticed on the way home that evening, that
my observation was not entirely accurate. Sure, there was no
vegetation around where we were shooting - but a few miles down the
road there were thousands of little bushes - that looked like over
sized brocolli heads - scattered across the land on both sides. They
are called the ink-bush. Very hardy desert scrub. Thorny. And they
grow at the incredible rate of 1 millimetre per year !! So if you
drive over them, well it's just cruel.
I obtained all this cool and bizarre info from Ronald, this very cool
black guy who is a sandboarding instructor - and many time competitor
- during his days - in the world championships!! Ronald has one of
those pointy "goatee only" beards - no moustache. Hey, now that I
think about it - he looks a bit like an African Abraham Lincoln!!!
Gaunt face, skinny frame. Drives a big van (the one he uses to cart
his customers around to the dunes)
Then there is Kyle - this very interesting looking (almost native
American/ islander) - 18 yr old, local sandboarding champ - who almost
broke his arm in a terrible crash yesterday flying off the ramp. (the
attending nurse on set did a terriffic job of fixing him when he
crashed. We were all a bit concerned that there might have been spinal
injury, but in the end it was just a bunch of bruises and a cut near
the elbow caused from the zip on the jacket.) (Just before he got up I
asked him to wiggle his toes.)
(not one to be detered easily - the action director went back to
shooting on the train - and had 4 men throw themselves off a moving
train into the camera!!)
Then there is Collette. The tall, skinny German/Afrikaans white chick
who is taking care of production. She's tall and busy all day -
scurrying about, like a giraffe would, if he was in production and
knew what he was doing.
I spent half the day hanging out of a train - trying to shoot some
action sequences. Over-all it's been a vague day, and I have been in
one of my vague moods.
We have 2 days left here. Lot's of work to finish. It's going to get
hectic and tempers will be flying.
Au revoir
Till we meet again - in the rarefied atmosphere that is this
cyberspace. (I'm rambling, I need to go get a chilled beer.)
adil
