KUNENE RIVER

This is a land surrounded by silence
Naked as a bone
A land of brutal beauty
Wind blown

A ribbon of sudden green
Red sand
Kunene River
Desert land

A ribbon of sudden green
Red sand
Kunene River
Desert land

KUNENE RIVER
The Kunene River, the only Namibian river to reach the sea, forms the boundary between the Skeleton Coast and Angola.
There is something almost mythical about a river in the desert: particularly this desert with its thousands of mile upon mile of nothing but sand.
Nothing prepares you for the emotional impact of finding this ribbon of green sliding like a serpent through desert. After hours of dry heat and sand and hot dry wind, the sight of water is startling.
There is something about the utter indifference of the desert, and the silence: something about the river’s timelessness that transports me to a place inside myself; a place I call ‘the river beneath the river’.

  • Barbara Fairhead