Both speakers, Tanya Hielckert and Sharon Bellenger, at Stonecroft’s October meeting told guests about their remarkable journeys. Tanya trekked along Namibia’s Skeleton Coast and Sharon is following in her late father’s footsteps.
Tanya and four friends (better known as the Five A Linas) recently completed the Namib 100 Hike.
The five day, 100km walk, originates from outside Walvis Bay and finishes at the shipwreck of the famous Eduard Bohlen which was stranded in 1909. “Namibia is a country of extreme landscapes where you will find the tallest, shifting sand dunes in the world and it is home to the oldest – about 80-million years – desert on the planet, the Namib, which means immense.”
She explained that for her the hike into the forbidden land had been a spiritual journey of deep discovery.
Tanya said Namibia’s untouched and untamed alien terrain made her think she was walking on the moon. “It is just miles of nothingness. It’s also the world’s second least densely populated country. We live in a beautiful corner of the world here on the South Coast where we are surrounded by lush subtropical forest and a warm blue ocean. So different from the desert where sand consumes everything – wrecks are now a kilometre from the Atlantic ocean,” she said.
“The Skeleton Coast lives up to its name – bones litter the narrow strip between the sea and the dunes. We always had to walk at low tide for safety – very daunting – sea on one side and sand on the other. But it was in this stark setting where I was able to just let go of the things that were holding me back.”
Her interesting talk was accompanied by amazing photographs which detailed the group’s daily trek from tent toilets to dining on oysters in the middle of nowhere. “These harsh conditions taught me an important lesson – don’t let your ship stay in the harbour – let it sail. And wear knee-highs over your hiking boots to keep out the sand.”
* Sharon said her father had always called her ‘the apple of his eye’. He was a missionary who had told her about God’s love from an early age. “My dad was the one constant in my life, a good man who did everything for his family. Even when I was a rebellious teenager he disciplined me with love and when he became a grandfather to my children he was the best granddad in the world. When his health failed due to cardiac illness I felt God had abandoned him and us.”
Sharon described how she had rushed to the hospital after her father suffered a heart attack and was taken into theatre for surgery. “I told God I was not ready to say goodbye to my dad. Then I remembered Psalm 23. ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.’ “At that moment I knew the Lord was indeed my shepherd and like my father he would not forsake me.”
Despite a valiant effort by the doctors her dad died. But Sharon said she knows she is still walking with her father – her father God.
Guests were treated to beautiful singing by the evergreen Ria Hackland and enjoyed a tasty tea prepared by the Shelly Beach Methodist Church’s Women’s Auxiliary. The final Stonecroft meeting takes place at the church on November 18 at 09:30.
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