TRAVEL

Everyone Does it But Some Do it With Style

Toilets with a view

It’s something nobody talks about yet everyone does it. Toilets aren’t necessary but comforting. We are able to do it naturally without a proper toilet but most people prefer sitting down for it.

Well, I’m sure you know what I am talking about.

Toilets. Something taken as necessary but usually not given much attention to. In most places at least. Some people on earth though did create something spectacular out of it. In very different ways.

It might be because of where the toilet got placed. Or how it got created. Involving arts in the building of a toilet is not wrong. Or designing it so it is camouflaged into the landscape.

Living in a country of endless distances and vastness up to the horizon I got to see some variety. When I first came to Namibia it might have been a challenge now and then. Going to the toilet.

When the boys stopped the car and you asked where to go. Their answer was “behind the bush”. Pulling my leg with that answer since there wasn’t any bush or tree to be seen up to the horizon.

Eventually, you get more relaxed with it. We all do. Because it’s something we can’t avoid. Going to the toilet. But these days we’re also carrying a toilet with us. Or let’s say a toilet seat.

Our trips through the country have usually a good mixture between staying on established campsites and wild camping a few nights in between. Those campsites usually do have ablution blocks but sometimes they have more creative toilets. Like a toilet with a view. Or a toilet built in the rocks.

I’ve got a collection of photographs about how to do it in style.

Rostock Ritz

It all started at this Lodge while celebrating a friend’s birthday when she showed me the toilet “with the most amazing view in the world”. I don’t know if such ranking does exist but if it does this one is definitely up there on the list.

The “Grotte”

With the help of some connections, we stayed one night at this uniquely created flat on someone’s private property. Everything was camouflaged into the surrounding.

We only spotted the place once we were standing right in front of it. But then well, we were blown away. Someone had put a lot of thought and hard work into this place.

Not only about where to sleep but also where the shower and toilet should be.

Walking around the small hill on the backside of the living space they placed them both. Next to each other. With a view, you can barely beat. This picture has been taken while sitting on the toilet.

And that is what you’re looking at when doing it in style. Not bad, is it?

Namib desert, in the middle of nowhere

As mentioned before we don’t always stay on established campsites. We often camp in the wild. We just look for a place with some shelter from wind and the sun and just stop right there and then.

With no amenities out there you might think we live quite basic. But we don’t. By now we have a lot of camping equipment that allows us to live rather comfortably even when staying in the middle of nowhere.

Part of this equipment is a portable shower and a toilet seat. Which allows you to do your business right there and then. Or wherever you want to. If you prefer having a great view. Well then place your seat at your favorite spot.

Carrying the toilet seat through the desert on the look for the best spot I walked past the signs of an antelope having stopped here. This is what it’s like doing it in style in the desert.

Omaruru riverbed

Another one of those happened in one of many dried-out riverbeds. Or in all of the ones we visited. But this particular one has been taken in the Omaruru riverbed. When we stayed there for two nights.

Off the grid. Cut off from civilization. Far away from running water and electricity.

Grootberg Pass, Camp Hoada

Then there was another place. Built-in the rocks. It’s an established campsite and one they’ve upgraded since we last visited a few years back. Camp Hoada is just on the other side of the Grootberg Pass. A mountain pass that brings you into the vast landscapes of Damaraland.

This place didn’t use materials from the outside to provide shelter and amenities to the guests visiting the camp. They built all required buildings into the rocks.

With some creativity, they created a camp unable to be seen from a distance. Because it emerges into the landscape. Even their swimming pool is in between and on the rocks.

Khomas Highlands

This was one of my favorite camping spots of the last weeks on the road. Not only because of the green surroundings and fields filled with life. But also because of the rain clouds creating an incredible spectacle in the evening.

We were included in nature. Birds were singing. Cicadas chirping. And even some frogs were to be heard. Obviously still alive in some leftover puddles in the wild.

While the clouds were still building up this afternoon I decided this would be a great place for my collection of photographs. It definitely fits the description of “doing it in style”.

If you’re a traveler as well which I assume after reading this article I am sure you’ve been to some interesting places too. Have you seen some different kinds of ablution blocks?

If so, create a post and tag me in it or just leave a reply with some of the photographs you’ve taken. Would love to see some different versions of toilets in the world.

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Anne Bonfert is a traveler. Photographer. Writer. Teacher. Skydiving instructor. Adventure enthusiast. Nature lover. And fell in love with the African continent.

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