Read about Ron & Viv's journey so far through Africa - Namibia April 2007.
Namibia
Gay joined us in Windhoek for the trip through to Livingstone, Zambia. (Gay, Festus (guide to Himba Village) and Viv.
Gay giving some medical assistance to a young girl at the Himba Village we visited.
Gay getting a bit of ochre painted onto her arm at the Himba Village - it took some getting off!
After a look around the Himba Village all the women got out their wares for the not-so-hard sell!
A gemsbok walks around the edge of Etosha Pan.
A good size flock of flamingoes feeding on a water filled pan, zebra in background.
Chudop Waterhole had lots of animals coming in to drink - gemsbok and giraffe.
A couple of bull elephants drinking and cooling off.
AFRICA TRIPMid to late April 2007 - FANTASTIC NAMIBIA
Namibia - Swakopmund, Skeleton Coast, Herero & Himba country - Kaokoland, Epupa Falls, Etosha National Park
To the Skeleton Coast
With the Patrol running much better after six replacement injectors (the diesel fuel is crap in southern Africa so be warned!) we finally left Windhoek and headed across the mountain passes on one of the lesser used routes to the old German town now come holiday resort of Swakopmund .
The stark, harsh, bare desert envelopes you as soon as you leave the town's outskirts. The main road north isn't dirt but made from salt and gypsum – a ‘salt road' the locals call it - and is as damn near as smooth as bitumen. We cruised along north – the country getting even harsher as we went north. There were miles of country without a blade of vegetation and when there was any greenery it was scattered, low stunted saltbush type greenery.
Stopped just north of Cape Cross , in a low depression that occasionally doubles as a water course – but only rarely! Just offshore a ketch was riding at anchor in only what could be described as a poor anchorage while the Cape Cross Lodge was about 1-2km south of us. A couple of jackals decided we were worth investigating and when we wandered down and along the beach they took a close look at our camp. Next morning we had five of them close to camp and howling; they were good to watch as they went scavenging for food, digging up tasty morsels such as crabs and worms and playing amongst themselves. They were good looking dogs too, in peak condition – I guess with bird eggs, dead seals (Cape Cross is a major seal colony and there were the skulls and dried out carcasses of seals along and back from the beach scattered everywhere), and other marine morsels they were in Jackal heaven.
Once in the Skeleton Coast National Park the coast and surrounding country continued much as before but with much less access to the coast proper and a whole lot less tracks across the dunes and countryside. There are a couple of easily accessible shipwrecks dotted along the coast but these were pretty old and little remained of them. Still they do show testimony to how dangerous this coast was … and still is!
Headed inland and within minutes and a few km the temperature had climbed from the cool 20's to the high 30's touching 40°C (104°F) within 30 minutes of leaving the coast. Stopped on the crest of the range and took a few pics of the view as well as of the strange desert plants that seem to be dying all over the place – they had flowered and were now in seed but their long leaves had wilted and were rotting away. These are Welwitschia Mirabilis – and are a tangle of dying leaves up to a metre or more long, which emerge from a low plate-like corky wooden base. Research indicates these plants can be over 1000 years old and belong not to the cactus family but to the conifer group of plants.
We pushed on to Ongongo Camp , which is 5km off the main road and from the fairly large village of the same name. There had been a bit of rain in the area and was water laying deep in the wheel ruts. It was slippery and Fred got dragged back into one of the deeper holes and couldn't get out. Neil pulled him out gently with the winch and we continued on our way to the camp which is set amongst the range country close to the stream which flows thru' the village.
There are seven springs along the river, the spring near the camp being the biggest and these are tapped and the water piped to the village. The spring here is a beauty – tucked in close to the cliffs and fed by an almost hidden waterfall, which was flowing quite well after the rain. The pool is about 20' in diameter and about 10' deep and it was pleasantly warm to swim in.
A few km later got to the town of Sesfontein , which is a largish town with a general store and liquor outlet as well as a native market along the side of the road. The old German fort here has been made into a lodge and offers camping and accommodation. There is also community camping available here. The fort also sells fuel, but there was no diesel – ‘maybe tomorrow' was the reply when we asked when!
Himba Country
Passed thru a bit of heavy rain but by the time we got to Opuwo it had passed and we were looking at cloudy but non-threatening skies. Finally got to Opuwo , which is a biggish town at the junction of a few roads and promotes itself as the ‘Gateway' to the Epupa Falls as well as being in the heart of Kaokoland . We fuelled up and bought some basics in the small supermarket. A Himba woman in full traditional bare-breasted regalia was standing in the check-out queue – which really looked odd. Himba women were very common on the street, walking, shopping, talking, with their kids on their backs, or at foot. Some Herero women were around too, so all in all the town has a colourful and vibrant feel about it.
While there's quite a bit of camping available around here most of it is community based with little or no security and it looked pretty basic. We tried at one spot just west of town but the bloke who was the guard or caretaker was not very helpful and downright sullen. We ended up at the very upmarket Opuwo Country Hotel , which is a 3-4 star lodge with a very pleasant camp ground, all situated on a high ridge overlooking the town and the surrounding country.
Next day we got approached by Festus (Festus Muhurukua; ph: +264 (0)813 167 146) who spoke pretty good English (as well as Afrikaans, Himba and Herero) and who acts as a guide to one of the Himba villages. The deal was $200 worth of supplies for the Himba people, $50/person guiding fee for him. It seemed pretty good. So off we went to the new big supermarket which was very well stocked and had all sorts of modern day goodies as well as the more ‘native' requirements of cornmeal, hoes, raw tobacco, etc. We bought a large bag of mealie, a bag of tobacco (mainly used in pipes by all accounts), sugar, loaves of bread and some fruit (pears and apricots) for the kids as well as four tins of snuff for the old, important men of the village.
Then we headed west for 15km or so to the Himba village . Set in the valley close to the edge of the dry rugged and rocky hills. The village was a traditional wooden/timber/thornbush enclosure, almost circular in shape that took up, say about an acre. Nearby were other kraals and these were essentially extended family units. Inside the kraal were two smaller circular enclosures, these being for the safe keeping of cows (for milking) and calves – both were empty when we were there. A couple of pole huts – with no or very little mud/cowshit daubing were the safe houses for small goats.
A couple of other round huts built of timber uprights but fully mud and cow poop covered, with a thick thatch roof, were the homes they lived in. All had doors to the single room – no windows – and the door was occasionally corrugated iron on a wooden frame. Inside they were pretty basic – a hard-pressed slightly raised mud floor – clean as a whistle – around a central pole. Furniture was very basic – a few blankets (no mattress), a variety of six or so gourds of varying sizes, a couple of pots, a bit of the unused dress attire, a few treasured odds and sods and that was about it!
There were quite a few women of varying ages, kids of all ages, and a few older men – but there were only a couple of younger men around. The reason was that they are out with the cattle – sometimes up to 15-20km away looking for good feed. They might not come back for a week or more.
One girl, who we were allowed to come in and watch was painting herself in the red paint they are famous for. The paint is made from red ochre and butter fat and all the women and most of the kids were painted. The girl was also mixing and then burning some incense, which was used to ‘smoke her body' and was a pleasant perfume and was used as such. She then got dressed in her ‘bridal finery', which was a skin and cowrie shell dress with a fancier, slightly larger head dress than normal. She was very pretty and had a lovely smile.
There were very few allowances for the 21 st century in her hut – a couple of alloy pots and pans, a worn old kettle, an engine head cover (used as a pot to mix up the perfume), a few plastic carry bags (which the girls had their jewelry in to sell as it turned out) and some 5-gallon and smaller water jerry cans – that was it!
Before we left all the women laid out their jewelry they had for sale and it was very low-key affair. We walked around and checked it all out and then once we found something we liked, we bargained for it. Viv bought a belt one of the women was wearing, so you got to say it was authentic!
We also carried out a bit of a medical clinic – Gay handing out a few tablets and dressing the wound of one girl who had burnt herself in the fire. It's a tough life and one I don't think we could handle!
We had seemed like time travellers – a Himba village is basically as it was a thousand years ago and we had swept in like spacemen, done our thing, took our photographs with digital cameras and videos and as quickly as we had came we had left. These people may seem poor, but they are healthy and are an extremely proud people who want to hang onto their traditional lifestyle, resisting the changes that threaten to swamp them! It had been a great morning!
Along the Angolan Border
As we headed north of Epembe and Okongwati the country had received a bit more rain and there was grass amongst the trees, which were well covered in leaves and almost verdant. This area is basically range after range and there is very little flat country. The road twists and turns through the Omuhonga and Omavanda Mountains and at one stage we were surrounded by heavy rain storms – especially where the tall mountains reared up in a sheer wall to the north.
There's good wildlife through this region by all accounts, but we didn't see any - only cattle and goats, some mobs of which were in the hundreds were the only ‘life' we saw. Too bad about the famous ‘desert elephant' and ‘desert black rhino' – we didn't even see any springbok or other small antelope and we'll have to wait until Etosha, I guess.
We came over another low ridge and there was a small village, an army post and the Kunene River in front of us – roaring in full spate over the Epupa Falls . Two camping areas are located here beside one another right on the river front. We checked out the Epupa Falls Campsite and with a camp right on the water on offer we moved in. Reed enclosed showers (with a donkey hot water system) and toilets, taps, sinks and braai concrete slabs made up the swept clean campsite. Tall makalani palms shaded the campsite while a thin line of reeds lined the water's edge. The river roars past, churned into a set of rapids just downstream as if heralding the falls, which were a little further along.
The falls are spread over quite a section of river, which is a few hundred metres wide just above the cascades and the river even has a few small verdant islands scattered across it here. The falls themselves are more spectacular from either downstream, or from the top of the low rocky hills bordering the stream. In all, there are over 80 separate cataracts that make up the falls as it plunges into a narrow confined gorge.
Across the river is Angola – with rugged hills rearing up from the river's edge, which is densely clothed in lush green vegetation. It didn't take long for us to decide to spend two nights here!
There are plans for a hydro dam to be built on the river here at Epupa Falls but the Himba people are against it, while the Angolan government want the dam further downstream. For the time the plans are in limbo!
At the Ruacana Falls further upstream there is a hydro dam and that was our next stop as we travelled along this northern border of Namibia. There's a few private camping areas around here, including Island (or Island bend) Camp, but we got to the community run, Hippo Pools and pulled in there. This is situated just downstream from the Ruacana Falls and the dam wall. Cost was $N50/person, for toilets and showers (solar hot water) and just a half dozen sites spread along a wide stretch of the river where the falls thunder out of a small gap in the range. The river is about 70-metres wide and flows very quickly, sweeping around a bend just at our No1 campsite, where a wall of limestone was a backdrop to the camp as well as a turning point for the river. A green verdant floodplain was on the Angolan side of the river.
Etosha National Park
South of Ondangwa we headed south towards the King Nehale Gate – the northern entrance to Etosha NP, one of the great game parks of Africa. The park covers 22,900sq km and about 20% of it is made up of the Etosha Pan, which is mainly dry except after heavy rain.
The good dirt road south to the gate crosses the Andoni Plains and once away from the thin veneer of huts and corn fields which border the main road, opens out onto a vast flat grass plain that was dotted with the dark shapes of hundreds, or possibly thousands, of cattle.
We headed down the good road towards Namutoni Camp , which keeps close to the Etosha Pan, which you could see stretching away into the distance. Saw quite a few animals including lots of gemsbok, springbok, blue wildebeest and zebra along with a few groups of kudu, a couple of elephants and when we got closer to the lodge, quite a few giraffe and even a good size warthog. Inside the camp there was a marauding party of about 20 banded mongoose, who were out on the prowl chittering and chattering to one another as they do.
Namutoni was once a German fort, established in 1904. The campground was pretty crowded with a couple of overland trucks in as well as a good scattering of private vehicles. Camping costs N$150/site (which can fit 8 people) plus $N66/person/night, plus a Conservancy fee of $N80 per person per day.
Next morning we went for a game drive around the small Fischer's Pan to the east of the lodge and what a beauty it was. Lots of springbok and gemsboks – mobs of 100 or more at a time often intermingled and with zebra and wildebeest muddled in with them. Saw a couple of black-backed jackal and quite a few Kori bustards. As we got closer to the main water, just north of the lodge, we started to see more giraffe and waterbirds – a number of species of ducks including red-billed teal and South African shelduck as well as quite a gathering of pink flamingoes. With zebra in the background it was quite a sight.
Then we headed down to the Chudop Waterhole – one of many along the southern side of the Etosha Pan and we arrived at peak hour. There was a lot of activity as animals came too and fro for a drink. Eight to 10 Giraffe, a few zebra, a couple of mobs of black-faced impala – the male in one group being a real big specimen – a couple of gemsbok having a sip of a drink, a few mobs of wildebeest, along with a couple of feeding and quite good to watch, southern pale chanting goshawks.
Next day we headed west from Halili Camp and in the first large grass plain area we were treated to the sight of thousands of springbok dotted across the plain, along with dozens of gemsbok and a sprinkling of zebra and wildebeest. It was a great sight and while there wasn't much variety the sheer number of animals was magnificent. By all accounts there are over 22,000 springbok in Etosha and over the next day we saw over 6000 animals, many in aggregations of over 1000 individuals!
On our last morning in the park we again headed back to Chudop Waterhole and once again it was a hive of activity!
Under a tree about 120 metres from the carpark, a leopard was sitting watching the animals while all the people were watching the leopard. He was a beauty – he got up and walked out into the sunlight briefly before dropping back into the shade. A couple of gemsbok – 4 at one stage – were watching the cat very carefully and feigning a tough approach to see if they could get him to move. He responded by leaping up into the tree and then dropping back down onto the ground. The gemsbok approached warily, retreated, approached and then after a few more efforts, gave up and wandered off. The leopard for the final saga of all this was out off sight, so in the end we people gave up trying to see him and we started to take a bit of notice of the other animals around the waterhole.
All the other animals were drinking warily knowing a predator was around, but still wanting … needing … a drink. A pair of wildebeest were having a sparring contest, a big kudu came in, 17 giraffe gathered there as well as a small mob of good size male black-faced impalas, a few warthog, some zebra, while a couple of springbok looked on, as did a few more gemsbok. It was fantastic.
Headed off seeing another 28 giraffe in the 2km drive back to the main track. Then a few more as we headed down to the water where the flamingoes were – in all 60 odd giraffe in less than 3km! Then, on the edge of the road there were a couple of elephants . We took pics from close up as they cooled themselves off in the shallow water and had a drink before wandering off. It had been a great couple of hours!
To the Caprivi
That evening we stopped at the Sachsenheim Guest Farm (it's a Game farm as well) which is about 50km from the Etosha gate. The lodge and camping is about 1.5km from the main road and is well set up with a good restaurant, bar, pool and lawn area, a range of accommodation and a half dozen camping sites; all with power, toilets and showers which were very good. The property covers nearly 10,000ha and was established by the current owner's father in 1947 who cut it out of the wilderness.
From there it's an easy drive across the D3001 , which was a well maintained dirt road east to the small village of Tsinsabis. There's a couple of camps just out off town – Treesleeper Camp and Muramba Bushman Trails Camp.
Once onto the blacktop we turned north to Rundu. Once thru the ‘vet gate' the roadside became dotted with small villages and family kraals, almost all the way to town. A few ‘Community Forests' are located just off the road and many of the families were doing a bit of carving to earn a buck – canoes and elephants being popular while a couple also had aeroplanes and helicopters (rough ones though). Many were also doing pottery and they looked good with some quite large pots on display, but we're not sure how well they have been fired or even where they were fired!
Got to Rundu and found the main shopping area and boy, was it busy. While Viv and Gay went to buy food, I stayed around the car and got hassled by every young fellow in the street who wanted me to finance his schooling, his next feed, the survey he was doing, or his sister's uni education. It is a large town with all you need, but it's one you'll want to leave once you've got your stuff.
From there we headed down the road and onto the river road to find our lodge – N'kwazi Lodge . This is located right on the Kavango River, about 3km from the river road along a partly sandy track that passes a few family kraals. The lodge offers accommodation and camping with a little bit better than basic toilets and showers. The bar/pool and restaurant overlook the river giving it a fine out look while the camping area is set amongst the trees about 100 metres back from the river's edge.
From there we headed east into the Caprivi Strip . Lots of villages and kraals along the way with people going about their daily chores; washing clothes, watering their stock, collecting water for their home, etc. Saw a couple of the bullock drawn sledges that the area is known for - it is the first time we've seen these primitive but effective means of transport.
Got to Divundu at a crossing point over the Okavango River. The town looks pretty important on the maps of the area, but only consists of a supermarket, a couple of smaller stores and a couple of servos. When we tried to fill up with diesel the next day we found the power was out in the town and none of the fuel pumps were working - just another way of not being able to get fuel!
Around the centre of town is a varied and large collection of kraals and villages. An army base and police checkpoint on the other side of the bridge across the river, increase its importance I guess. The Okavango flows strongly thru here and is a magnificent looking waterway.
We first checked out the Papa Falls Lodge or rest camp about 5km south along the C38. Located on the river near the Falls you can't actually see the falls from the campsites, which are themselves pretty small. We then headed across the river and after a bit of mucking around found the N//goabaca Community Camp , which is located right beside the falls, which are in reality as wide series of rapids or cascades. The camping areas are quite large and all have a view of the ‘falls' while being shaded by large trees. A thatch shelter shed with a donkey fed hot water system and a toilet and shower nearby completed these basic but pleasant camps. Pity the pump wasn't working too well, which meant we didn't have water in the camp for most of the time. Still we enjoyed our stay here.
Next day we headed south, through the small Mahango Game Park and even saw a few elephant before coming to the Botswana Border – the crossing of which was a laid back affair. Our time in Namibia was over and it had been bloody fantastic. Now, we were heading for the Okavango ‘panhandle', Maun once more, Chobe, and then onto Zambia, Vic Falls and more.
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The delightful coastal town of Swakopmund.
Another bush camp near Cape Cross, right on the beach .
The road along the Skeleton Coast .
The kids at the park gate entrance into the Skeletron Coast got some new knitted hats (thanks to Viv's Mum).
The delightful mountain pool at Ongongo Camp.
Ron with young Himba boy who was tending his cattle - he got a nice new pair of boxer shorts from Neil & Helen.
The spectacular Epupa Falls - they were flowing really well during our visit.
The Ruacana Falls - not as extensive as Epupa, but still impressive.
Chudop Waterhole had lots of animals coming in to drink - giraffe & black-faced impala.
A group of zebra line up for a drink.
Pretty black-faced impala.
An impressive size male Kudu comes down to drink.
A bullock drawn sled - a common mode of transport in the Caprivi Strip.
