My Travels Around the World

Category: Namibia

Namibia Chapter 8 The Last Day and Last Thoughts

April 22, 2018

And these things too shall pass – it was time to leave

Today was our last day in Namibia. I’m sad that this trip is over. I would have loved more time in this beautiful country. We never saw Damaraland. We never made it to Etosha National Park. We didn’t visit Penduka (meaning “wake up”) which is a nonprofit women’s needlework project at Goreangab Dam. We didn’t get to the Sesriem Canyon. We didn’t get to Spitzkoppe with its spectacular landscapes. But spectacular landscapes?  You could say that about all of Namibia!

 Charles had us leave right after breakfast. It would be a 4-5 hour drive to get to the airstrip where a bush plane would take us to Windhoek, where we would connect to a flight to Johannesburg. The sun was low on the horizon as we headed east and then south on C43. The sky was blue. We passed Herero villages and then Damara villages. The mountains were a purple-red. The fields were a lush green with little yellow flowers.

Namibia Chapter 7: The Herero and the Himba

April 22, 2018

The Herero

This morning, after breakfast, Charles and Andy and I met with our Herero guide, Ueera, for our trip to visit the Himba tribe. Charles had visited them once before, but was as excited as I was about visiting them again. Those who know me, know that I love meeting indigenous people in the places I visit. And in Africa, what could be more exciting than getting to know African tribes?

Ueera is Herero and he asked if we minded if we stop at his village down the road, the Khowarib Village, as he needed to pick up something. Mind?  I was thrilled! Of course, we said yes.  He told us that his mother and aunts would be there, and we were more than welcome to take as many pictures as we wanted. Music to my ears!

Namibia Chapter 6: Kaokoland

Namibia April 19-20, 2018

Kaokoland

We were driving North with our guide, Charles, from the Hoanib River area to the Kaokoland area (now also called Kunene for the Kunene River). This area is most famous for the Himba and Herero tribes, which we would be visiting. Compared to the rest of the country, this area is less developed as the dry climate and the vast mountains make it difficult to cultivate. And as we drove, we marveled yet again at how different the terrain was. And how beautiful.

Namibia Chapter 5. The search for the black rhino

Our final morning on the River

April 21, 2018

Since we hadn’t gone searching for the black rhino yesterday, we had to get up very early today as it would be a long drive and we had to end up further north. We woke up at about 5:00 AM. Ronnie heated water for our shower and we got dressed, all in the dark, using our headlamps. Charles wanted to be on the road by 5:30 AM. Gerhard had prepared homemade chocolate chip croissants, on the campfire. Amazing. And he prepared breakfast sandwiches and a picnic lunch for us to take along.  We hugged and said our goodbyes, loaded the car and headed off. It was pitch black with a canopy of a million stars.

Namibia Chapter 4. Camping on the Mudorib River

April 18-21, 2018

Camping?  Do you know me?

The Hoanib River is one of the 12 seasonal rivers in the west of Namibia, bordering the northern part of Damaraland and Kaokoland. This area is considered one of the last true wilderness areas in Namibia. It is also the one of last settlements of the desert elephant. The Murdorib flows off the Hoanib, at about 600 feet above sea level, and it is on the dry bed of the Mudorib that we would be camping for the next two nights.

Camping.  Me?  Those that know me know that camping is not my usual MO.  How did this happen?  When we met with Chris at Piper and Heath to plan our Wilderness Safari trip, the Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp was full.  But we wanted to stay in this area, so Chris suggested we camp. He promised a hot shower, a toilet and someone to cook for us.  So I said, “Actually sounds like fun.  Why not?!”  So here we were.

Namibia Chapter 3. Skeleton Coast

April 17-18, 2018, Tuesday and Wednesday

The Skeleton Coast

After breakfast today we hit the road heading north to the Skeleton Coast. We were driving in Dorob National Park, a protected area in this region of Erongo. It is 990 miles long and covers 41,500 square miles, from the Kuiseb Delta, just south of Walvis Bay, to the Ugab River, where we were heading. There are about 75 species of birds that live here and it feels like we saw many of them.

The road was paved, but grooved and rough, at least for a while. We were surrounded on both sides by sand. Sand, sand and more sand. And to our left, on the west side, on the other side of the sand, was the Atlantic Ocean. Other than that, there was not much to see.

Namibia Chapter 2. Swakopmund and Walvis Bay

April 16, 2018

Arriving in Swakopmund

We flew from Sossusvlei to Swakopmund, to keep from having to drive for six hours and to get the view of the dunes and the coastline from up above (see the Namibia Chapter 1. Sossusvlei post). As we approached the city, we could see Walvis Bay with its fishing boats and then suddenly the desert began being filled with homes. It was sort of amusing to see houses with sand in their yards. No lawns. Just sand. City or not, this is still the desert. But there were straight paved streets, a park or two, and as we got closer to the airport, what looked like a township (what we in America call a shanty town or a slum). This was Mondesa, a suburb of Swakopmund that  was once a township for the Black people of Swakopmund and is still the poorest part of town with a high rate of unemployment. And you could tell all that from just looking at the houses, made of tin if they were lucky.

Namibia Chapter 1. Sossusvlei

Welcome to Namibia

April 13, 2018

Namibia was my reason for coming to Africa. It was the top of my bucket list. I had heard about its beauty, and it was time to see it for myself. We had just spent two weeks in Cape Town, Johannesburg (Joburg), Botswana and Zambia (please see those posts), and now, finally, we were on our way to Namibia.

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