Our Holiday in Namibia

Devil's claw

The long break between semesters arrived at last, and we left Gaborone in the wee hours of December 13th, with a plan to make it to Dqae Qare, a San community-owned game farm west of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, before nightfall. There was a gentle rain falling so the colors were more vibrant that usual, not washed out by the intensity of the sun. For the most part the drive was uneventful: the road was good and traffic was sparse.  This is a long drive right across the heart of the Kalahari Desert -- but in the rain it was a lush and soft place.  There were some flowering devil's claw crawling through the sand on the side of the road. 

Our place at Dqae Qare

When we arrived at the gate for Dqae Qare, it was raining heavily and the 4-kilometer dirt road to access the farm had some very deep puddles.  Because puddles form on the road and not elsewhere, we worried that critters would be in the puddles when we drove through.  Dqae Qare is a "farm" wholly and communally owned by San people  (bushmen) and is one of few such places on the planet where one of the world's most oppressed ethnic groups has some say.  We got our cute little San hut to stay in when we arrived near the old farmhouse that had been nicely restored to serve as guest rooms.  Alas, it was off season and very wet and muddy, and the place really was shut down with an abandoned feel. Having a lot of rain in the Kalahari is unusual!  There was no electricity or water or even anyone around most of the time (that was kind of weird).

Ethnobotanical Plant Guides at DQAE QARE

We did have a very nice ethnobotany walk the next morning with three San (two women and a man who served mainly as a driver and interpreter) who showed all us sorts of plants that they use and told us how they used them.  We also visited the nearby San village of D'kar, which had an interesting art gallery, but was otherwise rather depressing.  Depressing because many of the facilities there are shut down or abandoned altogether and people seemed to be loitering about listlessly.  It is hard to describe, this sense of hopelessness we seemed to acquire when we were there. It seemed as if we were witnessing the very ending of the San culture, and it was a very sad ending, indeed.

We dined in the open-sided dining rondoval, sheltered from the rain, after cooking a meal on our tiny campstove. Wildbeest and warthogs strolled casually about in the fading light.  As darkness fell we heard the wildebeest trampling about and snortly wildly. In the morning there were two afterbirths on the lawn where young had been born during the night.  Shortly after daybreak we headed out, down the puddled road to the highway and west toward Windhoek, Nambia.

First we stopped in Ghanzi to gas up and discovered that the station was all out of fuel -- luckily the attendant told us about another gas station in town, which was brand new, and had one functioning pump.  After Ghanzi, all of the gas stations we passed in Botswana were out of gas.  Later on in Namibia, we purchased a gas can and always had 20 liters of fuel with us -- it did come in handy.

The sky cleared up as we moved westward and became blue and remained blue for the next 2 weeks or so (except at night). The border experience was the usual congested weirdness.  Although the road was empty, there were plenty of people in line.  We filled out various forms, one of which, if lost, costs $100 (thankfully a policeman told us this 2 weeks later so we found it and held on to it).  Instantly, Namibia had a different feel from Botswana.  As unlike as the US and Mexico.  Botswana is strongly dominated by one ethnic group -- the other groups live on the fringes of society.  Namibia is much more ethnically complex with many groups, including a large number of white Namibians of various descents.  Namibia was a German colony before WWI (although the influence is still palpable), and then 50 years later had a bloody long-lasting revolution during which they eventually wore down their South African occupiers.  Botswana had asked for British protection from Cecil Rhodes (none of the European powers wanted the place; times have changed!) and was handed its independence in 1966.  There is little remaining evidence of the Namibian revolution, although it is barely 20 years old (you might remember SWAPO and the fact that the Cubans helped them because the western powers would not help them shake off the South African yoke).

We drove through semiarid scrub for several hours and arrived at Windhoek, where we negotiated our way through the city and arrived just before dusk at Arrebusch Campground:  a sprawling place of restaurants, chalets, pools, and campsites swarming with South Africans.  It was a pleasant place to stay.  Like every urban facility it was ringed by a two-tier electric fence patrolled on foot 24-7.

Park in Downtown Windhoek, Namibia

The next day we got a ride into Windhoek.  From the beginning we liked this city.  You could say it is a thousand times nicer than Gaborone.  The downtown area actually had sidewalks and a pedestrian mall and cafes and restaurants and shops, and even parks, and was spotless.  Everybody was very nice.  We went to three different offices but finally obtained our park permits, involving the usual bureaucratic weirdness (in this respect Namibia is similar to Botswana) but it did not take too long.  We walked around checking out some of the handicrafts, a few older German buildings and Namibian monuments and, what not.  Then we went down to the Craft Market, which had all imaginable kinds of crafts and art.  Plus, a cafe that was the equal of the Moosewood in Ithaca-such a sublime pleasure to us!

Sweet campsite at Tsauchab River

The next morning, we left Windhoek behind and headed south down dirt and gravel roads through vast overgrazed semi-arid country.  Because of our many stops to look at birds and plants it can take us a long time to get anywhere.  That afternoon we arrived at one of the most unique places we have ever stayed -- Tsauchab River Camp.  The entrance road is lined with a fascinating array of found art -- all the junk that was found on the ranch when Johann and Nicky took it over has been converted into artistic creations. The old ranch house has been converted into a beautiful lodge with an outside bar and all kinds of art works and creations.  Nicky gave us a warm welcome and a choice of campsites. We chose "The Bulbul."  Our campsite was riverside (the Tsauchab is dry in this portion at this time of the year though) under a big fig tree.  The shower was inside the base of the multi-stemmed tree with a donkey boiler for hot water and the outhouse was on top of a hill with an absolutely grand view.  There was also a conventional bathroom and shower on another hill that was ours alone, if we wished to use it.  The donkey boiler was lit and at night someone comes and lights candles around the campsite.

 When Johann and Nicky purchased this 20,000 hectare ranch, they took the cattle off (therefore singlehandedly performing one of the greatest conservation acts that I am aware of in this region) and converted it into a rest camp.  With no grazing, the wildlife and vegetation have returned, many more people have been employed, and the government has saved piles of money in subsidies. Just like in the US, Namibian cattle ranching is highly subsidized in order to maintain the supply of cheap beef -- unfortunately the moniker of "grass fed/free range", a positive thing in the the US, means savage overgrazing in southern Africa.  

Quiver tree at Tsauchab River

There are amazing hikes on the 20,000 hectares and we immediately headed off to an area where the Tsauchab River flows from adjacent springs and upwelling.  This was a spot of vivid greenness against the tans and browns of the surrounding mountains.  The riparian zone had a tangled forest of huge fig trees and critters galore in and around the water.  This had all returned since the cessation of grazing.  We walked through the woods, admired baboons, birds, frogs and the dry mountains.  Then we headed over to the quiver tree hike.  This 4 km walk ascended a ridge and back down again passing by groves of several aloe species, most notably the grand quiver tree or kokerboom-an unusual tree aloe, which was beautiful against the late afternoon light.  Stands of Euphorbia, Adenia and scrubby trees gave an otherworldly aspect to the landscape.  That night at the lodge, Johann told us what it was like to own and manage a rest camp like this, being a German-Namibian, what he did during the revolution, and all sorts of other things. Johann has a talent of making every guest feel important and the sole recipient of his interest and concern. He admitted that, being the father of two young children, it is somewhat stressful worrying about the stability of this young country and its economy, but he is optimistic and full of energy. We hope he and Nicky continue to do well in all their admirable endeavors.

The next day we headed out on a day trip to Sossusvlei through gorgeous arid mountains.  This is Namibia's most popular tourist destination, and is one of the world's largest dune fields, where the Tsauchab River reaches it inland conclusion.(

Sossusvlei NP

Dead Vlei

View Larger Map) We entered the park, and then traveled a long way down a valley surrounded by towering massive red sand dunes.  Much of the landscape was sandy but there were also tall grasses and occasional trees.  Gemsbok and springbok somehow survive in this landscape -- these species have interesting water conservation adaptations so they rarely need to drink.  At the end of the paved road we switched to 4-wheel drive and drove out to the trailhead for Dead Vlei.  This hike took us out to a flat white soil pan where trees had thrived 800 years ago.  At that time the climate dried even more and the trees died leaving a stark and visually arresting scene of dead trees on white clay surrounded by red dunes.  Although the trees died more than 500 years ago, the wood is perfectly preserved.  The Namib Desert is the world's oldest desert having been dry for a long time. On the way out, we visited  Sesriem Canyon, a deep notch canyon through conglomerate, which we poked around in a bit but could have a spent an entire day exploring -- not enough time! At its beginning, you could step across the 50-foot deep canyon, but downstream it broadens to form the valley.

The Engen gas station in the small town next to the park entrance has a green roof of soil and vegetation, a solar-powered cafe, and lots of information about conservation and recycling of materials. These type of facilities are very rare in both Namibia and Botswana.

Living Stones

Can you see the Living Stones by the keys?

Later, back at Tsauchab River Camp we asked Johann to show us the rare "living stones" (Lithops) populations he had mentioned the night before.  He was busy at that moment and said "They are just over there-see how many you can find before I catch up with you!"  We searched and searched the area but could not find any of these little plants that blend in with rocks at the ground surface.  Eventually he came over and showed us a few, and then they jumped out at us visually.  The Lithops are monitored annually by the Namibian wildlife service.  We want to do a study of this plant (of course!).

The next day we reluctantly left this wonderful place because the trip had been planned weeks before with reservations made out of guidebooks before we knew how wonderful it was here -- we could easily have stayed a week. Our itinerary had us heading to the coast, and next commenced one of the more remarkable drives ever down the C14: a bumpy washboard dirt road of never ending remarkable scenery.  It started out along a gorgeous canyon with flowers and succulents and rocky towering mountains.  This transitioned to arid grassland.  The town of Solitaire (
View Larger Map) (really it is just a campground, bakery, mechanic, and gas station) is located on private land just before the last long stretch though the park heading toward the coast.  Surrounded by savanna, this is a strange biker-hangout and conglomeration of rusted old antique autos, camel-safari outfitter, bakery and favorite stopping point for HUGE South African caravans.  One stops because because there is a gas pump -- to fill up whether you think you need to or not!

The grassland slowly transitioned and became more jagged and arid and broke out into a rough rocky landscape of deep canyons, patterned hills stretching to the horizon, and all sorts of other bizarre landscapes.  Eventually it got so dry that from distant horizon to horizon not a plant was visible.  This is the second most arid place on the planet after the Atacama Desert west of the Andes in South America. As usual, it took us three times as long to move through as it would for most pokey drivers.
    
At one of our many stops, we noticed  a screw with its head buried in our rear tire.  Luckily, the tire did not seem to be losing air so we drove on.  When we got close to Walvis Bay, a coastal town just south of the popular tourist town of Swakopmund, we took another look and the tire was dangerously low.  We drove into the town of Walvis Bay (a shock after that vast dryness) and the first thing we saw was tire repair.  It was 4:40 but they were happy to repair the flat, balance our tires, and replace a few of our missing lug nuts, all  by 5:00 PM when they closed!

Walvis Bay is a pleasant town with a large port and a bird-rich bay on the south Atlantic.  After checking out the bay we drove over to Swakopmund and it was strange to see the "adrenalin sport" places catering to tourists.  Swakopmund was a major town during the German colonial period and is flavored by attractive historic German buildings.  Our campground  (Sophia Dale) was about 10 kilometers east of town and was packed with holiday campers, most of which were extended families from South Africa.  We were assigned a campsite in the middle of the campground and next to a large "compound" (a particularly South African institution-more later on this one), with several very large people who snored asynchronously very, very close to our tent.  Not good.  There were some other negatives as well (i.e. showers in the pitch dark, people constantly walking through our campsite), which led to sleepless nights, and haste in leaving the campground each morning.

Walvus Bay Salt Pans

Our first morning we went down to Swakopmund to a wonderful sidewalk cafe and then walked around town admiring bakeries, cafes, weird tourist outfits and those odd pre-WWI German buildings.  We then went down to Walvis Bay and out to the sea salt factory where there were large ponds of vivid magenta, pink and mauve.  Salt-loving bacteria make those hipped out colors.  The sandy sea spit went on for miles with huge flocks of sea birds including large flocks of shore birds and flamingos and ending on a wild beach with folks fishing in the giant waves.

Moon Landscape

The following morning we made our botanical pilgrimage to the land of the Welwitschia.  Just a few km from our campground, we re-entered the Namib-Naukluft Park and there was nary a building or plant in sight.  One of the driest places on earth.  Our first stop was in a vast lichen-dominated desert popularized by David Attenborough in the film "The Secret Life of Plants."   We poured water on these little dessicated gardens and watched them unfold in a splendor of bountiful wateriness (Priscilla has a video of this on her Facebook page).  Towards the north was the arid rugged landscape surrounding the Swakopmund "River" of jagged mountains known as the Moon Landscape.  There were a few junked South African tanks scattered about reminding us that the revolution was not so long ago.  Today much of the National Park in this area has been leased out to international mining corporations.

Jon and the Wild Welwitschia

Welwitschia on the Skeleton Coast

As we traveled on, we began to see gullies where a few plants were flowering due to a sprinkling of rain some weeks back.  Soon the first Welwitschia appeared and then more and more, and even more.  This plant is a dramatic offshoot from the plant kingdom and is unique in many aspects: it has only two leaves that grow for the entire life of the plant but these become shredded by the wind and appear as a tangle of dreadlocks.  The plant has very odd tissue and reproductive attributes and is actually a sort of stunted "tree."  Separate male and female plants bear cones on the top of  a very short trunk.  The plant absorbs water via dew through its leaves during the night.  The biggest are believed to be as much as 3000 years old.  A few specialized insects survive solely on Welwitschia.  The taxonomist argue endlessly, but at present it is thought to be the only species in its division, although it may share the distinction with Mormon tea (Ephedra.)

The desert landscape was studded with widely spaced Welwitschia.  After going through the valley of the Swakopmund (with some fantastic campsites (yes-we'll stay there next time-right), we eventually came upon the largest Welwitschia (surrounded by a fence) and some other huge ones here and there and adorning a landscape characterized by braided dry washes and rocky ridges.  The tangle of leaves sure doesn't look like there are only two.  We wandered around for a few hours, happily admiring all sorts of other captivating plants and some very hardy springbok and ostriches too.  The only mammal known to ever eat Welwitschia are very hungry rhinos.

Reluctantly, in late afternoon we cruised back to Swakopmund and had a pleasant dinner at an outside restaurant by the ocean with crowds of German and South African vacationers.  The world is an odd place with strange juxtapositions.

Salt Crystals for Sale

Our last night at Sophia Dale was the solstice with a full moon above, but we wished we had been hearing the crashing of waves rather than the sawing sounds of adjacent sleeping campers, so we left early the next day with dreams of a desolate park campground on the Skeleton Coast.  As we headed north, we caught our first real glimpse of the huge Swakopmund township where the poor live in metal shacks (yet another strange juxtaposition.)  In a few hours and after passing a town or two (with their own mini-townships) we came across lots of small roadside tables lined with pink and white halite crystal conglomerations.  People must search for the crystals, put them on a rickety table with a tin can (honor system), and prices (US equivalent of 50c to $1), and hope a passerby stops to make a purchase.

Cape Cross Seal Colony

Cape Fur Seal

Next up -- Cape Cross cape fur seal colony.  We drove down the dirt road, stopped at the information-free headquarters to pay, and headed to the shore to view the colony.  This is one of three colonies at which 75% of the world's population of Cape Fur seals breed.  From a distance the colony looked like a mass of black seals -- great!  But immediately upon pulling into the parking lot it became apparent that this is a place that immediately brings to mind Tennyson's "Nature red in tooth and claw", and is not a place for the faint of heart (which luckily, in terms of nature, we are not.)

It turns out that we had visited just a few weeks after the annual mass birthing. Over 70% of mature females come ashore during late November to give birth. They feed their young incredibly rich milk for a short time, but then must head to sea to feed in order to sustain their milk supply.  The young are often clumped together in a "nursery" and the mothers locate their young upon return by their unique bellows.

Even before we got out of the car, we could see the bodies of baby seals, some lying in a pool of blood, that had been scattered about by jackals and hyenas.  It was fragrant and noisy from the calls of thousands of babies and adults.  There were baby seals on the boardwalk that leads to a viewing area and drifts of baby seals piled up around the boardwalk and throughout a picnic shelter.  Many were dead (walk carefully so as not to step on one), some seemed hungry and bleated at us hopefully, and others were approaching death, looking toward us with large moist encrusted, infected and seemingly blind eyes and calling plaintively.  These were not the few babies that get snagged by hyenas and jackals, but piles of babies separated from their mothers (each of whom have only one pup).  Down towards the ocean there were crowds of babies and plenty of mother seals and scattered bulls.  They say mortality is high and I guess it is.  We presume in a few weeks the scene would be very different, with the babies practicing their swimming and all traces of dead babies removed by scavengers.  Because the pups had been born perhaps just a week or two prior to our visit, the males were chasing the females around and mating during our visit.  The females will store the sperm for 3 months, and then after a 9-month gestation period, give birth again at the same time next year.

Cape Cross is also the site of a memorial to the Portuguese sailor Diego Cao who was first European to set foot in Namibia.  The cold Benguela current offshore is nutrient rich and still seems to provide plenty of fish for fishermen and seal alike. But how long can this last in a protein-greedy world?

 

Entering the Skeleton Coast

Back on the road we investigated a nearby super-lichen desert.  This one was solid lichen as far as the eye could see.  There were signs discouraging off-road travel because damage to these lichen fields takes scores of years to erase since the lichens grow in terms of millimeters per year. We headed north through spectacular desert landscapes and by late morning came to the entrance to Skeleton Coast National Park marked by two huge skulls on the gate.  The ranger was perplexed by the paperwork because our permits were purchased in Windhoek (do these people talk with each other at all?),  but we managed to get in and headed to Torra Bay campground, looking forward to a nice, sane, National Park campground.  It is more than 100 km on washboard gravel roads  from the entrance of the park to Torra Bay, so we checked out some desert inlets and bays with birds on the way.  Finally we topped a hill and rounded the bend to see what appeared to be a refuge camp for the rich.  The campground consisted of a densely packed conglomeration of large trucks and trailers nestled by huge canvas tents and canopies forming compounds surrounded by roll-out fabric walls.  Individual campsites consisted solely of side-by-side squares of sand delineated by cobbles that had been painted white.  We were instructed to choose any empty square. Almost all of the other campers were groups of South African fishermen and families who don't mess around: they come up here to fish on the beach for a month or more and bring up a "compound" with them.   We claimed a space and were a magnet for a few other small-scale tenters like us who showed up the next day.  The bathrooms were crude and smelly pit toilets, and the showers were locked except for a few hours a day. There were no other facilities besides a store, so no place to change clothes or whatever since most folks had a 3-bedroom size compound to cavort around in.  Many had their own portable toilets, propane refrigerators and almost everyone had a generator. Luckily generators had to be turned off by 10PM. After setting up our tiny tent,  we took off and visited some oases with flamingos and herds of gemsbok -- intense greenness in a landscape of tans.  Back at the campsite it was very windy.  A gentleman came by to talk with us and gave us a huge fresh fish,which we managed to clean with a pocketknife and cook on our tiny campstove.

Fishing on the Skeleton Coast

Campground at Torra Bay

Hiking the Skeleton Coast

Christmas Eve Sunset on the Skeleton Coast

The next day (Christmas eve) we explored the desert.  We started on a trail that starts at an oasis and goes by the remnants of the encampments of nomadic peoples whom lived here 800 years ago.  Nearby there was a large herd of gemsbok with a couple of young.  We then headed away from the trail out across the open desert, in which there is so much more variation than is apparent when looking across the landscape.  We set our sights on a distant dunefield, passing more lush oases, pebble fields with rocks of every hue, type and description, odd sclerophyllous desert plants, and wind sculpted sand waves that looked like meringue. Eventually we reached the dunefield, which was much further away than it looked, but reason set in when we thought about climbing it.  We returned the way we came (well, sort of) and headed back to the campsite but first explored a couple of deltas where people were still fishing in the surf. We also checked out some strange rock formations near our campsite and watched the sun set on the ocean.  Just after nightfall, a raucous truck full of shouting people, one of whom was dressed like Santa, drove honking around the campground.

We woke on Christmas morning and headed eastward.  There were scattered Welwitschia and succulent euphorbs on the hillsides.  At the park exit, Jon drove a park ranger out to the borehole while Priscilla waited at the station so that the ranger could turn on the pump.  They have no working transportation.

The landscape gradually transitioned to lush savanna.  We saw several several gemsbok trapped in narrow corridors between a doubled veterinary fence designed to separate wildlife to the north from the cattle ranches to the south due to concerns about hoof-and-mouth disease. These corridors go on for miles and miles with no way out.

Rock Paintings at Twyfelfontein

Visitor Center at Twyfelfontein

This area east of this portion of the Skeleton Coast is called Damaraland and is a land of massive piles of rock, canyons and mountains reminiscent of Cochise Stronghold in Arizona, but also is a land of severe overgrazing.  The cattle and goats have eaten everything down to the nubs.  We passed a number of ragged looking villages.  We stopped at Twyfelfontein, Namibia's sole UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most extensive rock art galleries on the planet.  The art was engraved into the rock by San peoples 6000 years ago during a time when the landscape was moister and richer in wildlife.  The site has a unique visitors' center built using local rock and recycled metal barrels creating an excellent effect.  A guide is mandated so we got one who turned out to be the world's worst guide (REALLY!).  She groaned and huffed and puffed as we walked down the trail and we were afraid she might topple over at any minute.  Not into chit-chat at all.  Her response to everything we said was "Okay."  We arrived at a site with rock art all over the rocks and she delivered an unintelligible monologue in a deadpan voice that sounded like a very bad recording.  There were all your favorite mammals, tracks, and other features engraved into the rocks.  It was really cool.  After each monologue the guide left and we looked --and then we caught up with her and she delivered another deadpan unintelligible monlogue.  This was not her day (if any day is).  Anyway, we looked at a lot of great rock art!

We left and drove on through a dramatic desert landscape of mountains made out of big piled up boulders -- later (by accident) we chose the road less traveled on.  The road grew bumpier and narrower and brushier and fainter (although the rock formations were cooler and cooler), and then the road appeared to cross a big wide sandy wash, where someone had obviously been stuck recently.  Could we make it across in our 4 wheel drive or not?  We got our to examine conditions on foot and saw all kinds of nice elephant tracks and dung and planned our strategy.  And we are here now, so it looks like we made it!  After another hour or so and some more confusing turns on minor dirt roads, we arrived at the Brandberg White Lady Lodge and Campground.  This lodge has a swimming pool, a restaurant, a garden, and outdoor bar, and even a waterfall backed up by bouldery hills, and campers are allowed to use all of the facilities.   The campsites were nicely isolated but everything was severely overgrazed and the risk of being "donkeyed" ever present.  If the donkeys can't get to your food they will lick your camp table, and then there are the goats.

Tsisab Ravine

Rock Paintings in Tsisab Ravine

There were also plenty of elephant footprints here.  Brandberg is Namibia tallest mountain and in Tsisab Ravine is a site of painted San art with the famous "white lady" and of course the requisite alien-like looking characters and animals.  The white lady painting is believed to be a San boy covered in white clay (too bad the name stuck).  The next day we went over to the canyon and told the guides we really couldn't have a guide because it would take us all day to walk up to the art site due to our interest in birds and flowers.  They were pleasant and said it was okay as long as we paid the entrance fee.  As we ambled along marveling at the beauty of the canyon, we were, indeed, passed by rapidly moving tourists rushing up to art and then rushing down to get back to their gin and tonics at the lodge.  The birding and canyons were too good for us to rush though-so we spent most of the day there.  As it turned out some of these guides were nice and excellent birders. We had a good talk about the birdlife with one of the guides at the end of our walk-he wanted to know all of the birds we saw and studied our bird book asking us how to distinguish some of the similar looking species -- we wished that we could have given him a pair of binoculars -- his employer will not, and of course, he cannot afford to buy them with the salary he receives.  After our hike, we returned to the lodge and enjoyed the amenities, especially a pet suricate that snuggled up by our feet and napped while we were sitting near the pool.

It took is two days to get to Etosha from there -- we stopped in Outjo at a lodge that had a sweet, very cute little campground with an EXCELLENT shower.  The owners were a bit too tipsy though (be careful when you run a bar), but told us some interesting stories about being white Namibians and the economic stranglehold that South Africa supposedly has on the country.  The lodge had a beautiful patch of woods and hiking trail leading up a rocky hill with an amazing view and lots of birds. 

Young black-faced impala at Etosha

The next day we headed to Etosha, one of Africa's premier parks. Etosha National Park encompasses 22, 935 square kilometers in the northern portion of the country.  The vast Etosha Pan occupies much of the eastern portion of the Park, and the Park's three campgrounds are located near the western, central and eastern portions of the Pan. 

Lovely young cat at Etosha

After registering in the information free-headquarters, we headed to our campground at Halali --a tad raggedy but overall pretty good.  Unfortunately the park has absolutely no information and a visitor cannot find out anything about wildlife, conservation or anything else.  There are a few overpriced booklets in the gift shop that are pretty dated, but we bought a guide to the waterholes just to be able to figure out where to go and it fell complete apart on our second day.  This is a phenomenal missed environmental education opportunity.  How will Namibia maintain domestic support for its parks without some sort of education?  If you are planning a trip to Etosha, please do some internet research and buy some books before you go!

Flap-necked Chameleon

Blue Crane and Kori Bustard

Lion Munching on Fresh Hardebeest

We arrived at Etosha at just about the time the rains began in earnest. Things were just beginning to green up on the east end of the park, and the roads were puddled.  We drove around for three days checking out all that wildlife: lions, leopards, giraffes, and vast herds of hundreds upon hundreds of zebra, springbok, gemsbok, steenbok and birds beyond count.  There were also an endemic subspecies of impala (black-faced.) The impala had lots of babies, the springbok started birthing while we were there, and the baby zebras are beyond cute.  The jackal pups were born about 4-6 weeks prior to our visit and are timed so that they will be old enough to hunt baby antelope when they are born.  Because it was wet, the wildlife was not focused around the waterholes, which is apparently a problem for the frenetic who traveled far and were desperately looking for large predators, but not for us because we don't mind more subtle wildlife!  The campground had a family of honey badgers: possibly Africa's fiercest mammal.  The first morning we woke up to all kinds of banging and we looked out and saw a honey badger standing on hind legs and  hoisting up a  table in the neighboring South African compound in order to tip it over as it contained a large collection of food that had sat out all night.  The wine bottles and pots and pans crashed off the table.  A guy emerged from one of the large vehicles and we shouted "look out -- honey badger".  He understood and just shouted at it to go away and it did.  Each night the frisky fellows would loot various campsites at will.  The campgrounds and accompanying chalets, and lodge and restaurants and pool are surrounded by an electric fences but the honey badgers are inside.  All three of the campgrounds have adjacent floodlit waterholes with view points within the safety of the fencing. By our last evening (New Year's Eve), we felt content to leave the park and begin 2011 elsewhere. We rose before dawn, packed up the tent, chairs and table, and were ready to leave as the gate was unlocked at official sunrise.  Even on the way out we saw hyena, giraffes, zebra beyond count and more.

Buying Monkey Oranges in Kavango

It poured as we headed northeast toward Caprivi Strip on these amazing Namibian highways.  In Grootfontein we stopped at a grocery store with some very hungry boys out front and too much upscale food inside.  This area has huge mines of lead and other metals, which might have caused the large number of misshapen people we saw.  We bought a few groceries for the kids and stocked up on camping supplies.  As we headed up the highway the world transitioned.  Cement block houses disappeared, and mud rondavals clustered into compounds surrounded by piled up thorn bushes became the norm. Many of the people living in this area are Angolan refugees.  This is Africa across a wide swath of the continent.  South of here cattle is raised on huge ranches and beef is sold internationally, and in this area it is not because it is north of the veterinary fences.  It is also a much poorer and more densely populated part of the country.  We stopped to buy some monkey orange and an unknown fruit and the folks were very sweet and seemed delighted that we stopped.

Eventually we reached our next destination -- Ngepi Camp on the Okavango River after a very puddly dirt road.  When you enter the place you know you are some place different.  The signs are very clever and the toilets -- wow the toilets!  They look out over the river and look like thrones, or they are deep in dense tropical vegetation, and on and on: one is in a elevated lookout and is called "Poopa Falls", a takeoff on the nearby waterfall called Popa Falls.  The showers are just as creative.  There is a nice little open air bar and food is served on a platform over the river.   They also have signs explaining why they don't serve beef or fish (they serve kudu and eland) -- due to the environmental consequences.  There is a caged swimming pool in the river so that you can swim without thinking about crocodiles the whole time and the campsites are right on the edge of the river also. We settled in and enjoyed the view and the grunting hippos.  The dropoff to the water is supposed to be too steep for hippos and crocs.

Our Ngepi Campsite

Ngepi Swimming Pool

The Toilet of Eden

Christopher and Jon on Our Birdwalk

The next day we took a Makoro ride with our all-time favorite guide Christopher.  Christopher is a self-taught phenomenal birder and has worked with some leading birders from numerous countries.  Usually guides like this cost hundreds of dollars per trip at upscale lodges.  But he is local and isn't going anywhere, so he is happy to have a job at Ngepi and is an excellent asset to the Lodge.  A makoro is a little boat called a pirogue elsewhere, and is much like a shallow kayak carved of wood.  He was philosophical about hippos -- sometimes planes crash and sometimes a hippo is under your makoro.  Of course the ride was beautiful on this bountiful river.  The next morning we took an early bird walk with Christopher and saw dozens of new species in the fields around the Camp.  That afternoon it cleared so we went on a game drive to the Mahango National Park with Christopher and some rather odd people who were staying in the chalets.  Just cruising in an open air vehicle through mopane woodland is nice. 

Sable Antelope

Down by the river we saw herds of antelope including the beautiful and rare Sable antelope, wattled cranes, crocs, mother vervet monkeys with new babies, and hippos out of the water.   Plus, some nice baobabs.   The following day we drove around the Bwabwati NP (formerly Caprivi Game Reserve), which lies just across the river from Ngepi Camp.  At this point, the Okavango River is just beginning to widen into what will eventually become the Okavango Delta in Botswana.  The next morning we packed up and headed south back into Botswana.  The border crossing was smooth and we cruised through a remarkably lush but severely overgrazed Kalahari Desert toward the mouth of the delta.


We arrived in the sprawling tourist mecca of Maun by noon and had lunch.  The place may be safari central, but the town is not so appealing to us as there has been rapid growth over the last two decades and everything seems to be located in a strip mall.  After lunch we headed east toward Nxai Pan and Makgadikgadi Pans National Parks, and Planet Baobab.

Planet Boabab at Sunset

 We were on the long trek home so we didn't explore the parks but Planet Boabab turned out to be another amazing place to stay.  There were gorgeous little accommodations and campsites scattered amongst a grove of absolutely massive baobab trees -- yes they are 40 feet in diameter!  The bathrooms were works of art as was the dining area, kitchen and bar.  Designed by a genius with a sense of style and humor.  We want to go back to this place.  We wandered amongst the baobabs (yes there are hammocks) and had a excellent vegetarian dinner, and a breakfast of yogurt and fresh fruit before the last leg of our trip.

Breakfast at Planet Baobab: "Hi Mom!"

We drove down the crazy death-defying A-1, this time with wall-to-wall beer vendors presumably selling the last of their products due to President Khama's new ban on the selling of homebrews and a significant increase of tax on alcohol in an effort to slow the growing epidemic of alcoholism in this country.  Back in Gaborone, the city looked so green from all the recent rain and there were plenty of funky, molding dirty clothes to wash and try to dry on the line between rain showers.

We were eager to catch up with family and friends near and afar and meet a new neighbor Phoebe who had just arrived in our absence  from Colorado College with 23 students in tow from colleges across the Midwest.  And of course there was the semester to prepare for at the University of Botswana.  So it has taken us some weeks to put together this post, and it is still only just the briefest overview of all we saw, felt and learned. We hope it is a fun tale for those of you who have the interest and time for these things.  By now, of course, there is more to tell! Take care and stay warm; we miss you!