Namibia

Ngepi

We crossed the border of Namibia with little trouble. They were more concerned about whether we had been anywhere with foot and mouth disease than they were about our nationality and visas. After telling them that we had neither live or dead cattle with us, we were allowed to pass.

The campsite was pretty close to the border in the Caprivi strip and right on the river. There was even a little fenced of raft that you could swim in (to avoid the hippos and crocs). We stayed a few nights, watching downloads of Geordie Shore, reading and relaxing. We even found a chameleon one day which kept us entertained as we tried putting him on different backgrounds. He turned a bright green when we placed him on Luke’s bag, and tried to make an escape afterwards which made a snail look like Usain Bolt.

Unfortunately Will’s car was feeling a little worse for wear, and turns out his suspension was broken. He managed to get it fixed in town after raiding a scrapyard for the piece he needed. Small towns’ ability to get things done in Africa never ceases to amaze me!

We headed off to Tsumeb a few days later and ended up staying in a posh hotel (in the campsite) because Lauren, Dotes and Shosho, who had been at a different one the night before had a few things stolen from then fridge (a beer, cheese, milk and a bit of box wine that had been left open and leaking…which I’ll come back to in a couple of days). Apparently they confronted the ONLY suspects because they were the ONLY ones in the campsite, but these 3 guys who worked in Namibia denied it (unconvincingly), but what can you do?

This hotel had an Olympic sized swimming pool…I don’t know how these guys do it…4 lengths and I was knackered!

Etosha National Park

We headed off to Etosha National Park a couple days later. We drove in at 11am, got a form saying the vehicles had entered and told we had to pay further in, but apart from a resort 10km in, we couldn’t see anywhere to pay. The African way…we’ll sort it out later. So off we were on our wildlife drive. We spotted numerous gazelle, eland and other antelopes, a couple elephants by a watering hole and several giraffes. Actually, LOADS of giraffes, they were all over the place. The views were gorgeous of salt pans, a dried up lake and low grassy hills in the distance. Towards the afternoon we saw several herds of elephants, with one of the cutest families having an adorable young elephant and BABY not more than a few months old (I'm an expert of course). A great day wildlife viewing, with Neil shouting out gestation periods of animals like a pro.



The misfit group





We stayed in the national park in a campsite we had booked in advance. The main attraction being this watering hole that they had a viewing platform for and being floodlit. We all took a stroll down at sunset and I crossed my fingers in hope that I’d see the last animal on my list…a rhino (apart from a meerkat obviously). There was nothing at the watering hole, but slowly a few giraffes came poking through the back, cautiously making their way down to the water. Then there they were…2 black rhinos (one baby), making their way towards the water, only to be interrupted by an approaching elephant. It was amazing to watch them suss each other out, pausing when the others approached. Only the giraffes seemed to notice the good couple of hundred people gazing at them, some with cameras longer than their necks.




Mummy and baby rhino!

After a quick bite to eat, we had a few drinks, and watched Lauren discover that not only had the previous campsite stolen a glass of wine from their box, they had actually stolen the lot of it and replaced it with water! Wine into water…there’s a God working backwards here!

The watering hole was paid another visit at 10pm, not just by us, but by 8 rhinos! Some bathing in the middle, some drinking from the different sides and keeping their distance from each other for good reason. Whenever certain rhinos approached each other, they challenged one another and one started to grunt and charge. You could tell which ones were the dominant, protective males.


It's a BABY!


The next morning we headed off to the west gate, knowing full well we wouldn’t make it there for 11am (our 24 hour period being up), so we changed the 11.00 into a 14.00 and made our way down the gravel roads. Lauren and Dotes were following Will’s car, but all of a sudden we got to a zebra crossing (literally about 50 zebras just standing in the middle of the road), and waited for 10 minutes without the other car appearing. We headed back to find they had a puncture, but after a quick tyre change and me looking out for lions, we were quickly back on the road.

Ear flapping for a cool down

 We managed to convince the security that we had only been in the park for 24 hours and somehow only ended up paying for 5 instead of 7 of us!

We free camped outside the park, just off the main road. It was getting colder by the day, and our sleeping bags would only do for so long as they were the thinnest we could get at the time. Who’d think you need thick sleeping bags in Africa?

Opuwo

We headed off to Opuwo the next day, a small town in the North of Namibia. There was only one reason we came here…tribes! After finding a cheap campsite, Luke got talking to the guy running the site. He managed to sort out a trip for us the next morning to take us to see a tribal village.




Boy from the Himba tribe

That morning, we set off to see the Himbas, with a quick stop at the supermarket. Instead of giving money to the chief, we were told to bring some food, so our guide Kavari picked out a bag of maize, some sugar, flour and a couple other bits and piece. That was enough to go around the village freely, without being hassled for money by the tribe.

Making the clay for their hair and bodies

We presented it to the chief, and Kavari, our translator told us that he said it wasn’t usually enough for a big group like us and he expected more, but it would do! Oops!

The Himba people are incredible, not least the women. We had already seen in a few in town. They’re lining up behind you in the supermarkets and wandering around town. They walk around bare chested, with a small cloth tied round their waist and jewellery everywhere. Their hair is the most incredible thing. They create dreadlocks by wrapping bits of plastic around them, apart from the last 2 inches which are just left sticking out, and cover the dreadlocks in clay. They do this every 2 weeks, a long arduous process which starts off with grinding down a rock with a stone to get this bright red clay in the first place. One of the women showed us how to grind down the clay. She also showed us how they turned the milk from their cows into sour milk by putting it in a pot and shaking it back and forth for an hour.




Young boy trying to sell dolls

Another woman showed us the different headdresses they wear for special occasions and how they cover themselves in the same clay to protect themselves from the sun. She also showed us how they applied their deodorant! Himba people don’t shower, they simply use the clay everyday, and burn some coals over some herbs and hold the pot under their armpits and hair, used as a perfume of sorts.

She allowed us to ask her any questions, and Kavari again translated for us. Turns out she’s my age, and has 4 children, the first of which she had when she was fifteen. She was shocked that none of us had children, and it was hard to explain to her that they cost a lot of money back home, and housing was expensive too!


Clay covered hair

Different to most places we’ve been in Africa, it’s the girl who is picked from a family to go to school, as the boy has to stay home and look after the cattle. Primary school is free, but unfortunately high school costs them a fair bit of money.

The girls wear their hair in two strands going forward, and the boys’ ones backwards, apart from those who go to school and have to shave their heads.

At the age of 11, the children have several of their bottom front teeth knocked out using a toothbrush and a rock! Apparently it makes them prettier?!? And despite the process sounding barbaric, there is a special ‘dentist’ who is qualified to knock their teeth out. Oh, and then they have a party to celebrate.




Baby Himba!

When we came out of her hut, we were amazed to see about 50 women and kids who had come down to see us and sell us their crafts. They all sat in a circle with exactly the same bracelets, statues and trinkets. We took a few more pictures and decided it was time to leave.

It was the most incredible morning and we learnt so much about the Himba people. We even managed to leave with all the men, Dotes being their favourite to ‘leave him here,’ even though Will was the single one, it seemed they thought he might be single for a reason…bad husband?

Sesfontein

We hitchhiked from this point. Will wanted to do a couple 4x4 routes and needed to lose the weight in the car, so we picked a town on the map called Palmwag to meet the following night. We got lucky with hitchhiking the first day to get to Sesfontein. It looked like a big town on the map, but in reality, it wasn’t much more than a dusty street lined with tin shacks, one shop, one bar and no restaurants!  

Luckily the lady who ran the community campsite had an electric hob and said that we could use it...if we had a pan. On figuring out that we weren’t self-sufficient, she ran back to her house to let us borrow one! What a legend.

There was also a pretty energetic talker who tried to teach is clicks but unsuccessfully. They’re just added onto usual words and phrases effortlessly. That was the first time we had started to hear them, and it continued down the rest of Namibia.

We had a decent night sleep, and woke up the next morning to try our luck with hitchhiking again. So, off to Palmwag we went to meet the others, or so we thought! We waited a good 3 hours for a ride and the only one that would take us was heading back to Opuwo. We jumped in that for 26km until the road parted and they drove off, just to double our chances of anyone heading down from Opuwo…or alternatively run out of water, get bitten by a snake and die in the desert. Hopefully the former.

No idea where we’re staying tonight…

We waited near on another hour with only 3 cars passing, not any in our direction. And all of a sudden, this Toyota Land Cruiser came whizzing round the corner and Luke waves his hands frantically at the driver. Turns out this guy owned some copper mines in the North of Namibia and lived in Swakopmund, and was on his way back home. He was shocked that we were trying to hitchhike, and said it was likely we could have been stranded.

We told him we were trying to get to Palmwag, but he said it was unlikely we would want to stop there. An hour later, we cruised by Palmwag, which was even smaller than Sesfontein…it consisted of a petrol station, and a shack. There was no town, and we were definitely pushing our luck thinking we’d find any food there. We hadn’t been able to get in touch with the guys that day or the night before so as far as we knew, they might not be there. With neither of the cars in sight, we were given a choice – get dropped off and hope for the best or take up Wim’s offer to go all the way to Swakopmumd…a 500km journey that we would end up needing to do anyway.

So we’re off to Swakopmund!!!

Wim drove us through some beautiful scenery – passing dry, desolate areas and some beautiful rocky hills, with stones piled on top of each other.

We passed a few Himba women again, and the roads just stretched on and on. We tried to make the Skeleton coast as it would have been a quicker route, but the park would have closed, so we went the long way round.

It was about 7pm, and we asked him, when approaching Swakopmund, if he could drop us off in the centre of town near a campsite. He told us not to worry, and that he’d find us a place in the lodge?!?

He drove us to his house and we met his lovely wife Coral. They told us that they own a lodge and a golf course just out of town that we could stay in for 2 nights for free to give us a little bit of luxury! After camping again since Zambia, a normal bed was exactly what we were craving. We were overwhelmed with their generosity and their kind nature.

They sent a driver to pick us up and had dinner ready for us on arrival. The staff were so lovely, but we did feel a little out of place, looking so scruffy in our fleeces and unkempt, camping look! So a shower was next on this list. The room was incredible, with a bath tub bigger than our tent. We slept like babies under thick duvets and actual pillows that weren’t just made out of foam like every other hotel we had been in in Africa. Pure luxury- thank you Wim and Coral!

And it was even more appreciated as it was freezing outside, and we would have struggled to keep warm in our tent!

We spent the next day exploring and wandered down the cute German like town, with old school buildings and the feeling like you were walking through a tiny village in Cornwall.

We hitchhiked to Walvis Bay, a small town, half an hour South. Frank, the guy who picked us up, lived in Walvis and told us all about the town, and even drove us all the way to the lagoon to see the flamingos. There were a couple thousand flamingos, light pink and terrified of any movement, even a passing car!


Flamingos at Walvis bay

We walked back along the lagoon and hitchhiked again, with a guy going out of his way to take us to Long beach, half way between Swakop and Walvis. The coast was cold, but an incredible view of crashing waves down the beach and an old school pier, and behind you, massive sand dunes!

The sand dunes were incredible, and we trudged up one nice and slow, sinking as we went. The view from the top was amazing, with dunes stretching on as far as the eye could see, and people quad biking through the landscape.

We grabbed another lift back to Swakopmund and got picked up to go back to the hotel. We enjoyed another night at the lodge and then met Coral in the morning. Turns out her son and his family live in Putney – small world! She took us to the olive farm they own down the road and showed us the equipment they use to press the olive. We had both sampled some of the olive oil for breakfast earlier…yummy!




San dunes just outside Swakopmund

Early afternoon, we hooked up with some guys we had met the previous day who were heading up North to Cape Cross, about 2 hours away. They were going to see the seals and then carry on North. We really wanted to visit this place, where there were meant to be thousands of seals laying around on the shores. So we jumped a ride with them and hoped we would be able to hitch anlift back the same day, but brought our tent and some food just in case we couldn’t!

The seals were an unbelievable sight, and the smell was horrific! As soon as I got out of the car, I started to gag. The stench of what turned out to be not just seal poo, but rotting carcasses from pups that didn’t make it was just overwhelming! It took about 10 minutes for us to get used to the smell and start enjoying the sights. The sounds were incredible as well, especially when they were attacking each other. The seal pups were so cute – some were really curious and would come quite close to the boardwalk to look at you, and others would waddle away.


Just wanted to play peekaboo with me!

We met a German couple travelling with their kid who gave us a lift back to Swakop. They were both brain surgeons who liked to travel as much as possible and expose their daughter to as much different culture as they could!


We stayed in Swakopmund one extra night at a campsite and met up with the guys. Our tent was covered in dew before it got dark! We all went out for a drink at a German style bar down a cute little street. It wasn’t long before we’d all get to Windhoek and Neil and Shosho would start cycling down to Cape Town. Will was keen on having his car back to himself, so we parted ways at this point.

Windhoek

The next morning we headed down to Windhoek, managing to catch a lift with a guy on his way to visit his girlfriend for the weekend. He dropped us right off at the backpackers, which was really nice of him.

I can’t get over how generous people are in Namibia, and how keen they are to show you around and make you feel welcome.

We really wanted to go to Sossusvlei, the big golden sand dunes further South. Unfortunately the trips out there are quite expensive to just get driven a few hours and see some dunes, and car hire was mounting up, as were the stories of unlucky people who got charged for little chips in the car from the dirt roads. It just didn’t seem to be worth it in the end, so we decided to give it a miss.

We stayed a few nights, and booked a bus straight down to Cape Town, having set up a place to couchsurf there. We even enjoyed a bit of normality, going to the cinema…well not entirely normal as it was only £2 to get in!

The bus left in the afternoon, and it was a pretty decent journey the 700km or so down to the border. Quick stamp out at three in the morning and that was it…Namibia done!





Massive seal colony





Hanging out with a Himba, hand in hand