In Namibia now

Some background...
We have left Zambia behind us and entered a whole new world. As soon as we cross the border a Katima Mulilo, we find ourselves in the northeastern part of Nambia, the Caprivistrip. On our left hand is Botswana, on our right first Zambia, then Angola. The sun is bright and accentuates the fine white dust, the green trees, the yellow grass and the blue sky. We follow a black line of tarred road for a couple of hundred kilometers. The road seems to go on forever. At the side of the road you encounter the occasional cows, people walking and now and then some square mud huts which resemble a village. Namibia is empty. The country is 20x the size of Holland with less then 2 million people living in it.

Namibia has been colonized first by the Portuguese and later on by the Germans. Somewhere after WOII it has been taken over by South-Africa. The German influence, although they only ruled here for about 30 years, is visible everywhere. Not only because of the ‘biergartens’ in town or the bratwurst, but also in architecture and language. You can speak German, Africaans or English everywhere. Very funny to encounter some of the locals and they start talking German or Afrikaans to us!
Namibia has only been independent since 1990 (most other Southern African countries in the sixties). A lot of bad things have happened here as well under the rule of the ‘white’. I would not even know where to start. The good thing though has been the influence on infrastructure. The roads are incredible! Not a pothole to be found. A real delight after the terrible roads in Zambia.

We have an agreement with Bertha now. We will keep an average of about 75 km an hour or less, and she will not let us down. It seems to work. And at that speed you can enjoy the scenery. At that speed you can count all the trees, but hey, it’s going well. Pang’ono pang’ono. After we drove about 1000 km in two days from Livingstone, we settled ourselves at a nice place called Roy’s camp, near Grootfontein. We read in the Bible (Lonely Planet) that from there you could go in to the bush with the Bushmen or San.

Ju/’Hoansi-San
It turned out that the San now organize this themselves and have established what they call a ‘living museum’. A small village where the old and modern ways mix.
The San have a long history as well which, sadly, nowadays ends with the fact that they have been chased out of their homelands and no longer can continue the lifestyle as it used to be.
The main aim at the village is is: to teach visitors and also our children about the life of our forefathers, so that our skills can survive in a modern society.
Their official name is Ju/’Hoansi-San (please pronounce the ‘clicks’ where appropriate). The San or Bushmen live mostly in Botswana and Namibia. They are nomadic following animals, water and edible plants. They live from hunting and gathering. There is no leadership, no chiefs. They don’t own land, animals or crops and have few or none personal possessions. They live in harmony. They are known for their incredible eyesight, keen sense of hearing and direction and are considered to be the best trackers in the world. They speak the click-language known as ‘khoisan’.

So with this background we enter the village. We see a lot of small huts made out of plastic or carton. We stop the car and a small guy (they are quite short) in an Adidas shirt and jeans walks towards us. He introduces himself as Ste-in and in perfect English he explains the aims of their project. He calls a friend (click-clack-click) and another guy in traditional outfit (goatskin) leads the way.
We are taken to the traditional village where woman, babies, kids and men are all doing their thing. Ste-in joins us again, but is now wearing his traditional outfit as well.
We are introduced and it is clear within minutes that we are just joining in their daily routine.
Some men are making fire and Tinus joins them. They show how to use the fire-stick and voilá, men create fire!
A small group of men and women and us walk into the bush. The medicine man of the village explains about some plants. This one is good against stomach ache. This one is good against throat ache. While we get the speed course of medicinal plants, the woman are standing a little bit further away, busy clicking and laughing away. It’s unbelievable just to stand here and actually be part of this!
But first we have to find some roots. At the base of a, to me, random bush they start digging and suddenly pull out some roots. Good against the thirst. But better if you put them in hot coils. They find many roots and Tinus also digs and pulls them out (I was holding the camera). They also find some dried berries which taste like raisins. Gathering experience succeeded. Back to the village.
In the village the atmosphere is really relaxed. Everybody is doing their own thing, not bothered in any way by those silly tourists. We hear a lot of laughing and people busy talking everywhere. These people have humor. At a certain point when we are sitting together in a circle, sharing a pipe, we see a group of tourists a little bit further away. One of the San makes a big puffy face and with his hands he imitates tusks, followed by the sound of a pig, referring to one of the tourists with a beard and a big face. The whole group bursts out laughing!!!

Tinus joins the men to make his own bow. He has just chopped a small branch in the bush and now step 2. Making the rope. The aim is to roll the fibers of a certain plant over your leg. Ah, but Tinus’ teacher notices a difficulty. Tinus’ legs have hairs. He checks the upper leg. Nope. He checks the ankle…nope. He sighs, too many hairs, he has to shave haha. San-men don’t have hairs on their legs.
In the meantime I’m busy with the ladies. They are showing me which seeds they use to make jewelry. From ostrich eggs, they also make little beads. You have to take a little piece and make it round. Then with an arrow you make a hole in it. The whole process is monitored by my San coaches. Only when it’s perfect I can continue to the next one!

We spend the whole morning with them and learn a lot! In the afternoon we are picked up to join the games like jumping rope and dancing. And during the whole day we have a lot of fun!

The line between ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ is so thin here, it does not really make a difference for them. I ask Ste-in which way he prefers, and he says: what does it matter? It’s the same. The sun rises every morning and sets every night.

Although they have been forced to live under the circumstances they do, they still have the ownership of their culture which has survived thousands of years. With this in mind I fall asleep under a blanket of thousands of stars in the Namibian sky.

Grootfontein
We drive to Grootfontein with the idea to get some money at the bank, fill up the diesel and continue to Etosha. When we arrive in Grootfontein, everything is closed. How strange, and that on a Saturday. But this is the proof that travel mode has set in, because we have lost track of days and dates now. Time we left behind somewhere in Malawi already; we are awake when the sun rises and go to bed when we are tired. It turns out that today is Sunday ;).
So we settle in at a new small campsite. Just as well, cause Tinus is not feeling very well. Within an hour we decide it is malaria. He takes the medication and sleeps the rest of the day and night.

Etosha
Next morning he feels somewhat better, but not good enough to drive. So I drive Bertha to Etosha! Whoohoo, girlpower!
Etosha is said to be one of the most beautiful wildlife reserves in Africa and our expectations are high! Unfortunately we can’t spend the night in one of the camps in the park, because they are all fully booked for the rest of the week. We could get a room for only US$300. No way! Okay then, that’s a problem for later, let’s just go in and spot some wildlife!
The landscape of Etosha is beautiful. Etosha means something like ‘big white place of dry water’ and that’s the centre of the park. A huge area of salt desert. Along the edges is all the wildlife in open plains or areas with thickets. Within minutes we see the famous oryx or gemsbok. A beautiful big antelope with big sharp horns. The first day brings a lot more of new species for us: springbok, black-faced impala, black-backed jackal, damara dik-dik, ostrich and a big bird called the kori bustard. And that was besides the many giraffes, elephants, zebra, etc. Even malaria-Tinus felt much better afterwards!
We find a campsite some 30 km outside (Sachsenheim Camp) and spend the night there.
I and Bertha had a good bonding day ;) We also feel very proud when some big though-looking bikers walk up to us and express their respect that there are still people driving around in an old Landy ;)

The next day we go back to Etosha again and drive around all day. It turns out the campsite at Halali still has (plenty of) space, so we change our plan and spend the night there. We book a night drive, because we still want to see some lions! And with the big open plains here, that should be easy at night!
The night drive starts at 8pm and we are the only ones. We are taken by a funny guide and his friend who talk a lot. Unfortunately for us but fortunately for the animals, they use a red light instead of a big spotlight. So much for far sight. We drive around for a total of 3,5 hours and see 1 leopard and 1 hyena, and some black rhino, but all from a big distance.
When we get back at the camp at about 11.30 pm my eyes hurt from spotting all day! A little bit disappointed we go to bed to sleep in the next day.

We start slowly the next day and only drive off mid morning. Convincing each other that it could always be possible to see lions, that it’s just a matter luck, etc. But we didn’t really believe it anymore.
We drive to a waterhole where big herds of springbok, gemsbok, zebra and ostriches were all crowded around the water. Suddenly all animals were startled by something and ran away. I thought it was because of our car approaching, but Tinus said: Look in the distance! And there they were, a pride of 9 lions (4 male, 5 female) approached the waterhole in a single file. We watched them for about half an hour while they drank and walked off to some shade in a hole under the road. It was absolutely amazing! Especially the beautiful alpha male! Tinus was besides himself of excitement and I heard his camera clicking away with the speed of lightning! I was busy trying to hold my camera steady. Yep, we have lots of proof! Thank you Etosha!

As a confirmation that we are really lovers of all mammals, reptiles, insects and birds alike, we also stopped for another animal and watched it for about 10 minutes with amazement and delight as well. The famous ground squirrel ;) It has a big fluffy tail which it can use as an umbrella. Quite nifty. Okay, not with exactly the same excitement as seeing a pride of 9 lions drinking, but still ;)

Rock paintings in Uis
We left Etosha and drove in two days via Outjo to Uis, where the Brandberg is. This route took us straight through Damaraland. It’s called after the Damara, another tribe in Malawi.
Damaraland is also absolutely stunning. Wide open spaces of yellow grass with in the distance a mountain plateau. This plateau known as ‘Brandberg’ is actually our destination for the day. Formed about 120 million years ago by a volcano, it is now famous for its rock paintings. There is still much debate about the people who actually made them, but most proof points towards the San, who used this mountain area as their dry-season refuge.

On our way we stopped along the road and Tinus marked the spot…we have driven exactly 5000km!!! Open the bottle of…eh, water! Okay, and some extra oil for Bertha. Wahoo.

Arriving at the base of Brandberg Plateau, we get a guide and start walking trough the scenic landscape of red granite rocks and black volcanic boulders. And there it is. It’s actually a lot of different paintings. Some small reddish stick figures are estimated to be about 5000 years old. On the same rock we see some bigger paintings in different red and white colors. Paintings of medicine men (one is famous and wrongly called ‘the white lady’), gemsbok, zebra, wildebeest, and more. These area about 2000 years ld. It’s bizarre to actually think that some 5000 years ago somebody sat here and painted that! Who was that, and why? Just for fun? For a reason? Seeing stuff like that actually raises more questions then they answer. Very interesting.

Feeling philosophical
The next morning we continue our journey. We drive towards the west now, to the Atlantic Ocean. The landscape changes again and all we can see is wide spaces of white sand. That’s it! The road is made of white gravel. Now and then we see a bush. The sky is blue and it’s just us and this enormous space! It makes you feel very tiny. This is where big questions enter your mind. Driving here makes so much sense. You feel one with nature and actually come to the conclusion that this is all you need. Why are we always rushing, developing, bigger, better, more? I don’t get the idea that it makes me any happier if I swop my tv for a flatscreen. Or get e newer I-pod. It does make me happy when I sit in the bush, looking in the flames of a campfire, listening to the sound s of the nature. Because that’s when peace enters my mind. How much does a person really need to be happy? Family, friends, shelter and food. But less is more I guess, and that’s when I understand that the San are so right. They have maintained the same way of living for the last thousands of years, and why would you change something which is already perfect?

I write this down, because I know when I get back to Europe, I will easy get back in my old patterns again. Because that’s the only way to survive in Europe. But it’s good to sit down and do nothing once in a while, and just stare in the flames of a fire ;)

Seals, seals, seals
Okay, so much for the philosophical part, we are on our way to the Atlantic. Suddenly we see this big grey mass in front of us. We made it!!! And it’s freezing cold! The blue sky is gone and it’s overcast now. Even Tinus puts on a sweater! We drive towards Cape Cross, where a seal colony of about 150.000 seals is. I can tell you, that’s a lot! And they stink! Big-time! Seals everywhere! And also a lot of black-backed jackals that eat them. We spend about an hour there until I can’t take the smell anymore, but it was very impressive!

Swakopmund
And now we are in Swakopmund. A funny German town right at the shore of the Atlantic. A lot of funny German houses in all colors of the rainbow. Everything is so perfect, clean and nice here; I actually think we suddenly have entered the main street of EuroDisney or something.
When we arrived it was still cold and grey, nothing like the subtropical paradise I expected it to be! Brrrr. We found a nice campsite called Sea Gull’s Camp 50 meters from the ocan, where we parked Bertha.
After the beautiful sunset (which is as late as 7 pm!) we go to a restaurant. Again haha. We eat a lot outdoors in Nambia, because the prices are reasonable and the meat is so good! All game-steaks, like kudu, springbok and gemsbok! Today we find ourselves in a seafood restaurant and we order a seafoodplatter for two. My god. The plate that arrives has half the ocean on it! Calamari, different white fish, mussels, oysters, gambas and a whole lobster! WOW! And ‘weissbier’!!! This is paradise!

While I’m writing this huge blog (but a lot has happened and it has been over a week since the last update), the sun has come out and the weather is beautiful. Tinus is fixing some stuff on Bertha again and the next couple of days we’re gonna stay here and enjoy the Ocean.

Half way
We have finalized our route back. After we reach the Soussusvlei we will continue to Windhoek, then cross Botswana using the Trans-Kalahari Highway, entering South-Africa at Lobatse. Through Pretoria, Nelspruit and then into Mozambique. Maputo, continue north along the coastline and enter Malawi from the bottom. We estimated that’s about 5100 km from here. We have driven about 5400 now, so we are half way!

Lots of love,
Amy and Tinus

PS Bertha is doing great!
PPS We partied til 2am last night and are suffering from a tiny hangover, but hey, what a better place to be than at the beach?!