Etosha Game Park

From the town of Opowu we travelled on to the Etosha Game Park, and from then on we saw animals, animals, animals. The first sighting of a zebra, an elephant, a giraffe, was quite thrilling. But now we have seen hundreds of thousands of zebras, hundred of elephants, and many giraffes. It has been an exhilarating time as we have done game drive after game drive. I shall download some images for you in my next blog, but probably I will not be able to do captions, so bear with me. I am just uploading a photo of an iconic African tree for now.

The Himba people

We visited an interesting tribe of people who live incredibly simple and unworldly lives in Northern Namibia. They are the Himba people. They live totally without amenities as we know them, in their compounds of huts, covering themselves with ochre to protect themselves from the environment, with hairstyles that they redo three times a year, and eating a diet mainly of maize as they tend their goats and cattle for a livelihood. But strangely they are quite happy and totally unfazed to receive us as visitors with all our camera gear. They smile and go about their daily activities. We brought food for them as "payment". Our guide was a young Himba man, with some education - most of them never go to any kind of school - and he told us all about their culture. Our visit was very respectful, and to my surprise I felt quite comfortable among these pleasant and primitive people. By the way, the blogger system seems to have changed, and I can no longer type in captions.

Internet up and running again

Hello all: We are now in Botswana, and the internet connection seems to be pretty good for a change. Hurrah! Anyway, I think the post that I tried to make earlier this month has now actually gone through. So this is just to let you know that I shall process some more photos about our amazing adventures and will post again tomorrow. We are here at this very glamorous lodge for several days and will be going on on game drives, and boat trips on the Chobe River. Hippos and crocodiles are now in my sights, after surfeit of elephants and zebras (millions of them) and giraffes and such like. So watch this space! Margaret

Zebras, Elephants and Giraffes

 Hello all:

The amazing adventure continues.  Our bus with us 15 stalwart photographers, our resourceful guide, and superb driver, continues to rattle and rumble and roll Northwards as we travel great distances across the vast Namibian desert with roads that are simply compacted sand.  First great plains, then great mountain passes, have all been traversed, with an enormous variety of interesting sights along the way.  We have seen the Skeleton Coast, so called because of the many ships that are blown onto the hundreds of miles of beaches, and are left to rot gradually in the sand, rather than be broken up on rocks as in other parts of the world.  We saw an 80 - 300 thousand strong seal colony, and now have gradually reached the tropical area of the country where at last we have seen zebras, giraffes, and elephants and many other exotic animals.  We are now near the Angolan border, and tomorrow we enter Etosha Game Park where there will be animals, animals, animals to feast our eyes, and our cameras, upon.  I have passed the fitness test!  I went on a 5k hike into the bush in the searing desert heat, scambling over sand and rocks, to reach some 2,000 year old cave carvings. It was 38 degrees, they said, in full sun, and it took a full gallon of water to rehydrate.  But I did it!  Another great adventure was going on an elephant-hunt in a special open top vehicle, equipped with huge wheels to traverse deep sand and boggy marshes alike.  There was much excitement as we came across a family of about 20 elephants making their lumbering way down a valley, breaking off branches to eat as they went.  Helping a local group get their broken down vehicle moving again was part of the adventure, and it was all finished off with the sighting of masses of  baboons scrambling over vertical rock faces.

Giraffes came, and zebras came, as on we travelled onwards.  There is so much to tell, and it is impossible to do more than just glaze over the highlights.  A special activity yesterday was a visit to a local school, which is oh so poor, and oh so lacking in the basics.  We gave them pens and footballs and all sorts of school supplies, but they need so much more.  We will have to do something on a continuous basis.  It is a harsh, dry land, and the people are very poor.  Many of them live as they have done for hundreds of years, and I will try to tell you more about that in my next blog.  For the time being, here are a few photos.

A 2008 wreck on the Skeleton Coast.  Many others are much older and more skeleton like

A cute Cape fur seal on the skeleton coast

The harsh terrain of the 5k hike - on and on, up and down

2,000 year old rock carvings, that I trudged to see

Desert elephants - a thrilling encounter for us

Some of our group managed, eventually, to help get this vehicle going again

The view from the (rather glamorous) tent we stayed in at one lodge

I had my photo taken with a Herrero woman.  They wear these clothes every day!

A typical little Namibian hut, with the livestock close by

A Namibian boy and his horse - we had fun with him and his friends for a while

One of a splendid herd of zebras we came across

An oryx grazing

A giraffe - I've been waiting all these days to be able to catch sight of these magnificent animals

Some of the cheerful children at the school we visited

Some of the mothers.  They were visiting to pay the school fees for the coming term - less than $10, which is all they can afford.  The football is one of the new ones we brought for the kids.  They wear these costumes every day!

Internet problems

Hello all:

Many apologies for not posting.  We are really in the wilds now.  Elephants, rhinos, giraffes, zebras, warthogs, antelopes - on and on, we are feasting our eyes and cameras.  But the internet is very, very spasmodic.  A few days ago I posted quite a long blog with lots of photos, but it never went.  Tonight I have spent an hour trying to get on to this posting site, and can only hope that at least this goes.  I dare not even try to show you some of the amazing photos I have.

Needless to say, we are having a fantastic time.  Every day is filled with fascinating  new experiences.  Today's highlight was seeing all the animals at various waterholes during our game-drive.  How wonderful seeing twenty elephants drinking, with all the giraffes, zebras, springbok, etc. waiting their turn and showing due deference to these huge beasts.

Photos will come later, I promise.  But for now I had better sign off and see if this will go. Hopefully tomorrow will be the first sighting of lions.  Leopards and cheetahs are a bit too elusive, but we have a good guide, and he will try for us.

Will write again when I can.  Margaret