NAMIBIA 2003: Himba's Land

The trip:

This is not exactly a trip organized independently. We supported to Argonauti Explorer: not a traditional tour operator, but a group of travelers who proposed routes and maximum support of correspondents on the spot, the details of the journey are defined by the parent (which is non other than a member who suggests that particular trip) and the group that participates. The choice is, even in retrospect, positive part of Namibia, say traditional (Etosha - Skeleton Coast - Damaraland - Swakopmund - Soussulvlei) could ultimately face quietly by yourself. The visit to Kaokoland, especially the stretch along the Kunene, the valleys of Marienfluss and Hartmann, have needed the support of experienced guides. Possibly at Swakopmund are several agencies that may be contacted, whether on site or via internet, can provide the support for the visit of those territories. Among other Swakopmund is a city that, unlike Windhoek, guarantees a quiet stay and during the preparations for the organization of the trip in Kaokoland, offers many possibilities for excursions in the surroundings.
The guides who accompanied us, and Guss Dirk can be contacted at:
Namibia Explorers PO Box 3190 Swakopmund, Namibia
Tel: 0926464404230 Cell: 0811224651
e-mail: namexp@iway.na.
The site is: http://swakop.com/namexp/index.htm
The streets are discrete, even though most are not paved, and the bottom is almost always good and the car without traction can double walk easily. The only real drawback is represented by the risk of punctures (always 2 wheels, on board!) And the media off-road tires are more resistant (our 3 jeeps have drilled a total of "only" 5 or 6 times). Much attention must be placed within the fuel because the gas stations are very rare.

 

August 2-3
M i l a n - Z u r i c h Swissair
Z u r i c h - D u b a i Emirates
D u b a i - J 'b u r g Emirates
J 'b u r g - W i n d h o e k Namibian A.
The journey is long and tedious, but Emirates, the airline with which we made the two longest, offers a fairly comfortable (even in economy), the airport of Dubai is one interesting stop both for the environment, which for shopping (especially electronic items). In Windhoek, we meet at our guide, Dirk, and Guss, with three off-road on which the load luggage and reach, almost the lodge at sunset, not far from the capital, where we spend the first night in Namibia!
A curiosity: in the airport I changed around € 1000.00 (contribution to the common pot for 4 people) e. .. I emptied the safe! Then the following morning, as well as a stop for a minimum of expenditure in a supermarket lose some 'time in the city because the other group members have not even a Namibian Dollar. The city is, to a superficial analysis, fairly anonymous, and shows a fairly well-being, leaving perplexed fences electrified barbed wire around the houses.

4 agosto
W i n d h o e k - O k a h a n d i a - O u t j o - O k a u k u e j o
( B u n g a l o w )
The road across the island, and not straight through particular landscapes, even if the news means that we are not bored, just outside Windhoek notice a marketplace of crafts. A Outjo Herero meet a lady with her traditional costume, the photographer from a distance because they do not like to get in laying. The road runs along an irrigation canal where groups of kids are swimming and invariably greeted us. Okaukuejo welcomes us with its bungalows Spartans, its excellent buffet restaurant and the most incredible pool where animals come to drink from sunset onwards: it is difficult to break away from a show of its kind to go to sleep!

5 agosto
O k a u k u e j o - H a l a l i - p o z z e v a r i e - N a m u t o n i ( C a m p )
Along the dusty streets of Etosha, including a pool and other entertainment is continuous. Only disappoint the puddle of Namutoni where strangely witnessing a dramatic sunset, but without animals. Sleep in tents, the camp is good, the good, the restaurant always excellent buffet.

6 agosto
N a m u t o n i - p o z z e v a r i e - N a m u t o n i ( C a m p )
The day is dedicated to visiting the park, the only animal that does not see, despite the efforts of Dirk in research is the leopard. The pool of Namutoni, icy, it is welcome after a day immersed in the fine powder of Etosha.

7 agosto
N a m u t o n i - O s h a k a t i - R u a c a n a ( G u e s t h o u s e )
We stop at Oshakati in a supermarket shopping for the period spend in the free camping Kaokoland. There is also a bank with ATM, but the levy limit is very low and therefore we are drawing the long-stop to change the € uro. The supermarket is interesting: The imported products are sold more or less at prices similar to ours, while similar, local or South African, costing less than half. Spending by Dirk and Guss is at least curious: an unknown number of bottles of cognac and Coca Cola!

8 agosto
R u a c a n a - H i p p o ' s p o o l - C u n e n e R i v e r L o d g e - ( C a m p )
Ruacana waterfalls on the Cunene (Ruacana falls), the construction of a dam for producing electricity and for irrigation of the fields has left only the memory. It 'still a curious place: the BP gas station is the last for hundreds of km and sells everything, even antibiotics! After dinner and the night passed in the Guest House, fill tanks and canisters of gas reserves and a significant number of cans of drinking water. We do not know if we can find other first 5 or 6 days. Those who pass along the Kunene. The first stage of the day is on a bend of the Cunene called Hippos pool, but the hippos do not see the track. They, too, they left after the construction of the dam. The road runs along the river, dirt track, but with a smooth bottom and arrive at Camp Cunene River Lodge in the early afternoon. The camp, with a terrace bar on the river has a lush tropical vegetation and gives us an afternoon of pure relaxation. At sunset we participate in a rubber boat down along the Cunene and the title of movement is "Booze trip - cruise with unlimited alcohol"? His only understand the meaning while rafting, rafts already going on, we were divided into two groups: whiskey and gin! And in that moment we began to realize ... but the discovery of large bottles crammed fridge has finally clarified the nature of movement! The sunset over the Cunene remains a pleasant memory of that evening. The return to the Lodge with the off-road makes us start to imagine how the road from there onwards. E 'proprio Camp just after you meet the crossroads called Swartbooi's Drift, where the track bar bends south from there continuing westward along the Cunene towards Epupa Falls, is an indispensable guide. Even Dirk Guss and we spend every year, is directed with a GPS, because the runway after the rainy season and undergoes continuous changes in several traits is unrecognizable.
Barbecue camping (anywhere in Namibia there is a barbecue available) and then a pet carrier in tents in absolute darkness. I wake up in the middle of the night and leave the tent to make two steps e. ..... the starry sky to Cunene River Lodge is an indescribable and unforgettable spectacle! More like we'll see it in the next few days, but the first is almost a shock.

August 9
C u n e n e R i v e r L o d g e - v i l l a g g i H i m b a -
O r o n d i t i ( C a m p i n g L i b e r o )
It starts early, the track is at the limit of percorribilità at several points down from the car and you go on foot. We first meet the Himba who still play the lives of nomadic pastoralists. There are also small Kraal abandoned for one year with another. The villages we encounter consists of a single family or two at most. They are gentle, we are happy to photograph, the head of us armed with a Coltellacci after accepting evidence that small gifts we bring (tobacco, flour, salt ...).
Free camping on the banks of the river where we do the bathroom: Dirk Guss and ensure that where there is no current there are no crocodiles are ...... the bathroom first and then we are quiet.
During the day we met a jeep for a couple of French.

August 10
O r o n d i t i - V i l l a g g i H i m b a - E p u p a f a l l s -
O k a n g w a t i - E t e n g w a ( C a m p i n g L i b e r o )
Even meetings with small groups of Himba, now feel their approach to the rancid perfume of the mixture of clay and butter that women will spread everywhere: on the skin, hair, skirt the goat. We make a stop in Epupa Falls where you can swim (sort of violent whirlpool). The waterfalls are impressive and we are in the dry season. A Epupa you arrive, as well as the track along the Kunene (east-west) with a good dirt road (south-north), there is a beautiful camp in the palm grove on the banks of the river, and who meet the Himba are "civilized." In fact, the women selling small items and demand a fee for the photos, the men are drunk. This is the impact of civilization on a population such as the Himba! It is said that the city of Opuwo is worse.
A Epupa is planned the construction of a dam in joint venture with Angola, the project is likely to determine the disappearance of a very interesting landscape, but above all, flooding the land where the Himba play their existence of nomadic pastoralists, jeopardizes their very existence condemn the effects of "civilization" forced out are not ready and they do not know what to take.
We find our campsite at French friends who are in trouble because they have both laundry wheels. Dirk Guss and with few tools to dismantle the fortune from the rims and repair.
Let us go to camp after a few hours in the sandy bed of a dried river, surrounded by a forest of mopani. The barbecue is powered by a wood harvest mopani dry after a thorough search by Dirk, who seems to be the best wood for the fire. In fact, the morning there are still embers for coffee.

August 11
E t e n g w a - V a n Z y l P a s s - M a r i e n f l u s s ( C a m p )
The track becomes more and more toward the bumpy Pass Van Zyl, this step is just to go from east to west. In practice, we arrive at step dall'altipiano and from here you descend into the valley of Marienfluss. Conversely, uphill, it would not even address it with a jeep. The descent, we do all the walking, except that Martin remains in the car with Guss to be tossed: the slopes are from "ottovolante" and the bottom is the worst you can imagine, in fact we "pedestrian" come out of the descent first machine. The view from the Marienfluss step is a show that will be renewed for kilometer after kilometer across the plains until the Kunene camp where we will spend the night. The word camp is a group of acacias under each of which is a tap water unfit for drinking and the inevitable space for the fire. The "services" and the showers are arranged in a Separè of reeds no door ...... At Camp is coming from a north-south runway to go from a good off-road without the tracks, are in fact the pitch alongside a Group Adventures in the World.

12 agosto
M a r i e n f l u s s - K u n e n e p o o l s - R e d D r u m -
H a r t m a n n V a l l e y ( C a m p i n g F r e e )
It riattraversa from north to south the Marienfluss with its endless landscapes, meet sprigbocks, giraffes, ostriches, and the splendid orix until fork called Red Drum (so called by the presence of a barrel of petrol painted red), a Then we turn west towards the Hartmann Valley, which runs parallel to Marienfluss and also ends on Kunene. The Hartmann Valley is a territory owned by an agency Svakopmund who accompanies tourists on photographic safari. To access it you must have a permit that Dirk has procured for us. The valley, like the splendid Marienfluss, ending in a magnificent desert dunes that slope steeply to the river. On the other side of the river can be seen, arid and mountainous Angola. Spend the night camped on the dunes in the first most absolute solitude. Some tracks that Dirk oath to be a cheetah we recommend installing the curtains stuck one to another; Dirk has the air of laughing under his whiskers, but ... In the morning walk on the dunes to the river with the cool of ' Dawn is happy to walk, the return is now at noon sfacchinata genuine. The drinking water is warm and after a few bad days in jerricans. Even our food supplies are scarce and we eat some box and paste dried.

13 agosto
H a r t m a n n V a l l e y - D u n e - K u n e n e - H a r t m a n n
V a l l e y - O r u p e m b e ( C a m p )
Again, in the afternoon, the entire valley and we stop for a well to fill the jerry cans of fresh water (from drinking). Meet the Himba past from which we buy some artefacts (bracelets, baskets, and a tremendous bucket sprinkled the usual mixture of rancid butter, that tying off the machine - I think that Dirk would not go up there with what he calls the "smell of Himba" !). The camp is the most spartan, you can imagine, the best nights free camping.

14 agosto
O r u p e m b e - P u r r o s - s a f a r i e l e p h a n t s ( H o a r u s i b r i v e r )
( C a m p )
Short transfer to Camp Purros: a true luxury camping with showers and toilets with running water and doors! Inquieta some 'the sign that warns of the potential transfer of elephants between the curtains ... In fact this is one of the two areas outside of parks where you can see elephants free and dedicate the afternoon, along the bed almost completely dry, dell'Uarusib looking elephant with very disappointing results. We follow more or less tracks the recent passage of groups also consist of these animals, but elephants do not see. Dirk promises to lead us in the coming days sull'Ugab river where we have a second chance.

15 agosto
P u r r o s - S e s f o n t e i n - T w y f e l f o n t e i n ( C a m p )
Let us return towards more populated areas; Sesfontein is an old German fort converted into a lodge with a petrol pump and several shops. The area reminds Saharan oasis, but for those who come, like us, from 8 days of "nothing" seems like a metropolis: there is a bar where they drink a cold drink and a small supermarket where to buy such things. Landscape (we enter the Damaraland), although very dusty it is always interesting and is characterized by very peculiar rock formations.

16 agosto
T w y f e l f o n t e i n - P e t r i f i e d f o r e s t - B u r n t m o u n t a i n -
O r g a n p i p e s - R o c k p a i n t i n g s - B r a n d b e r g ( C a m p )
We visit the Petrified Forest, Burnt Mountain, the pipe organ, which are the main attractions of Damaraland and we climbed up to visit the prehistoric cave paintings are accompanied by a friendly guide Damara, who besides us admire the works painted by the people St about 6000 years ago, gives us a taste of the Damara language made of snaps with the language that will certainly make it difficult to learn, but definitely interesting to hear. The last two camps are now equipped with amenities like showers with hot water, bathrooms with running water and campsites with barbecue.

17 agosto
B r a n d b e r g - s a f a r i e l e p h a n t s ( U g a b R i v e r ) - C a p e c r o s s (c o l o n i a o t a r i e ) - H e n t i e s B a y - S w a k o p m u n d ( B u n g a l o w)
In the morning we first Jeep with a bed almost dry dell'Ugab following the trail of the elephants, and when Dirk became convinced that they now close, we walk forward into the thicket. It 'difficult to express the emotion (and even some' fear!) Encounter with a huge group of elephants, especially near and far without the fragile but reassuring protection of the body of the car as all'Etosha. We say that is because of emotion that I was not able to change the film in time and I have not even a picture of these animals ...
We try to reach the coast, following the bed dell'Ugab River, but the water increases and we remain bogged to the point of having to retrace our steps and reach Cape Cross after an extensive tour. On the coast there is fog and cold, and the colony of seals is impressive and even the smell. Henties Bay is a holiday town with many attractions from our point of view: it is the local sport fishing. On the contrary it is very interesting Swakopmund with its German-style houses on the edge of the desert. Even in the main streets meet people dressed in true Bavarian style. Our bungalow, rather Spartan, in a village protected by barbed wire, after ten days of tent seem hotels 5stars. Not to mention the excellent buffet restaurant at the old railway station where, after our move, I think that may have revised the formula at a fixed price!

18 agosto
S w a k o p m u n d - M o o n l a n d s c a p e - W e l v i s c h i a d r i v e -
S p i t z k o p p e ( s u n s e t ) - S w a k o p m u n d ( B u n g a l o w )
One-day trip around Swakopmund, say the highlight is undoubtedly the least publicized: the Spitzkoppe. The walk at sunset among the red granite of Spitzkoppe has an almost magical. Even the sight of the mountain that rises in the middle of the dusty plains of Damaraland, rather than the Matterhorn, as some guides suggest, is to think of Ayers Rock. But when I parked the car, there goes between the huge boulders of granite, mostly round, when climbing on rocks that have a particular sound, as if they were hollow, when we sit on the warm granite, in absolute silence, admiring the sunset in the background of the endless bush, then the similarities with the magic stone of Aboriginal Australians are becoming more evident. In return, an accomplice, yet boring, let's make a meeting, adding grounds for reflection to a day already made special by the visit to Spitzkoppe, as often happens in Africa, out of nowhere appears a little boy: about 12 or 13 years, well dressed, speaks good English, because I studied in school, has a car in wire self that has something brilliant (amortized and fully functional steering!) and after some talking to get 4 or 5 cans of meat type pressatella (Sesfontein where to buy there was more), which my children now refuse to eat. This small gift should be something that we can not even imagine it to hard to believe that they are for him and then convinced of this, runs away happy disappearing into thin air from which he had arrived. His last words: I go home to eat with my porridge! Sorry not to have a photo to remember it better.

19 agosto
S w a k o p m u n d - g i o r n a t a l i b e r a - S w a k o p m u n d
( B u n g a l o w )
Swakopmund is a pleasant little town: good shops, nice cafes, a promenade with palms, craft markets oggettini and then the rest of the day we wanted. From Swakopmund small touring planes lead to see the dunes and Sesriem Skeleton Coast, but the trip is not for me. Dinner at home by Dirk where we are all invited to a traditional barbecue.

20 agosto
S w a k o p m u n d - W a l v i s b a y ( p i n k f l a m i n g o s ) -
D u n a 7 - V o g e l f e d e r b e r g - S o l i t a i r e -
S e s r i e m ( C a m p )
Is again in the early morning, the first step is Walvis Bay, midway between the port city and resort vacation, in the lagoon there is a large colony of pink flamingos. The Dune 7 is a po 'a taste of what will be the desert of the Namib to Sesriem. Along the way we stop to see the trees quiver (kokerboom), typical aloe growing in the Namib desert in addition to botanical peculiarities that we found so far: the prehistoric welvischie, the majestic baobab, mopani the ubiquitous, typical of acacias savanna. A stage is suggestive Solitaire: a service station with an adjoining bar-restaurant-bungalows with a special atmosphere. You can not pass here without tasting the Apfelstrudel Solitaire!
The Sesriem campsite is strategic for visiting the park of the dunes of Sossusvlei, just because from here you can see the sun rise from dune 45 (45 means that the entrance of the park there are 45km of paved road, but full of holes) . Night in the tent is very cold and will think twice before you repeat the experience. A bungalow is certainly preferable.

21 agosto
S e s r i e m - a l b a d u n a 4 5 - N a r a V l e i - S o s s u s v l e i -
D e a d v l e i - H i d d e n v l e y - t r a m o n t o - S e s r i e m ( C a m p )
The dawn to dune 45 is certainly an impressive spectacle, even if partially damaged by wind chill. The visit of Vlei (depressions between the dunes) climbing a sand dune to another unforgettable day mark of this trip. E 'I need a jeep for the last parking space for the normal car is far from the most interesting. Even so, the walk on the sand is long and tiring. Let's go back to the dune evening 45 photos of the sunset.

22 agosto
S e s r i e m - S e s r i e m C a n y o n - S o l i t a i r e -
N a u c h a s ( L o d g e )
The stop in Nauchas, in a farmhouse, it offers an insight into the life of a Namibian farm: the electric current from a generator, is separated at 23, the hot water coming from boiler fueled by wood. The power of the burner is virtually continuous and is guaranteed by a girl who made the move from wood to the boiler, for what we can see, practically all day, dinner and breakfast will be conducted in the dining room of the farm a very afrikaan. Even the surroundings of the house are very suggestive: it can make many walks through the bush, the trails are well marked, but within minutes we found just immersed in nature.

23 agosto
N a u c h a s - M e l r o s e f a r m ( c h e e t a s ) - W i n d h o e k
The visit to Melrose Farm allows you to see and photograph a group of cheetahs in semi, the animals are beautiful, really have a lot of space (the end of the fence do not see), but it is always an enclosure, the zoo effect leaves a veil of melancholy, or perhaps it is the end of the trip? I am sure that the visit 20 days ago would have elicited a different enthusiasm ...... Around Windhoek find the paved road. The aeroroporto is about 40 km outside the city.

23- 24 agosto
W i n d h o e k - J ' b u r g Namibian A.
J ' b u r g - D u b a i Emirates A.
D u b a i - F r a n c o f o r t e Emirates A.
F r a n c o f o r t e - M i l a n o Alitalia