Vern.
We’ve spent the past week on a self-drive camping
safari. Armed with a 4x4 'bakkie' (a double cab truck with rooftop tents! See Cooper's post above for pix) and a battery of rented camping gear, we ventured forth to
explore the wilds of the Kalahari in northern and western Namibia.
We’ve
added to our Botswana sightings of elephants, zebra, wildebeest and giraffe,
and were hugely excited to view several rhinos, completing our set of the “Big
5” (the five most coveted animals that visitors strive to see: elephant, lion, rhino, leopard, buffalo).
We spent a fascinating morning with a Himba tribe at their remote village, learning their customs and daily routine.
We spent a fascinating morning with a Himba tribe at their remote village, learning their customs and daily routine.
One of our self-drive campsites stands out in
particular. (It was Cooper's favourite, as he mentions above in his post.) The desert region southwest
of Etosha National Park contains an area punctuated by outcroppings of huge,
smooth boulders. It’s as if giants used
the place for a game of marbles, left them all behind, and went home (this
based on the fact that we saw no giants during our stay). The designers of Hoada camp cleverly incorporated
the unique natural features into their fully-plumbed sites. You meander through house-sized boulders to
your outdoor shower. Our private,
outdoor, flush toilet was nestled between two similarly huge stones. The camp
even included a small swimming pool situated – you guessed it – amongst prehistoric
mounds of granite.
One unexpected feature of our site was the nighttime
critters brought out by the combination of rock and desert sand. Cleaning up from dinner one night, a massive
centipede skittered across the ground of our eating area. It was followed in short order by a large and
aggressive spider, with a creepy yellow colour.
After the first quick glance, Carolyn asked Cooper if he was sure it
wasn’t a scorpion, to which Coop replied: “No, it’s a spider. That’s a scorpion over there.” Sure enough, resting directly on the path to our tents was a giant scorpion. We were very happy with the fact that our
tents are on the roof of our 4x4.
The geography of Namibia continues to surprise and impress
us. We’ll shortly be driving south
through the country and into South Africa, where we are looking forward to
spending time in Cape Town.
Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our world trip so far: Trip Photo Album
No comments:
Post a Comment