24 July
Another early start leaving Swakopmund, as we went out of town was saw these brightly painted houses of various shapes, our guide said they were Fishermen’s houses. This house is in the shape of a boat.
We stopped of at this ship wreck and these guys were selling the usual stuff but had made up a skeleton on the beach out of seal bones and the sign “Skeleton Beach” as this is the name of this infamous shore line known for numerous ship wrecks.
At the same place was two vehicles that had crashed into each other, no one was hurt and they were waiting for a tow wagon.
This trip just get more and more interesting we travelled on a really rutty road, we are getting used to the distances and early mornings, we have to go and do the activities as it is getting quite hot in the afternoons.
We had to buy some fire wood for the BBQ, one pile 380 rand about 4 USD from the roadside.
I decided to flag the first hike as it was over really rough stones and my ankles are really sore from the boat ride, flat walking is okay.
My job was to help Dave prepare lunch I got to do piles of spuds and lots of fresh salad, Dave was a chef before he became the driver and the food is amazing, we picked up another 6 yesterday Another German teacher with his wife and 4 daughters, really nice people.
Tony and Karen enjoyed the walk The White Lady rock paintings turned out to be a black man, situated in the Brandberg Mountain it is a spiritual place for the San bushman. Driving back towards our next stop we saw a giraffe, in the wild what a thrill as there are not many left out here.
While driving down the road this tall fella popped up. We were so pleased to see the Giraffe that was out free not in a park but roaming.
Next stop the Herero ladies they were making souvenirs to sell with old sewing machines, the dolls are all in coloured clothes and very pretty, but the neatest thing was the children running around, one little girl aged 2 had a black doll she was cuddling, her mother was dressed in the traditional long frock and hat, The men are farmers, mainly of goats but saw a few cattle around, tall lean people quiet and friendly.
Then it was onto the Lodge for the day at Kamanjab where we were treated to a school choir who sung
to us just prior to dinner, the indigenous people of
After dinner Dave and Felix had the guitar and drum out and we enjoyed their songs around a camp fire.
25 July
We had a beautifully set up table in our
lodgings for breakfast and another nice stay. We set out for a petrified
Forrest and after and hours drive arrived at this
It was another pounding trip on a rough road passing termite mounds./
After lunch we continued to the Himba
tribal community, these people speak in the popping and clicking manner as they are all part of the San tribal
group. They live in the traditional way and the community was set up for
orphans and unwed mothers so that they had a place to stay. 
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There is a huge cultural gap between our western life style and the lifestyle they are pursuing and we questioned our being at their village and the impact that it has on them. However they need our money and it is a way that they can get it to go to western doctors they said was the reason, there was a teenage girl with a very moderate cleft palate and I wondered if that would every get fixed, change is inevitable for them also. We certainly found it hard to understand how the ladies can never wash, cover themselves in mud. To cleanse themselves they sit over burning cinders and wood in a small bake bean size can and let the smoke waft around them.
Their dread locks had plastic extensions using fibres from plastic sugar sacks.
They slept on an animal hide or blanket and there was no furniture so they sat in the dirt and slept on the dirt floor with rudimentary fires outside to cook on. The women did all the work around the village and the men looked after their cattle. They had a school for conventional education and also had their tribal education in the village. Some children are sent away to a government school and board at the Government school. We asked them what was the average length of life and they said 75 years for women and 80 years for men. We asked them why there were no old men at the village and were told they were sent to a retirement home.
We were having a bit of a discussion within ourselves about pros and cons of being here and noticed on of the female guides listening in so invited her to the conversation and it was concluded that it was a complex situation with no real solution.
We went to the local store and got them a 10 kilo bag of sugar 10 kilo of maize; they make traditional type porridge with it, some biscuits chippies and coloured and plain pencils and writing paper for the school children.
After the Himba tribe we went to our Motel and while having dinner another group of youths came to sing and dance for us also dragging up the young ladies in our group to dance.
26 July
We travelled to
Then we did a game drive in our truck saw heaps of animals including more herds of Giraffes, Wildebeests and Zebras.
While dinner was being prepared went to watch a water hole and saw two Elephants arrive and then a Rhinos arrived and the Elephants drove him off by sucking up water and hosing him with his trunk. It was funny for us but not for Rhino, he threw a little tantrum and turned his back and trotted off. The Elephant then held his trunk up in triumph.
27 July
530am start, breakfast and a game drive with all the usual animals yesterday was a day to see many Giraffes but today was a day to see many Elephants as well as the usual.
Lunch was in the same park but at a different lodge and after lunch it was back in the truck for more game and bird watching with a specific look for Lions as we had not seen any in the park but this was to be more elephants.
They had a Zebra crossing in the park.
Dave took us to see the salt pan for some picture.
Then was said hello to this guy.
We had one very close encounter with a grumpy bull Elephant, as we were cruising down the road looking for lions this big bull was walking towards us and it appeared he had the intention to cross the road and if we continued on we would have been on a collision course so Dave stopped the truck. Rather than cross in front of us the bull then decided to have a go at us and displaying all the signs of aggression, musk running from behind his ears, ears out, head down and the Elephants direction had changed towards us. Dave started to back up the truck and the Elephant increase his pace towards us to a trot. We continued backwards for some distance with the Elephant only a couple of meters from us before the old boy ran out of breath slowed and crossed the road. It was a very exciting moment for all and the relief was clear on the faces of all. However our group of us three, two Swiss girls, Kristopher and Dave the driver and Felix the interpreter had all remained calm during the experience clicking away with the cameras but afterwards we all laughed and chatted away with relief.
That night after the BBQ we returned to another water hole to see numerous animals and the calves at the water hole. The baby elephants were great entertainment rolling around in the water and two younger elephants had sex in front of us that was a sight to see. The Rhinos and their babies were much more reserved as were the giraffes. Today was an elephant day.
28 July Sunday
Another early start and a Game drive after breakfast around the park in search of the elusive cats. More of the usual were spotted and the our eagle eyed crew stopped the truck and there was a Cheetah and two kittens just a couple of months old running around playing, they kept this up for ages and the whole road came to a traffic jamb.
We left the park and drove to Windhoek the capital of Namibia with the usual and a Golden head Eagle and Warthogs one streaked along side of the truck it must have been doing 50 kilometres per hour. Some people think they are lazy but we think they are great; there is even a warning road sign for motorist that Warthogs are crossing the road, awesome!!!!
Tonight we are out to dinner as the two
Swiss girls are leaving, they have made a great relationship with Karen and
also Eddy is also leaving and tomorrow we pick up another Swiss couple. Problems with Dave’s temporary Passbook will
arise at the border crossing into
The food we have had at the truck has been amazing we get a new crew at Vic falls bet it will not be like this tour, we have tried Ostrich Kudu Springbok Eland and Oryx all have had the usual meaty flavours, breakfast has been cereal bacon and eggs one morning omelette another pancakes banana and maple syrup, curries complete with roti or nan bread, I have had to cut down on the eating as the weight is piling on.
Our leader is a indigenous woman 30 years old married with a 5 year old daughter, she is amazing she has everything going to plan. cooks, sits up front with Dave the driver. He is 26 years old European South African and you feel really safe with his driving , whenever we go on activities he stays behind and checks out the truck, they sure get one heck of a beating we have been on these rutted roads for 90 percent of the time and we are about to go into Botswana where from here on most of the roads are sealed/ the truck is like a juggernaut just keeps on going, just as well we have been in the middle of nowhere the majority of the time
Time for a shower!
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