Traveling through Southern Africa (Part 8) –Etosha National Park, Around Okaukuejo

Okaukuejo is at the western end of the Etosha Pan. It is the oldest tourist camp in Etosha and is the administrative hub of the park.  Due to the lack of any other nearby water, the camp’s permanent waterhole is often busy.  There you will see a wide diversity of wildlife all day and late into the night under floodlights.  On any given evening, you can expect to see springbok, wildebeest, zebra, gemsbok, jackal, hyena, and most nights, black rhino, elephant and lion.  Because of the excellent and comfortable game viewing from a platform less than 50 meters away from the well lighted waterhole, it is one of the major attractions in the park and the good spots get taken up quickly.  My advice is to arrive early (before sunset) with plenty of food and drink to last the evening.  Don’t stress over it too much though; Etosha is full of incredible game viewing opportunities everywhere you go.

That night in Okaukuejo, we arrived late, but were able to squeeze onto a bench with a fairly good view of the waterhole.  The evening started slowly, with a few lapwings near the water’s edge.  Then a jackal approached, followed by zebra, and shortly after, gemsbok.  The stars of the evening didn’t arrive until well past 9PM when a mother black rhino and her calf came strolling into the light.  After that, we went to bed, but heard the next morning that lions had come in around eleven. No matter, the morning game drive more than made up for the missed lion.

 

That morning after a good hyena sighting, we came across a waterhole in a very arid area of the park selfishly guarded by a pride of lion.  There were at least eight of them including two males.  We stayed there for quite a long time and watched as a herd of zebra stood at a distance waiting for a chance to approach the water, but before anything happened we had to leave and return to camp.  It was time to head out on the next leg of this Adventure in Traveling.

Traveling through Southern Africa (Part 7) –Etosha National Park, Around Namutoni Camp

Etosha National Park covers an area of 22,270 square kilometers.  It is home to 114 mammal and 340 bird species.  Etosha means "Great White Place" and the park is dominated by a massive mineral pan, the floor of which was formed around 100 million years ago and covers around 25% of Etosha. The pan fills only if the rains are heavy and even then the water stays only for a short time. This temporary lake attracts thousands of wading birds including flocks of flamingos.

Due to the arid grasslands and open bush, the game viewing in Etosha National Park is excellent, especially around the many waterholes.  Visitors to the Etosha reserve can expect to see many antelope species, elephant, giraffe, hyena, rhino and lions.  In the entire park, there are only three rest camps - Namutoni, Halali and Okaukuejo (plus a new luxury camp, Onkosh).  We entered the park by the Von Lindequist Gate where a warthog suckling her young greeted us.  That night, we stayed at Namutoni.

Every camp has a lighted waterhole and seating on the camp side of an electric fence so that guests can enjoy the nightlife in safety.  That night we watched jackal, zebras, springbok and rhino before walking back to the tent for an early night.
 

We left camp at 6AM the next morning for a game drive. I had never seen such large herds of springbok, wildebeest and zebra congregating around the water holes.  We even had the opportunity to watch the long awkward process of giraffe lowering their heads to the water for a drink.

 
 Later in the morning, we had our first sightings of hyena and lion, but with the sun growing stronger, the day was getting hot, so by late morning it was time to head back to Namutoni for a large breakfast.  After a rest, it was time to break camp and head to the next adventure.

Traveling through Southern Africa (Part 6) –Windhoek and the Other Africa

Windhoek is the largest city in Namibia and its capitol.  As such, it attracts a great number of Africans looking for a better life, but most will never find it.  They’ll end up living in a township built of found and bartered scrap.  These places aren’t on most travelers’ agendas and they’re not the sort of area you enter on your own, but while staying in Windhoek, as happenstance would have it, we had the opportunity to experience for ourselves this other side of Africa.

It all started when our overland driver and her co-pilot came down with malaria.  Without a truck, there was no possibility of moving on, so we settled into a nice backpacker’s lodge while the two recovered in hospital.  One evening we met a couple of volunteers from The Netherlands that were looking for ways to bring jobs into the townships.  They had struck on the idea of township tours and asked us if we would be guinea pig tourists on their first dry run.

We went into the local market, a hairdressers and a shabeen (a ghetto pub).  One woman invited us into her home.  Her family built it from tin roofing.  Inside, they had covered the walls with old carpets for insulation, and it was complete with pirated electricity to run a small television.  Water came from an area well a few blocks away, dug by the city.  I apologize for the lack of photographs, but it was inappropriate and somewhat dangerous to have a camera around my neck.

Not all was grim.  They also showed us some start-up companies.  One made African print textiles, while another made ceramics.  The concept is to help local people own and operate their own businesses in a hope that success will breed more success.




In the end, the experience was an education that brought a new perspective to our travels in Africa.

Traveling through Southern Africa (Part 5) –Daan Viljoen Game Park, Namibia

The Daan Viljoen Game Park is a 4,000-hectare reserve set amid rolling hills about a 25 km drive from Windhoek.  What makes this park different than most is that there are no elephant, buffalo, or large predators.  This may sound disappointing at first, but the fact makes it one of the few parks in Southern Africa where visitors can explore the bush on foot along 3 well-marked hiking trails of various lengths (3, 9 and 32 kilometers).  No guide is required, but all hikers must report to the park’s office to register.

From Windhoek, Namibia, the best way to get to the Daan Viljoen Game Park is by taxi.  If you plan to do a day hike, you can split the cost of the ride among fellow visitors.  It will end up costing just a few dollars per person for the round trip.  If you go, bring plenty of sunscreen and water.  The hikes are moderately strenuous, the weather can get extremely hot and there are few large trees to provide shade.

We went as a group of four and decided to walk the 9-kilometer Rooibos trail.  It started with a steady uphill climb to a rocky outcrop where we watched a troop of noisy baboons.  Whenever walking near wild animals, the key to a safe experience is to leave a comfortable distance between you and them.  You know you’re too close if the animals seem to be wary or jumpy.  If you want to see their natural behavior, it is better to stay a little farther away and use binoculars.

After the rocky outcrop the trail winded through rolling hills. We saw wildebeest, zebra, hartebeest, Kudu and gemsbok grazing in the dry grass.  Then the trail descended into a riverbed with little water.  We followed it to a pool sitting at the base of a narrow cliff where Dassies (Hyrax) scurried over boulders.  Then it was a steep uphill trudge back to the park headquarters and the end of our hike.

All in all, it was a full day.  We arrived back in Windhoek in the late afternoon, both tired and excited by the day’s adventures and ready for more ‘Adventures in Traveling’.

Traveling through Southern Africa (Part 4) –The Kalahari Bushmen

Living in one of the most inhospitable terrains in the world, the Kalahari Desert, the San people are hunter-gatherers.  More commonly known as ‘The Bushmen’, the San culture is one of the oldest in the world dating back over a hundred thousand years.  In the past, they lived throughout Southern Africa, but over time, Bantu tribes and white farmers have pushed them to the edge of hospitable lands.  Today there are less than 100,000 Bushmen left.  Forced to live along the Kalahari frontier, only around 3000 still survive as their ancestors did.

Most of the San people have been forced to give up their nomadic existence, living in permanent settlements, but they still carry on the traditions of their past.  We visited one of these settlements where we spent an evening around a campfire as privileged witnesses to the waning San culture.

The bushman spoke no English, but a guide translated when necessary.  In an incomprehensible language of syllables and clicks, they sang songs and told stories, and as the evening progressed, danced around the fire until its embers were dark.