by Kate Dernocoeur, Guest Blogger
After a few days in Windhoek to regroup from the southern tour to do laundry and check on the status of my missing luggage (see previous blog), my friend and guide, Ian Brown and I set off again. The first stop: Etosha National Park. Established in 1907, it is Namibia’s second-largest wildlife park. All the super-cool African wild animals are there. I asked if we might see a honey badger, as I’d dearly love that, but sadly, it was not to be.
The distances on this week-long tour of the north end of Namibia were, as with the south, equivalent to driving around Texas. But the first three nights were reserved for Etosha National Park, because you can’t hurry nature. It is best to build in time if you want to meet this austere, dry, fascinating place on its own terms.
We entered the park at the Von Lindequist Gate in the east. Our goal was to reach Namutoni resort before its gates were locked at sunset. There was plenty of time to visit several water holes along the way. The same plan worked on day two, when the 46 miles over to Halali morphed into many more miles in our dusty quest to see animals. Similarly on the third day, we spent hours navigating the crows-flight 35 miles over to Okaukuejo. Ian knows every twist and turn in the park, thanks to his 35 years of guiding experience.
With each sighting, Ian was as enthusiastic as I was. We even had front-row parking the day two rhinos barreled up to a waterhole just after a hyena loped away in another direction. There was just one problem: Ian got skunked for the first time ever by the lions and cheetahs. Despite heroic efforts, we never saw a single one. We decided to blame it on the new moon, which seemed like a worthy theory. (Then he had the nerve to send photos the next time he was in Etosha = salt in the wound!)
A quarter of Etosha park consists of a vast oval salt pan. It is 80 miles long and 45 miles wide, and visible from outer space. To be on the edge of the pan is to know absolute white flatness over to the blue horizon. In fact, the word, etosha means “great white place” in the Oshindonga language spoken by the Ovambo people. One day, Ian watched for problems (think: lions) while I walked out onto that immensity and sat with the silence for a time.
As we headed for the coast, we went through the towns of Outjo and Khorixas and then arrived in Twyfelfontein (Afrikaans for “uncertain spring,” so named by a farmer who struggled to make a go of living there in the 1940s). Twyfelfontein was designated a World Heritage Site, Namibia’s first, in 2007 because the area harbors one of the largest concentrations of rock petroglyphs in Africa, some believed to be as old as 10,000 years.
Nearby, we stopped so I could visit the very engaging Damara Living Museum. Damara people, who have lived on the rocky and desolate scrub savannah for eons, have developed an outdoor center where members of their community proudly share traditional culture with visitors.
I was shepherded by a young man dressed in animal skins and sinew ties through interesting displays such as their medicinal plants, how to forge metal knives and other implements, methods for curing goat hides, how to make ostrich egg buttons and earrings, and more. They started a fire in under 90 seconds using a stick and grains of sand on a wooden base: impressive! I chose not to sample the home-brewed beer, but held my own at a fun strategy game involving moving rocks around some divots in the ground, and enjoyed some singing and dancing.
Our destination that day was the White Lady Lodge, nestled in the foothills of the Brandburg Mountains (site of Namibia’s highest point, Konigstein, elev. 8,400 feet). The next morning, I joined a French group and walked a mile or so up the beautiful Tsisab river drainage into the mountains for a look at the White Lady, the most famous of the more than 43,000 rock paintings discovered there by German geologist Reinhardt Maack in 1917. More than 2,000 years old, the White Lady may be faded, but serves as a placeholder for the presence of San people (formerly called bushmen, now considered a derogatory term) at least 2,000 years ago.
The final leg of our northern tour led to the Atlantic Ocean. Namibia has about 1,500 miles of coastline, and one of the most popular places along it is Swakopmund. My friend, Steeve, was able to meet Ian and me there and show me around; it is one of his favorite places in Namibia. After two nights, it was time to return to Windhoek…and the pursuit of my still-missing luggage!
