Getting a Feel for the Local Flavor of Namibia and Botswana

Hello everyone! Are you ready for some more updates from Africa? I hope so because I’ve got a lot to share with you.

I’ll open up this post with some pictures of the stunning women of the Himba tribe. The Himba are a pastoral tribe and primarily breed cattle and goats. One thing you’ll immediately notice about the women is that their hair and skin is covered in butterfat and ochre, which gives it a reddish tint and is likely used to protect them from the sun. These women were selling their wares, primarily jewelry, on the side of the road. Of course we had to stop to meet them and make some purchases. What a privilege to meet these women in person.

A little further down the road we came across another group of women from the Herero tribe. You’ll notice the clothing they are wearing, which hails from the colonial period. I don’t know who came up with the brilliant idea to wear all of this heavy clothing in the African heat, but the women have adopted it as their own and certainly wear it well.

After two very interesting stops we reached our destination, Twyfelfontein, which means doubtful spring. Twyfelfontein is famous for it’s engravings that are approximately 6,000 years old. Their origin is unknown, but it is believed have been done by the Bushmen, who by the way, you’ll be meeting later in the post. I know, I know…awesome. We’ll get there soon enough. For now, enjoy these ancient and impressive engravings.

Later that evening after yet another stunning African sunset

and delicious dinner we headed over to the bar. Yes, many of the campsites we visited were quite nice with bars, pool tables, and sometimes even a pool. Pretty fabulous, right? I was pleasantly surprised by many of the campsites, but don’t get the wrong impression here. This definitely was NOT luxury accommodation. While the campsites may have been nice, I was still sleeping in a tent every night, taking a 3 AM toilet break in the bush (as if I was really going to walk all the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night to use the actual toilet), and coated in sweat, sunscreen, and bug repellent at all times. Now that we’ve got my cred established here as a hard core camping machine, let’s get back to the events of the evening, which involved the warm and welcoming staff at the campsite performing some songs for their visitors.

Maretha had told us that these folks love to sing and frequently bust into their favorite jams if the mood strikes them. Fortunately for us they were in a festive mood and sang us several songs. Our favorite jam was the Toyota Crazy Car song, which also kind of sounded like Toyota Cressida. Who knows, it may have been Toyota Cressida. I just did a quick google search and Toyota is the maker of the Cressida so I’m not really sure which version is correct, but who cares? The song was a fun little ditty that involved the participants moving forward in a line, kind of like a conga line, but without touching, and then making beeping noises and walking backwards to back up our crazy car/Cressida. This song was the finale and of course involved crowd participation. It was a lot of fun and a great way to liven things up a bit at the campsite.

The next morning, as per usual, we were up at the crack of dawn to head to our next destination, Etosha National Park.

Along the way we stopped for another nature lesson from Raymond. Behold, one of the oldest plants in the world, welwitschia mirabilis, or should I say what is the welwitschia mirabilis for the Double Jeopardy, please, Alex.

After broadening our minds it was at long last time for the inaugural game drive of my 54 day African adventure. Fingers crossed that we see some good stuff. This particular game drive was going to be done in our truck AKA home sweet home. So let’s take a look.

All in all not too shabby for our first game drive. Our campsite was awesome and bordered a water hole so you know where we spent the majority of our time.

This is a springbok, both adorable and delicious in medallion form. I’d highly recommend it with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. Hopefully you got that reference. If not you should immediately put the lotion in the basket and tell those screaming lambs to zip it!

Let’s see…where were we? Oh yes, the adorable and finger licking good springbok.

After hanging at the water hole with some Savannas, a must when you are in southern Africa in my opinion, it was time for our late afternoon game drive. Sweet, let’s do this.

First up was the guinea fowl, an attractive bird, but apparently dumb as a doornail. Aww, poor little guinea fowl.

And here’s our first giraffe of the trip.

Unfortunately it started to pour down rain, making the visibility quite tough, but wait, what is this?

A lion! Oh yeah, bring it on!

Despite the rain we still got to see some good stuff, including this gorgeous rainbow near the water hole at our campsite.

And of course another spectacular sunset.

The next morning we were off to the other side of Etosha Park, which is famous for its stunning salt pans.

Are you ready for some more fun animal facts? I hope so because I’ve got some doozies for you.

First up we have the Kori Bustard, not to be confused with a bastard, which it sounds like with a S. African accent.

You’ll notice this dude is strutting his stuff to attract the attention of some of the nearby ladies. Another interesting fun fact about the KB is that it is the heaviest flying bird.

According to this sign we’re in giraffe country here. Awesome! I can’t get enough of giraffes.

I’d say the sign was dead on!

How about some giraffe fun facts? What do you call a large group of giraffes?

Any guesses?

A kaleidoscope or tower.

Does anyone know what the Afrikaans word for giraffe means?

Camel horse! Ha, I love it!

Could this be any cuter?  It’s how a giraffe drinks water. 

This next shot is for my college girls. What is it? A good thing! Hardly!!

And a few more wildlife shots for ya.

Does anyone know the name of this animal?

It’s a kudu, and like the springbok, it’s mighty fine to eat. I had a kudu steak and couldn’t get enough of it so if you ever happen to see kudu on the menu, definitely give it a try. The beauty of African game, at least the game I tried, is that it’s not gamey at all.

And the King of the Jungle again.

This lioness is preggers and due to give birth any day now.  The poor thing was desperately trying to get comfortable, but to no avail.  She’d take about 2 steps, throw herself down on the ground, and try several different positions in hopes of finding comfort.  Within minutes she was on her feet again, taking a few more steps, and then exasperated from the effort, would throw herself back on the ground for a few more minutes.  It was so cute and surprisingly human.  We could see the forceful exhale as she would haul herself up again and try a new position.  Having seen some friends and colleagues at the end of their pregnancies, it seems like it’s a universally uncomfortable time. 

As a side note, my sister-in-law and brother, Drew, are expecting baby #2, a boy, in March so stay tuned for more updates on the newest Lindsley.  Like with Abigail, I’ll be in charge of his Halloween costumes for as long as he will let me.  Mwahahaha!!!

All in all I’d say another successful game drive. When we arrived at our camp we were greeted by these little guys.

After setting up our tents it was straight to the water hole for another stunning sunset. It was a quiet night at the water hole, but the scenery was plenty.

The next morning we packed up our things and headed to Waterberg Plateau where we did a little hiking to enjoy the spectacular view of the plains of Namibia.

Along the way we crossed paths with this little, adorable rock dassie. He was brave and stared us down for a long time before finally tiring of us and moving on to more interesting things.

This photo is courtesy of Rami. Say cheese!

After Waterberg Plateau it was off to Windhoek, our last stop in Namibia and also the capital city. Windhoek also marked the first departure of one of our travel companions, the Doc from Norway. Of course you know we had to send the Doc off in style so we started things off with a tasty dinner of delicious game at Joe’s Beer House. Joe’s is famous for it’s game so you know I was all about it. I settled on the Bushfire, which included fillets of ostrich (yummy), Kudu (totally love) and zebra (OMG, lose my mind delicious). This was followed by meters of beer and way too many shots of Jagermeister thanks to our super enthusiastic Estonian, Tarmo.

The evening was a blast, but the next day was another story. For starters I had no voice and to top things off it was a border crossing day from Namibia into Botswana. Super! Note to self, having a raging hangover in the African heat and humidity on a border crossing day is a horrible idea. Do not be an imbecile and do this again!

I have to say the actual border crossing was quite organized and orderly, but it was busy so there we long lines. The whole time I was in line I was talking myself off the ledge, recognizing that fainting or heaving probably wouldn’t ingratiate myself with the border crossing agents. In Botswana, Marietta taught us the appropriate greeting, Dumera Ma for a lady and Dumera Ra for a man. Additionally, as a show of respect we should hand the agent our passport with our right hand that was held by the left hand below the elbow. Somehow I managed to pull it off and even succeeded in having a brief conversation with my agent, learning that he’d love to visit the US one day, specifically NYC. Upon hearing this I mustered as much enthusiasm as possible and told him that we would welcome his visit. After this, I promptly threw myself back on the truck and passed out for the next few hours.

I woke up feeling renewed and by renewed I mean almost human again. Thankfully our campsite in the lush and beautiful Kalahari Desert had a fresh water spring, which was perfect for swimming. Oops I did it again, Shan, and swam in the water, but this was a free flowing, fresh water spring so it should be OK, right? Let’s hope so. Raymond even busted out his spear gun and hunted some fish for his dinner so it can’t be that bad. Again, fingers crossed and you’ll be the first to know if I develop some kind of freaky condition created by parasites.

Enough about parasites, let‘s be positive here. The water was just what the doctor ordered and I actually felt great after a little swim. Good thing too because at long last it was time to meet the San people AKA the Bushmen. Woo Hoo!!! Ever since our desert walk in Sossusvlei I have been kind of obsessed with the Bushmen so I couldn’t wait to meet them in person.

They were absolutely lovely people, welcoming us with warm smiles and greetings in their local language, which is filled with clicking sounds. The lady in the center spoke some English and personally shook hands with each of us, asking us for our names and then imitating the way we said our names.

As you may recall, I had no voice so she had a field day making fun of me trying to say my name.

After the introductions we followed the Bushmen into the desert to learn more about their traditional way of life.

They were such gentle and warm people, gracefully making their way through the landscape and stopping to teach us about the uses of the various plants found there. There seemed to be a plant for everything from kidney problems to coughing up blood. I was in awe of them and their immense knowledge of the plants and animals that inhabited their land.

The women would chew this root to clean their teeth that also had the effect of turning their tongue orange. They liked the appearance of their orange tongue and would flaunt it after a thorough cleaning.

The Bushmen donned their animal skins for our benefit, but sadly they do not wear them anymore in real life because for years it made them an easy target when people were allowed to hunt them openly. Further, most establishments in town would not allow them to enter in their traditional clothes so what choice do they have but to adapt? It’s sad and unfortunately it’s the same story everywhere for indigenous people it seems.

It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet these friendly, welcoming, and immensely interesting people. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this part of the trip. What a wonderful way to introduce us to Botswana. Thank you so very much.

Let’s end this post with another killer sunset, shall we?

More from Botswana to come followed by Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Oh yeah, lots of good stuff to follow. See you soon!