Etosha National Park

Etosha is one of the best national parks in Africa (it was my personal favorite). Unlike other national parks, people are able to drive themselves through the park and to stay in the park at designated camping areas. Each campsite has a waterhole that is separated from the campsite by a large natural materials fence. From the seating area, you can watch the animals come to quench their thirst.

We made it to Etosha National Park about an hour before sunset, when the gates close. Our campsite was at Halasi, the second campsite. We made it to the waterhole, wine in hand, just in time to watch the sunset and some black rhinos sipping.
We took a short break from the waterhole to make dinner and, when we came back to the waterhole, there were six lions lounging. They were tired—in the dark, it was easy to confuse them with rocks—and apparently satiated. They were completely uninterested in the other small animals that came up to the waterhole to drink.



The next day, we spent a whole day driving around the park, with a short break lounging near the pool at the third campsite. Before we came to Etosha, I thought that we would not be able to see as many animals without a guide. Instead, we saw a beautiful family of lions with the smallest cub we've seen yet,





a leopard, and tons of elephants, giraffes, antelope, zebra, etc. Almost as amazing as the big cats was the number of animals that were hanging out together at the waterhole. At one waterhole, there were zebra, giraffe, several breeds of antelope, a hyena, a jackal, and warthogs all drinking at the same time.

On the way back to camp, we stopped for a few pictures on the very dry Etosha Pan.

I guess this explains why the waterholes are so popular.

That night, the waterhole was less lively. We did see some more rhinos and a leopard, but that was about it. The next day we drove around the western part of Etosha, again stopping at one of the campsites for a swim. There were not as many big animals that day, but there were lots of other animals and interesting birds. We also observed a lot of interesting animal behavior such as giraffes engaging in foreplay and zebra fighting.

Sunrise

The Himba People

The morning after Swapokmund, we stopped in a Himba village located between Uis and Etosha National Park. The Himba are a traditional people that cover their skin and hair with reddish mud to protect from sun and as ornamentation. Their clothing is very minimal, but their appearance speaks volumes about their life situation. The pre-pubescent children wear their hair braided forwards until they hit puberty, when their hair is braided backwards. Their jewelry is also indicative of how many kids they have, whether they are married, and whether their mother/father is alive. It was an interesting, if not an entirely authentic, cultural experience.

Namibia: Windhoek (pronounced Vin-hook)

After hearing horror stories about how difficult it was to travel around Namibia without your own transportation, we decided that we would rent a car for that portion of the trip. So when we headed off from Maun we were thrilled that it would be our last bus of the trip. The bus itself sounded a bit tricky, though, and the proprietor of Old Bridge recommended that we try to hitch instead. This was a very strange process. First you catch a cab at 6:30 a.m. and ask it to take you to the hitching spot. The cab driver then drops you off at a totally random place on the side of the road where a group of people are already gathered. Then all of the crowd stands by the road at one time beckoning passing cars by waving down and inward (rather than by sticking up a thumb). Eventually, one car stops and then everyone rushes towards the car saying the name of the place they are headed. The driver indicates how many people he can take, that many people climb in the car, and everyone else goes back to waving over cars.
Eventually, we were picked up by a guy in an SUV. He was nice enough, but it was a bit awkward after he told us that he wanted to marry a white woman and started asking us for tips. He dropped us off about three hours later an hour shy of the Namibia border. While we were waiting for our next ride, we watched a car accident take place right in front of the hitching/bus stop. It was caused by a confused driver responding to the waving crowd and turning into an oncoming vehicle. No one was hurt. We ended up getting a hitch in another SUV with two really fun guys, Promise and Fungi, who (this is the best part) took us all the way to Windhoek (pronounced Vin-hook).

The transformation from Botswana and Namibia was dramatic. In Botswana, there was a constant danger of cows, goats, and other livestock running out in front of your car. In Namibia, fences parallel the highway, keeping out most of the animals (except the warthogs). Strangely, the warthogs, which had been very shy and difficult to see in the rest of Africa, were everywhere.

Windhoek itself, and most of the rest of Namibia, looks much more German/European than the rest of Africa. We stayed at the Cardboard Box the first night. It was better than an actual cardboard box, but still just okay. Due to a communication problem with the car rental agency, our car was not ready that day and Cardboard Box was fully booked so we had to move. We stayed at the Chameleon, which was one of our favorite hostels on the trip. It had a bathroom in the dorm room and under the bed lockers. It was a bit of a cursed move, though. I had a slo' mo' fall at the gate of the dorm while carrying my daypack and Regina's lap top. My flip flop got stuck in a hole in the sidewalk and I knew I was going down so I tried to fall sideways and hold our stuff up to protect it.

Later that night, Kaitlin got stuck trying to climb into bed. The dorm beds were two back-to-back bunkbeds. So that she didn't wake up the hot guy sleeping in the bed below hers, she stepped up on my bed, which was kitty corner to hers, and attempted to climb diagonally over onto her bed. I was reading in bed and looked up to see her legs dangling over the side of the bed. Then she whispered, "Help me." I got up to push her over the bed at about the same time as Regina walked out of the bathroom. The hot guy woke up and started laughing and Regina and I fell to the floor laughing until we cried.

While in Windhoek, we killed time by eating at chain restaurants, shopping, and hanging out at the mall. Sadly, we spend enough time at the mall to make friends with a taxi driver that was stationed there. We probably rode with him at least five times.

Once we got the car (a very cool truck with an enclosed bed and two tents that are located on TOP of the truck), we headed to Swapokmund to pick up Alex, the very nice French guy that agreed to rent the truck with us to share costs.

While in Swapokmund, I went sandboarding. It was surprisingly similar to snowboarding. It was really a lot of fun, but I was finding sand everywhere for a week. Also, I hurt my back by jumping off a ramp at high speeds and not even coming close to landing. I was once again reminded that just because the guide lets you do it, you should not assume that it is safe. :)

Botswana: A long post for a short stay

Our stop in Botswana was very brief. We had heard good things about Chobe National Park and the Octovango Delta. But, after seeing so many national parks, we decided to just do the Delta because it was something different than we had seen previously. We took a relatively short and uncomplicated bus ride to Maun. We stayed at Old Bridge Backpackers.
The proprietor there was very helpful and the “dorms” were actually rooms with a single bed. It was the first time since Ethiopia that we each had our own room.

From Old Bridge, we took a two-day Mokoro trip through the Delta. Mokoros are the old-fashioned, traditional dugout boats. These ones were made out of fiberglass. Our guides paddled the mokoros through “highways” between the tall reeds and lily pads. It was very peaceful (and beautiful).






They paddled to an island where we set up camp.
By the time we got there, we were so excited about getting food that we did not immediately jump up and run to see the elephant that our guides pointed out to us. Our guide thought something was wrong with us. It wasn’t the last time, I’m sure, that he had that thought.

After lunch (and going to see the elephant), Regina and I tried our hand at paddling the mokoros.
We told the guides that we were going to the swimming spot that they had pointed out to us on our way to the island. We assumed that because our guides let us go off alone, it was safe. This, apparently, is not an accurate assumption in Africa. Regina and I got so frustrated trying to steer the mokoro, we decided to swim in the first decently-sized hole that we could find. The water was very clear, and we could not see anything in the water but reeds and underwater plants. We jumped in. About two minutes later, another guide paddled up and asked us if we could touch the bottom. When we said no, he told us to get back in the boat. He wouldn’t explain why until we got back in. Apparently crocodiles prefer deep water because they like to drown their victims and, after the victim has had a couple of days of getting softened up by the water, the crocodiles come back and eat their victim. Oops! We followed that guide to the correct swim spot and had an enjoyable afternoon floating and splashing in the Delta.

About an hour before sunset, we headed out for our walking safari. Unlike the walking safari in Zambia, this guide, Lee, was not carrying a gun. The only thing he had with him was his cell phone, which I very much doubt would help us in any run-ins with elephants or lions.




During that walking safari, and the one the next morning, we saw lots of elephants and birds; some new types of antelope; lots anteater hills, which look more like huts or fire kilns; and, my favorite from this trip, very colorful dragon flies.







At night, we roasted marshmallows and told jokes with our guides.

We liked Old Bridge so much that we decided to stay one more night after the mokoro trip before heading to Namibia. We spent the day with our new friend Dave, shopping for food that we foolishly thought we would not be able to find in Namibia. Ha! That evening, one of the locals was getting very drunk at the bar in rememberance of his dear mum, who had recently passed. He was very nice, but some of his friends (one in particular) were obnoxious and aggressive. It was very cute to see Kaitlin step in to protect me. After that was resolved, we got a dance lesson and had a good time hanging out with the group. It was in that setting that we met Alex, a nice french guy that had just arrived at Old Bridge and who had seen our (handwritten) sign seeking a fourth person to share car rental costs with us during our trip through Namibia. Little did we know that this brief encounter would end up altering the rest of our trip . . .