Monday: To Etosha
National Park
I was picked up at my hotel at 8:30 as planned. There was a
woman in the front seat; my seat; Bwana was grumpy because Bwana is used to safari
alone. But the woman, Maria, is a straight-shooter who is also supremely easy going;
she is a retired gynecologist from Brazil and travelling alone.
And thank God because we were in the car together for ten
hours. For me, that is torture, but along the way we had lunch in a little town
and we stopped at the park entrance for a short repose. But the day after
tomorrow we got back, so as I write, safari drives tomorrow are not at all
appealing.
BUT, I had one seriously big desire in coming to Namibia.
More than anything, I wanted to see the Himba “red” people; the Namibian people
who wear red clay on their bodies and in their hair. Like the Massai, they
fascinated this child who eagerly devoured every issue of National Geographic
(long before I’d ever heard of television). Our driver, Rodney, is a Herero
(Himba people adapted to modern dress and culture).
The landscape here captivates me. I take tons of photos I
never show anyone else but they evoke memories like nothing else. I am full of
animals, but I never get my fill of nature. We saw lighting, rainbows,
billowing beautiful curtains of rain and driving the last bit in the golden
hours just before dusk, with our windows open and the landscape full of plants
that are in the blue/green milky dusted range.
And here at Lalali, an oasis, we are a small village of
bungalows with a central canteen. They have kitchens, a sitting room, bedroom,
patio, bar-b-q and air con in both the major rooms. It is ideal for a family to
come and stay and do day safaris (but it ain’t Tanzania). The only problem:
there have been smokers in my room. God bless our public health policies at
home.
Dinner was mediocre and Marie was not pleased; but what can
you expect really in so remote a place. She and Rodney went to the waterhole
after dinner; I came home and read more of The
God of Small Things.
Tuesday (Christmas)
Up at 5:00 to eat at six and go for a drive until lunch. I
have negotiated this arrangement so that I can bail at noon on the driving. We
face another ten-hour drive tomorrow, back to Windhoek and Galton House (that
has no privacy and lousy beds) for two nights. During the day, I will go to
museums or the central square in hopes of seeing more traditional dress.
The drive was uneventful.
Safari tourism here is based on waterholes but there has been so much
rain, waterholes are currently irrelevant. We are not seeing much. But for a Christmas day, it has been fine. Getting
up early and putting on nothing but a t-shirt and shorts is sweet, and so is
being able to step outside into a warm sage wind, a smorgasboard breakfast and
a four-hour chauffered drive in the glistening clear morning light of long
shadows and a breathtaking sky.
Laundry, reading and writing here in my cabin through the
afternoon in advance of a long drive tomorrow. I finished The God of Small Things (beautifully written; I didn’t feel a
thing—not a thing) and now I am
reading A visit from the goon squad.
Wednesday: Boxing Day
The ten-hour trip of Monday in reverse today; I have seen a
lot of the country, and that is good, but there has been too much car travel of
late. Maria commutes by plane as often as possible but I will going to
Botswana’s delta from Maun by car. You see the country when you are on the road
even though it can take forever.
A Hiba mother and child; front and back view.
This stunning bird, the Black Coran, has gorgeous yellow legs and a loud, loud voice.
At the beginning of my trip, I had one of my worst experiences with anxiety but on my way to the airport in Vancouver, I saw a rainbow and I took it to be a good omen. And my trip, so far, has caused no anxiety at all, so yesterday, when I saw another rainbow, it felt like a good omen for my return trip.
As last year in Tanzania (see old posts) the landscape forces me to record it but I fear the pictures do not impress you at all as the reality has me. Coming from a place with no horizon due to all the mountains, these immense flat plains stun me with their scale and beauty.
A favourite bird, Guinea Fowl, are everywhere and can be taken for granted like Springbok and Impalas, but these very common creatures are stunningly beautiful.
This is Marie, Rodney and the truck at the Etosha Pan. The pan is a zillion hectares of caked depression that can fill with water when there are massive rains like last January, but then it all evaporates in this incredibly hot place.
The Sprinbok here in Etosha are the only ones with black
faces.
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