Outjo

The last two posts you are obviously not reading ‘live’ but a few days late. We are now sitting in a café in Outjo, on our way to Etosha National Park. I am eating Eland steak, the largest of the antelopes.

This morning while I was in the showers, my dad left the car for a moment. A bunch of baboons waiting in the grass seized the opportunity and ran towards our truck. A nearby camper shouted to warn us, but by then the baboons had climbed onto the back of the truck and were going through our stuff. Dad ran back to scare them off, but they manage to take a loaf of bread. Later a pack of oats was retrieved from the grass with a bloody smear on it. We were lucky but in the process dad cut his foot on something and has a bloody toe.

The 18-200mm lens has a small problem in that the front end of it where attachments latch onto fell off. Our temporary replacement has been to duct tape it onto the main body and this seems to be fairly sturdy until we get to a camera shop in a few weeks.

Earlier we stopped off at Otjiwarongo to restock; there was huge supermarket comparable to any European supermarket (excluding the stuffed animal heads on the wall by the meats). Namibia is an upper-middle income country and it definitely is obvious in the clothes that the city-folk wear and the décor of the shopping malls, but at the same time there are literally hundreds of people scrambling around in pointless jobs trying to earn some money. At the gas station two men will come to refuel your car and check your water levels. At any parking lot random people will help you reverse your car into the space, and parking guards will stand watch expecting a small tip. A man will come and load your baggage without being asked. At the entrance gates to big farms or reserves are small villages of tents where the guards live. Today we saw for the first time two boys going through bins and collecting plastic bottles.

The landscape this far north (Kunene region, just left Otjozondjupa) has not changed too dramatically, but is definitely denser and more colourful. The land rolls gently instead of jutting out menacingly. We have driven over countless bridges spanning dried out riverbeds, and have yet to see running water anywhere. There will be no connection in Etosha for the next three days, so until then.


PS – understand that I am finding it hard to describe the indescribable.