Back home

After a fun night out with the EHRA crew, in modern, urban and hip Swakopmund I transferred to Windhoek where I spent the day at familiar Rivendell. There was one warthog grazing besides the B1.

Repacking was an incredible task and I left a lot of stuff in a box that goes to an orphanage, but I was finished by the time my taxi arrived. The driver was from Kavango, the area of which Rundu is capital. Mattias, Felix, Hangura and many others I met along the way are also from there. We talked a lot; life in Windhoek is more expensive, but there is no work in his village, he recently bought 4 cows and has plans to buy more, his community suffers mostly from livestock predation from wild dogs etc.. etc…

Later at the airport, after I had checked in, he was still waiting for his next client so we looked at a map of Namibia that hung on a wall.

I paused a moment before taking my final step off Namibia soil onto the plane’s ladder. And as we took off I tried to make out the land in the dark. Although I am looking forward to seeing my family again, there is much I will miss about being in a wilderness, particularly the Namibian. However, it hasn’t just been the wild, the people and cultures too are truly special here. From the modern and stylish supermarkets in Otjiwarongo, to the rather ‘outpost’ feel of towns like Katima, and the myriad of different tribes and languages which mingle easily – children learning many languages. Obviously people like Bruno, who is one of the great conservationists, to simple ways of workers such as Felix, who was unashamed to express his sadness in front of us. Grahams rough ‘farm-life’ hospitality. The humility of Tim and Tommy. The impressive gait and expression of Mattias. I have met so many interesting and great characters, people I wont soon forget.

Im writing this from the plane, but by the time you read this I will have arrived back in civilization. I will likely write one last post about adapting to the modern world, and of course share my 11000 photos, but in practice this blog has reached its end. I have tried to paint vivid pictures of life here, although I have no previous experience in writing – perhaps my photos will succeed better.

There are things impossible to transmit. There are also things I simply haven’t. Photos that should have been taken, in hindsight. Extraordinary encounters and things that from the biased view of the present appear swallowed in the mundane of the everyday working life. But also times when the camera was simply not at hand, for example during the hard labour at PAWS.

So, from summer in the African desert, to the European winter. See you all soon.