Northern Namibia

Northern Namibia offers some extraordinary scenery with opportunities to get off the beaten track into the desert, and the remote Kaokaland region.

Rock art at White Lady

With no time pressure we have taken the opportunity to visit some of the more out of the way places. After a couple of days round Windhoek where we were able to get the air con repaired, and purchase much needed new tyres we headed back north and west, first visiting the remarkable white lady rock paintings. This collection of paintings in a remote rock shelter, 2kms up a very hot dry valley depict a shaman performing a dance ritual as well as the more common depictions of animals. What makes them remarkable is their use of colour in the artwork.
Unfortunately the front shock absorber lower support again fractured, so we headed to Swakopmund and West Coast 4x4 who made and fitted a new bracket.

Swakopmund Aquarium

While waiting for the work to be completed we spent several hours in Swakopmund, a seaside tourist town with some lovely colonial architecture and an amazing aquarium with a walk through tunnel containing lots of local fish species. Viewing windows enable close up encounters with sharks and rays.
To get to the north we headed back up the Skeleton Coast passing the astonishing ancient lichen fields which rely on the daily mist which forms between the cold Benguela current flowing north from the Antarctic and the hot air coming off the Namib desert.
50kms inland from the coast is the Messum Crater - a shallow depression caused by a collapsed volcanic crater in the middle of the desert. Amazingly the effect of the Benguela current extends at least 50kms inland with cool nights and morning mist.

Camping in the Messum Crater

Following the dusty tracks we found the crater and camped under a nearby rock outcrop to shelter from the incessant wind. Such a peaceful location with fantastic night skies, and no-one within 50kms.


Huge Welwytchia plant

Rock formations along dry river

The track to the coast runs along a dry riverbed with some of the largest welwytchia plants which must be hundreds of years old, as well as some extraordinary eroded rock outcrops along the river edges.

Skeleton Coast shipwreck

Back along the Skeleton Coast the low tide exposed some of the numerous shipwrecks, as well as whale skeletons after which the coast is named. Such a remote place to be shipwrecked with no water to be found for 100kms or more.

Road into Kaokaland

Passing through the beautiful mesas of the desert we struck north towards Kaokaland and the home of the semi nomadic Himba tribe and the more settled Herero. Apart from one newly graded dirt road the north west is only accessible by some very rough "roads". The Himba still wear their traditional dress and herd goats and cattle, moving between grazing locations, staying in temporary stick and skin shelters. They have a base of more permanent houses of wood and clay houses round a thorny boma to protect their animals at night. It is amazing how they survive in this arid environment, have few possessions and a very light touch on the planet, yet seem generally contented.

Himba Village

Epupa at the northern point of Namibia where it borders Angola is a small dusty town on the Cunene River and has a wide waterfall. The creation of a hydro electric plant upstream means the waterfall is controlled so does not usually flood, however the power of the water flowing through the narrow gorge is amazing.
Following the Cunene river along the Angolan border is quite beautiful, with the blue river flowing between the dry thorn scrub landscape. After 5 years of poor rains the trees are still coming into leaf in expectation of the rainy season which generally starts in November.

Epupa falls

With a plan to head east towards Botswana we again crossed through Etosha for another opportunity to see the amazing wildlife concentrated round the waterholes. Thousands of zebra and springbok with some amazing viewings of black rhino and hyena.
We are now relaxing in Tsumeb while the gasket is replaced on the front differential of the van before heading to the Zambezi region (Caprivi Strip) before crossing into Botswana.

Cunene River

 

 

Tawny Eagle

Giraffe

Zebra at Oliphantsrus

Elephant at Ockakuejo

Black Rhino