Sunday 2019/12/22

Olifantsrus (Etosha) – Opuwo – Omungunda Campsite/Ovahimba Living Museum

In the morning we see elephants again in the park in the distance and giraffes, kudus, zebras, hartebeests, ostriches and a jackal at a waterhole.

We leave Etosha National Park through the Galton Gate and drive north towards Opuwo.

On the country road we come to one of the mandatory traffic controls. For the skinny goats and cows, the grass on the side of the road seems to be the most delicious – you have to slow down often. Again, there are many, many termite mounds, today primarily in gray. Sometimes things are really high and look like sculptures.

Brigitte, Astrid and Leo visit a supermarket in Opuwo, Wolle guards the cars. It is very busy here and it takes some time getting used to. "Black Africa" for the first time. Many people are out wearing Sunday clothes. Herero women with wide hats and dressed in very colorful sweeping dresses. Men with shirts and vests, more or less undressed Himba and Dembe with squeaky-colored tops and caps and skirts as if from Scottish blankets. We want to fill up gas again because there are no petrol stations on the way north. Things are a bit chaotic at the gas station and Brigitte and Astrid wait a long time until being able to pay by credit card. We have a nice lunch in the "Kaokoland" restaurant, which we found out about asking around. It is also the only restaurant in town.

We arrive at the Himba region and decide to spend the night at a campsite next to a Himba Living Museum Village (Ovahimba Living Museum).

John, the campsite operator, tells us about his camping and Himba village project. His idea is that the Himba still live as traditionally as possible here. John was in high school in South Africa for a while - sponsored by an uncle - and there he got to know the Zulu villages, whose performances he found too artificial. Will the project succeed here? Industrially manufactured clothing, plastic cans, cell phones speak for themselves…

Nevertheless we still arrange a tour of the Himbadorf for the next morning.