Oct 12

Our first day in Etosha park was very exciting.  We had a very neat Water Hole that we could visit at our leisure and at our own risk.  We were at our first lodge in Etosha last night

Oct 11

We leave Kamanjab and the Oase Gami Guesthouse and begin the wildlife part of our journey.  This is the part we have all been anxiously awaiting.  ETOSHA NATIONAL PARK is our next destination and we will spend 3 nights in this park.  

CAN'T WAIT!  

Etosha game park was declared a National Park in 1907, it is home to approx 114 mammal species, 340 bird species, 110 reptile species,16 amphibian species and one species of fish. 

The Etosha National Park covers an area of 22912 km sq.  The word Etosha means 'Great White Place'  

The Etosha Pan covers some 4731 km sq. at its widest point it is approx 110 km by 60 km. The pan is mostly dry except after heavy rains when it floods mainly from the Ekuma and the Oshigambo rivers in the north.  In the east Fischer's pan usually holds water for most of the year.  Permanent springs are plentiful in the south fed by the water reserves in the porous bedrock which permeate out to the clay pan floor. 

There were three resorts that we stayed at in the Park.  The first night we stayed at Okaukuejo.  We worked our way through the park visiting many water holes and our second night ended up at Halau and the last night was at Namitoni.  

No sooner did we get through the park gates did we see our first nice surprise.  Lions laying under the shade of a tree not 50 feet from the road.  These female lions looked like they had just enjoyed a fresh kill as they were tinted in red blood around their necks and mouths.  But that was just the beginning............

And that was just a Sampler of Day 1!   Can you Believe it? 

Oct 10

We start out day out seeing a Kori Bustard bird.  It is the heaviest African flying bird.  Then we see a Yellow Bill Hornbill which they nickname the Flying Banana, or another name for this bird is the Monteiro's Hornbill.  

This is a gorgeous bird and is a good size with a very large bill as seen above. Next we came across a Back-Chested snake eagle and later a Tawny Eagle.  We discovered early on that Africa has a good variety of birds and because we had many participants in our tour that were interested in birds Malven our tour guide made every effort to point out every bird he saw.  He was very knowledgable and knew his birds. 

Today on our travels as we left Brandberg White Lady Lodge made our way to Twyfelfontein where we would take a walk into this national monument to see the rock engravings. 

This area was declared a national monument in 1952, Twyfelfontein rock art locally known as ,,/Ui-//Ais" meaning " a jumping fountain" in the Damara Language and "doubtful spring" in Afrikaans, is Namibia,s only world heritage site declared by Unesco in 2007. It is located approximately 90km west of the town of Khorixas, in the Kunene Region, an area formerly known as Damaraland.  The rocks containing the artwork are situated in a valley flanked by the slopes of a sandstone table mountain. An underground aquifer on an impermeable layer of shale sustains a spring in this otherwise very dry area. 

Twyfelfontein was known by its earliest inhabitants as /Ui-//aes, which means "a place among packed stones" in the Damara-Nama language. In the late 19th century it acquired the name Twyfelfontein which means doubtful fountain because it only had water periodically. 

The slash/ marks indicate a clicking sound in this language.  I will add a link to hear this interesting language spoken by a local during our tour. 

About 2000 engravings have been recorded so far which are estimated to be 6000 years old depicting hunter-gathering ritual practices. 

In this area you will find the Desert Elephant as well as springbok and Kudu and a variety of colourful birds, small animals, insects and reptiles.  

The San People (the hunter-gatherers) are believed to have been the earliest inhabitants of this area. They are regarded as the cultural artists of the prehistoric rock art. 

In the engraving above the circles indicate the location of water holes.  The dot in the middle is thought to indicate permanent water holes and a circle crossed out indicates that the water hole has dried up.  

In this engraving you can see the animals are all matched with their footprints.  This was a form of communication to help others know what animals are around and how to track them.  

In 1946 the first White colonists, David Levin arrived with his family, livestock and belongings. The ruins of his house are still visible today. 

David Levin gave the farm it's name Twyfelfontein because of his struggle with water supply for them and his livestock. Drought caused him and his family to move to better grazing areas. 

We continued our travels after lunch to the petrified forest which was situated in Damaraland in this North West portion of Namibia not far from Twyfelfontein. Here we find fossilized trees dated as early as 250 million years old (Permian geologic period). This site covers approx 20ha in the valley of the Anabib River.  This trees are members of the early Cordaites family that grow up to heights of 40 metres and are ancestors of present day ferns and conifers.  Petrified Forest was declared a national monument on march 1, 1950. 

During the Permian period Namibia formed part of the ancient continent of Gondwana and was situated further south towards the polar region. About 270 to 320 million years ago the southern regions were gripped in the Great Gondwana Ice Age, covered in ice fields and glaciers. 

When the climate warmed up a great thaw caused floods that washed over the land, carrying ice , rock  debris and salt. The water was excessive at times and caused everything to tear as it moved along. The flood ripped the trunks at there roots and carried them to where they are today.  The wood was buried under thick layers of sand and rubble and therefore was not exposed to decomposition and ravaging insects. Sedimentation occurred over million of years until trees were buried under meters.  The pressure caused the quartz present to dissolve and this silica solution permeated into the wood. The acidity of the solution dissolved the organic matter and replaced it with crystalline quartz. 

Due to the many changes in the climate the continent of Gondwana eventually divided and the surface levels rose. Erosion by water and desert winds uncovered the tree trunks and they were exposed. 

The longest log stretches over a distance of 35 metres and the largest log is 1.2 metres thick. They have let the trees uncover naturally. No digging or escavating of the area has been done nor will be done. 

We also saw the Welwitschia Mirabilis in this area. This is the desert plant that is estimated to be about 1500 years old.  They grow very slow.  This particular one is thought to be about 60 years old.  It is only found in a 1000 km lland strip on the south west coast of Africa that stretched from Kuiseb River, just south of Walvis Bay to the Nicolau River in Angola.  It is thought that the fog is an important source of water for this plant.  It's habitat is extremely arid - annual rainfall is 10-100mm during the summer, but some years there is no rain at all.  It just so happens that there had been no rain for the last 2 years.  This plant grows on gravel or rocky ground and has a long taproot to take underground water and the fog contributed with about 50mm dew a year.  This plant can stand extreme temp between 7degrees At night to 50 degrees C during the day.  

The plants are either male or female and they have cones that produce nectar.  They rely on beetles to pollinate this plant.  The seeds germinatation depends directly on the rain and it must rain heavy for several days. 

This is the root.  

We continued on our travels but before checking into our lodging for the night we went to visit a Himba village.  The Himba are indigenous people of about 20,000 to 50,000 living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene region and on the other side of the Kunene River in Angola.  They are mostly a semi-nomadic, pastoral people, cloely related to the Herero, and speak Otjihimba. This is similar to the Herero languange therefore the himba people pull the bottom 2 teeth out of their children at a very young age so the language have a slight difference. They breed cattle and goats.  This is the school. I brought a few supplies for this school as well.  What I could find on route as I had given my full duffle bag to the first school in Langa township in Capetown.  This particular village sends 3 children to the western school a year.  These are usually children that don't show an interest in carrying on the culture.   They don't return to the community.  The rest of the children are taught here in this little one room school house.  They are taught basic English and math. They counted to 10 for us. 

Here two Himba women are making the necklaces that they wear around their necks.  Notice even the small children wear these.  In this tradition the village work as one.  

They don't wear much for clothes nor do they bath.  Tradionally both man and women go topless and wear skirts or loincloths made of animal skins. Adult women wear beaded anklets to protect their legs from venomous animal bites. They grind up ochre and mix it with butter fat to come up with otjize paste, which they put all over their bodies.  This never comes off.  They just reapply daily.  It helps to keep sun off their skin.  In order to cleanse they use smoke.  As you can see from the picture below they use it in their hair as well. Women braid each others hair that they extend with plastic hair that is usually purchased, and cover it except the ends with otjize. The hairstyles of the Himba indicates age and social status. Children have two plaits of braided hair.  From the onset of puberty the girls plait are moved to the face over the eyes. Married women wear headdresses with many streams of braided hair, colored and put in shape with otjize. Single men wear one plait backwards to their necks, while married men wear a turban of many otjize-soaked plaits.   

                                                                           This is a Himba women crushing the ochre. You can         also see her ankle jewelry and headdress.

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This is the kitchen or cooking area. 

Here the members of the village line up with their handcrafted items to sell to us.  You can see the headdress of the man here. 

We saw Kudu today.  Notice the curly horns. 

Warthog

And our first Giraffe. This baby was on the roadside and was scared of us.  He ran up and down the road and finally jumped the fence to get back to mommy. 

Oct 9

We follow the barren Atlantic Coast line on our way out of Swakopmund to visit Cape Cross - the largest breeding place of the Cape Fur Seals.  Before reaching cape cross we stop to view the ship wreck of Zelia. It happened about 7 years ago and now is a home to many birds.  We did see the White breasted Cormarant among many other species. 

Once arriving at Cape seal, It is here that we see our first black backed jackal looking to feed on a young seal.  

Leaving the cold Atlantic coastline behind we then head inland across the desert plains for Brandberg, the highest mountain in Namibia with its highest peak, Konigstein, being approximately 2606m above sea level. It is composed of a single mass of granite that rose through the earths crust some 120 million years ago. Being almost round in shape it measures 30 km by 25 km.  There are more than 1000 known rock art shelters in the brandberg housing approximately 50,000 rock art of both animal and human figures. The Brandberg is well known for its rock paintings, the so called "White Lady" of Brandberg located in the Tsisab Ravine. 

In January 1917 Reinhardt Maack and Alfred Hoffman were surveying the mountain. They climbed to the top and upon coming down they took shelter under an overhanging rock.  When Maack awoke the next morning he saw the paintings and made a sketch of it.  This shelter is referred to as the Maack Shelter. 

He later made copies which were later published in a book on bushman (San) art and this was how the "White Lady" was introduced to the outside world.  On a visit to Cape Town in 1929 the painting came to the attention of Abbe Henri Breuil. He studied the drawing and hypothesized that the figure was that of a female, hence the name "White Lady". 

The painting depicts the performance of a ritual dance by a group of people. The central figure is that of a shaman (medicine man). 

It is considered that the inhabitants of the brandberg area were San Hunter-Gatherers and that the paintings originated from this cultural group. 

An interrelationship existed between the environment and the people, forming an important part in the belief systems of ancient times. A medicine man called upon to perform dances during drought and illness. It was also believed that some animals had mystical powers and during these ritual dances the shaman would take on the figures of these animals. 

The footpath to the site offers spectacular views over the plains of Damaraland. 

We stayed at the Brandberg White Lady Lodge for the night. 

 It is here that we see Rock Dassie's in both the trees and the rock and our first Meerkats,  they are so curious and cute, sitting upon a rock looking so prim and proper.