Bearish Bumbles

09/03: Thimbi Thimbi - Day 5

Category: Bumbling | Posted by: Cads

A blitz run up to Etosha started at 8:00am. The land in Namibia doesn't seem to change much on the north south routes, or rather not as much as on the east west routes. Tarmac, with some villages and towns, until we arrived later at Etosha. We'd already had lunch on the side of the road, and stopped off at another craft fair. But today was all about Etosha - get there, get there early, get there safe, but get there.

And we did. It's a little disconcerting to have driven nearly 400km and not seen any animals to then see elephants right inside the gate. Not 3km inside the park, we had to stop and watch a herd of elephants just hanging out. And it's not like they are herded up and penned inside the park - nope, these elephants just happen to hang out so that Tourists can come and take photos of them... We think that perhaps we are on a schedule, and elephant guides tell other elephants about the distinctive markings of the brit, the traveller, the yank, the yuppie and the gaudy. They probably have different names - the Whingeing Pom, the Showy Birkenstock, the Overit, the whiny brat etc...

Etosha National Park is full of animals. African spotted cats (how Martin even saw that I'll never know) the Corrie Bustard, Giraffe, Rhino, warthogs, jackals, hyaena, lions, leopards, elephants, wildebeest ... the list goes on. Etosha is massive, and the game can live here quite happily (until it gets eaten by some predator or other). The size of the park is important, because it allows the animals to interact quite normally, rather than having to compete dramatically for food etc. Etosha is unique in this respect - there is enough space here for several naturally occuring territories, rather than having too little space for whatever species, thereby promoting higher levels of predation.

The night was spent in camp inside the park, looking out at animals at a watering hole. We can't go on about the amazing nature (in both senses of the word) of this place enough. Apart from the new human arrivals at the watering hole, there is an awe-struck silence. The Moon rising over the black mirror of the water. The reflections of the drinking animals. The variety of species (some of whice are, or are becoming, endangered). The only people that were noisy were the kids, and even then it was in a subdued and gob-smacked manner.

Taking photographs here requires a tripod. The watering hole is lit by low-level light. Enough for us to see them, but not for them to see us. It's a strong moonlight effect, and we had rhinos right up to the fence who could smell us, but couldn't see us. It is easy to see why people become wildlife photographers in Africa. It's the Ansell Adams principle - it's hard not to take good photographs when the subject matter is this amazing.

Days 6 and 7 involved more game drives, ending up in Bushmanland. There is so much experience in these game drives that jotting it down here is more damaging than enlightening. Suffice to say that Namibia takes on a whole new dimension - not only is it starkness and desert and sea and dunes but also wild grasses, veldt, savannah (cider as well as geography), wildlife, stars, warmth (people and temperature) and a richness of colours and emotions that is hard to beat.

The only part so far that has been less than ideal is Bushmanland. While we broke out our own tent to beat the cold, we were informed we would be treated to a traditional set of dances from the bushmen, and also a bushman would show us how he used to survive before modernization and reprehensible government practices began to eradicate his way of life. This last was very useful, showing more about a traditional culture than anyone could learn from a book or museum, even in its paucity of time. However, the whole thing felt a little disingenuous, almost as though "they trotted the natives out for us to gawp at". The teaching was expertly done, and it was good to give something to the community other than money (salt, sugar, oil, tobacco) - but seeing the tribe sharing out lollies just showed how demeaning it is to be a tourist here. In the presence of one of the oldest cultures in the world and in return for timeless life-saving knowledge we bring opal fruits and chocolate...

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09/03: Thimbi Thimbi - Day 5

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