25 Feb Namibia: In Himba Land

Being used to the countries of the Sahel, I have to admit that this country is shocking. No wonder, there is no dirt in the streets, some buildings look German, I am staying in a hotel near Bismarckstrasse, etc.
I thought I had taken the wrong flight and I was in the middle of Babiera, what a scare...

As my work was between the city of Windhoek and the Angolan border, I have seen little, but the little I have seen this time, I will show you.
In Windhoek it is mandatory to go to Joe's Beerhouse to eat wild animal meat, but it is so good, that afterwards you will never see the animals with the same eyes, you will never see the beauty of nature in its purest state, etc, etc, you will only see skewers...

For example, in this photo, I don't know what you see, I only see a couple of oryx skewers.

very tender sable antelope fillet...

No one can eat the black rhinoceros, not even in carpaccio. In the past it was persecuted because it was thought that its meat provided sexual vigour (because its sexual act lasts for more than an hour without stopping, ha! ghosts...raise your hand if you believe it).

Other typical foods are biltong, traditional barbecued game meat or Braai and corn, but come on, nothing I wouldn't trade for omelette.

Within the city, part of our work was in the Katutura slum, (which means something like "we don't have a permanent residence"), which reminded me more of the Africa I know.

Work also took us to the Pharaos bar, the Cubano, and Chez Ntemba, the night confuses me, (especially in the latter), to drink gintonis (for their preventive effects against malaria, of course), but there is no photographic report of this.

The other half of the time was spent trying to enter Angola, in the border town of Oshikango.

The road to the border is littered with "cathedral termite mounds". They are built from a mixture of spit, earth and excrement and can be so hard that they require explosives to bring them down. In case there are any young explorers reading me, they always face north.

By the way, I don't know what the termites were thinking when they built this termite mound, but their minds were a bit dirty...

I will tell you about my misadventures trying to enter Angola in vain, as I was not allowed to enter the country with Jorge to continue the mission.

So I decided to return to Windhoeck by a tour of Himba country, so that the anger I had felt at leaving George alone in the face of danger would pass.

For this I moved to the town of Opuwo, the perfect base for touring the Kaokoland, one of the last remaining untouched areas in southern Africa. It is an area of incredible mountain scenery, home not only to the Himba people but also to the famous desert elephants.

What bad luck I had, that the lodge I found had an infinity pool with breathtaking views of the mountains. This job of mine is what it is, I have to adapt to all kinds of environments...

The next morning I started my way back, more than 700km of road through an impressive area until I could take a tarmac road.

I spent the first 200km enjoying the scenery and being amazed by the scenery.

stopping to see how the Himba people lived in the villages along the way

For the next 200km I was starting to feel tired (I was getting tired from all the walking), but I kept stopping to see the Himba tribes.

I've just realised that this entry is getting too long, so in case you haven't cut your wrists yet, I'm going to stop here, and in a couple of days I'll show you the beautiful route I did through the Kaokoland region.