Gal Meets Globe: Namibia-Desert Rhino Camp in Damaraland-Camp 7 October 9-11, 2016

Desert Rhino Camp

Damaraland

Camp 7

It was about a 5 hour drive from Andersson Camp to Desert Rhino Camp. We traveled over mostly gravel roads and up and down Grootberg Pass.

There sure is a lot of dust

The scenery has changed. It is greener and has red rocks and red sand. It's quite pretty.

Looks a little bit like Southern Utah.

At Grootberg we parked Chuma at the top of the pass and sat on the hood and had our picnic lunch. It's always an adventure.

On our first morning at Desert Rhino Camp we woke up at 5:30 am in order to track Black Rhinos. We are in North Damaraland about 80 kilometers east of the Skeleton Coast. This is the highest concentration of Black Rhinos in Namibia. They estimate that there are only about 5000 Black Rhinos living in the world. They also estimate that there are about 20,000 White Rhinos. We were lucky in Etosha and saw a Black Rhino cross within 25 feet of our Land Rover. That was a lucky sighting.

Going out on the Rhino tracking drive. It was too long of a day. 10 1/2 hours riding in the Toyota with our guide.

Scott stretching his legs

There were some natural springs

Three local Rhino Trackers left 30 minutes before we did to try and find Rhinos. We followed in a safari car with Peiter our guide. We first spot three elephants, a couple of giraffe and Gemsbock. After driving for three hours the trackers radioed that they had spotted a Rhino. We drove on to their location and spotted the Rhino in a valley from about a kilometer away. We drove around a hill and stopped. Two of the trackers ran to the top of the hill and spotted the Rhino and determined his direction. We drove to the head of the valley in the direction the Rhino was traveling and jumped out of the safari vehicle and started walking toward the Rhino expecting to find him coming toward us. We spot him and then discover that there are two Rhinos.

The horns have been cut by the government to deter poaching of the horn and killing of the Rhino

Both Rhinos have their horns cut. The Namibian Government started cutting their horns in 2009 to deter poachers from killing the Rhinos in order to get the horns.

We watched the Rhinos for about 30 minutes from a distance of about 200 yards.

Scott is pointing to the Rhino. We all got out of the vehicles and walked to see them

The Rhino soon trotted off over the next hill.

Four solitary trees

We found a family of desert elephants on the way

A baby Giraffe! Probably a few weeks old

We had lunch at noon under a tree out in the desert. We then drove on through the desert where we spotted three more Black Rhinos. The horns on these Rhinos were not cut. Driving out of the desert back to our camp took another 5 hours. It was a long day of 10-1/2 hours of driving 110 kilometers on very rough 4x4 desert roads. It felt good to shower and lie down in our tent.

Setting up lunch for us

On the way out we found 3 more Black Rhino's. These had their horns attached.

The scenery close to the Skeleton Coast

The next morning we went on a walking safari. We learned about the plant that is shown on the Namibian Crest, which grows in the desert. There is a male and female variety of the plant and it grows to be over 1000 years old. It symbolizes the ability to survive in the desert harsh conditions. We also saw a coral snake that scared Peiter our guide.

Out on our walking safari

This plant is the oldest recorded. It can be 2000 years old. It is against the law to destroy them. There is a male and a female version. This is the female.

This is the male

This cactus plant grows here but is very poisonous.

If you touch it, a milky substance comes out that can kill you.

We had asked the camp managers if we could visit a Himba encampment. They told us that they have never had any guests ask to go visit the native tribes. It seemed to cause quite a concern among them. They wanted to help us but did not want to get into trouble with the camp owners so they called and asked for permission to help us.

They told us that there was a Himba family that lived about 30 kilometers further north from the gate of this Rhino concession area. They did not want their safari vehicles to go outside of the Rhino Concession Area so at the Palmwag Gate we agreed to transfer to our Land Rover and I would drive us the 30 kilometers further north to the site of the Himba Encampment. Our guide from the camp accompanied us to the Himba Village.

Before we left Palmwag we stopped at the small store and bought 5 kg of sugar, 5 kg of cornmeal, a package of split peas, 4 packages of soups, a box of Roiboss Tea, and 2 jars of Vaseline. We asked the shop owner what the Himba needed and she helped us pick out the supplies. She said that the Himba use the Vaseline to mix with the red ochre to rub onto their skin to soften and protect themselves. Normally they would use cow fat for that purpose but the recent 4 years of drought means that the cows produce less.

This is the grocery store

Finding what the Himba might need

The village consisted of huts made from cow manure mixed with dirt. The main living huts had a door and holes in roof to let out the smoke.

Entering the village

The entrance is very small. I had to crawl in.

This hut is for their food storage

Inside the hut. The hanging bag has the red ochre powder that they mix with cow fat or vaseline and rub all over their bodies

There is a small fire on the inside

This was the village for one family. The man had two wives and there were huts in two different areas about 150 yards apart.

All of the women and children were dressed in the traditional Himba dress with the girls wearing sheep skin skirts and headdresses and metal jewelry on their ankles and lots of bracelets. Their hair was wrapped in braids and covered with the red ochre paste for beauty. Their skin is covered with the red ochre paste, which makes their skin soft and protects them from the sun. This is their daily dress that they wear every day. They did not know that we were coming and there were no other tourists that we saw.

This girl is 15. She was very happy and smiling. She has never been to school but is learning English by listening to people. English is the official language of Namibia. She understood a lot of what were saying.

They get dressed like this every day. They are very proud of their heritage.

She does her hair like this for about 2 months, then has to re-do it because of hair growth. They wear lots of jewelry and headress. I had her show me her outfit from behind because it was so beautiful.

This is one of the wives on the inside of the family hut.

The women take a lot of care and pride in their dress. They are beautiful Himba women.

The young boys have two braids that flop over their foreheads.

Scott taking a selfie with one of the boys

The older boys that have reached maturity have one braid in the middle of their head that faces backwards.

They had two enclosures for their animals. The larger area was for the cattle to protect them from wild animals at night.

This enclosure is for the cattle. They have another one that is smaller for the smaller animals. This is to keep them safe from predators.

The other enclosure was for the smaller animals such as goats and chickens and the fencing made of sticks was made of a tighter weave.

There seemed to be about 15 children. The two oldest were 17 and 15 and were girls. The 17 year old had a baby and was pregnant but was not married. Our guide told us that the 15-year-old girl was now eligible for marriage or to get pregnant. He said that they often meet and marry their cousins when they go to the main villages for celebrations. There is no birth control and the girls often get pregnant but do not marry and just continue to live in their own villages. If they marry then the girl moves to the village of the boy.

Two sisters

Barb with her new friends

They seem to take care of each other

We gave the Himba family the grocery supplies and they were very grateful. Barb said that she wanted a sheepskin skirt and the Himba husband owner of the village said that if we would stay one night in their hut that he would slaughter a sheep and soften the sheepskin and make a skirt for Barb. We declined the invitation but wonder what an experience that would have been if we would have had the courage to sleep in the hut for one night.

This is the skirt Barb wants

They were happy to take photos with us

After we gave them their gifts of groceries and supplies, we looked at their crafts to buy. Barb bought some bracelets and a necklace. They were very grateful.