Day 6: Opuwo to Kunene

We started at around 10 am towards the northern boundary of Namibia. Our plan was to drive to Epupa falls in the Kunene river which also acts as a natural border to Namibia. We stopped at Opuwo to fill up stocks, change USD to N$, and also to buy a new tyre. It was expensive, around 2200 N$, but we had no other option as the reserve tyre is not good enough for our adventurous plans ahaead. Opuwo had a lot of garages, shops, supermarkets and also the Himbas. Himbas are indigenous people living in the northern regions of Kunene/Kaokoland region. They wear traditional clothing that is in tune with their surrounding environment, and in most occurrences this consists simply of skirt-like clothing made from calfskins. They are immediately recognizable from their skin and hair colour, having a distinctive orange or red-tinge characteristic. For these nomadic pastoralist tribes, Opuwo is the closest big town where they can do their shopping and also make quick money from the tourists by posing for photographs. They were a bit annoying as they crowded around us to sell crafts. It was interesting to watch them, due to their unique way of dressing, but also felt very sad to see their poverty.

We drove to Epupa from there, about 180 kms north of Opuwo. But on the way there, we decided to take a diversion and drive to Kunene river lodge, north east of Epupa. The spontaneous plan was to drive along the Kunene river separating Namibia and Angola. As it is a 4wd track from Epupa to Kunene camp we thought it will be wise to stay at Kunene river lodge and check about the track conditions with them before proceeding further. The lodge/camp was really beautiful, green and full of trees offering a lot of shade, overlooking the river. The river was bigger than I expected, about 75 m wide and with decent amount of water. The camp had a bar/restaurant with a deck overlooking the river. We saw a number of monitor lizards and monkeys around our camp. The lizards minded their own business but the monkeys as usual were looking for a chance to steal. We decided to stay there one more night there as the lodge also offered river rafting in Kunene river for interested people. Of course, we were interested!

Day 5: Palmwag Lodge to Opuwo

We started around 10 am from Palmwag and drove towards Seesfontain. Just after Palmwag, the GPS card from 4 x4 tracks that Bru had showed a panorama view point approximately 4 km off track in the direction we were travelling. We decided to take that route, which turned out to be a proper 4 x 4 track, with uneven and very rocky tracks. The moving was very slow, but in the end the view was really nice. We stayed there for some time and took some snaps before turning back to the main road.

On the way we made a stop at the old german fort at Seesfontain. The once ruined fort was renovated and converted into a hotel in 1994. Inside the fort it was like an oasis in the desert, very green and with palm trees providing the much needed shade in the arid region. They even had a pool. We stayed longer than we planned, had a drink and had toast for lunch. After about 2 hrs there we were on the road again towards Opuwo. The landscape changed dramatically and the route was more mountainous, with curvy and narrow roads, steep climbs and lot of dry streams crossing the roads. Some of the regions we crossed were very green with lot of mopane trees. We stopped on the top of a hill to have a photo of the road and the valley downstream. A few meters afterwards we had a flat tyre!! I think it happened as we parked the car on those sharp rocks. The tyre had two big cuts on the sides. The hot afternoon made the tyre change with the entire luggage inside extremely difficult. And that too on the side of a very dusty dirt road.  After the tyre change we drove towards Opuwo which was about 15 km away.

Opuwo is a relatively big town and if I am right the last town before the Himba region of Kaokoland in the north of Namibia. We camped at the Mopane camp, about 4.5 km off road, in the midst of mopane trees. It was a nice place and both of us were very tired. The camp had only chalet kind of accommodation, but they still let us camp there as there were no other guests.

Day 4: EHRA to Palmwag Lodge

We started in the morning from the EHRA camp. There were no specific plans as usual other than driving towards north into the Kunene region. On the way we stopped at the Mowani mountain camp situated in the stunning landscapes of Damaraland. I stayed in the camps there in 2008 during my first visit to Namibia. But it’s mainly a luxury resort  with the topmost suites charging around 230 euros/night. As Bru worked in the tourism business they agreed to show us around the different rooms and the facilities they have. The view from the rooms were really amazing, worth the price they charge for the suites. The whole row of cottages where nicely placed between massive boulders, and it blended perfectly with the landscape. They even had a pool in the rocks overlooking the valley. We stayed there for a couple of hours, enjoyed our first cocktail rock shandy and thereafter started towards Palmwag Lodge situated in the Unaib river, in the afternoon. We reached there in the evening. After parking our car in the camping place we then jumped into the pool to cool ourselves down. It was very relaxing evening after the long drive through the heat. At night we cooked some rice and chicken curry for dinner.

Day 3: Erindi to EHRA camp

The best part of all these trips is that we usually won’t have any concrete plans for every day. So today also we really didn’t have any plan as to which route to go in the morning. Our idea for today was to go to the Mowani  mountain camp in the southern Kunene region at Khorixas. We first drove towards Uis via Omaruru. On the way we stopped at the Franke tower to take some snaps. The tower was built to commemorate a battle between the Herero and German colonisers in 1908. It’s a really small tower with an old artillery at the front of the tower.

Bru suggested that we go to the San living museum afterwards and we took a detour from the main road (~ 30 km). The San living museum is situated in the Erongo conservation area, surrounded by the Erongo mountains. It is an arid, empty landscape full of small small mountains. We reached the San museum at noon. The idea behind the museum is that the San people, whose ancestors are living in those regions for more than 5000 years, will show us about the way they lived, hunted and survived. We booked a 2 hr trip with them. The San family who took us around came from Kalahari, where they live now. They usually work for 2 months in Erongo and then go back to Kalahari. Then the next family will come and conduct the tour and the cycle is repeated. In that way, everyone in their village will be benefiting from tourism.

For us the tour was done by a 26 year boy who surprisingly spoke good English. He learned English from his school in Kalahari. Along with him was his 63 year old grandfather who showed us and explained about the tree from which they used the fruits for eating, and the leaves that they used as an antiseptic for injuries. He also showed as another tree from which they extracted the poison for the arrows they used for hunting. How they made the poison was interesting. The beetles eat on the leaves of the tree and lay eggs in the tree. The worms coming out transforms into cocoon and the cocoon after some time falls down and burry themselves in the sand. The San people dig out these cocoon and make paste out of the cocoon which is the poison they use for their arrows. Once these arrows hit the animal and injure it, the animal will not die immediately. The poison will enter the bloodstream and the big animals take a day to die. The San go back to the village and come back in the morning next day to track the injured animal. They also showed us how to make fire using wood sticks and how they made small traps or snares to get small animals like bats, Guinea fowls etc. We also saw some rock paintings that were more than 5000 years old on the way.

In the road back from the San museum we took a break in a river bed to have our lunch. We then proceeded towards Uis and did shopping in the supermarket there. We then drove to the base camp of the Elephant Human Relations Aid (EHRA), which is kind of home away from home for both of us.  I met Bru in a desert elephant volunteer program conducted by EHRA. It is a Namibian registered not-for-gain organisation which runs an elephant conservation and volunteer project in Namibia. It conducts workshops for the local community to find long-term sustainable solutions to the human-animal conflict and facilitate the peaceful co-habitation between the subsistence farmers, community members and the desert-adapted elephants. The volunteer groups take part in the construction of the wells destroyed by the desert elephants in their search or water in the desert. The money collected from the volunteers goes for the material costs and the volunteer themselves act as the manpower for the construction. It is the best volunteer project that I ever took part in, and also the one in which you will immediately see the impact of your work on the local community. The added bonus is to come face to face with the desert roaming ellies. It’s a unique experience.

As it was Christmas season the camp was closed and no volunteers were there. One of their staffs Adolfo was taking care of the camp, whom we both knew from our earlier stay. He allowed us to make a camp there. We made a camp fire, chatted, cooked food and slept on the wooden platform in the dry riverbed. It was heaven!

Day 2: Windhoek to Erindi Game Park

We visited a doctor at Windhoek for the Malarone tablets to counter the Malaria problems. But in the end we decided not to take it, mainly due to the side effects and also owing to its high costs, and concentrate on the precautions and symptoms. The nurse even joked that we can try the gin and tonic to thwart the Malaria mosquitos.

We picked the 4 x 4, Toyota Hilux from Britz near to the airport. We felt the car that we got was not really in good shape, but we trusted the good old Hilux. We started from there around 2 pm and stopped at the supermarket on the way at Windhoek. The thump rule for our trips is to get atleast enough water to survive for a week. The rest is some fresh food for couple of days and some packed food and snacks for 5 days. We were back to the road at 4:15 pm and Bru was driving and our destination was the privately run Erindi game park in central Namibia. We were supposed to take the highway B1 to Otjiwarongo, but on the way we missed the highway and landed up in the B2 to Swakopmund in the opposite direction somehow. So we were forced to take an alternate gravel road (D). In a way it was good as we started seeing a lot of game on the way – springbok, gemsbok, waterbuck, warthog etc.

Once inside the Erindi park we came across a bull, our first ellie in Namibia. I thought it was not a bad start at all. The park is huge, with a lot of wildlife, and around 70,000 hectares with AK 47 wielding guards to prevent poaching.  We camped at the elephant camp in Erindi. It was an expensive campsite for our budget. In the night it was very windy, so it was not quite easy hold the fire in the wind while cooking. We went to bed after eating some nice pasta.

Day 1: Fly to Windhoek

I reached Windhoek, capital of Namibia, at 9:30 pm. It was stupidly long flight from Trivandrum to Doha, Doha to Johannesburg, Johannesburg to Windhoek. This is what happens when you have really tight budget and have to keep an eye on all the cents that goes out of your purse. I went directly to Chameleon Backpackers from the airport. As expected Bru was already there, my travel partner on almost all the adventurous trips. We met in Africa, in the deserts of Namibia, and both of us are crazy about this continent. Both of us are not fascinated by the ‘all covered’ organised trips. In fact, we look forward to the surprises the nature has to offer in our unorganised, camping trips. I think our last trip together was in the Himalayas. I have to admit, the surprises the Indian chaos thrown at us was not really what we look forwarded to. But that’s life :-)

Goa

Day 14:

From Udupi we took the morning train to Goa. The train was supposed to come at 7:30 am at Udupi. As with any train journeys in India, it came late. It takes around 4 hrs to travel from Udupi to Madgaon (the central railway station in Goa). It was Gela’s first journey in a local train in India. It is quite slow and stops n number of stops on the way. But in India if one wants to know the pulse of India then the train journey is a must do activity. It is a unique experience, and I hope she enjoyed it.

 

Goa in west coast of India is a former Portuguese colony and therefore has a mix of Indian and Portuguese cultures in food and in architecture. The state is famous for its beaches and in the 60’s the hippie culture put it into the international limelight. Now the state gets visitors not only from the foreign tourists but also from the Indian tourists. It is also one of the most peaceful states in India.

We reached around 1 pm at Goa, and took the taxi to our hotel in the Bagga beach in Calangute. We had our reservation at the Little India Beach Resort, which was not so easy to find. But both of us found out choice of accommodation perfect in every sense. The resort was small in size with less than 10 cottages in total, but only few meters from the beach. On the beach front it was walkable distance from the main shacks and restaurants. So in a way away from the party sites but also close to the beach. Being in an offseason, majority of the accommodations and the restaurants are closed in Goa at this part of the year. The peak season in Goa is from mid-November to mid-February, which is almost the same south India.  So the only ones that are open are at popular beaches like Calangute or in Vagator.  So we were extremely lucky that we found this place.

 

We planned to stay for 5 nights there. Whenever I go for long holidays I make sure that the last 3-5 days I stay at one place doing nothing. It always helped me to relax and recharge myself both mentally and physically. So being at this place with Gela was perfect in all sense.  I loved it.

Other than the beaches the capital city of Goa, Panjim/Panaji, is famous for is churches which has kept the old-world charm all these years, especially the Bom Jesus Basilica, where the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier is kept. We didn’t feel like roaming around and we relaxed at the beaches the whole time. During our stay I ate mostly local Goan food (especially fish) at restaurants, which I liked very much.  The rest of the time we didn’t do much there other than just lazing around in the room, hitting the waters and the restaurants once in a while. It was beautiful times. We also got lucky with the rains as the monsoon didn’t reach Goa in full strength yet.

Day 18: Kochi

On the fifth day morning we flew back to Kochi from the Dabolim airport in Vasco da Gama, the Goa’s only airport. It took almost an hour to reach there. But the roads in Goa are well maintained and the less traffic when compared to other parts of India.

We booked in a hotel close to the Kochi International airport, which is about 15 mins from the hotel (Airlink Castle). The hotel was really good, but there is nothing around the hotel to see. Its mainly for the tourists coming and going from the International airport. We just relaxed and enjoyed the food in the restaurant. Gela flew back on the next day morning. And I took the train back home.

Altogether it was a good trip, with a mix of culture, landscape, wildlife and the beaches. We managed to stay ahead of the monsoon majority of the time. Being a peak summer season the climate was extreme only in Madurai, where we escaped the heat because of the air-conditioned rooms.