Damaraland

The rainy season starts in December in Namibia and although the country is mostly desert, when it does rain, it really rains. A deluge started as we left the Himba village and we were forced to eat in the bus that evening. The campsites are very well equipped, but the shower and toilet facilities often have no roof on them because it is so hot and mostly dry. The heavy rain continued through the night and into the morning, so most of us passed up the chance to take a shower - except one of the German campers, who I met striding through the camp first thing in the morning in just his hiking boots and underpants after he emerged from the shower.

The north of Namibia is fairly flat, but as we headed down into Damaraland we passed through more mountainous terrain and some of the most beautiful scenery in Namibia. It's amazing how such a brutal landscape can be so beautiful. The combination of orange-coloured rocks with yellow and blue grasses is truly stunning.

We visited Twyfelfontein where there are hundreds of rock engravings that date back over 6,000 years and were thought to have been made by the ancient San hunters. The engravings depict animals that no longer live in the region such as lions, rhinos, giraffes and elephants. Given its historical significance, it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site - the first one to be given this status in Namibia.

The Himbas

We spent a couple of days at Etosha and as we left the park, we saw an eagle with a rock monitor lizard under its claw. They typically kill their prey by flying high into the air with it and then dropping it. And if that doesn't kill it, they take it up and drop it again. And repeat if necessary. I can just imagine the eagle asking the rock monitor lizard, "have you ever tried sky-diving?" as it sends it plummeting to the ground..

We started heading southwards towards Outjo where we stopped off at a German bakery. It's surprising how strong the German influence still is in Namibia, given that they were only there for 30 years and left some hundred years ago. The abundance of wonderful, freshly baked bread and cakes is a legacy that is hard to resist - especially the apple strudel!

Our next stop was near Kamanjab, where we camped by a small village of Himba people. The Himbas are a very old, semi-nomadic tribe who still retain their traditional way of life. The most notable aspect is that the women never wash with water, but smear themselves on a daily basis with a mixture of cocoa butter, red ochre and bush herbs. This serves as a moisturiser, natural sunblock and insect repellent, while staining their skin a distinctive terracotta-like hue.

They also smear the mixture onto their braided hair, which makes it look similar to dreadlocks and they add extensions to make it as big as possible. They wear traditional tribal clothing with little more than an animal-skin skirt and a cotton cloth around their shoulders. The women also have a decorative adornment around their ankles which is permanently attached once they reach puberty. This is not merely decorative, but serves to protect them from snake bites when they're out in the bush.

The Himba have become quite a tourist attraction in Namibia and tend to be put on show for photos. We were advised that the Himbas don't mind their pictures being taken, as long as they can see the photos afterwards. I guess it is the only occasion that they can actually see what they look like as there were no mirrors in their camp.

Before our visit, we were encouraged by our guide to take a gift for the elder woman of the village, such as salt, sugar, maize or anything that is generally useful to them. We were invited to go inside one of the huts where a young woman lived with her child. One of the women in our tour group requested the interpretor to ask her what her hopes and dreams were for the future. She replied that she wanted more goats and animals. It's interesting that even within this primitive culture, the aspiration to have "more" was still the norm - although her aspirations were at least centred on things that would ensure her physical survival.

One of the little boys then took me by the hand over to meet his mother who was sitting outside her hut. My cowl-shell necklace had sparked some interest as the Himbas frequently use cowl shells in the jewellery that they make. I bent my head forward while the mother removed my necklace so she could inspect it more closely and see how it was made. And as we left the camp, we had the opportunity to buy some of the jewellery that they had made.

The experience left us thinking how different their lifestyle is from our own and how it must be difficult not to go stir-crazy while living within such a small camp. The Himbas do move around to access better grazing for their animals, but day-to-day life takes place within a very small area. This particular group are living in an area outside their traditional territory further north in Namibia. They were given permission by the farmer to live on the land, in return for allowing tourists to come and visit them. One young girl seemed very self-conscious at being virtually naked while the tourists were fully dressed and it was hard to walk away without feeling that they were being exploited.

Etosha

The next part of the camping tour took us up to the Etosha National Park, one of the world's greatest venues for viewing wildlife. It is a vast area of more than 20,000 sq km and is unique for its flat, saline desert landscape - otherwise known as the Etosha Pan - which is reputedly twice as salty as the Atlantic Ocean.

The park is home to 600-700 lions and I was somewhat relieved that it wasn't my job to find these in the morning. But it gives you some idea how many antelopes, wildebeest and other prey there must be living there to sustain this number of lions, not to mention other big cats and predators.

We had just entered the rainy season when I visited and so there weren't so many animals to see, as they can get enough water out in the bush and have no need to come to the water holes. But by this time I had seen enough animals on my trip to keep me going for a lifetime and was more intrigued by the ethereal landscape with huge skies.

Carry on camping

I left the Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary on new year's eve to join the camping tour that I'd booked myself on. I was sad to miss the new year's celebrations with some of the other volunteers, but I was at least assured of keeping one of my new year's resolutions: never to get bitten by a baboon again.

The first part of the tour was in the north of the country. In simplistic terms, Namibia is said to have the animals in the north and the scenery in the south. The country is about the size of the UK and France put together, but with a population of just over two million. For those who don't know the history, Namibia was a German protectorate from 1892 to 1920. After the first World War, it became part of South West Africa under the rule of South Africa. The country has only been independent since 1990 and as such, is one of the world's youngest nations.

As we drove north, the first thing that struck me was how developed it was. The roads were in good condition and the buildings we passed looked like something you would see in Europe. This was along a main thoroughfare and so not representative of the rest of the country, but I was surprised at how affluent it seemed.

Our first night was at the AfriCat Foundation, which runs the largest cheetah and leopard rescue-and-release programme in the world. Indeed, Namibia accounts for around 25 percent of the world's cheetah population. In the 17 years since AfriCat was established, they have rescued over 1,000 cheetahs and leopards, and 86 percent of these have been released. The animals that they keep there are those that can't be released, which includes about 100 cheetahs today.

AfriCat has two sites in Namibia. The one we visited was at Okonjima, which apparently means "the place of the baboons". Please no. We did see a few of the critters jumping around, but happily the wild ones don't approach humans.

We were taken to see the cheetahs and one of the leopards at feeding time. We then returned to camp, ate outside around the fire and saw the remainder of 2010 out under the stars.

Our first camp





http://www.africat.org/index.html

The great escape

Once Christmas had past, some of us starting considering alternative options to staying at the wildlife sanctuary. The high number of volunteers and a younger crowd that wanted to party were starting to grate and the experience wasn't quite what we had in mind when we booked it.

I decided that the last couple of weeks of my trip would be better spent seeing more of Namibia, which is reputedly one of the most beautiful countries in the world. So I booked myself on a camping tour - seven days around the north of the country and seven days around the south.

Over the next couple of days we said goodbye to various volunteers. Jack confessed to me before he left that he'd been throwing his used underpants into the leopard's enclosure for the previous five days - as a ruse to make the staff think that the leopard had eaten someone. He claimed that the underpants had been removed each day, but no one said a thing.

I knew straight off that this couldn't be true as no guy takes that many pairs of underpants on holiday with him. But we did muse that it would have been funny to have put the underpants on the leopard. Then when the next lot of guests were being taken round (eg. Brad and Ange), the guide would have been in the middle of explaining that you can never trust a leopard as they always revert to being wild, when a leopard would strut past in a pair of Calvin Kleins..

Nothing comes between me and my Calvins

Brangelina comes to town!

Before leaving for my trip, various friends had speculated that I would meet a hunky game ranger while I was there - experiencing a touch of "khaki fever" as the locals refer to it. In one such conversation, a friend checked up on my progress while I was away, to which I flippantly replied: "Nothing's going to happen - not unless Brad Pitt flies into town."

Well, dear reader, he did..

Brad, Ange and the whole brood descended on Namibia for Christmas to stay at the Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary itself. The owner of the sanctuary has apparently known Angelina for some time and I assume they met when Angelina filmed some of the sequences for "Beyond Borders" in Namibia. The sanctuary sometimes provides animals to be used in films and photo shoots and the owner accompanies them as the handler.

It is well-reported that Brad and Angelina returned to Namibia to give birth to their daughter in 2006 and the subsequent publicity gave a significant boost to tourism. Brad and Angelina came back to Namibia this Christmas to strengthen their daughter's links with the country she was born in and also made a generous $2 million donation to the sanctuary when they left.

For security reasons, the volunteers had no idea that Brad and Angelina were staying. Indeed, we had thought it somewhat rude that none of the staff had joined us for our Christmas dinner the evening before. They were instead at the lodge meeting Brad and Ange..

Some of us went to the lodge to have lunch on Boxing Day, but the celebrity guests had already gone by then. But we did wonder whether Brad was offered the opportunity to go on a walk with the adult baboons before he left.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/usshowbiz/article-1342263/Brad-Pitt-Angelina-Jolie-Shiloh-birthplace-family-mix-Christmas-charity-Namibia.html

Christmas Day

It didn't really feel like Christmas for me at all this year as it's just not the same in a hot climate. Christmas Day or not, the animals still needed to be fed and so we went to do foodprep as usual. But Jack had beaten us to it and chopped up most of the fruit already. He claimed that it was to save the rest of us the bother on Christmas Day, but I wasn't convinced by his show of festive goodwill.

After hearing about his adult baboon walk, I suspected that he may have slipped something into their food. I had visions of us passing their enclosure later that day and puzzling over how quiet they were. He finally confessed that he had in fact pissed on their apples, but then felt really bad when he saw me mixing them with the mealie pap without any gloves on.

The rest of the day was fairly relaxed, except a brief spurt of activity when we tried to guide the hens back into their night enclosure. I have to admit that I didn't take this task quite so seriously as some of the other volunteers. And the sight of six grown women crouching down in a scrum-like position as if they were taking on the All Blacks, remains with me until this day.

Coincidentally, our Christmas Dinner was chicken curry but not made from those we had just been chasing around. We finished our day not by singing carols round the fire, but listening one more time to Jack tell his adult baboon walk story - which by this time was about as believable as Santa coming down the chimney.


The dining area

 

Jack doing Alpha Male

Jack's adult baboon walk

You're probably getting the picture by now that the baboons were a little tricky to deal with at times. The babies were enough of a handful, but the ultimate challenge thrown down to us was the chance to go for a walk with the adult baboons.

You have to be pretty robust to cope with the adults, because they weigh up to 45kgs and are likely to leap on your back from several metres away. And it's bad enough when a baby baboon pees on you while sitting on your shoulders, so I can only imagine what it must be like with an adult.

When an adult baboon sits on your shoulders, it tends to put its hands on your head and tuck its fingers in your eye sockets to help it grip on. Then when it jumps off again, it pushes off with its hands and nearly pokes your eyes out in the process.

For some reason it was usually the male volunteers, fuelled by a rush of testosterone, that would put themselves forward to go on the adult baboon walk. Only two volunteers were allowed to go at any one time, along with two members of staff and one of the local bushmen who also carried a big stick.

One such guy - let's call him Jack (because that is his name) - had no hesitation in putting his hand up. Up to this point, Jack had actually had very little interaction with the baboons. He hadn't even been out for a walk with the baby baboons. But he'd had one single baboon cuddle up to him the night before, which lulled him into a false sense of security that this would be a walk in the park. Well, it was a walk in the bush, but certainly no walk in the park.

Who wants to go on the adult baboon walk?

We were always told that you must never react when the baboons bite you. If you flinch or show any fear, they will pick up on it and attack you even more. Surveying his 6-foot plus stature and bushy beard, the baboons clearly thought Jack was alpha-male material and a potential threat to the troop's hierarchy. Within minutes of them getting out, Jack was bitten on the leg, the arm, the side of his stomach, the back and to finish things off, right on the testicles.

The bushman turned around to him and expressed surprise that he didn't scream, to which Jack countered, "Dude, you told me 50 times not to scream. " He then issued a warning to the baboons: "Do that again and the whole tribe is going down."

Two minutes later, one of the alpha males climbed up and bit Jack on the bottom lip, with its top teeth actually inside his mouth. It was at this point that Jack decided that the "never say no to a baboon" policy was up for re-negotiation. So when the staff weren't looking, the next baboon that jumped up got punched through the air to land flat on its back and wonder what the hell had just happened.

Then the baboon that bit him on the lip came back, but this time to offer what seemed to be just an affectionate kiss. I doubt that the baboons at Naankuse have ever been head-butted before - at least by a human - but they met their match that day.


It was after this that the two alpha males recognised Jack as a god to be worshipped and walked in docile fashion on either side of him, attacking any other baboons that dared to come near. The bushman noted this change of behaviour - "see, they like you now" - blissfully unaware of Jack's defence strategy.

Jack also claims to have wreaked his revenge by pissing on the baboons as well - just as they had done on him. Indeed, Jack's rendition of his adult baboon walk grew with every telling and had us crying with laughter for the remainder of our days at Naankuse.

Jack the Baboon Whisperer

Walking the caracals

The caracals are among the various animals that need to be taken for a walk each day. These are medium-sized cats with distinctive long black hairs on their ears. It is rare to see them in the wild as they hide very well, but apparently they can be easily tamed and are sometimes kept as pets. Indeed, they are the one animal at the sanctuary that I am perfectly happy to take for a walk and don't feel like I'm at risk of being killed or having my clothes ripped off.