Desert Wonderers

Mudorib – Hoanib – Sesfontein -Elephant Song

A hyena stole our motion detector!!! Yes I appreciate the irony. 

We spent last night wild camping in the Hoanib. We heard the motion detector go off, but couldn’t see anything. A bit later we heard the unmistakable cry. It really does sound like a laugh, more particularly like Jimmy Carr’s (an English comedian) laugh. When we got up in the morning, we couldn’t find one of the motion detectors. Eventually we discovered it about 50m from where Nigel had placed it.

The German couple we met a few days ago were still in the Hoanib. The Hoanib is a valley, so there are only certain directions you can follow. We had only driven a little way when we met them. 

The Germans found the male lion they had been looking for a couple of days ago. We had a nice long chat with them. It’s funny how you are in the middle of nowhere, but end up exchanging tips and information with strangers over the bonnets of a car or out of its window. I guess wild camping in a dry river bed, in an unpopulated part of the desert, with wild animals roaming around; isn’t for everyone. So, if you meet someone else doing it, then you are bound to have a connection. They were passionate about lions, and we were passionate about elephants. 

The Germans were starting their journey home that day. We said goodbye to them. I wonder if we will meet again. We all love the area, and come at the same time of the year. So perhaps we will see them again.

We heard there was fuel at Sesfontein. I can’t quite remember where we heard it first, but I think it was from a lodge vehicle. By now we were wary, as people told us all kinds of things that weren’t right. We decided to see if it was true. This was kind of make or break. If there was fuel, we could return to the Hoanib and back through the conservancy at a leisurely pace. If there wasn’t fuel, we would have to return to Palmweg on the main road.

We drove to the end of the Hoanib and into Elephant Song to see if Magnus wanted anything from Sesfontein. As we passed the conservancy gate there were now two people manning it, so twice the shopping list!

We arrived at the petrol station, and yes there was fuel. We filled up both tanks, and could now continue our holiday in the Hoanib. We called in at the main supermarket and found it had a better stock than before, although still no real vegetables. We were beginning to get used to tinned veg! I bought a large bag of bread flour to last for the rest of the holiday.

We bought some beer at the bar, and I watched a TV program while Nigel paid. It was full of glossy white people in rich homes. How can people here watch that kind of TV program, and not compare and become resentful. In days gone by they wouldn’t have been aware of how people in the rich world lived, but satellite TV changes that. Even though they don’t have TV’s in their homes, they watch it in bars. The other thing that disturbs me is how white, or light skinned the people featured in the lifestyle adverts. I was very aware of it in Windhoek, which is a modern city with modern aspirations.  What does that do to the psyche of someone who has a dark skin? 

We went to a clearly new supermarket, which was again manned by an attractive young girl on her phone. We managed to get most of the supplies for Magnus and the gate guards. It was probably the last time we would be in Sesfontein this year. We had finally got a smile out of the woman cashier in the main supermarket. We even got a smile from the woman in full Herero dress, who we saw each visit sitting outside one of the supermarkets, perhaps waiting for a non-existent tourist to pay for her photo. The smiles were making me feel like a regular, but now we were going.  I felt a rather sad.

We were beginning to run out of money or so I thought. I had divided the money into four, and hidden them around the campervan in case we were robbed. It turned out that I’d forgotten one of the places, but we didn’t discover that until we got to WIndhoek! Another lesson learnt! Each time we returned to the Hoanib we had to pay a daily permit fee. Since we thought we were short of money, we asked the gatekeepers if we could pay by credit card at the other end of the conservancy, at Palmweg. They were amenable, which was so lovely, and trusting of them. I love the pragmatic and helpful attitude everyone seems to have.

We rolled into Elephant Song mid afternoon. There had been a lot of hot and dusty driving over the last couple of days. Nigel, as usual, set about rinsing some of our dusty clothes and hang them out to dry. 15 minutes later he heard the Landcruiser self lock. Mmm! that’s odd. He went to get the keys. After 10 minutes of increasingly frantic searching, he found them in his wet freshly washed shorts. The remote control was sopping wet and not working. There was no second set of keys (something we’ve suggested to the hire people might be a good idea in the future).

Land cruisers are THE vehicle out here. Toyota pride themselves on the fact that they are 100% mechanical. There are no critical electronic components or systems. EXCEPT, the alarm system and its key fob.  Nigel took the fob apart and left it in the sun to dry. It seemed to have done the job, and he got it working again. Phew!

Before we set off to get fuel in Sesfontein, we drove up the Hoanib trying to track our elephant family but failed to find them. We were just beginning to relax after Sesfontein, washing the key fob and doing some chores, when we heard a loud trumpet. In the distance I saw our ellies – the day was complete.