The next morning you wouldn’t have known about last night’s storm. But the rain had been immense. Thunder and lightening had woken us up. We had to zip up the windows of the roof top tent to stop the rain driving in.
At one point Nigel went outside; we knew we weren’t in a riverbed, but the rain was so heavy we wondered what was happening. The whole area was full of water a couple of inches deep. Our flip flops had floated off, and he prepared the camper for a quick escape if it got worse.
But in the morning nothing except water in the beer glass.
I wondered how the pretty striped mouse was.
The ground seemed mostly dry, although there were a few puddles. A plant in the puddle had a flower on it. I’d not seen a flower in the desert before, and was amazed at how quickly the plant had reacted to the rain. There were some unusual red bugs. I later learnt they were called Dinothrombium or red velvet mites. They are known for coming out after rain, and for their red colouring which is a warning of their unpleasant taste and smell (so says Wikapedia although I wonder who found this out).
We went to the Xai Ais spring to see what animal tracks we could see, but there didn’t seem to be anything new so we drove on to the Palmweg gate. The scenery was opening up, and we seem to be leaving the valleys of the previous days. The Etendeka mountains were getting closer, and we had a kind of sinking feeling that we were soon returning to ‘civilisation’. Well, at the very least the small villages and tourist routes.
Our return to ‘civilisation’ meant Nigel had to put on shorts for the first time in many days. He had just been wearing underpants for sometime now. I had got to the stage I didn’t notice, which was dangerous if we had met someone, as neither of us would remember he needed to dress properly!
We had lunch at a river bed which had been dry when we first entered the Concession area on our way to the Hoanib. It now had water in it. Just before we got to the Palmweg Day Concession area, we met a bakkie full of rhino rangers and one policeman with a very large rifle. They were off looking for rhino, and any signs of poachers. The policemen often accompany the rhino rangers.
We got to the Palmweg gate and explained that we were really short of money and wanted to pay by credit card at the lodge. The gate guard let us go through just on our word that we would pay. It is such a lovely trusting trait that people in Namibia have. I hope it doesn’t get abused, and they continue with their trust. We paid at the Palmweg lodge we handed over our credit card to pay for the days in the Concession area.
We went into the shop at Bersig as we knew they took credit cards, and bought some more beer. Nigel asked if the shopkeeper could guarantee there were no bread mites in the flour. He said he could, and he was right. We bought the flour although sadly, I was running out of campfire nights to make more bread.
We made it to the Aba Huab Community Campsite. As we drove further south, it seemed as if we were advancing into more sophistication, although this was obviously relative. We had left behind the isolation of Palmweb Concession, the Hoanib, and Stompie and family. We were passing through villages which were more than a few huts. The villages were still very basic by western standards, but they had electricity and a few satellite dishes.
Aba Huab Community Campsite was one of our favourites, which was why we were aiming for it. It was very hot when we arrived, with lots of flies. We sat enjoying the lowering sun and the slightly reducing heat. It was so hot Nigel had an early shower which did little to cool him, and he had a second shower with me.
We saw one of the guys we had given a football to, on our way out to the Hoanib. He said it had lasted two days before getting a puncture. We desperately need to find footballs that can be mended. Most of rural Namibia is littered with camel thorn trees; loved by giraffes and elephants, but with thorns evil enough to puncture a car tyre let alone a football.
Twyfelfontein village is close to the major tourist attraction of bush paintings – a UNESCO world heritage site, so there is a large radio tower on a nearby hill. Nigel had a message from Magnus saying Elephant Song was completely cut off by a flash flood. It would likely be four days before the water cleared, and the tourists at Elephant Song were now stuck.
The wind was so strong that evening, Nigel ended up cooking in the doorway of the campervan. I remembered the burnt campervan we had seen in the Palmweb Concession a couple of days ago.
We got to enjoy a long evening as we were in a bush camp, and it was safe to be outside the camper. But, across the river bed eyes were watching us. We think they were harmless jackals, but we only ever saw their eyes glinting in the camp light.
If you see one eye you are the predator (think rabbits, sheep, cows), if you see two you are the prey (think lions, hyenas). This might be something that everyone knows but I didn’t There is not much call for this kind of wisdom where we live in Brighton U.K..
The lovely aba huba community camp showers
Desert Wonderers 