Blogs from Waterberg, Namibia, Africa
August 12th 2010
Es ist Mittwoch und wir machen uns auf den Weg zum Waterberg Plateau, einem riesigen "platten" Bergplateau im wasserreichen Hereroland im Nordosten des Landes. Hier fand 1904 die entscheidende Schlacht im Herero-Aufstand gegen die deutschen Kolonialherren statt, in dessen Folge mehr als die Hälfte des Hererovolkes sein Leben ließ. Am zweiten Sonntag im August, also in wenigen Tagen, feiern die Herero traditionell mit einem fröhlichen Fest ihre Helden von damals, die die Schlacht und insbesondere die anschließende Flucht durch die wasserarme Wüste überlebten, und damit das Fortbestehen ihres Volkes gewährten. Über Tsuneb und Otavi, einem winzigen Dorf, wo wir in einem Kaffeshop einen Guavensaft trinken und prompt einen namibischen Steuerfahnder kennenlernen, der in Frankfurt ausgebildet wurde und uns stolz alle deutschen Fussballnationalspieler von 1974 aufzählt, erreichen w... read more
July 26th 2010
Waterberg to Popa Falls Waterberg Plateau National Park is a stunning sandstone rock plateau standing 200m above the surrounding very flat landscape. You see it looming ahead of you for miles on the drive there. It was a great place to go after Etosha's "Don't get out of your car" warnings everywhere and be able to do some hiking. The big animals area all on the top of the plateau leaving hikers free to amble around the lower slopes. The rocks are a beautiful colour in the afternoon sun, just like the warm red sandstone back home in Worcestershire. The only mammals we saw at Waterberg were mongoose (or is it mongeese?) and baboons, but the birdlife was excellent, lots of lovely colourful small birds. On leaving the park we had a very special few hours ... read more
September 2nd 2008
Sunday dawned bright and clear, and I crawled out of bed far earlier than I’d have liked. Nominally a day of rest, some jobs still need to be done, and today I had agreed to drive our new cheetah keeper; Kate; on the rounds of all our pens, checking for damage to the fences. From the office it’s 24 km to the big enclosure on our neighbouring farm of Bellebenno, and the road wends its way through some lovely scenery. Away to the right rises the deep red of the Waterberg Plateau, while all around us are the browns and greens of the acacia bush. Ahead on the road we see a steenbok scamper away from the throaty roar of our old diesel, while other, larger antelope, raise their heads and glare at the interruption to ... read more
May 15th 2008
I’ve spent the last six weeks volunteering for the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Namibia. I’ve had a fantastic time so far, and the best part is that I’ll be here for six more weeks as well. CCF was founded in 1990 by American born Dr Laurie Marker and in the decades since has made one of the greatest single contributions to the future survival of the wild cheetah population of Africa. In 1900 there were around 100,000 cheetahs in the wild, but the twentieth century saw a sharp decline in their numbers due to the pressures of an expanding human population and the demands for hunting trophies, and by 1975 this figure had dropped to 30,000. Even with increased environmental awareness, their numbers continued to drop, with farmers killing almost 1000 every year through the ... read more
May 5th 2007
We have left Windhoek and headed north to Waterberg Plateau. It was mainly tarred road all the way and as we predicted there was not much traffic about. We had a short drive on gravel roads and as a result the car now has an ominous sounding rattle! The camp is really nice and we are staying in a very swish little bungalow. As there are lots of paths around the park we have spent our time walking. We took a trip up to the top of the plateau although we nearly did not make it as we got scared by a group of baboons on the way up! They suddenly appeared out of nowhere and were howling. They were much bigger than we thought and we were not sure how vicious they were. It would ... read more
March 1st 2007
Windhoek ade, es stehen neue Abenteuer an! Das Wildlife ruft und wir folgen nur zu gerne. Auf dem Weg zu dem Etosha Nationalpark machten wir noch einen kleinen Abstecher zum Waterberg Plateau, das uns empfohlen wurde. Mit einem anderen deutschen Paearchen waren wir die Einzigen auf der Campingsite und selbst ich konnte mich fuer die Anlage begeistern :o) ! Gut erholt von Naukluft und Sossusvlei wollten wir wieder ein bisschen hiken gehen und freuten uns ueber die Aussage im Lonley Planet, dass es verschiedene kleinere Hikingtrails angeboten werden. Nun gut, es stellte sich heraus, dass der kuerzeste gerade mal 300m lang war... interessant. Wir haben uns dann fuer einen Aufstieg auf das Hochplateau entschieden und haben die Aussicht ueber das Tal nach schon 25 min geniessen koennen. (Empfehlung des "Veranstalters waren 40 min fuer den Aufstieg ... read more
October 22nd 2006
Our next stop was Waterberg Plateau Park back down on the B1 road. Waterberg Plateau is a huge plateau - huge! It dominates the landscape. We had planned to do some walking trails here and enjoy the outdoors. The weather was fine by now with no sign of rain. We were due to stay at Waterberg for two nights, our last two nights in Namibia, but decided that one would be enough. This was because although the plateau was magnificent, the actual accommodation was so close to it, you could not really sit back and enjoy the view. The accommodation was a little basic compared to what we had been used to, and so we decided that we wanted to spend our last night in Namibia somewhere else. So although the pool was lovely, and I ... read more
