Hello Namibia

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Northern Namibia

From Rundu we did a 4 hour drive to Etosha national park to stay at one of the government safari camps called Halali. The camp is actually luxurious and has a floodlit watering hole as one of its main attractions. Etosha is mainly a self drive national park so most days we headed out ourselves in the trusty polo on the gravel roads to try and spot some game. It didn't have the same mystique as Savuti or because we were driving ourselves, the information you get from a guided drive. However, it was still very good and we got to see big herds of zebra, elephants and giraffe. We also got lucky one night after dinner at the floodlit waterhole and managed to see a black rhino having a good drink. There are lots of luxury lodges around etosha, but personally I think you would be better off in Botswana if spending lots of cash.

About a 2 hour drive south west of Etosha is a place called Vingerklip, which translates to rock finger. we ended up staying at Vingerklip lodge, mainly because it was within driving distance when we left Etosha. We're really glad we did, as the lodge and the scenery were stunning. The landscape is a little like Death Valley and the lodge itself was discretely built on to a hillside with fabulous views all around. We ended up staying a couple of nights here as we liked it so much and also took a trip to a Himba orphanage a couple of hours drive away.

The Himbas are the tribe where the women cover themselves with the red orche. Apparently this is done to protect the skin from the sun and as a result they do not wash. Instead the women burn various plants to smoke themselves clean. It was a great experience to visit the orphanage, where about 15 himba women look after Himba kids orphaned by Aids, the Angolan war and parents alcohol addiction. Interestingly, both men and women can have multiple partners, rather than just the blokes as in lots of other societies. If a women gets pregnant by one of her boyfriends, the husband will claim the kid as his own! They said they did not have a word for jealousy!

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