07/02/2002:
In the Kaokoland we had the opportunity to meet the nice Himba people. They are semi-nomadic pastors who keep their old traditions. Read more about them on our special page. |
06/28/2002:
We will spend 10 days in the enormeous area of the Kaokoland. It streches on 50.000 square kilometers in the North of Namibia. Its frontiers are the Skeleton Coast in the West and Angola in the North. We drive on rocky trails and sometimes our four-by-four car reaches its limits. We cross hills and bushy plains which are parts of beautiful and wide landscapes.
This big area has few inhabitants, only 0.7 per square kilometers. The only tribes who are living here are the semi-nomadic Himbas.
The Kaokoland has been a long time a very big hunt park because of the numerous wild animals who were living there. Nowadays Oryxs, springbocks and chacals are still present through these wide dry plains. Landscapes are wunderful with mixed colours of the golden bushes and the red mountains lightened up by the sunset. |
06/25/2002:
The site of Twyfelfontein gathers the biggest amount of old rock engravings in Afrika. In the rocky mountains, 2.400 engravings were made by the Bushmen more than two thausend years ago. Most of them represents animals and their footprints. They were used to teach the hunting skills. Some rock paintings are also there. They generally represent humans doing some work. Here we have a small collection of pictures of the paintings. |
06/24/2002:
The worrying Skeleton Coast streches on 500 kilometers along the atlantic coast in the North of Namibia. The landscape there is very wild and desolate like a moon landscape. The name of this area comes from the several ships who ran aground on the coast. The Skeleton Coast with its Beguenla current and its permanent fog was always a big threat for the sailors. The beaches are still covered with old wrecks. The last one - the "Seal" - came in 1976 and is still today lying and going rusty on the sand. |
06/23/2002:
115 kilometers north from Swakopmund is living a huge group of Seals. Between 120 and 200 thausend animals gather her on the beach of Cap Cross. The view is uncredible: Seals everywhere : on the beach, on the rocks, in the sea... and also in the public toilets! An amazing and loud sound merges from this scene, a mixture of political debate and cowshed! |
06/22/2002:
We make a trip to the Walwis Bay and Swakopmund, two cities on the Atlantic Coast of Namibia.
The first one, Walwis Bay, is the most important harbour of Namibia. That explains why it stays so long the property of colonialists. At first it belonged to the English Cape Colony and then to South Afrika. It was finally given back in 1994, althrough Namibia won its independance from South Afrika in 1990.
Swakopmund keeps still nowadays its german influence
. It welcomes in Summer (december-january) thousands of holiday-makers from Namibia and South Afrika who search cooler temperatures than in the rest of the country.
Both Cities are surrounded by sand dunes, like along the whole Namibian coast. We take advantage of it and let our Defender aside in order to rent two "Quads", little all-terrain motorcycles with four wheels. Let's go for a very funny and enjoyable adventure up and down the sand dunes!!! |
