Kunene River & Epupa Falls - Namibia

Despite feeling a little uneasy we slept very well and rose quite late at about 7.30am, we didn't have much to put away so after a quick cup of tea we paid our bill of N$90 (£8) and headed off  to the Kunene River.

Before leaving Ruacana we filled up again with fuel, a rule of thumb in Africa is fill up whenever you can as you never know when you will see a fuel station again, although Southern Africa is pretty jacked up these days, so it's not as critical as it used to be, it was still highly unlikely where we were going there would be any fuel after here. 

As we drove the land became first more hilly then mountainous, a rapid change from the desert scrub we had been travelling in for the last day or so. The scenery was quite dramatic and stunning, no people, no settlements, no grazing animals, nothing.

Then just before 10am we saw our first Himba, a young woman with four young kids. The Himba are a tribe of Nomadic pastoral people trying to cling onto their traditions and lifestyle in the face of the 21st century however instead of herding goats and cows they are now more likely to survive as a tourist attraction.

The young mother was probably only in her early twenties but she already had four kids below the age of 6 or 7, Himba women tend to do most of the manual labour so they lead a hard life but even so at the same time many are stunning as they go topless and cover themselves from head to toe in Ochre, a fascinating people.

We gave the kids sweets and the mother some rice, sugar and a thermal mug before heading on. Like the other tribes in Namibia namely the Herero and the Nama the Himba suffered greatly under German then South African rule when the country was South West Africa but at least now they seem to be enjoying better days. 

The road continued to climb, by now we had long left the tar behind and were on gravel, Rupert is a heavy boy at the best of times but now loaded with fuel, food and water he was struggling a bit up the hills, not helped by the fact Namibia lies  well above sea level.

Every now and then as we descended a hill we caught glimpses of the Kunene River below us, a welcome sight in the harsh dusty environment. We passed two more young Himba women then a Himba community rest camp called Ondoozi. Eventually at around midday we reached the Kunene River Lodge, where we decided to go in to check on the state of the track that we could see on our maps followed the river all the way to Epupa Falls.

We had already been told that it should not be attempted in a single vehicle a) because it is very rocky and can play havoc with your tyres and b) it is hardly travelled so if you get stranded there is little hope of being rescued, however the only alternative was to take the inland road which adds on at least another 200 kms!

There was no one in reception so we decided to take a look around and check out the campsites. The campsites were grouped along the river with lovely views and only one was occupied so rather than push on we decided to stay the night. Heading back again to reception we now found a local girl on duty, then two white guys showed up, the older of the two, Peter, ran the lodge, a smaller version of Bill Nighy he told us he  used to live in Maun, Botswana and knew some of the people we knew plus he knew where we lived in the UK so it really is a small world sometimes.

We wanted to stay on camp site number 10 as it was the nicest spot being directly on the river but someone had booked it from  tomorrow for a few days however having now struck up a rapport with Peter he moved things around so we could have it, happy days!   

By 1pm we had set up camp and were enjoying a Tafel beer and a Hunters cider looking on the view across the river. Over there was a whole new world, dry sandy shoreline and heavily tree clad hills but not a track or person to be seen, it was Angola, for now still a place we could not risk going to. We had put up the roof tent rather than the ground tent as we intended to stay just one possibly two nights depending on whether or not more people arrived.

As it was just a few hours later a group of four campers arrived and set up camp on the site next to ours, two Brits and two Americans, luckily they were quiet which was just as well as soon afterwards we spotted a big monitor lizard moving in the bush nearby, we see many monitors on our travels but this one was one the biggest we had seen for a while so we didn't want him scared away. 

Luckily no one else turned up so after showers and a supper of Pasta Bolognese we sat with our G&Ts and watched the night sky develop. Down here it was still twilight at 8pm which felt strange as in East Africa it is dark by 6pm or so and it had been so long since we had last been in Southern Africa we had forgotten how fantastic the night sky is here with thousands of stars and tonight seven shooting stars alone, in the end we didn't go to bed till just before midnight! 

Little wonder then that we weren't happy to be woken at 6am by the sound of loud voices nearby and looking out the roof tent we found it was a party of bloody 'twitchers' from the lodge who didn't care too hoots (no pun intended) about disturbing us plebs on the campsite in their quest for birds - some of these people live on another planet.

We had just got rid of them when a troop of vervet monkeys  came around early looking for scraps, there was nothing for it but to get up and make some tea, luckily we had decided to stay on for another night so we could relax today which was nice as we spend so much time on the road and here there was nowhere to go just the road in and the road out.

It was a lovely hot sunny day, the four campers next to us were packing up to leave so if we were lucky we would have the place to ourselves again but first they had a problem with a flat tyre so we helped them out by pumping it up using our compressor we use for our diff locker, one of the best decisions we made was to fit this when we arrived in Cape Town back in 2005, if you are thinking of doing a trip like ours then while a diff locker is expensive it can be invaluable.

The American's then discovered a problem with one of their  electric window that was locked open and wouldn't close, could we help with that as well? It would have been a big job taking out the door panel to have a look so we gave them some bin bags to seal the window up till they could get to a garage, nothing like a high tech solution!

Finally they left and we had the place to ourselves but sadly this did not last long, the lodge management came over to inform us they were expecting a big party of 21 adults and 7 kids in this afternoon going on two sites away from the river to our right, bugger it was too late to pack up and leave so we had to grin and bear it!

Sure enough at around 2.30pm seven vehicles arrived full of white South African Afrikaans men and women and what looked like more than seven kids. Their two sites were not that nice, shady but with no real river views so one of the women immediately came onto our site to take a photo of the view and didn't even acknowledge us, typical Gautengers!

It looked like most of them didn't know each other, probably they had got together to just do this trip as we have found most South Africans especially the Gauteng mob are too scared to travel on their own. Having said this despite having such a big group nearby we still had a nice relaxing afternoon, very hot and sunny.

Tonight we planned to dine at the lodge restaurant so we had our showers early then walked over to enjoy sundowners on their deck overlooking the river. The views were lovely with Angola on the far side, it would have been better if there had been some game around, like Hippos, but it has all been shot out in the SWAPO war or poached since, a  tale sadly all too common in Africa.

Dinner was great, lovely fillet steaks although when I ordered my usual Irish Coffee to finish it came minus the cream, no cream in this climate! We were back to our camp by 10pm and surprised to find all was very quiet, the South Africans had gone to bed and shortly afterwards the power went off so it was kinda nice enjoying our night caps looking at star filled heavens again in total darkness.

Up at 8am the 28 South Africans were packing up to leave, so happy days we decide to stay on another day and relax, as usual we had the vervet monkeys around camp again leaping from tree to tree, it is amazing how far they can leap especially when so high up in the canopy where any misjudgement would mean a fall of 60 feet or more.

It was lovely and quiet once again having the place all to ourselves, we enjoyed bacon rolls for breakfast then chilled out reading, doing the journal etc. I was just taking the opportunity to enter the Kaokoland waypoints into the Garmin GPS in readiness for our departure tomorrow when suddenly our solitude was ruined yet again by a new group of 11 South Africans who pitched up and started setting up camp nearby.

By now some of the monkeys had come down from the trees to forage around the campsites, we always make sure all the doors and windows on Rup are closed as the little buggers are class one thieves however, the South Africans had left the back of their vehicles open and some of the group had gone up to the lodge swimming pool while the rest sat around talking seemingly unaware the monkeys were around.

To the monkeys this was just too good an opportunity to pass up and within minutes a couple had quickly hopped into the back of one vehicle and almost immediately emerged carrying a full loaf of sliced bread each, then as they ran off the other monkeys chased them all wanting some of the spoils! 

At this point one of the South African realised what had happened and was up with his catapult but too late the monkeys were off on their toes with the bread and all we could hear was a lot of shouting in Afrikaans which of course we couldn't understand but we did pick out the word 'loafen' well it was two loafen actually!  

As were off in the morning we went to bed just before midnight for a change, the South Africans had already retired so everything was very quiet and very dark. We had not been in bed long when we heard something moving around below us outside - something heavy!

The moon was waning so we couldn't see a thing but when we awoke the next morning we found large pad marks all around the Landy and strangely the monkeys who were always around camp early were nowhere to be seen!

It must have been a Leopard who had paid us a visit, very secretive animals Leopards can survive in the most inhospitable places, for sure they will be the last big cat to survive in the wild, it was a shame we didn't get to see him or her before we left!

Today we were heading to Epupa Falls, it wasn't that far but there were only two routes we could take, the easier more travelled inland route effectively backtracking the way we had come for 60kms and then heading west for another 110 kms or the river route which was only 100kms reputed to be much harder and certainly much less travelled.

The guys at the lodge couldn't give us much information about the river route because they had never done it! However, they did give us GPS co-ordinates for a bush camp about 60 kms away, just in case we couldn't get through in a day, armed with this we decided to go for it. 

The river route was both deserted and beautiful as the track closely followed the Kunene, at first it was easy but bit by bit it became trickier as we started to climb away from the river and became even trickier as we descended back again, the biggest problem being the loose rocks and shale which made skidding off the road a real risk.   

At around 1pm we reached the bush camp that they had told us about at Kunene River Lodge and to give you an idea of how slow the going had been, in three hours we had driven just 30 miles! Nearby was Enyandi village where a local Himba guy with the great name of Cornelius Martin greeted us and sitting in the shade watching us intently was another group of Himba's.

Cornelius told us that for sometime travellers had been using the area to bush camp but now the villagers were getting fed up that they were camping for free with nothing going to the community, so even though there was no facilities there is a charge to camp. You couldn't blame them as they have very little other means of making a living but as it was even though we still had another 30 miles or three hours to go before Epupa Falls we intended to carry on anyway.

Before we moved on Cornelius asked us for something for a headache so we gave him some Ibuprofen, it is always tricky handing over drugs to the locals as you never know how they use them or may react to them. 

Continuing on we passed small groups of cows standing in whatever shade they could find, every animal was painfully thin, this was a very harsh environment for livestock. As we drove on in the distance we could see the Zebra Hills so called because in certain light the sides look striped like a Zebra's coat.

In the middle of nowhere we came upon a young pre-pubescent Himba girl just wandering alone alongside the track,  she was quite shy and her very distinctive hairstyle signified she was of pre-pubescent age, as far as knew we were a long way from any settlements so we were surprised to see her but with a wave she just set off into the bush.

Finally at around 4pm we reached a sign showing Epupa Falls to the left, only 15 kms but still one hours drive away!  This we could believe as it has just taken us 45 minutes to drive just 11 kms that was how rough and rocky the road was. All day we had not seen another vehicle but now a Britz Hire vehicle, a Toyota Landcruiser came towards us, you would think out here that they would at least wave but no they didn't acknowledge us at all, not even a smile, must have been Germans!

Just after 4pm we finally reached the Epupa Falls campsites, first one we hit was the Hot Springs campsite, very close to a small village and the village bar we thought it would be too noisy so we moved on, we heard later that night four Himba girls arrived at the bar and caused quite a stir with their dancing so it was just as well we gave it a miss.

Next camp was Omarunga, South Africa owned and managed it was the camp where all the white South Africans go so it was chocker, as they travel in big convoys there was vehicles everywhere and very little space left so we moved on.

Next stop was the Epupa Falls campsite, run by the local community and closer to the falls itself it too was pretty full but we managed to find a nice little spot, not an actual campsite but a lovely spot at the top of the falls. It took a bit of manoeuvring to squeeze Rupert in and put the roof tent up but it was worth it as no one could camp near us and the roar of the falls could be constantly heard.

By 6pm we were relaxing with beers and hunters ciders overlooking the river with Rosy Faced Lovebirds flying about the camp and the sun setting on the hills of Angola in the distance.

Next day we awoke to find the people on a site we had liked the look of when we arrived had left so the site was empty, at least for a little while, much larger than where we were we decided to quickly move camp before someone else took it. The site had a fire pit and weirdly, considering where we were, a double  stainless steel sink with running water, the best thing though was the palm trees which gave us plenty of shade, important when each day was in the 30's.

No sooner had we set up camp when we were visited by a local calling himself Moses Kuvare, a Himba he tells us his Grandfather was German and he wants to know if we are interested in visiting a Himba village. We get lots of invites like this and normally we decline them as we have seen many villages in our time whether that be Masai in Kenya or San in Botswana but the Himba are a fascinating people who we had never encountered before so we agreed to go at 4pm this afternoon.

Meanwhile we turned our attention to the fridge/freezer in the back box which didn't seem to be working very well, the food inside wasn't frozen which it should have been after the long journey yesterday. The problem was low voltage to the fridge  due to a fuse which had overheated and had melted going high resistance. Replacing the fuse and cleaning the holder got the fridge going better but to be on the safe side Sue decided to cook the next three days meals of chicken and mince and store them just in case.

While we were busy a Canadian guy suddenly appeared, we had seen him arrive earlier in a beat up Toyota while we were moving camp and he came over for a chat. We soon realised he was a bit strange, kinda pushy and when he learns we plan to reach Kaokoland by going over Van Zyl's pass, reputed to be the toughest 4WD route in Southern Africa he wanted to join us.

He didn't want to risk it on his own, which was fair enough and for sure it would be far safer with two vehicles but we simply didn't fancy him joining us but how to let him down gently? We thought we could park the question by telling him we had to get ready to visit the Himba village but bugger me if he doesn't say he would like to come along too as he doesn't fancy going there on his own either!

When Moses returned he is only too pleased to hear the Canadian wants to come along too, at just 50 N$ (~ £4) each plus a shared payment of 70 N$ for a food gift the trip could hardly be described as expensive. At least with the Canadian coming along it saved us the hassle of creating space in Rupert for Moses who now travels with the Canadian in his truck while we drove ourselves.

First stop is the local village where Moses bought a sack of mielie meal (coarse flour), 2 litres of cooking oil and 4 lb of sugar which he will present to the Himba as a goodwill payment. The Himba settlement was only a few kilometres away so we were there in no time.

Comprising just three huts the settlement contained one man, his wife and kids, a number of other women with young children plus an older woman who we took to be the mother of one of the others but whose we didn't find out.

One thing you notice as soon as you meet them is how visually striking the Himba are, the women spend a lot of time and effort covering themselves from top to toe in Ochre so their skin glistens and they dress in skins with lots of jewellery however the man also was very striking with a huge neck ring and silver pipe.  

We find out he is 32 years old and his wife 28, he looked much older and she younger, we were told most Himba girls are married off to much older men so we took their ages with a pinch of salt. Hanging around were six young kids, they all looked like boys but we suspected a couple were girls as they wore small skirts to protect their dignity while the boys went au natural! 

One 17 year old girl was very photogenic and we were invited to take photo's of her, although she seemed quite comfortable with posing having lived amongst a number of foreign cultures we feel uncomfortable with this type of thing as we feel it can often be exploitive and patronising, however it was unlikely we would be back this way for a long time, if ever, and we wanted the memories so we snapped away.

Although only 17 we were told she had just had a baby the week before, her second child, the baby looking very small and fragile was asleep in one of the huts. In the same hut another young woman was breast feeding her baby, in total there were six children and two babies. 

While we were taking photo's the oldest woman was cooking some of the mielie meal we had given them in a pan on the fire, whilst the 17 year was friendly and smiled a lot but this old matriarch just glared at us, she looked quite scary!

Although we had brought some gifts of food the Himba also rely on selling their artefacts. All the stuff is pretty rough and ready as they can only work with what they can afford or obtain, mainly leather, baskets and pottery items. We bought a couple of traditional leather pendants and from the girl who had posed for us l bought a bracelet made out of porcupine quills.

Normally we wouldn't touch anything like this as porcupines are often killed for their quills but here we trusted the Himba used quills they had found, as you quite often come across the odd one, it's when people offer whole bunches of quills that you know they have probably been poached.

Eventually after nearly two hours it was time to leave, at first we had felt a little uncomfortable invading the Himba's privacy but by the end we were very glad we had visited, although the Canadian hadn't bought anything from them the Himba seemed to appreciate us coming and even the scary matriarch thanked us for visiting!

Arriving back at Epupa Falls a little after 6pm by now the wind had got up and the palm trees were rattling away, Rosy faced Lovebirds were flying to and thro settling down for the night so we settled down with a couple of drinks to soak in the atmosphere, also unusually it stayed light until nearly 8pm when normally we are used to it being dark by 6.30pm.

When we left the Himba's we had gone our separate way from Moses and the Canadian and hadn't seen either since so we were surprised when just as we were about to eat dinner Moses pitches up. Apparently the Canadian had refused to pay the 50 N$ for the trip to the Himba's and had buggered off to a bar in the local village, so he asked what should he do now.

He thought the Canadian was our friend and maybe we could persuade him to pay or even pay for him? We made it clear he was nothing to us, poor old Moses we felt very sorry for him and angry at the Canadian, it just confirmed our first impression that he was not to be trusted and we knew now we definitely would not allow him to come with us through Van Zyl's pass. 

Moses left and we hadn't long finished dinner enjoying what was left of the evening with a G&T when 'Jim' the Canadian comes round after his drinks in the village bar, it's clear he wants to chat and have a drink but but we give him the cold shoulder and he soon returns to his camp, later when we had gone to bed in the roof tent we see torchlight aimed at our camp, there are no security guards at the camp so we wonder who it could be!?