STONE AGE
This morning we drove out to Twyfelfontein, a UNESCO World Heritage site with its Stone Age etchings dating back some 5,000 years. The countryside reminds me very much of parts of Central and North Western Australia with the red rock and vegetation.
Our guide, Hermanos (?), was part Himba and part Herero, and had the most interesting braided hair. He was also very knowledgeable and gave us a lot of information.
There are over 2,000 etchings here of animals, including penguins and seals and as we are quite some distance from the coast, and even more so from where penguins would be found, it shows the distances these ancient people travelled by foot. We also learnt that they walked in single file, those with the smallest feet first and the person with the largest feet last, so that they only left one set of footprints when they travelled.
Not far from our stop for the night, we saw our first giraffes in the wild, even though they were some distance away, but we were all pretty excited.
We finally reached Gelbingen, a private farm with some accommodation, but the main draw is that there is a Himba settlement on the property. Up to 80 Himba tribes people live here at any one time, mostly women and children as the men still tend to live up north looking after their cattle. The Himba are not interested in Western – or indeed modern – culture and prefer to live very simple lives, with their plaited hair and reddened skin from a concoction of fat and red earth. Two modern products they like though are plastic which they use for making beads – and cell phones!
In our accommodation there is only electricity for lighting as the farm produces its own power but there is a charging centre where you can go and recharge your appliances and gadgets and also pick up wi-fi. Fortunately I found that I could pick up wi-fi on my netbook in bed – how convenient was that!
Dinner tonight included eland lasagne which was very tasty!
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