THE LONG ROAD NORTH
Our accommodation last night had a rustic entrance but was modern inside, but the main part of the Namutoni compound where the restaurant and shops are found is a fort built in the early 1900s – reminding me of something the French Foreign Legion would use as an outpost.
 |
| Entrance to my room |
 |
| The fort at Namutoni |
Today was another long day in the truck but the difference today was that it was virtually all on bitumen roads, our longest stretch since leaving South Africa. Apart from being tarred, the road to Rundu was very straight with only a few slight curves.
As we went further north the landscape changed to that of a third world agricultural country with traditional villages of square grass huts grouped together in roughly fenced compounds. Namibia is about the size of France but the majority of its 2.1 million population live in the north, away from the harsh desert conditions we’ve passed through earlier on this trip. Village after village lined both sides of the road and often we saw women and boys carrying water containers on their head to collect supplies for their village. One or two villages had a buffalo to pull a basic wooden sled with three or four water containers behind it.
 |
| Typical villages lining the road north |
 |
| Waiting for public transport |
 |
| Roadside stall |
Our stop tonight is about 30 minutes’ drive from Rundu, on the banks of the Okavango River with Angola in sight just across the stretch of water. Our accommodation were individual wooden cabins with thatched roofs, chicken-wire and flyscreen window openings, lighting in the evening from 6 pm to 10 pm only and a pump chugging away on the river about 20 metres away – I feel as though I’ve landed in Indiana Jones territory! Oh, and there’s a warning on the door to watch out for puff adders when walking around!
 |
| My room - with Angola across the river |
No comments:
Post a Comment