Elephantastic

To Brandenberg Mountains, Namibia

We said goodbye to our fancy camp in Swakopmund this morning, first getting a few groceries and buying a second pair of binoculars, before picking Dex and Kylie up outside the campgrounds where they were once again playing with their marbles in the sand.  They were very proud of the the “obstacle course” they’d created with its various paths, bridge and tunnels.

We only had a couple hundred miles to go today having chosen a midway point between Swakopmund and Etosha Park -- where we need to be tomorrow night. We looked back at our malaria maps that we’d gotten from Kaiser and confirmed that the northern part of Namibia, including Etosha is considered a malaria zone. As a result, we each took our first Malerone dose with breakfast. Luckily, none of us is showing any of the dozen of exciting side effects. The drive was not too eventful and mostly on graded dirt roads. It was sunny as we left the coast and remained so the entire day topping out at no more than 24C.

As we neared the rugged Brandenberg mountains, we passed a group of traditionally dressed people selling souvenirs. We debated about stopping, finally decided to do so. Both Dex and Kylie got bracelets. I'm sure at one point Kylie had at least five on her arms as three different people attempted to sell to her at once. Small circular thatched huts were off in the distance along with chickens and half naked children. It's hard to know how to feel. They appear to have a very basic way of life, and it's sad that they seem desperate to sell trinkets to the few tourists that come along. I wonder whether this is what they’ve chosen to do or whether they are just unable to live in a more traditional manner (farming, hunting, and raising animals).

We followed signs along the dry landscape to the White Lady Campground that Etienne and Anne had told us about.  We seemed to remember that the name referred to some nearby ancient cave drawings. The campground advertised itself as the Home of the Desert Elephant. Both Meg and I were dubious. Besides a couple donkeys and an ostrich, we'd seen no sign of wildlife in this barren landscape for the entire day.

As we were driving around the camp choosing a sight, Meg and Kylie suddenly exclaimed, “Elephants!”  The woman at the reception office had said there were three down at the river, so apparently they'd decided to wander into camp. Wow. And I thought seeing penguins up close was cool. We soon learned to associate the snapping and cracking of branches being torn from trees with elephants and soon saw two more for a total of five.

Sight 18 had a nice large tree and seemed centrally located in the sprawling campground, which looked more like a giant dry river bed dotted with trees and shrubs than a campsite. Little did we know that for the next three hours we’d have front row seats to an amazing show of elephants. We had hit the elephant jackpot. By late afternoon we could see no fewer than twelve from our vantage point sitting on the top of the truck. How incredibly and unexpectedly awesome.

They entire troupe eventually wandered away, so with the show over, I got busy setting up the ground tent while Meg got some dinner going. No sooner had I finished with the tent than another group of ten or so wandered over, this time breaking off a few branches of our very own camp tree and walking tentatively into the site. At one point, as Meg was tending the boiling water and I was trying to get a better view, one of the females gave us a warning grunt and took a few menacing steps towards us.  That got our hearts pounding and us into the car... fast.

As the big animals wandered off again, this time for good, the cattle ambled back just as a gusting wind picked up, blowing sand across the camp. We sheltered in the car eating dinner and reading our family book until dark.  We have seen some amazing things on this trip, and today was no exception. As we were getting ready for bed, I once again declared what incredibly lucky people we are.