We woke up in Windhoek after a very boozy night out at Joe's beer house. My excessive drinking consumption was to try and hide the guilt I was feeling about eating Zebra steak and marinated Kudu. Both completely delicious - the Kudu especially so. I think I'd have had to say no to Warthog - my favourite African animal. Wonderfully cute - and annoyingly shy. They stick their little tails up in the air to lead the way to their friends.
Anyway we didn't really see much of Windhoek - we had somewhere else to be. A quick goodbye to San Fran Paul - and a bye to the hotel.....we were heading into the Waterberg Plateau. Along with being a beautiful national park the area also played a key sad role in Namibian history. During the German occupation the Germans killed 80% of the local population - some 65,000 people. Today the Herero, once the dominant tribe now only number 120,000 ( had the killings not happened their population should be circa 1.8million
On route we spotted a few baboons but nothing terribly exciting ( we're getting quote demanding on the wildlife front) - the campsite was a delight - top marks to the Waterberg Plataeu campsite. We pitched under a shady acacia tree and tried to avoid being stabbed by lethal thorns. The usual afternoon lunch, swim, chill happened, and then we headed up onto the plateau to watch the sun come down. It's not actually quite as easy as that - more puffed, strained and slowly made it to the top. Everyone else jumped out onto narrow ledges to admire the view. I sat straight down, drank a Savannah and admired the half naked boys doing the Alpha male thing on the rocks.
On the way down the young kids helped me slide down the boulders - definitely some bonuses to being an old bird........we were then rewarded with the sight of two Dik-Dik's - Namibia's smallest antelope. Very, very cute. A lot nicer than the moths that were playing run into everyone's head torches while we nibbled on our steaks.....
We went to sleep with lightning flashes and the most intense thunder storm I've ever heard. It was exciting. I'm still in love with camping.
Next stop - Etosha National Park.
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