Traditional cultures in Namibia

September 2016

Tricky national park bookings in Namibia

As we were travelling with visitors we wanted to be on the safe side and thus pre-booked the popular and often booked out campsite Okaukuejo in the Etosha National Park. We booked from the 09/09/2016 to 13/09/2016. Until someone actually picks up the phone at the reservations office of the national park is already an ordeal.

Brigitte finally managed to speak to someone and wanted to book the 4 nights. She received a rather negative answer – only the 09/09 was available. She booked that night and received a reservation number.
The next day she phone again this time asking for the 10/09 to the 13/09 The lady informed her that only the 10/09 and 11/09 were available. Brigitte wanted to book these two nights and was asked for her name. When answering the somewhat strange lady realised that she had lied to Brigitte the day before. Like it or not she had to add the two nights to the existing reservation number.
Now we had three nights safely booked. Two days later we were at another national park campsite and we asked the receptionist to book our favourite site onto our reservation number at Okaukuejo. We knew this campsite was well located and she confirmed that she had booked it for us.
On our arrival on the 09/09 the specific campsite was however still occupied and we had to choose another one.  With a bit of razzmatazz we got our preferred campsite the next day and for all the inconvenience we were even granted the forth night. It’s Africa, everything is a bit arduous, but it normally works out. 

At an earlier meeting with a South African business man he told me proudly that he had booked chalet 34 directly at the waterhole one year in advance.
As his dates corresponded with ours he had invited us for a drink on his first floor terrace overlooking the waterhole. Extremely frustrated he arrived at our campsite. His chalet had been booked out and he had to stay in second row now. The manager managed to get rid of him with lots of excuses and a bottle of wine. 

Interesting insights into traditional cultures

• The Himbas; they are presumed to be the original inhabitants of Namibia:
  Pastoral people with a half nomadic lifestyle who mainly rear cattle and goats.
  The smoke bath of the Himba women who never use water to wash themselves but rather use a reddish lotion made from ochre pigments and animal fats.
  The meaning of the different hair styles. 

• Mbunza, this tribe lives at the Okavango River:
  with simple tools and skilled manual work they demonstrated the production of jewellery, bow and arrow and the forging of weapons to us.

Photos