Four Things I Had Never Seen Before - Namibia
HAVING FUN IN NORTHERN NAMIBIA
Greetings from Windhoek, Namibia! After 20 days and 3,400 kilometers of driving, our desert adventure is coming to an end. We fly back to Cape Town tomorrow morning.
In a later post, I will try to summarize some of what we have seen and done in the Kalahari and in Namibia. I think the joy of this part of our trip boils down to just good, old-fashioned red-neck fun.
This post is about our last day at Etosha. Because it had rained so much, we did not see a lot of game. That said, yesterday I saw four things for the first time in my life. Once I am able to download photos, you will be able to see some of these things as well.
1- Lethal Scorpion Up Close and Personal: Driven by Zola the Obsessive, we have been talking about scorpions more or less continuously since we were at Tswalu three weeks ago. We have been driving around with a dead parabuthis transvaalicus (maybe the deadliest of them all) drying on the dashboard of our truck. Zola found it in the sand dunes near Swakopmund last week. We have even been singing a little family song I made up, to the tune of “We are the Champions” by Queen.
After she finished her lunch yesterday, Tallulah was sitting on the floor of the outdoor deck at Little Ongava. Because it has been such a topic of conversation, no one really paid attention to her when she said “Scorpion!” until she had said it several times.
Sure enough, crawling around on the underside of the wooden coffee table was a juvenile “Deathstalker” scorpion. He was light brown and black, with slender pincers and a fat tail. Thank goodness Lu had the common sense to look and shout repeatedly rather than touch.
With incredibly high-tech equipment (a post card and a drinking glass), we captured the specimen and looked at him closely. He seemed pretty mad, and struck against the side of the glass several times. Based on “it’s us vs. them” rationale, my vote was to squash him, but Rob, the lodge manager carried the scorpion out into the woods and set him free.
Slightly scary encounter, but amazing to see one at such close range.
A COMICALLY HUGE HORN
2- Comically Long-Horned Rhinoceros: in our afternoon game drive we came on a female rhino with a year-old calf. Because both animals had their heads down, grazing on the deep grass, it took a few minutes to realize how long the mother’s horn was. Crazy long. Like four feet (or 120 cm) long. Double the length of any rhino horn I had seen before. The Boogie Nights of rhino horns.
It is hard to describe why Cyrana de Bergerhino’s horn was so funny to look at. It was just so wildly out of proportion with the rest of her (still huge) rhino body. In the days of rhino poaching in Namibia, this would have provided dagger handles for a thousand Yemeni warriors and princes. We kept waiting for her to raise her head from the thick grass, just to gawk at the giant horn.
For what it’s worth, the baby rhino appeared to have a completely normal and body-size proportional horn.
BRAWLING GIRAFFE POSITIONING FOR THE FIGHT
3- Giraffes Fighting: later on in the same game drive, we saw two young male giraffes engaged in neck-to-neck combat. Most of the same-species animal fights we have seen (including an awesome warthog vs. warthog match two weeks ago) are very quick and violent, with the winner and loser quickly determined. Neither animal seems to get hurt badly, and one backs away and runs for it.
The giraffe fight happened in slow motion. For most of the 30 minutes we watched, the giraffes stood shoulder to shoulder, facing in different directions, and jockeying gracefully for position. This involved a lot of foot shuffling, generally on a circular path, with one giraffe always walking slowly backwards. Both giraffes held their heads high, and kept looking straight ahead, not at the other.
Occasionally there would be a short break in the action, when the circling had led to some new forage, and both giraffes would stop to graze for a few minutes.
Eventually, one of the giraffes would start a crazy swinging motion with his neck and head, build up some momentum, and whomp the other one in the hindquarters. The whompee would stagger a little, regain his balance, swing his neck and head, and return the blow.
Apparently, the objective is to knock the other giraffe down with a head butt to the flank. This almost never happens. The reason they are so cautious is that if you end up behind the other giraffe, he will kick you in the head and kill you. With a lot of downside risk, and not much offensive upside potential, the actual contact is sporadic and not very damaging. I tried to make an analogy between giraffe fighting and the Cold War, but no one wanted to hear it.
4- Green In the Desert: I still can’t get over how much water there is on the roads, and how lush and dense the vegetation is. It is completely different from the three other times we have been to Etosha. This much green in the desert is definitely a first for me.
Last night it started bucketing down again right after we got back from our game drive. So much for sunset drinks. We found out that the thatch roof in our bungalow leaks pretty badly, as Zola and Tallulah got dripped on in their beds.
On that wet note, our three weeks in the desert is coming to an end. We have had a great time: it may be my favorite part of our world-round trip to date.
Surprisingly, at least to me, the long and lonely drives have been the most fun. The kids have been (generally) very pleasant company, and we have had time to talk and sing and laugh on the road. Zola has read at least 2,000 pages, and asked at least 2,000 questions.
That said, when I suggested that we skip tomorrow’s flight, and spend the next three days driving from Windhoek to Cape Town, I was voted down 3-1. Everything in moderation, I guess.
NAMIBIA IS AWESOME!