Day 9 Living Museum and Etosha

Wednesday December 22.

After packing up by 7:00 we drove to the Living Museum. It's a tribal village set up by the Himba tribe to show their traditional lifestyle and customs. There were a number of them demonstrating cleaning hides, blacksmith skills, jewelry making, game playing, explaining herbs and cures, and finally doing some traditional dances for us. Then they sang two Christmas songs, one of their and one of ours – Silent Night.

After that we drove to two villages, one for a snack and the other for supplies for us and for fresh veggies for our food.

I was wondering if the Himba women only dressed (or undressed!) in their traditional way for the tourists, but I actually saw one shopping in the store, surrounded by clothed people who paid no attention.

Then we drove to Etosha National Park. On the way to our campsite we saw a few animals, mainly antelope and ostriches. We set up camp and then headed for a swim in the beautiful pool. It was definitely Africa Hot Today!. As we drove north we left the dry desert heat and the humidity climbed. The temperature was high thirties. So the pool felt really good after a hot day on the truck. We are staying at Okaukuejo campsite. It is built right beside a waterhole.

Then about a half hour before sunset we walked to the waterhole lookout. You can sit there and watch various animals come to get a drink. We saw springbok, impala, jackels, three giraffe (who stayed in the distance), zebra and five black rhinos! - a pair and when they left a third showed up, and then a mother and baby.

After dinner I went back to the waterhole and watched all five black rhinos. It was totally dark but the hole was lit up. They were all around the waterhole drinking and were in no hurry to leave. It was great to see five of them because they are endangered.

Back to sleep before another early morning.