The Himba Area and the Epupa Falls
Trip Start
Apr 24, 2011
1
8
76
Trip End
Ongoing
Opuwo, Kaokoland, Namibia
Saturday, May 7, 2011
He was taking around a 20 years old guy from Switzerland whose aunt sponsored him a three weeks trip in Namibia with private guide for 7000 Euroo !!
That's what I am planning to spend for my whole 6-7 months trip!!
Anyway, Achim offered us to take us with to the Epupa falls the next day if we would manage to meet him in Opuwo the next morning and obviously we said YES.
So the next day we were driving 120 km/h thru the bush from Opuwo to Epupa.
We had a little fuck up in the morning when Kirsten locked the car keys inside the car and Achim had to smash a window after trying to open the doors for more than an hour.
We left the car in a Hotel in Opuwo that Achim knew.
I don’t know what to think about Achim. On the one side he was very kind with us by taking us with him, showing us around, explaining lots of interesting facts about Namibia, cooking for everybody, buying us drinks and so on. On the other side we did not like how he was acting with the locals. He wasn’t greeting back people on the street, telling begging children to fuck off, chasing a Himba guy on the street with the 4x4. He doesn’t like black people so much he told me. They are always looking for money and he just does not trust them.
Anyway, we enjoyed Epupa by having sundowners on the hill overviewing the falls, singing songs while drinking champagne, looking over to Angola on the other side of the Kunene river and taking a
bath there were the rapids start. You must be careful when you take a bath there cause if the current takes you away you get smashed down the falls and at the bottom there are crocs!!
The next day we went to visit a Himba village.
You cannot go to the Himbas just like that, they chase you away by throwing stones to you if you do that. So we went to buy a box full of maize flower, sugar, tea and other stuff to bring as a present.
We also organized a guide to take us there cause most of the Himbas don’t speak English.
It was a bit awkward at the beginning to come there with a guide taking pictures, feels a bit like in the zoo you know, but we all had a good time at the end, the Himbas too I think and we had good laughs together.
The Himbas look a bit like the Orcs from Lord of the Rings when you look at them from the back, with their red painted skins and hairs and the leader skirts. They were ankle bracelets to protect them from snake bites. An adult woman can wear skins and metal items that weight more than 20 kg all together, quite heavy hey.
The men have several women and loads of kids. The young guys have their hairs shaved except for a bunch at the back styled to the back while the girls have to bunches of hairs going to the front of their faces.
They sleep on cow skins and the women lay their heads on wooden supports like the old Egyptians in order to keep their hairs tidy.
The next day we went back to Opuwo were we decided to split from Achim even thou he was telling us to go with him. Think that we were missing a bit the contact with the locals as we were used to have it and with Achim the situation was always a bit strange. I think he was kind of scaring them off with his manners.
