17 Serra Cafema, Himba

Himba women posing for the tourists
Himba women posing for the tourists

 17.03.14 Serra Cafema, Himba tribe

The big event of the next day was a visit to a Himba settlement where the people still follow a nomadic life living in the traditional way. For this excursion I was joined by an American lady who had also been in the Damaraland camp. It was possible to hold, via our guide, a conversation with one of the older women and afterwards we bought some souvenirs to show our appreciation. They do keep some cows, goats and donkeys but I do not know what the animals find to live on. The landscape is very barren with only the occasional tiny plant apart from the poisonous euphorbia and sometimes a small lizard to be seen. At one point on the return trip there is a hair-raising descent of a steep sand slope back into the Kunene river valley, where there was at least a red-crested korhaan and some double-banded sandgrouse.

At the lodge there was an American family. One man with four women/girls. The latter were not typical American shape but as long and thin as you could possibly imagine. The youngest was quite small and seemed to have hurt herself somehow at lunchtime one day, but she was battling on. It cannot be easy for little ones on safari.

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