Damaraland's Stunning Scenery & Superb Wildlife

Oryx by a waterhole

Mountain Zebra with distinct white underbelly

Having crossed into Northern Damaraland in the twilight hours, I wasn’t able to truly appreciate the scenery of this region of Namibia that sits between the Skeleton Coast on the west and the Etosha Plains on the east. The following three days I based myself in this area to take in its spectacular scenery, free ranging wildlife and amazing people. For the first day, I had prearranged with a lodge to go elephant tracking.

In a unique undertaking, this region has been set aside by the Namibian government exclusively for tourism. To minimize indiscriminate development, large chunks of land have been given out to individual tourism operators but the local people are also allowed to live and graze cattle freely on it. The lodge I had booked my elephant tracking, called Grootberg sat on the edge of a breathtaking plateau overlooking the Klip River Valley.

Desert adapted elephant of Southern Africa

Mock charge

The safari vehicle was to leave the lodge at sunrise and was a good 26kms from my campsite which meant I had to wake up in the wee hours to get there on time. Running a little late, I was trying to make up time by speeding on the gravel tracks when I had a quite memorable moment. It was the dim light of dawn and a herd of springboks was resting in the middle of the road. Seeing me speeding towards them, they sprang up and surprisingly starting running in the same direction I was going rather than just skipping to the side. The poor springboks were running for their lives as fast as they could while I unwittingly chased them by their coat tails at high speeds for close to 200 meters until eventually the last of them bounded across to the side and disappeared into the bush.

Eagle

Grootberg pass on the way up to the lodge

The actual tracking of the elephants was a bit of a dud. I was in a safari vehicle together with a bunch of tourists from Austria who probably enjoyed the comforts of the vehicle more than tracking the giants on foot.

Sun snake

Klipspringer

All we did that day was drive around the plains around the plateau to spot the elusive desert adapted elephants. When we finally saw them, it was but a fleeting moment. Atleast the folks in the other vehicle had an exciting encounter when a big elephant turned around and mock charged them. Too bad for me, I was in the other vehicle on the outside looking in.

Incredible that this small antelope can support its
entire weight on the tips of its hooves

Amazing drive through Damaraland

The only good thing was that we returned back to the lodge around 2pm which allowed me to plan for the next day. Tracking elephants was not the main reason I was in Damaraland, my real desire was to track the endangered black rhino on foot. Unfortunately, no one else had checked in for rhino tracking for the following day and to do it all by me was prohibitively expensive. Since there was a group going out a day later I decided to visit Twyfelfontein the next day and return the following day for the rhino tracking.
Twyfelfontein, a site of ancient bushman rock engravings was only a couple hours south so I got back behind the wheels and started driving south to visit this UNESCO World heritage site containing one of the highest concentration of rock art made by stone age hunter gatherers over 2,000 years ago. The two hours I had calculated did not factor in the scenery or wildlife. The road dropped in elevation from rocky mountains into sandy plains interspersed with gentle hills. I must have stopped every 20 minutes to either admire the beautiful scenery or sit on the window of my car to see a passing wildlife. First was a group of klipspringers, then a family of giraffes and then springboks, ostriches and oryxes.

Given the amount of times I stopped on the way, not surprisingly, I didn’t make it to Twyfelfontein but just as the sun disappeared behind the mountains I pulled up into a small empty hamlet for the night.

Top left: Footprint of antelopes, Top right: Collection of Giraffe,
birds, Kudu and Human footprint
Bottom left: Black Rhino Bottom right: Elephant

As I rolled my car towards a fairly sizeable habituation, hearing the commotion of the barking dogs a guy came over to investigate. Prince, belonging to the Damara tribe, spoke perfect English and warmly welcomed me. He offered a sheltered place to pitch my tent and soon we were joined by two of his companions and it was time to light the fire. Over supper it became clear why he spoke fluent English. He used to be a bartender at a nearby lodge but was compelled to return to herd the family cattle as his grandmother was getting too old to take care of it.

Left: Illustrations of various savannah animals along
with the famous "Lion Man" used as a
logo (inset) by the group that protects the site
Right: Gecko

Hearing his story the sobering realization sunk in that most people have heavy responsibilities and sometimes have to give up their dreams due to it. It reminded me just how privileged I was to travel and live my dream.

Springboks with Damaraland mountains as a backdrop

The two companions of Prince who too were ethnic Damara didn’t speak English but it was fascinating to hear them converse in their language consisting of clicks and it was unlike anything I have heard. Poor Prince had to act as a translator for all our conversations but I think he enjoyed it, especially later in the night as the talk descended into a friendly debate over who was better between Messi or Ronaldo!...yep…even in remote Namibia I couldn’t escape the most basic of arguments in modern futbol.

The kids eat first

Strips of beef with maize porridge

Desert adapted lion...a rare sight

By the time I woke up the next morning, Prince and his colleagues were nowhere to be seen and I later learnt that they left in the middle of the night to assist a fellow herder who’s cattle was attacked by hyenas. Damaraland is amazing but it’s a very precarious existence for these herders who share this unfenced semi arid expanse with all the top predators of Africa bar the wild dogs.

Twyfelfontein had a good collection of rock engraving made by the ancient Bushmen who are considered to be the first people to inhabit Namibia long before the advent of the Bantu people from east/central Africa and then the colonial settlers from Europe. Today, most of the descendants of these ancient people commonly referred to as Bushmen still live a traditional hunter gatherer lifestyle in eastern Namibia. As I drew up my initial plans for Namibia I had envisioned visiting their homeland in eastern Namibia but had to drop the idea due to the practicality of going there in the limited time I had…it will have to stay in my bucket for now.


As evening fell I retraced my way back to Grootberg as I had the small matter of tracking rhinos the following day and as had been my modus operandi the past few days I decided to camp with the locals. That night I camped with an Ovambo family who had migrated from their homeland further north in search of a better life. Luckily (again), one member of the family could speak the language of the queen which made the experience so much richer. It was another wonderful African night by the fire and as was aptly pointed out by the son of the patriarch…what it Africa without fire and beautiful cloudless starry nights!

Steenbok

A giraffe that was taken down by a pride of 11 lions

A lone giraffe against the skyline

Over my few days in Kaokoland and Damaraland, I had camped with the Himba, Damara and the Ovambo and each experience was unforgettable. Damaraland receives quite a few tourists but almost all stay with lodges or lodge-owned campsite. Sure, some of the tourist dollars trickle down to the local communities but what of the human touch? Most locals almost always see a foreigner zipping past them in their vehicles blowing dust on them with absolutely no interaction unless they work at one of the lodges.

Wherever I camped, I handed over some money to the head of the family as gratitude for their hospitality and in the process saved some accommodation costs too but that’s not the full story. My monetary help went directly into the community plus we shared food, cultures, laughs and ideas. I know I am richer because of those interactions and genuinely hope that I left a good impression as a traveler from India on these uncomplicated people of Namibia.

The best shot i could get of the black rhinos

Kudu

On the Rhino tracking I was joined by three Americans and an Italian couple. The Italian had a professional camera as compared to my poor Canon but it was nothing compared to the American’s gear. He was a walking camera hanger with three huge cameras buckled onto him. I later learnt that he is an aspiring professional photographer hoping to make it big with National Geographic someday. He said it himself that it’s a long shot but I wish him well.

The spectacular view from Grootberg lodge

The day could not have started better than seeing a lioness stalking a herd of oryxes just by the side of the road. Sure there are plenty of lions in Etosha but to see a free ranging desert adapted lion was an incredibly rare thing…even the guide said that we were very lucky.

Twilight shot

The tracking for the rhinos took us into the beautiful but rugged Klip River Valley and although we encountered the desert adapted elephants, giraffes, kudus, oryxes and impalas, the black rhinos evaded us, until late in the afternoon when we finally tracked down a couple. Since we were in a valley, the wind quite frequently changed directions giving away our location to the rhinos who then led us on a merry chase through the mopane bush. Although we did not get very close to them the feeling of seeing some of the last remaining free ranging black rhinos in the world on foot was quite a feeling. In a single day we had seen three of the Big Five. The elusive leopard still remains the only one of the big guys I have to see but surely someday I will encounter one.

Seeing the rhinos (and the elephants and lion) brought a nice closure to my three days in Damaraland. Next stop was the skeleton coast after one last night camping in astonishingly beautiful Damaraland!