Opuwo

The first real African town. A lot of Himba women with bare breasts walking around. Streets are crowded with people, and small stores. I was overwhelmed by how busy it was. Women stood the side of the car and asked me to buy their jewelries while Finn filled up the gas.

We stayed the campsite of Opuwo County Hotel. The road up to here including the road inside the hotel property was so bad you can’t believe it they were for the best hotel in town which had a swimming pool and beautiful restaurant. The world of inside and outside is totally different. The campsite is pretty good, with decent ablution.

The name of Opuwo was hard to pronounce.

We checked in and got to the campsite #2, then discussed what to do tomorrow. Finn pulled out his Namibia 4x4 map (he got it for the trip which tells the roads that requires to have a 4x4 car, the distance and how long it will take to drive) and told me his plan. First he wanted to visit a Himba village, then drive to a 4x4 road to Van Zyl. From Van Zyl, go down to Sesfontein if time allowed. The problem we had at the moment was we didn’t know where to find a Himba village. The lodge provided a guided tour to Himba Living Museum but the girl at reception won’t tell us whereabouts of it (or she might not know) and the town didn’t have a tourist information office. Finn got frustrated. I suddenly remembered the little round house next to our campsite, people lived were locals. They might know. So I jumped up and “knocked” on the door. Sure enough the guy was the tour guide of the Himba Living Museum. He told Finn that how to get to the Himba village and mentioned someone who drove on the 4x4 road had a flat tire. But he said your car, the Toyota Land Cruisers, had no problem to handle the road. So, we got the information for everything we needed to know. Finn was lightened up again. We cooked quickly, and wanted to see the sunset from the poolside, which proven to be impossible time wise. The sun had already gone behind the hill before we started to have dinner. Finn grilled pork chops. I didn’t eat mine as I always have very light dinner. I saved mine for tomorrow lunch.

After dinner we walked to the hotel for a drink. Finn had a glass of white wine which was not properly chilled. I had a bottle of beer. We sat at the outdoor couches, the next table were a group of Chinese but I could not figure out what was the dialect they used. A Da Ma, “big mom” which is not a complimentary word for women over 40 but before they aged to grandmas because a lot of them liberated themselves from the shy and self awareness young ladies to showy, loud, and careless women, wore traditional Chinese Gong Fu suit made out of satin, very shining. Finn thought it was pajama. No, it was not.

It was pitch dark when we got back to the campsite. Some young people, Finn said they were from South Africa, stayed at the other sites were having a grill party. Two black guys who we later believed were the security of the lodge were sitting next to our campsite quietly and watching. The party finished around 11. I could sleep with some noise but Finn had to use ear plugs so he hates anyone who makes big sound, that includes me from time to time.Read more