A lady's powder puff she would carry with her, housed in a tortoise shell.

All the cars, vans and buses lined up at the start of the day's tour.

Long Beach, a coastal development just outside Walvis Bay.

A basket of medicinal items and cups made from old tin cans.

Nama language, the special characters denote different clicking sounds made when saying the word.

Tuck shops were very common in the township as were betting shops.

The traditional dress of a Herero woman with the hat symbolising cow horns.

Tree caterpillars top left, then clockwise, mashed black eye peas, maize porridge and spinach.

Some local entertainment after our lunch.

Some Local Culture

January 8 in Namibia ⋅ 🌬 19 °C

Today we woke up in Walvis Bay around 260 miles north of Luderitz. With a population of just over 100,000 it is Namibia's main port.

Our excursion wasn't until 12:15 today so had time to go to the gym and do some cycling, weights and then an hour on the paddel tennis court. As we were in port I was able to use the scales in the gym. If they are anywhere near correct I've put on nearly a pound a day, every day, since we've been away.

On the tour we went to the city of Skopamund and in particular it's township. Before it's independence in 1990 the area of Namibia had been wholely and then in part ruled by South Africa, having taken it over over from the Germans at the end of the first world war when it was know as German South West Africa. Apartheid was also enforced here with whites living in the city, coloureds and blacks living in the township but also segregated from each other. These terms are still used here and in South Africa to refer to ethnic groupings.

It was a really interesting tour, we visited a traditional medicine woman from the Nama tribe in her home. She had numerous plants, barks, dungs which are used to treat various ailments. Apparently, baboon dung is good for swollen feet, I think I'd be quite happy to keep my swollen feet!

Though modern medicine came to the fore when an elderly American woman fell in the garden and whacked her head on the floor, there was blood everywhere, fortunately there were 2 Austrian doctors in the trip who stemmed the bleeding and she was taken to a local private hospital.

We then visited a woman from the Herero tribe in her traditional dress and learned a little about their poligomous culture. We then went to try some of the local cuisine, black eyed peas, maize porridge, spinach and fried tree caterpillars. Out of the 9 people in our van only about 3 people tried any of the food never mind the tree caterpillars. The texture of them was quite meaty and they took a bit of chewing and they definitely didn't taste like chicken. In fact they didn't taste of much at all really.Read more