Okavango

We were freezing cold overnight!! I was up and down like a yo-yo, adding layers each time. There was also a lot of noise from guinea fowl outside our tent. By 6am, I couldn’t stand it any longer, and got up, despite the fact that we didn’t have to be at breakfast until 8am! Like yesterday, I just couldn’t get warm!! At least we didn’t have to take our tents down this morning, which was a blessing. We found an electric kettle and boiled it so we could have a coffee. We even got a fire going from last night’s embers! Gradually, people got up and joined us. Everyone had been cold during the night – except the few who had upgraded, who complained they had been too warm!!

We had scrambled egg for breakfast and then set off to drive the 75 kilometres to a living history village occupied the San people. These people have lost their traditional way of life in recent years, and some of them are working to preserve it. In 1990, they were moved off their land when diamonds were found. The Namibian government rehoused them some distance away in purpose-built concrete units rather than their straw homes. They forbade them from hunting for food as they had done since time immemorial. As a result of the move, the San population decreased from over 100,000 to between just two and three thousand today. Our guide said he preferred the traditional way of life, but it’s hard to see how it can survive now that the younger generation have mobile homes and are educated in Groofontein many miles away.

At the village, we were taught some of the San language and shown how they used to make fire and fashion bows and arrows out of locally-sourced wood. We watched as women made beads out of seeds and ostrich egg shell, and then made them into jewellery and bags. As hunter gatherers, the men hunted while the women foraged for food and looked after the children. Our guide and some villagers took us on a walk through the forest and explained to us how certain plants were used to treat different conditions. They also showed us how they set traps to catch rabbits.Read more