Magara

... and it always knows what’s good for you.
At the village of Magara I find an informal community campsite near their small waterfall. No infrastructure at all, just some beautiful trees. Locals are bathing and washing in the river. Very calm atmosphere. The next morning I take my time doing some computer stuff when around noon an old, thin man appears out of the bush and – without saying any word – brings some firewood. He keeps bringing more and more as I sit there and while I start packing my things to leave I think “Oh no, I don’t need any firewood. Doesn’t he see that I’m about to leave?” I say goodbye and leave.

Nobody charged me anything for the night so I decide to search for the village’s chairman to donate something. I wait for an hour and talk to some locals. Another hour later I finish my lunch. Another hour later this chairman appears. Another hour later we’re done. So, this Saturday’s planned episode on the road is no more because it approaches 4 pm already. I decide to stay another night.

Back at the riverbed under those huge trees with the afternoon sun I grind some Kilimanjaro coffee beans and just enjoy. The old man appears again and continues bringing firewood while I fix some things around the car and skype home.

In the evening I have a big pile of wood near my fireplace. The old man makes some gestures to start the fire and there we go. I give him my second chair. We are friends now. He builds the fire and I prepare our dinner. At 9 p.m. he lies down next to the fire and sleeps. I give him Wurstdaniel’s yellow Air Namibia blanket.

At 5 a.m. it starts raining heavily and as I wake up two hours later, the old man is standing under my awning. Hmm. We have breakfast with a lot of coffee. After the rain I go for the road but still this place does not want me to leave! I get stuck on the steep, now muddy track back to the main road. Huge wet stones with massive wet roots are not easy to manage after the rain. Wahooooo. Luckily, with some inspection of the environment and some more tries I manage to reverse and succeed climbing the hill with a little more momentum.Read more