Travel to Namibia

This morning we traveled by bus to the airport, then a small plane to a landing strip, walked to the river, where we caught a boat to go up the Kwando river to Lianshule lodge in Mudumo National Park, Namibia.

Namibia is about the size of Texas and Louisiana combined, it has 2.2 million people with an average annual income of $2.3K/person. Major industries are mining, fishing, cattle, agriculture, and tourism.

The river has lots of channels filled with papyrus and common reed. We stopped several imes to observe hippos, most of them eating along the side of the river. Then as we watched they would amble into the river. In the evening, we cruised along the river and saw day lilies (white or purple) and night lilies (yellow) which during respectively during the day or night. When couples get married the tradition is for the man to make a necklace from the little stem for the bride and a hat for himself from the lilly pad.

Chamu, our guide, gave us a lecture on the animals we probably wouldn't see on this trip. The Roan antelope, he saw 1 last year. Cheetahs, there are only 11,000 left in Africa, they need large open areas. The wild dog, only 3000left - only the alpha male and female mate and many are lost to disease or are shot. Rhino which have gone from 65000 in 1970 to 3000 today in all of Africa. They are poached for their horns which are rumored to be an aphrodisiac. Chamu's last tour were tracking one when they heard shots - the poachers were caught later - a game warden and a policeman. Last year, 3 were short in their pens for a local breeding program.

First Sunset on Kwando River, Namibia

The sunsets here are very unique. Every night we watch the sun set as a fireball with a few clouds around, the skies grow grey, and then about 20 to 30 minutes later, the skies turn red for a second time.

Second Sunset from the lodge's porch 30 minutes later

That night we heard hippos from the river and a lion roar. At dawn the sound of birds were everywhere.