Traversing Namibia

As we eagerly headed towards the adventure capital of Namibia - Swakopmund - we first had to cross vast desert and salt plains. And even in this seemingly uninhabitable environment there were still signs of life. Every now and then you'd pass a solitary hut manned by the red Himba, or the cow-horned Herero ladies.

We pulled up at one hut and as we piled out of the truck you could feel them brimming with excited anticipation. They proudly showed off their cow horn bangles, traditional necklaces, handmade dolls. Nearby their children played snotty-nosed and bedraggled, but happy. You could tell they did it tough out here.

I gave the children little kangaroo and koala key rings I'd taken with me from Australia and their faces just lit up. They proudly showed them off as I pinned them to their clothes. While clearly adored by their mothers, it must be so hot and boring for these little kids playing around an isolated hut, in the heat of Namibia, all day. We thanked the woman profusely and I gifted them a 5 litre bottle of water they were extremely grateful for, and we left.

It was hard to keep driving past the other huts just like them along the rest of the drive, seeing their gutted faces as we kept going by. Gone was a busload of hope that had already given all it could that day, to someone else. In a perfect world we'd have spread the wealth but it's so hard.

The landscape was sparse but we did stop to look at these amazing plants that have a female and a male version, that can only propagate when spores from the male plant fertilize a female one, carried by an insect or a bird. Incredible nature!

Give Harvs a big huh from Mama Bear

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