A Supermarket experience

Yesterday we drove from Swakopmund up to Opuwo.  For those who are asking me for a map, the easiest way is to have a look at a world map, choose Africa, and put your finger on the bottom, preferably on the left.  That should be about Cape Town.  Move your finger up to the next country, and that’s Namibia.  Keep moving your finger up and stop just before you get to Angola.  That’s roughly where Opuwo is.

Why did we take a 1,000km “detour” on a dirt/gravel road to stay at Opuwo?  

Well, the drive was of course lovely.  Namibia doesn’t just have wide open spaces, nor does it have WIDE open spaces.  It really has an abundance of     WIDE  OPEN   SPACES.

 And Opuwo is a small town with an almost frontier feel.  30kms out of town, the road became tar.  So the last of the drive into town was almost normal.  We needed to get some firewood and a couple of other things, so we stopped at the Supermarket.  Before I get to our supermarket experience, I should say that around here there are the Himba and Herero people. 

The Herero women seem to have skipped at least a century.  Their dress was based on the very early missionaries, and it hasn’t changed.  So they are in very long dresses – down to the ground – and it looks like there are several layers of dress.  Definitely NOT low cut, and all have short sleeves.  They also wear an amazing headpiece that almost looks like a dragon-boat outline, sitting across their head.  Try to picture Sally Field as the Flying Nun, only widen the head-piece.  Their dresses are always colourful.

So back to the supermarket.  We walk in, and while it may be surprising to have such a large well stocked supermarket in a place like Opuwo, this is one time where the shoppers are far more interesting than the goods piled on the shelves.  There are a few shoppers with European style clothing (jeans, shorts, t-shirts) mixed in with the Herero women standing right next to the Himba women.

 It makes downtown Newtown and Enmore look almost boring!

Some of the younger teenage girls are obviously trying out something new – they have discovered brightly coloured bras, and so proudly dress in animal skin “skirts”, lots of beads and a bra. 

This morning, we went out to one of the Himba villages and spent a few hours with them.  We had a local guide, who spoke good English and explained everything.  Jimmy had been fortunate enough to go to school for 4 years.  He said he learnt English “on the street” and now thinks he may try to learn Italian.

 The women had just finished milking the cattle when we arrived.  The Chief came out to say hello, and wanted to know what was wrong with my leg.  As Jimmy explained, the Himba aren’t backward in coming forward, so if they see something odd, they ask.  The children were also fascinated with it, and wanted to touch it just to see what the hole felt like! 

I had quite a few photos I wanted to add, but I'm having internet problems.  Mind you, I should be surprised that there is internet at all!

As a major contrast to this morning, we headed back to our campsite.  The Opuwo Country Hotel sits atop the hill behind the town.  Spectacular views – of course!  And they have a camping area a short drive away from the main hotel.  There are 15 camping places – each one numbered, and with a patch of grass to pitch the tents.  They also each have a braai, tap, bin and a light.  Pretty good eh?  The only drawback last night was that there were 3 Karibu overland trucks full of older French passengers, and they’d decided just to pitch their tents everywhere.  They went this morning, so it will be easier tonight.

This afternoon we’re up at the Hotel – they have a pool, lounge area, and the main building, where we’re sitting now, boasts the largest single-span thatch in the country and is quite impressive.  We treated ourselves to lunch here, and chose from the “Light lunch” menu.  The other feature of Namibia is that Vegetarian meals are almost unheard of, and they favour the American sizes for servings.  Jenny ordered a smoked salmon baguette – and apart from the fact that it was the longest baguette I’ve ever seen, it needed to be that long to hold the ton of smoked salmon they piled on to it.  I ordered a burger, and the meat patty was as thick as my fork.  We ate as much as we could, but really couldn’t finish the meals – we’re not used to eating so much these days.

Tomorrow we leave here in the morning and we’re heading down to Etosha, this time I’ve decided to lift the ban on photographing elephants.