Traditional Tribe

Epupa from further down the river

Epupa Falls

Travelling north towards Angola, the temperature started getting warmer and more humid.

Epupa is a fair way north which means a very long drive on dirt. There are traditional tribes people up here, the Himba, that smear red dirt on their skin and through their hair - well, the women do anyway. Like many cultures, the men dress the same as the rest of the world.

I should have come back here with my good camera and tripod, this is just 5 mins walk down the road

Our campsite was part of a resort right on the Epupa River and on the other side of the river is the country of Angola. While the spray from the waterfall is visible from our campsite, you need to walk about fives minutes down the road to see the falls. To get the photograph of the falls that I was looking for, we needed to go further afield and try and find a track in through the trees and rocks. It wasn't easy as the tracks petered out quite quickly and you had to drive carefully and slowly over rocks and when we couldn't go any further, we had to walk over the rocks with all our camera gear. We did this in the heat of the day and didn't have the energy to go back at sunset. If it was warm now, how hot did it get in summer I asked the new owner "you have to put wet towels on you with a fan to go to sleep" he said. Glad we were here in winter.

This is the view we would wake up to each morning

They loved chasing each other

So innocent

On one of our exploration trips we found a troupe of monkeys and a troupe of baboons. There are crocodiles up here but we don't see any but that's not to say they didn't see us!

The big male baboon stood guard to make sure everyone escaped from us before he followed

A local guide came to our campsite and asked us if we would like to be taken to a Himba Tribe. He gave us a price significantly lower than what the hotel was offering. So what was the catch? We also needed to buy some food at the local shop. We agreed as we thought it would be a different experience to the one the hotel would provide. If certain tribes were given food on a regular basis, they would be much better off than others. We had bought maize, oil, pasta, vaseline and a few other things, except the store owner had forgotten to put the oil in, or had he? Thinking back on what we paid, the store owner definitely played us. We wouldn't have paid that much if we had bought the food in Australia and the food in Namibia is cheap. We saw an opportunity to give away the rest of our Namibian pasta as we had switched to Italian made pasta. Believe me there is a difference. Gluggy or not gluggy, no contest. Lindsay and our guide confronted the store owner later that day and he promised to deliver the oil to the tribe. sure.

A village we passed on the way back from the monkeys

Visiting the tribes is not something you can do on your own as you need someone to explain why you are there, that we have brought food for them and in return, that you would like to take photos, because of course why else would they let you in unless they were getting something in return. While some of the locals such as our guide spoke English, the traditional tribes do not. Not only did we have our guide in our car but two of his nephews and their little friend. Their aunts had a "shop" where they made donuts and the boys were given a bag to take with them for the day. We got to taste some too. Even without any jam, they were pretty good considering what they had to work with.

Epupa Tribe - grandmother and grandson

The first community we went to only had the older women and the young ones that had babies, everyone else was out with the farm animals far away from home. One place had a little solar panel, their only way of recharging a phone, though I don't know how they afford a phone or a mobile plan.

Great grandmother maybe

I was invited to go into one of their houses where a number of women were sitting around a smoky fire. It was dark and oppressive. Their meagre possessions were packed in plastic bags. And even though they can't wash as there is not enough water, they did not smell at all. Some communities had one vehicle, but many did not.

Mother and child

Only the men have chairs

Lindsay had brought some balloons from home. They had never seen them before. Watching the little boys run with the balloons was priceless. Let alone when the balloon fell on the ground and broke. We felt good that we had given food to communities that were doing it tough and wouldn't normally get a handout from the tourists. While I have seen some beautiful photographs of Himba women, those people were clearly used to posing for photographs. Our photos were of normal people. It wasn't easy to take photos when they didn't know and if they did, their faces became blank.

The little boys play with the ballon

and they all get a go

We were asked by one of the women if we had any pain killers, it reminds you how much we take for granted, being able to get what we want, usually when we want it.

None of the men wore traditional clothes

They had never seen a balloon until today

Our guide's career was going to be short lived though as the hotel owner was going to call the police to keep him out of the hotel grounds. We didn't say a word when we overheard this conversation as we had aided and abetted him. What we paid him probably fed his family for a month.

Like women everywhere, how they look is important to them.

The ballon becomes a treasure

Want to start at the beginning of this trip? Namibia - Pt 1