Over the last week we've continued or way north through Namibia with our first destination being to see stone age rock carvings at Twyfelfontain. Many are 6000 years old so go back to the middle of the stone ages.
These carvings remind me of how long man has been wandering this planet; but also make me wonder- it took nearly 100,000 years for early homo-sapiens to reach this stage of deliberate painting, it took another 8000 years to reach the industrial revolution, only 200 more to the computer; are we capable of successfully managing this the current exponentially increasing pace of change? It's a thought I've had before but seeing the disparity between the average locals lifestyle and what most aspire to (courtesy of today's instant communications), the scarcity of resources and the obvious fragility of the local environment makes it more obvious and worrying.
Enough philosophizing. After that it was on to see one of the major drawcards of the country, Etosha National Park, described by the Lonely Planet guide for southern Africa, as one of the must sees of the region because of the density and diversity of animals in a comparatively small area.
On the way Megan undertook a little retail therapy local style.
Etosha didn't disappoint, it is "safari lite" and set up for mass tourism, not a remote wilderness experience where you have to spend all day battling to get somewhere, but for us it was perfect; when you start getting slightly blasé about seeing another elephant, zebra, rhino or giraffe you know you've been spoilt.
We spent three nights all told in the park, each at a different campsite - slowly working our way from the parks west side to its east. Each campsites is in reality a large fenced resort with both chalets and camping areas available located next to a large water hole where you are almost guaranteed to see animals, especially now at the dry time of the year. You are shut in at night, but during the day free to roam the roads and tracks. Each days routine was similar; up early to go to the waterhole adjacent to the camp, then spending the cooler hours at each end of the day driving around between the other waterholes of the park simply seeing what was on the move. There's a real excitement in turning a corner and seeing the animals of your childhood picture books simply strolling across the plain, or sometimes the road, in front of you.
Now it is onwards to Botswana where we're hoping that we'll see more game including the big cats which have elude us so far. (And hopefully by then I'll have worked out how to get the much better photos I have on my camera as well as these from my phone on to the blog)
These carvings remind me of how long man has been wandering this planet; but also make me wonder- it took nearly 100,000 years for early homo-sapiens to reach this stage of deliberate painting, it took another 8000 years to reach the industrial revolution, only 200 more to the computer; are we capable of successfully managing this the current exponentially increasing pace of change? It's a thought I've had before but seeing the disparity between the average locals lifestyle and what most aspire to (courtesy of today's instant communications), the scarcity of resources and the obvious fragility of the local environment makes it more obvious and worrying.
Enough philosophizing. After that it was on to see one of the major drawcards of the country, Etosha National Park, described by the Lonely Planet guide for southern Africa, as one of the must sees of the region because of the density and diversity of animals in a comparatively small area.
On the way Megan undertook a little retail therapy local style.
Etosha didn't disappoint, it is "safari lite" and set up for mass tourism, not a remote wilderness experience where you have to spend all day battling to get somewhere, but for us it was perfect; when you start getting slightly blasé about seeing another elephant, zebra, rhino or giraffe you know you've been spoilt.
We spent three nights all told in the park, each at a different campsite - slowly working our way from the parks west side to its east. Each campsites is in reality a large fenced resort with both chalets and camping areas available located next to a large water hole where you are almost guaranteed to see animals, especially now at the dry time of the year. You are shut in at night, but during the day free to roam the roads and tracks. Each days routine was similar; up early to go to the waterhole adjacent to the camp, then spending the cooler hours at each end of the day driving around between the other waterholes of the park simply seeing what was on the move. There's a real excitement in turning a corner and seeing the animals of your childhood picture books simply strolling across the plain, or sometimes the road, in front of you.
Now it is onwards to Botswana where we're hoping that we'll see more game including the big cats which have elude us so far. (And hopefully by then I'll have worked out how to get the much better photos I have on my camera as well as these from my phone on to the blog)
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