August 8-9: Sesfontein Area and Surrounds

We left Twyfelfontein and headed farther north into the heart of Kaokoland, inhabited primarily by the Himba people, to Ongongo Waterfalls located about 25 km south of the town of Sesfontein.

We spent a night south of Sesfontein at Ongongo Waterfalls and their community-run campsite just below the falls – we needed to be near water after so many days in the desert! The waterfall creates a marvelous swimming pool below the falls, albeit enhanced by a stone dam. We were the first campers to arrive at the campsite, which ended up being full at night, so we took advantage of the privacy and took a nice refreshing swim in the pool before others arrived. Good thing Nancy remembered to bring her bathing suit, although I suppose we could have done without!? Here’s a few pics of the pool, our campsite along the stream and the canyon above the pool:

After leaving Ongongo Waterfalls, we headed into Sesfontein for a resupply of cookies and wine – the two essentials – did a quick stop at the historic Fort Sesfontein, built by the Germans in 1896 while under their colonial control to serve primarily as an outpost to control rinderpest (cattle disease) and poaching, but later converted into a military base and then ultimately abandoned in 1914 at the outset of World War 1. Now it is a lodge and tourist attraction:

We drove an hour into the desert to the Palmwag Concession, which is a wildlife reserve, carved out of a few adjoining community Conservancies, dedicated to conserving the desert ecosystem and, most notably, desert elephants and black rhinos. They purport to be the largest wildlife concession and so forth, but we have heard that claim before, and to have the largest wild population of black rhino, but we have heard that claim before as well. Regardless of whether any of this is true or not, it is an expansive desert mountain landscape that does support a wide variety of desert wildlife, including the aforementioned, as well as lion, leopard, mountain zebra, giraffe and various antelope.

We had a delightful campsite called Elephant Song Campsite perched up on a bench above the Hoanib River (dry river bed this time of year, but with scattered pools) and valley floor. Unfortunately, we did not hear the elephant’s song, as the local matriarchal herd was at the time of our visit apparently about 25 km down river, having passed through our area a few days before. We learned, in contrast to savannah elephants, which are quite numerous in places (despite overall population having been drastically reduced over the past century), there are very few desert elephants left. Note, desert and savannah elephants are all one species but have some different adaptions, both physical and behavioral, for the different environments they live in. We read that there may be as few as only 150 left, distributed among 5 matriarchal herds across the 5 major river basins in northwestern Namibia. Had we known in advance that they were so endangered, we might have scheduled more time to seek them out. Indeed, most of the tourism (i.e., lodges and safaris) in this region seem to be focused on finding and observing desert elephants.

Here’s a few pics of our drive into the campsite along the Hoanib River, our Elephant song campsite and valley viewed from the top of the escarpment above the site (from our morning hike to the top), as well as the view from my lounge chair at the campsite during midday siesta.

Aside from the stellar scenery and peaceful desert environment, the most exciting activity came from an evening drive we took just a few kilometers upriver from our campsite to find a lone male lion that was reported to have killed an ostrich the night before and was likely still gorging and resting in the same location. Here’s what we found:

Here’s a short video of that close and intimate encounter:

Hoanib River lion encounter (3 min)

We left our Elephant Song campsite and head farther north to the town of Opuwa en route to Epupa Falls and the Kenene River on the Angola border. Not much to report on for this leg of the journey other than to say that on our drive to Opuwa from Sesfontein we only passed one vehicle in three hours – that’s some lonely road! In addition, despite my expectations, this part of Kaokoland is virtually uninhabited. All we saw in three hours of driving was mountains and valleys covered in Mopane (dominant tree) woodlands, and perhaps a few stick and mud huts and their associated goat herds.

From the Wildside: