Douglas Easton Travel Blog - Douglas Easton Travel

March 18, 2007

InTuAfrica Lodge, Kalahari Desert, Namibia

Namibia offers visitors some of Earth's most stunning scenery. It is an enormous, geologically fascinating and one of Africa's most extraordinary destinations. It is also interesting statistically because, after Mongolia, it is the least densely populated nation on the planet. On the Namibian portion of our tour, we're visiting two of the continent's largest deserts, the Kalahari and the Namib Rand.

Yesterday, we arrived in Windhoek, Namibia's capital. We then transferred to private planes on which we flew to delightful InTuAfrica Lodge, one of the Kalahari's premier locations.

Iced wash cloths were offered to us at the lodge's front gate, followed by tangy gin and tonics at the lodge's lovely bar... utter bliss afer a day of traveling up from Cape Town.

In the evening, before dinner, we set out on an easy, fascinating walk in the company of five San men (more commonly known as Bushmen), all related to each other. They are quite small and slender but very lithe, and their acrobatic pantomimes of various animals and activities (hunting, digging for roots, etc.) was enchanting to watch. Wearing tunics and loin cloths fashioned from animal skins, and armed with bows and arrows, the men spoke in the San language, which was then translated for us by our multilingual guide, Pedro. The language consists primarily of a series of "clicks' formed under the tongue. It is by and large impossible to replicate, though we certainly tried.

Dinner was delicious... fabulous food, and plenty of it! But it was a long day, and we all gladly returned to our cottages afterward to turn in.

This morning, following a great breakfast (the home-baked breads are superb), we enjoyed a FANTASTIC game drive!!! One of the chief attractions of the Kalahari is that it is probably the world's pre-eminent location for viewing meerkats, and today we saw an entire colony.

These enchanting animals adopt remarkably human expressions as they stand erect above their burrows. With their paws folded demurely, they resemble dogs standing up and begging for food. They're also extremely vocal, squeaking at each other in a bewitching manner. One can happily watch them for hours.

Lions have also been reintroduced here, and this afternoon we managed to located a pair sleeping (as they are wont to do most of the day). Their distended bellies bespoke a recent gorging, most likely the omnipresent impala.

Our time here has passed so quickly... we're sorry to be leaving tomorrow, but eager to visit the Namib Desert, for which the country is named.

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