Waterberg

Waterberg is an area in which a kind of table mountain is situated. Animals that grow too numerous in other parts of Namibia are transported to this place. Hence, we expected to see a lot of wildlife, but were heavily disappointed in that. Except for a single dung beetle and about six birds a day, we saw nothing. The area is bone dry, which means only some succulents and thorny shrubs could grow there. Because succulents' leaves do not move in the wind, there was no sound at all. To my surprise, we did not even hear insects buzzing. I had never experienced such a complete silence.

Still, a lot of animals lived there, because everywhere around us were animal droppings. Even though Russell had a booklet to identify the droppings, it was very hard to do so. The rhino was easy: Those were half digested bits of grass that had been spread in a big pile across the entire path. The antilope produced a kind of big pellets, but they all looked alike. Even though the ones belonging to a giraffe would have had a flattened end, because they had been dropped from such a height. A big advantage of the drought was that there was no smell, even when you were bending down over them.

Everywhere we walked there was the impression of a big animal party that had taken place, of which the last guests had just gone home when we arrived. This, and the silence, gave a rather eerily deserted impression.

By contrast, the rock formations on the table mountain were very beautiful. For a full day, we walked along the irregularly shaped pillars with behind it a view on the plains at the foot of the table mountain. One of the most obvious rocks was probably the mushroom rock; a beacon along the path you could not miss, about half an hour from our next campsite. We had met eachother again there, after we had each been walking at our paces along the path. After a short break, we went on to the campsite where we wanted to have lunch. After we had settled down and had had a look around, someone noticed that Annabel had still not arrived.

Annabel had not stayed behind at the mushroom rock, because the last ones there had seen her leave, and she had not been the first to leave either. We suspected that she had gotten off the path on her way. Three of us (Russel, Bruce, and I) went on our way to look for her with daypacks with water. At the same time, John and Mary climbed on a high rock to call for Annabel from there. The search pary did find Annabels tracks, but could not find her. The calling from the rock had more effect. Annabel heard it and used it as a homing beacon to find her way back, which meant she was back sooner that the search party. Thankfully, this was the only missing-person act of the entire holiday.