Finally a little topography

Sunset on the beautiful Kunene River (no crocodiles to be seen)

Ruacana Falls without the water- Still a pretty impressive sight.

Hanging out on the Angolan border (its hard to read but the sign says Angola in big red letters).

So we finally went camping last weekend, and it was really nice to get out of the flatness of Owamboland and see some topography. We went with three other volunteers to Hippo Pools, where we saw no hippos, but which is a beautiful camping spot on the banks of the Kunene River, which marks the boundary between Namibia and Angola. As we were driving there we noticed that the termite mounds had changed from their usual white or grey to a beautiful bright red color. Soon after this we stopped at a very happening bar, where there were many himba people (a group in Namibia that still wear traditional outfits and lead a traditional herding lifestyle- the women wear very little clothing and cover their bodies in a red dye called ochre, so they look very distinctive). We had a nice time here, though the Himba people were charging about $10 for a photo, which we thought was too steep. We then continued and a mile down the road came over a small rise and saw mountains. It was spectacular, everyone in the car was so excited, because we haven't seen a decent hill in weeks. We drove over the edge of the huge plateau that makes up most of Namibia and descended into a beautiful and relatively lush valley towards the river.

Camping was a great way to get away from the daily grind of teaching. We didn't do much of anything, except for a quick trip to Ruacana Falls, which is supposed to be spectacular when it is flowing, but it was not flowing. It is still an cool site, with a lot of rock exposed where the falls should be, but also a little disappointing. There we were able to step into Angola and take some photos by a nice sign that told us we had crossed the border. Angola didn't seem much different, except the border post was in poor shape. After spending some time enjoying the sunshine at the falls, we drove to the nearby town of Ruacana in hopes of lunch, but all we found was some hot dogs at the gas station- its hard to find good food in these small Namibian towns. Back at the campsite we ran into a large group of children from Opuwo, the central town of Kaokoland to the southwest, who were swimming. We decided to join them, despite fears of crocodiles and bilharzia. The crocodiles were not a problem, we'll see about the bilharzia. These kids spend a lot of time selling jewelry to tourists, and therefore they can speak a little bit of many different languages. A few of them could speak some French, Spanish, and Italian, in addition to English, Oshiwambo, and Otjiherero.

So those were the highlights of our trip, it was great to get away from school for a while, and we are looking forward to going to Etosha (where the big animals are) in a few weeks.