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Daan Viljoen NP |
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August
16th Daan Viljoen is a small national park close to Windhoek. When compared with other parks in Namibia one might think that it is very tiny and that the wildlife isn't all that spectacular (no elephants, lions, rhino's, that stuff), but exactly these conditions allow you to actually hike around on your own. In bigger parks like Etosha, you are not allowed to leave your car because that's too dangerous. So hiking is what I did. There were 3 trails, an easy 3km one, another intermediate 10km one, and a 34km two-day trail. I had someone to drive me there from Windhoek and back for N$300.- (€35.-), which was rather expensive for some 120km, but whatever. It was wonderful, and I saw mountain zebras and wildebeests. On foot instead of from a safari van. And that's cool. I also saw a couple of African eagles, dassies (rock hyraxes), a bunch of smaller birds and lizards, the rolling savannah hills and Windhoek far off in the distance.
A very striking but common feature in these parts are the nests of weaver birds hanging from the trees. These nests of grass and twigs can get very big in time; I saw one that was about 2 metres across in Etosha National Park. These impressive larger nests can house up to a hundred birds and might last for more than a century. The 'Rooibos Trail', as my route was called, started along the banks of an artificial lake that provides tap water for Windhoek. Here you find ducks, fish and lush green vegetation. All quite rare in this arid country :-)
Soon the path lead up the hills, away from the lake. I thought the plant life was quite fascinating.
Below you see the remains of a dead animal in a dry riverbed, though I'm not sure what kind of animal it was. Maybe a zebra?
Sometimes the trail went through dry riverbeds. I guess no one comes here in the rainy season. When I was there, it was supposed to be high season and the weather was nice (25 degrees Celsius). Nevertheless I saw no more than two fellow hikers all day (a nice German couple).
I got back to the entrance of the park after 3 or 4 hours of walking (the hills were steep, the view breathtaking, and I stopped a lot just to look around), and enjoyed the sunset over fields of gold while having a cold drink and looking at the local youths playing football.
Continue to the next chapter, Keetmanshoop |
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© Jeroen Kools 2006 |
