My ears waited for the hoot of an owl, but like before, the birds were not forthcoming. As the evening drew on, our stories became longer and we hit the sheets only after we'd devoured a deftly put together salad and garlic bread - the chops didn't even make it to the coals.
German-Herero war have been to no avail. I looked across at the names etched into stone, the gothic scripts speaking of a long ago time. What starts a war, I wondered. In the end, all you have left are cemeteries and monuments like this one, and history inevitably changed forever.
The next morning we had packed up and were ready to go before many of the other campers had even had their first coffee. We had to be back in the capital before noon and we still had a bit of exploring to do before we departed. On a walk along one of many nature trails we met many more dik-diks. Such cute and enigmatic little creatures! Birds flitted about and I tried desperately to identify as many as possible before we had to move on. After our hike we drove up the brick pathway that loops onto the mountain and parked at the historic Rasthaus. The building is very much a colonial structure, its architecture harking back to Namibia's past as a German colony. The restaurant inside the Rasthaus retains a lot of the dignified atmosphere of a historic place, with golden chandeliers glinting beneath the wooden ceiling, lazily turning ceiling fans and black and white photos from a time gone by arranged on the back wall. Stepping outside, we saw a little sign hanging above another door. Small and browned with age it showed a frothy beer mug – this must be the bar. Inside we were taken back in time once again. Apart from the modern flat-screen TV behind the bar playing some or other sports game, the whole place, including the furniture, had a look about it of never having changed. Uninterested in the human activity below, Rüppel's Parrots perched in the trees outside as they groomed themselves in the morning sun. For our final Waterberg adventure we followed signs to an old German cemetery. The gravestones stand silently against a magnificent backdrop of Waterberg's cliffs. The site is maintained by a Namibian committee called the Kriegsgräberfürsorge (phew, long name) which, according to the little booklet found in a box against the boundary wall, "looks after approximately 3500 graves of Schutztruppe and Union troops." Interestingly, the brief description on the first page notes that efforts to build a monument to the Herero who perished in the 1904 Battle of the Waterberg during the
As we left the park, the sun had risen above the trees. It shone on the ragged cliffs, which glowed red in the morning light. The gravel road beckoned bright and even, leading us home, surely with more adventures to come. TNN
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GENERATION WANDERLUST
Wanderlust [won-der-luhst] (n) a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about For the younger generation, whose pockets aren’t as deep as their dreams are big, it can sometimes feel as if adventure were limited to weekends spent watching the travel channel. But the truth is, there are so many opportunities for young people to explore this wonderful country. Follow us in this latest installment of the Generation Wanderlust series with Namibia Wildlife Resorts as we discover how to find adventures for the young, or even just the young at heart, in amazing Namibia! PS: All the photos in this article were taken using an iPhone, which just goes to show that you can be an adventurer/travel writer/blogger too!