The road to Epupa Falls was far better than expected. There were lots of gullies in the road, very small water crossings that required us to slow down and a little bit of mud, but the road itself was in good condition. We are very much in Himba country now.
We are staying at the community run Epupa Falls campsite for 2 nights which is situated literally on the river right at the falls. Our campsite is on the river’s edge and we are sitting about 10m from it and about 200m from Angola. The river is about 20cm below ground level, so it is pretty full. The sound of the water rushing over the edge is quite loud, but it means you can’t hear any of the other campers even if they are close, so it is quite good. Our site is very shady and pleasant. There are showers and toilets however they don’t heat the water until May, so we had our first cold shower, but it wasn’t so bad as it is quite hot here
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The falls themselves are pretty impressive. There is an awful lot of water coming from somewhere to spill at such a rate over them. There are a number of falls flowing at speed where we are. In the picture, our camp is just at the top of the falls.
This morning we visited a Himba village with just ourselves and a guide. The guide organises food supplies to take with you as a gift such as maize, oil and salt. It was very interesting. They really live the way you see them on documentaries on TV. They live in small mud huts, get milk from their goats and cows and dress in animal skins. The women coat themselves with a mixture of ochre and cow fat every day once they turn 16. They adorn themselves with jewellery around their necks, wrists and ankles and wear decorated belts. They still live an extremely simple life relying mainly on the land around them for survival. There was very little sign of the western world in their village, just a couple of plastic buckets and a metal spoon was about all I saw. The rest was either skins or containers made from trees or plants.
