Asphalt Day

7.4.

It seems like a small miracle to us: we drove all the way to Ruacana at the Angolan border today on asphalt!

But let's start from the beginning:

After breakfast, we drive down from our campsite to the small town of Opuwo to buy a few things. Along the way, we pass by a modern settlement of the black middle class. It looks like this: All the houses are the same, but well-built and usually there's a car parked in front of each door. This is Africa too!

Opuwo is a multicultural town. Here, half-naked Himba women meet Herero women wrapped in voluminous clothes. The men wear strange skirts that look more like cloths wrapped around their hips.

Unfortunately, the people are hard to photograph or not willing at all. They turn away as soon as they see a camera or a phone.

I found a photo of a Himba woman from 7 years ago, so you can get an impression of how they look:

Of course, there are also many people dressed in a very Western style, and we have also seen fake nails and eyelashes.

Women and girls here really carry everything on their heads - often heavy loads. That would be something for our sensitive cervical spines….😁

The people here have really very dark skin. Most have a truly bright white smile that shines even more from their black faces, as they laugh a lot. Especially the young men are always in a good mood and smile at us so much that it brings joy.

In front of the supermarket, there is a lot of begging. For me, this is hard to bear, because in a crowd of people wanting you to bring them something from the store, you can't just give something to one person, and giving to everyone exceeds our possibilities. So we make our way as quickly as possible and quickly leave the town after shopping.

We inquired about the road conditions at our campsite. They said: fine! But we never thought we would really have asphalt all the way to Ruacana! So we glide leisurely along and eventually Wilfried says: It’s getting a bit dull, right? Upon arriving in Ruacana, we check in as the only guests at a somewhat neglected lodge campsite.

Now we want to see the famous Ruacana waterfalls right at the Angolan border, but the GPS leads us in circles and there are no signs at all. When we see a cloud of mist in the distance, we head towards it. And there they are: The Ruacana waterfalls - and after the recent rains, they are spectacular! The Kunene River plunges down with incredible force, at least 60-80 meters.

Tomorrow we continue here in the north - It's hard to get information about the road conditions - so we let ourselves be surprised!