We scooted directly from the desert tour for Camp Kipwe, near where the desert elephants roam, and it was another pretty long drive; we arrived a bit after sundown, right as dinner was being served. Pretty hot here, and it doesn’t cool down that much at night! Early start (5:45 alarm) for the morning tour, where we saw about twenty or so desert elephants and a series of birds as well. Desert elephants are smaller than their cousins, with longer legs and proportionally larger feet to help them walk in the soft sand. They have to walk a long way every few days to get to the scarce watering holes to survive in this arid place (and definitely not enough water to spray on themselves or puddles to waddle in). The hotel is a pretty deluxe place, with a tiny swimming pool built into the rocks with absolutely freezing water, and a nice spot for sundowners.
On our way to Brandburg White Lady Lodge, we went to Twyfelfontein to see the famous rock art of the San people (petroglyphs mostly). Here we were met by the surliest receptionist. She was so rude that we almost left without seeing the rock art. But we decided to go anyway, which allowed us an encounter with our least interested tour guide yet. It turns out, the government has given the concession to the local tribe to employ them, which guarantees jobs for them (in a country with upwards of 30% unemployment). The rock art is about 30 minute walk from the reception desk, and visitors are not allowed to walk without a guide. Thus the very disengaged, uninformative guide. A shame, really. We would have loved to learn a lot more about how and why these petroglyphs got here.
We next stayed at the unpretentious White Lady Lodge (best dinner time traditional singing yet!), and were able to see rock art with much less surly workers and less disinterested guides. We liked our little cabin and the entire place quite a bit. We also met members of a group tour; the younger ones on the camping option and the older Americans on the accommodated one. Several of the latter are members of a Virginia Beach travel group, and it sounds like they do quite a lot of interesting things, particularly for their ages of about 70 or so. And we heard another shoutout for OAT – Overseas Adventure Travel. One talkative traveler mentioned a series of trips, including other African ones, with OAT that apparently include more historical and cultural aspects in their trips than the one they were currently on in Namibia. He gave two thumbs up.