Sleeping with the Hippos

After our interlude at Roy's, we headed up to the Caprivi Strip, a little narrow thumb-like projection on the Northeastern corner of Namibia that touches Angola, Zambia and Botswana. The area is noted for its diversity of wildlife, open-flowing rivers and angling appeal. Our fellow Fulbrighter family, the Powells, had recently been through the area on their way to Victoria Falls and had stayed at a very cool lodge called Ndhovu where the guests are housed in Lobatse military style tents with a detached bath. The tents aren’t in the least bit Spartan, however. They are well appointed with embroidered linens, thick wool floor rugs and sparkling white mosquito netting. We seized the opportunity and capitalized on the Powell’s tip and scheduled 4 days and 3 nights there. We weren’t disappointed.
The main attraction of the lodge is that it sits right on the banks of the Okavango River. There just so happens to be a grassy island right in front of the lodge where a herd of hippos hang out for out 7 months of the year. Our tent was located just opposite the island and we were able to almost literally sleep with the 15 or so hippos that make it their home. Most were mothers with nursing calves. What a treat! The great part is that they’re nocturnal and so as we drifted off to sleep each night, we could hear them milling about in the river and on the bank right in front of our tent. They’ve got the strangest call that resembles the laugh of Jabba the Hut on StarWars.
Additionally, the owner of the lodge, Horst Koch, is very hands-on. He sits and has meals with the guests, takes them out on game drives and will even fetch supplies for one’s broken-down vehicle when necessary. (More about the Adventures of Ole Bess later). Horst is a wealth of knowledge and information and just a downright nice fella. He still owns a farm near Windhoek, but his heart is with the lodge in Divundu and that’s where he spends most of his time. His children live in different places around the world, so he’s got some work to do to get them to come back and take over the farm and free himself up entirely for life in the “unorganized sector” of Namibia.
Indeed, this area of Namibia is vastly different from the Central and Southern districts. The population is much denser up here. Many still live in traditional homesteads that can easily be seen from the road. Non-existent are the huge 20,000 hectare farms like in the South and life appears to be much more hard scrabble for people who engage in subsistence farming. The people must battle malaria here as well. No easy task when there is little money for prophylactic medication. Things aren’t as clean here as in the Windhoek area either and there is often trash on the roadsides especially near the larger towns. It is nonetheless a most interesting place to visit and we enjoyed it thoroughly.