The Rhino had been brought here by helicopter! And neighboring country Botswana is about 8000 km to the east. Hmm, okay, clearly this is a place where one should not believe everything you see or hear!
Happy having been reunited with our lost bag - the one containing all the Bear Grills gadgets, the medical selection and anything else one might need when camping in the 'wild' - we drive north via Okahandja and turn right just before Otjiwarongo to the Waterberg Plateau Reserve. A flat topped 50 x 16 km sandstone plateau resembling the shape of Karoo koppies (small mountains) in the Great Karoo. A 150m high plateau amidst the grassy desert plain.
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| Waterberg |
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| Waterberg Valley from the top of the plateau. |
Early evening we walk the 1km to the reception area and restaurant for cold beers and the set menu of the day. We are rather surprised to see that the restaurant was almost full. Campsites in the Waterberg Wilderness reserve are spread out over different locations with about 4 sites each. This means that one does get the feeling of remoteness, which this certainly is. Afterwards we walk back in the dark not considering the fact that we never entered any closed gates on our way in from the main road.
The next day we get up early to walk to the nearby resort on the other side to meet our guide for the hiking trail on top of the mountain. We notice a few rather large footprints on the dirt road where we walked the night before and found out that we shared the road with the Rhino who pays nightly visits to the area from the other side of the valley. And the guide matter of factly mentions that it would not be such a great idea for us to do this again.
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| Taking a break during our guided walk on top of the mountain, staring in the direction of Okakarara. |
There was also wild life which had not been brought in by helicopter. Seeing the dassies lying in the sun it was clear that they are probably to lazy to go anywhere anyway.
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| Dassies (rock rabbits\rock badgers) soaking up the sun. |
In the afternoon we go on a game drive to another part of the valley
to take a look at what turned out to be wild life flown in by
helicopter! 3 Rhino, Blue Wildebeest and giraffe. The rhino is being guarded by a ranger and finding them is therefor just a phone call away! The whole experience feels a little staged, but being our first wild life encounter this holiday we had no trouble enjoying the afternoon.
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| Much needed pool at Anderson Camping site and the start of the Anderson trail which leads to the reception area about 1km away. |
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| Our spot at the Anderson Camping site |
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