Za nami je nova afriška dogodivščina. Namibija, ki je bila dolga leta na listi želja, nam je prinesla veliko lepega a tudi nekaj neprijetnosti. Da si priča poskusa ropa sopotnika prvi dan, je gotovo vsaj malce neprijetno.
Kljub temu, da Namibija ponuja fantastično pokrajino skoraj za vsakim ovinkom ter pravo afriško paleto vseh možnih živali, pa so na koncu vseeno ljudje tisti, ki so dali nepozaben pečat našemu potovanju. Preživete ure in dnevi pri plemenih Himba, Zemba in Bušmanih so bili res neverjetni. Himbe s svojo pokončnostjo in samozavestjo, Zembe s svojo preprostostjo in Bušmani z neverjetno prijaznostjo so nas skoraj zasvojili. Sedaj lahko iz prve roke poveva, da otroci definitivno odpirajo še tako priprta vrata pri ljudeh. Nikoli ne bom pozabil dveh preživetih dnevov pri plemenu Zemba, ko so se vaški otroci ob prihodu Jaka prestrašeno razbežali med lesenimi kočami. Jaka je bil namreč prvi beli otrok, ki so ga srečali v svojem življenju.
Do Namibije smo potovali z letalsko družbo Condor. Naša pot je trajala 5 tednov in v tem času smo prevožili skoraj 6.000 kilometrov. Naša spalnica, dnevna soba in kuhinja je bila toyota Hillux, najeta pri agenciji African tracks, ki jo priporočam tudi morebitnim bodočim obiskovalcem Namibije. Razen prve noči smo vse ostale noči preživeli pod fantastičnih afriškim nebom, v verjetno najlepših kampih, ki jih premore ta planet. Dokler teh kampov ne doživiš osebno, verjetno ne verjameš tem napisanih besedam.
Priznam, da sva oba z Ano imela pred našim odhodom kar nekaj pomislekov ali sva se odločila pravilno. Pred očmi sva imela slike škorpijonov, kač, pajkov in vseh ostalih afriških bitij, ki bi nam lahko uničili potovanje ali pa celo kaj več. Da ne naštevam zraven še vseh morebitnih bolezni. Že po nekaj dneh popotovanja pa sva videla, da sva se odločila pravilno. Ob dobri pripravi potovanja in upoštevanju splošnih nasvetov predstavljajo omenjene živalce res minimalen rizik tudi za najmlajše člane družin. Kač in pajkov sploh nismo videli, viden škorpijon pa je tudi videl boljše čase – beri mrtev.
Namibijo bi definitivno priporočal vsem, ki uživajo v neokrnjeni naravi, bi radi videli afriški živalski svet ter vsaj malo pokukali v dnevno življenje prvobitnih afriških plemen. Je to destinacija za mlade družine? Definitivno. Bi pa vseeno priporočal pred potjo še kakšne družinske popotniške predpriprave na kakšni drugi, mogoče za potovanje bolj enostavni celini. 🙂
We just returned from our trip to Namibia, that was on our wish list for years. It was an amazing journey with so many good memories and also some bad ones. To witness attempted robbery of a fellow traveler on the first day is at least a little bit uncomfortable.
Despite the fact that Namibia offers fantastic scenery almost on every corner and all African animals you can imagine, in the end, local people made it truly special destination. We spent couple of days with people from Himba, Zemba and San tribe and those hours were really something special. Now we definitely know that traveling with kids is definitely totally different than traveling alone. They sometimes open almost closed doors or move the barriers that we adults build around us. I will never forget 2 days that we spent with Zemba tribe, when local kids just run away when they saw first white kid in their life. We traveled to Namibia with Condor airline. Our journey lasted 5 weeks and in that time we drove nearly 6,000 kilometers. Our bedroom, living room, kitchen was Toyota Hillux, that we rented from African tracks company, which I recommend also to potential future visitors to Namibia. Apart from the first night we spent all other African nights in the most beautiful campsites in the world. As long as you don’t experience that in person, its hard to believe that.
I have to admit that Ana and me had a lot of concerns prior to our departure about our decision to go there. In our minds there were scorpions, snakes, spiders and all other African creatures and diseases, that could destroy our journey or even something more. But after few days in Namibia we realized that the decision was right. With good preparations and listening to the tips from the locals, this creatures presents minimal risk also to our youngest members of the family. We didn’t see any snakes or spiders, and the scorpion that we saw was just plain dead.
I would definitely recommend Namibia to all who enjoy the unspoiled nature, would like to see African wildlife, and would like to have a look into the daily life of indigenous African tribes. Is this a destination for young families? Definitely. But I would still recommend getting some travel experiences in some easier travel destinations before this journey. 🙂