Happy 1st may - a vacation day for many of us. But yesterday's memories of the crazy guy driving his car into a Dutch queen's day crowd overshadows the celebration. Horrible images, so many dead and wounded. What goes on in a man's mind, you might wonder... Well, we might never find out, the driver died this morning. A day that should have been full of happiness turned out very sad. Queen's day 'koninginnedag" has already a special place in my heart.. it's been 23 years since I met Bram on that special day. Can you imagine 2 3 Y E A R S !!! Time flies... it really does. This year I celebrated on my own but accompanied by great guests in our 3 houses who had dinner here last night. Good fun, good talk! And good food and drink too.. And much too late! Bram's leaving Epupa this morning if they're still on track. I have a 
few days to catch up on, let's start byt telling you I was wrong about the place they were going to, it was not to Etjo but to Etosha they were leaving from Otjiwarongo. Etosha is a huge nature reserve (+22,000 km2) 400 km north of Windhoek. Only a third of it is open for the public, all around the dry salt lake Etosha Pan, that fills up with water in the rainy season. Due to the water, it accomodates an enourmous variety of wild life, among them thousands of birds, especially the pink flamingos, but also more than 100 different species of mammipheres and another 100 species of reptiles.
The gamedrive scheduled in Etosha was spectacular, so beautiful, so much wild life. Unfortunately no elephant and lion to be seen this day among the big 5... Hopefully they'll run into them (not with their bikes though!) another day! From Etosha they drove on to Epupa at the Kunene river, land of the ethnic and nomadic group "Himbas". It's one of the few still living tribes who's maintained their traditional way of living, due to the desert and harsh land surrounding them, which has protected them from the outside world 
until the 20th century. The himba females are famous for their "reddish skin" which is created by a mix of red clay, to protect them from the sun and insectes. They also braid their hair in beautiful creations adding in the red clay. Such an intriguing population, of course in danger from the growing tourism and the modern lifestyle on their doorstep. Read more about them on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himba Bram said it was so humbling to meet them, they're so kind, great hospitality. Fantastic.
In Epupa, the next visit on the agenda went to the Epupa falls which lie on the Kunene river, on the border of Angola and Namibia. The river is 0.5 km wide and drops in a series of wateralls spread over 1.5 km, with the greatest single drop being 37 m. Stunning!! And as an extra bonus.... finally the elephants! Awesome. I can just only imagine what they're 
experinceing by trying to convey the short messages I get on my phone once (sometimes twice) a day on my mobile phone. Luckily you have internet... so that I can do my own research and add more meet to the story. I really enjoy doing it, you learn so much!!
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