Following my attendance last week at the African Hospitality Investment Forum in Windhoek, Namibia, I ventured north through the country to go to Etosha National Park.
For all the good fortune I have had in being able to travel, I had never seen Africa’s majestic creatures.
The resort that sits just north of the Anderson Gate entrance to the park is called Okaukuejo, and it has guestrooms, camping sites and thatched, conical chalets, some of which overlook a waterhole to which came a menagerie of incredible creatures — elephant, rhino, giraffe, oryx, impala, black-backed jackal, kori bustard and zebra, the latter being an animal I find spellbinding.
There was a lot of commotion going on.
I was reminded of the general election campaigns and political jostling going on in the United Kingdom while I was away and that culminated on the day I returned.
At one point 72 elephants in two herds came to the waterhole, at which point all the other animals, which are cognizant of the millennia-old pecking order, gave way and scuttled off.
Well, almost all, for floating down the middle of the waterhole, seemingly oblivious to almost a million pounds of elephant mass, were two little grebes, which weigh not 13,000 pounds each on average but six ounces each.
There would need to be 2.6 million little grebe there to equal the weight of the elephants.
I think there is a lesson there for politicians in how we can all get along.
The camping sites at Okaukuejo were of huge interest.
They were mostly occupied by South Africans on vacation, complete with huge SUVs on top of which they prop sleeping quarters and to the sides of which are coolers, coffee machines, barbecue equipment and everything else civilization holds dear.
But not Wi-Fi. That is very spotty, which is perfectly fine when there is instead so much rich nature on offer. Or at least it is until one was becoming relatively frantic at England trying to get a last-minute equalizer in the European Championships against Slovakia, which it did and then went on to win.
Deeper into the park I also saw lion and white rhino, and 115 species of identified birds … and counting as I go through my photographs.
I also witnessed several human things in the country that I think we could all learn from.
The main road north and south from the capital Windhoek is the B1, and I noticed along both sides hundreds if not thousands of beer and soda bottles all standing up straight and neatly placed.
Realization occurred to me that this was intended, and that hunch was confirmed when I saw people doing the physical and warm work of collecting these bottles in large sacks.
When factory workers ended their days and waiting for transportation home, they would enjoy a drink, and instead of throwing the bottle in the long grass (the animals I mentioned could not cross the road due to strong fencing), they know they can place them to be collected.
How smart is that? It really is. It is civilized.
The roads are great, too, and Namibians call traffic lights "robots," which I loved.
"Go straight, and when you reach the third robot, turn left," would be a typical answer to one asking directions.
The population of the country is approximately 2.6 million, so there are not as many cars as there probably are in, say, London, although there are great deal of SUVs and trucks trundling through.
I commented on the one time I felt a pothole, and it was a small one.
At the car-rental office, renters are obliged to watch a safety demonstration claimed to be unique for Namibia, in which, so they said, there are 50 times more accidents per capita than in Western countries.
This is because, so they also claimed, many drivers go too fast on the many gravel and sand roads that travel through the country’s incredible deserts and national parks and even in many cases directly off what main roads there are.
The message was duly taken to mind, but I could not see where danger would come from if you kept to a sensible speed, with a lower speed far more conducive to spotting wild animals.
Night driving is for the foolhardy anywhere other than in the cities.
I also stayed at a delightful guest lodge called Otjisazu, 40 miles or so from Windhoek but also in the middle of wildlife.
It had a pool, 11 rooms, winter and summer dining areas and guided walks and drives through its own area of savannah.
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