Waterberg National Park

At Last! A Park We Can Hike In

August, 2014

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In many of the national parks across Africa, you are required to stay in your vehicle. Dona and I like to walk. We want to be outside where we can examine the plants and small animals, look at the ground, touch the place. Waterberg Plateau National Park is one of the few parks where you are officially allowed to walk; where it is actually encouraged. So on our way up to Mahango in the Caprivi Strip, it was high on our list of places to stop.

Waterberg is a couple hundred kilometers north of Windhoek on the B1, the major north-south road. The road is in many ways rather boring, passing what seems like endless expanses of flat bushland with tangles of shrubs with grass stretching on forever. One encounters baboons all along the highway; they are constantly foraging in the cutover areas.

Waterberg Baboons On Road
Baboons On Road
Waterberg Baboon Footprints
Baboon Footprints

Our Bradt's Guide to Namibia said there was a big craft market in Okahandha; it was on our way so we stopped. It was a somewhat uncomfortable experience, as everyone selling could desperately use whatever business we might have; you felt like you wanted to buy something from each of them, but we couldn't. Many of the things were pretty much the same, so we tried to find things which were unusual. We ended up buying some tongs and a serving dish from "Billy", and a woven platter/basket from one of the women.

Waterberg Okahandja Dona Billy Waterberg Okahandja Dona Xxx
Okahandja Craft Market
Dona and Billy
with his tongs and serving dish
Dona and Shop Owner
with a basket

From Okahandja we continued north to Waterberg Park. We found a campsite, pitched the tent, and immediately set off for an afternoon / evening hike.

Waterberg Bird Burchells Starling
Burchell's Starling

Waterberg Waterberg
The Waterberg Plateau

Waterberg Dona
Dona heading up the trail

Along the way we encountered baboons, hyrax, and an occasional bird which we usually couldn't get a good look at. The park is supposed to have roan and sable antelope and rhinos, but on this well-travelled footpath we didn't expect to see any of those. Unfortunately, we were right!

Waterberg Baboon Waterberg Baboons Waterberg Baboon
Baboons

Waterberg
Chockstone

Waterberg Hyrax Waterberg Hyrax Waterberg Hyrax
Hyrax

Waterberg Lichen Tree Waterberg
Lichen covered Cliffs

Waterberg Summit Notch
Summit Notch

The topography of Namibia in the area of Waterberg is reminiscent of Utah -- flat as a pancake, and then the mesas stick up. When you look down on the surrounding flatlands, you see nothing but scrub bush intersected by absolutely straight roads at 1km intervals. The German / Afrikaan influence is obvious; it's boring in a very precise way...

Waterberg Waterberg Plains
View from the Summit
Waterberg Plains
Waterberg Dona Waterberg Gary Dona
Dona on Top Gary and Dona on Top

As usual, we were always on the lookout for fog basking Tenebrionid Beetles. We found some beetles, but weren't really certain whether these were fog-baskers or not. Since we were in an inland area where there is not a high prevelance of fog, it seems less likely.

Waterberg Beetle
Beetle

We kept hearing ground dwelling birds running around and on the way down we finally caught up with some; they were Red-billed Spurfowl.

Red Billed Spurfowl Red Billed Spurfowl
Red Billed Spurfowl

Waterberg

Waterberg Tall Grass
Tall Grass

We didn't see any of the elusive ungulates or other large mammals besides baboons. But we did see some small dikdiks on our way back.

Waterberg Kirks Dikdik Waterberg Kirks Dikdik
Kirk's Dikdik

As usual when out exploring, we got back after dark. Dona cooked us up a good meal and we crawled into the tent delighted with our day and looking forward to more adventure in the morning.

Waterberg Done Cooking
Waterberg Dona Cooking

The next morning, we headed for the Caprivi Strip in the far northeast of Namibia, where we would explore Mahango National Park.