Dancing Bushmen!

Toilet at sunset, bushman village
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We continued out of Etosha National Park, heading South East towards the town of Tsumeb, where we stocked up on supplies and bought all the water they had in the local Spar as well as essentials like cider and chocolate! Once we had done our shopping we hit the road again towards the town of Grootfontein to see a big lump from outer space!

The Hoba meteorite, near Grootfontein, is the largest meteorite ever found, landing some 80,000 years ago it weighs about 50 tons. It's pretty big. It's still there to see in the huge crater where it landed. However the crater has since been developed for tourism and some steps have been put in so you can go down safely to see the huge hunk of metal. This makes the crater look a bit less impressive than I'm sure it did before as it's been filled in somewhat. Still, there's no denying it's an interesting thing to see.

Sunset, bushmanland
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Our next stop was to visit some caves which had collapsed forming a huge lake. Can't for the life of me remember what they were called, it wasn't especially interesting.

Then we continued South West towards the Kalahari desert to stay alongside a Bushman village. We got to the village in the late afternoon and started to set up our tents shortly after. The traditional tent erecting argument between myself and Cathal ensued but we managed to put the tent up without bloodshed. As soon as we were done, the group was ready to go on a bushwalk with one of the bushmen, called Johannes. Christian, another villager, who spoke some English was coming too to translate what Johannes was saying.

Traditional bushman dance
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We followed them through the village, out into the bush and he explained a bit about the way of life as we went. They speak and amazing language, full of clicks and sibilant sounds. We tried to use their words for the plants, but it all got a bit silly, we simply could not get our tongues round the sounds.

Every so often Johannes would stop and tell us a particular story about a plants, detailing medicinal uses. Some of the plants were used to make poison for the arrows the bushmen would use to hunt Springbok, monkeys and birds. He also found some tuber-like roots which were edible and gave us some to taste, and we tried some berries too.

A tuber like root, one of the foodstuffs to be found in the bush
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As we walked, we asked Johannes what life was like now for the bushmen. Apparently they are not allowed hunt any more, so it's hard to see how their traditional way of life can continue, or how they can still be self-sufficient. It's clear that the knowledge about the hunter-gatherer way of life is slowly being lost as they have to leave the villages to go to school and go to towns to get work. As we walked through the village, it was apparent that they are very poor. They have basic shelters constructed out of wood, plastic sheeting and cloths. There's a tap stand and a few domestic animals, like chickens.

Bushman dancing
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Obviously tourism provides some income but with about two guided walks a week, it's not a huge amount. The villagers also sell handicrafts and have provided a campsite with running water, so that provides some income too. I guess it's good to learn a bit about their way of life, but I can't help thinking that tourism whilst, benefitting them will, inevitably, make many bushmen yearn for a different  life. It's sad that such an old culture is dying out.

I was fairly thoughtful on our return back to camp.