Rehoboth

Yesterday we drove about 100 km south of Windhoek to the village of Rehoboth. This is not a normal tourist stop so there are no pictures of tourist things. It was an interesting drive.

First, as we had just climbed the hills south of Windhoek and were cruising down the highway (the major highway in Namibia--a two lane sealed road), we passed a highway sign that baboons were climbing on. There was a troop along side the road. We are obviously getting used to Africa, because we simply said "Oh look at the baboons on the highway sign." It didn't even seem that out of the norm.

The scenery was wonderful. It reminded us of spring in Nevada or southern Utah. Simply beautiful rock formations with distant mountain views.

The solitary tree standing about the rest is a Shepard's tree. They are all over the landscape.

I am really starting to appreciate the beauty of this country.

Just for a bit of information on Rehoboth:  Rehoboth is just barely north of the Tropic of Capricorn. This area was settled in 1871 by the Basters, a mixed race of the Dutch and Nama people. They left the Cape town area under pressure from the Boer settlers. There are about 35,000 Basters in the area. They mainly work livestock. The town itself was nothing unusual. It did, however, really emphasis the inequality and poverty of almost half of the population of Namibia. We took a few pictures of some of the houses. 

There were several homes without plumbing as witnessed by the outhouses. 

This home actually had electricity and windows. 

I do not want to give the impression that this is how everyone in Africa lives. There were also nice homes made of cinder block with plaster-like covering. While not fancy, they are standard middle class homes with modern features. Here you are either in the upper 50% that makes a decent living wage that allows you to support your family, or you are in the 50% that live in extreme poverty. 

We also drove up to a Lake Oanab Resort. This is one of the few places in the interior of the country that has water sports. It is on a lake formed by the Oanob damn. While not as nice as the resort we camped at last weekend, the lake is really nice and they have a couple of speed boats for tubing, paddle boats, and canoeing. We figured the grandkids would love it here. 

They also had a small collection of parrots and birds. 

Along the road, both last weekend and yesterday, we keep seeing these big "bugs?" scurrying across the road. They are about 3" long. We snapped a picture this week.

Bruce did some research and found out they are long legged Armoured Katydids. I was relieved when they had six legs. I thought they might by some kind of spider. There is always something new to see!