Wednesday February 8 - Hoba Meteorite and San People
After our second night in Etosha we did one more game drive. Today the roads were much better and we were able to access one of the man-made waterholes to see a spectacle I will never forget.
Once out of the Park we headed to Grootfontein to replenish our food supply and check out the main attraction. There is a meteorite called the Hoba Meteorite. Believe it! It's the world's largest meteorite and weighs 60 tons. This chunk of iron is believed to have fallen about 80,000 years ago.
Next we drove on to Roy's Camp to set up our tents and fill waterbottles before heading out to Bushmanland, where we had a guided bush walk within the village of the San People. Alias, a member of the village, translated what the medicine man explained about their way of life. The hike began with the traditional fire starting welcome and off we went. As we walked, we stopped at specific plants where the medicine man explained how some plants and roots are used for medications and food and weapons. In closing, the females in the village performed a dance in celebration of a healthy fruit harvest. They called it “Monkey Dance”. Next, all the villagers gathered around the fire to perform a song and tribal dance meant to call on the ancestors to ask advice about which medicines to use for someone ill or in pain, especially during childbirth. The San People are the oldest ethnic group in Namibia. They have inhabited Southern Africa for about 20,000 years. About 2,000 of them continue to follow the traditional way of life. I videotaped pretty much the entire walk so for those we know who would like to see some very primitive pictures about way of life in this region of Africa, we have some educational entertainment reserved for you. I walked away from the experience amazed by the survival instincts and beliefs that fuse together to make existence possible within the sandy bushland. WOW!!!!
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