Rather a Pretty View, Really

When I went to Training Manager Benna to make sure it would be okay if a group of us trainees walked one of the hill trails outside Okahandja one Sunday morning, he said something like, "I was wondering when you would ask.  Usually trainees are up there the first weekend."

The road to the trail

Well, we talked about it a lot... but someone said they'd been warned of bad men.  Someone else said they'd been warned of snakes.  No one knew where the trails began or where they went.  Host families seemed to think leaving the streets of Okahandja was a bad idea.  However, I see mountains, I want to climb them, and the bad men don't seem like they'd be much of a match for a dozen or two robust, young-and-strong or middle-aged-and-cranky Americans, and there are snakes everywhere.  So I finally realized that one of the volunteers from earlier classes would be able to assist with locating the trail, and she was glad to do so.  We invited everyone to gather at the training center at 9am, and put up a big sign reminding them (a few of our trainees are city types) to wear good shoes and sunscreen and bring water and a snack.

Steep enough to be interesting, without, mostly, having to scrabble

It's a lovely walk, about 45 minutes to the top of what some previous trainee class decided to call Pride Rock.  There are a couple of nice scrambly bits, though nothing terribly challenging, and great views all the way.  On our first trek we saw numerous baboons.  We never, thank you Tara, saw a snake.

A rocky promontory about halfway up; great lookout and re-group point.

The top was mostly bare rock, with a small tree or two and a few bushes.  The wind was brisk up there.  We broke into clumps and chatted and snacked and basked.  In Namibia, it's always basking weather (pretty much), but I haven't gotten sick of it yet.  At some point I asked whether people would like to try for a few minutes of silence, and everyone stopped talking.  Immediately, the wind seemed to pick up, and it brought the chortling of the baboons with it.  Mystical.

View from the top.  The dry rivers still astonish me.

The next week we went again, and again the wind freshened as soon as we stopped chattering.  That week we didn't have baboons, though.

They are smaller than you, but much stronger, faster, more nimble, and their teeth are huge and pointy.

Here's a link to all the photos, to try to give you an idea of how beautiful it is.