Dec 29, 2016

The Huab River - A River of Life

To get the best light for landscape photography one needs to rise early and get going, which is what the guardians of Damaraland Camp know and manage to get their visitors to do morning after morning. It must be said though that the aroma of freshly pressed coffee wafting across one’s nostrils on approaching the main area certainly helps, and on that particular morning (back in November 2015) when first light struck the rock strewn mountain surface in the distance - in combination with a sip of my deliciously roasted Americano - any thought of what the time actually was quickly escaped my mind.

Besides being a good time to drink coffee - together with the delicious aniseed flavoured oat crunchies to be found at Damaraland Camp - early mornings are also the best time to get out to explore and track wildlife in the area and so without further ado Chris and I set off to do exactly this.

Chris explained that our best chance of seeing the desert adapted elephant in the area, which is one of the main drawcards to Damaraland Camp, is along the dry Huab River bed and we dropped down out of the surrounding hills into what turned out to be a veritable “ribbon of life”.

Huab is a Damara word which means “Narrow river flowing between high mountains” and the Aba Huab, a smaller tributary feeding into the Huab, translates from Damara as “When a mother carries her child on her back”. Short words with long meanings appear to be the order of things out here, for example in Himba, another of the local dialects, the area is called Etendeka, which means “The place with the flat-topped mountains”.

Even though the Huab is a dry river bed for most of the year it supports an incredible array of vegetation and life here is surprisingly bountiful. There’s more for the elephant and kudu to brows on that one would imagine. Shepherd, Ana, Mopane, Camel thorn and Beaded Maerua trees interspersed with groves of Mustard tree line the river bed and the elephant move quietly along picking as they go. We were very fortunate that morning to find a magnificent lone bull and later on what is known as the Oscar herd, consisting of thirteen members including little Christmas who was born on the 25th December 2014.

Chris had heard from one of the other guides the previous day that there were lion back in the area so all the while was keeping one eye on the ground. We picked up their tracks going across a section of the river bed and 45 minutes later after some determined and truly admirable tracking found them resting under a Mopane tree having recently caught and consumed an Oryx. I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would get to see both desert adapted elephant and lion in one morning, so this was simply mind-blowing.

The Huab valley continued to provide surprises that morning in the form of Steenbok, lots of Springbok and the ever stunning Oryx. In between all the larger animals Chris introduced me to the most amazing array of bird life … who would have guessed the dry Huab river valley offers keen birders a lot to look out for? Rupel’s korhaan, Swallow-tailed Bee-eaters, White-throated Canary, Benguela long-billed Lark, Pale-winged Starlings, Groundscraper Thrush and a flock of Rosy-faced Lovebirds kept Chris and I entertained as we wound our way back to camp through sand; the sand that forms the base of the Huab river

… "a ribbon of incredible life”.