Day 9: July 2, Namibia

3:00pm:
We arrived in Namibia today, at our lodge near Mudumu National Park
We had to take a few tiny planes, and here I'm taking a photo from the last row towards the front of the plane:
It was a nice smooth ride, and we saw some game while we were leaving, but I didn't get any good photos (and mostly they were elephant butts running away from the sound of the planes.)
The transfer to the lodge was by boat, and we enjoyed a very serene ride on the Kwando River into Namibia. The papyrus and reeds on the river edge is beautiful.Priscilla told us that we wouldn't be seeing as many animals as we saw in Chobe, but that Namibia was more of a cultural experience. We did, however, get a quick glimpse of a hippo peeking out at us through the reeds at one point:

Later, we spied an adorable hippo "family" on the shoreline - the baby was so adorable! They didn't stick around very long after we spotted them, but it was just enough time to snap a photo. As we were pulling up to the dock, I looked down into the crystal clear waters of the river, and a hippo walked right under the boat! It scared the crap out of me, I'll be honest, and it was too quick for a photo... but it was a magical experience to see how gracefully these huge creatures move underwater.

Our lodge - the Lianshulu Lodge - is fairly simple, and doesn't have much light... but since we don't spend a lot of time in the lodges, it doesn't matter. More later...8:30pm:

Yay Hippos!!!! We found a pod of at least 9 hippos as we cruised the river this evening... one even yawned for us! Cool!!!

We also found the mosquitoes. I've been wondering every day why I've been taking malaria pills, since I had yet to see a bug of any sort (except flies and bees.) But now that I have two whopper mosquito bites on my knuckes (the only skin exposed except for my eyelids), I understand. Since we're situated on the banks of the Kwando River, I think all of Africa's bugs have migrated here for the winter. Bugs were literally smacking us in the face as we motored back to the lodge after sunset:Dinner tonight was ostrich again. It was OK. No, I take that back... I think I can unequivocally say that I don't care for ostrich that much. It tastes like a bad cut of beef. But still, it's part of the culture, so I can't complain... especially since so many people in this part of the world are starving.

Tomorrow, we go to the village and visit a school... I am very much looking forward to experiencing and seeing some of the local culture...