This shorter expedition focuses on community conservation in southern and central Kaokoveld. Expect to track black rhino and meet some of the local conservancy teams who are holding the front line against poaching. Desert elephant and desert lion are the other two iconic species that we will be specially seeking. The safari normally remains within Torra, Anabeb, Sesfontein and possibly Puros conservancies, wild camping where we find the wildlife.

Expect to spend some days driving through and camping out in the major wildlife areas of Torra, Anabeb, Sesfontein and Puros conservancies. The focus will be on finding elephant, lion and black rhino. The latter often requires tracking on foot with two of a conservancy’s rhino rangers – men who have been appointed by the local community to monitor and protect this highly endangered species from poachers. You will also visit at least one of the conservancy offices to hear from the staff why and how they are now conserving wildlife and the benefits and challenges it brings.

A night or two will be spent in the rustic Etaambura Lodge in Orupembe Conservancy, who own a 40% shareholding in it, with the other CSN owner conservancies holding another 30%. Orupembe receive N$160 for every guest/night spent at the lodge. Etaambura is in Himba country and while staying there the conservancy provides a host to join you at dinner to answer any questions you have about local culture and living as a semi-nomadic pastoralist.

He will also take you on a scenic walk to where cattle are being watered, and women gather to discuss domestic issues, or have their hair done the traditional way in a salon under a mopane tree. On the walk to the waterhole your Himba host will also explain the local uses of many plants growing along the way, some of them endemic to the region.

On request and if there is time to arrange it, on our way back from Etaambura we could spend a night as guests at a Himba village in the Sanitatas or Okondjombo conservancies - both also co-owners of CSN. See how cattle, goats and sheep are managed in the evening and early morning, and how the whole family, including small children, take part in the action. We will take a different scenic route back to Swakopmund (or Windhoek by arrangement), again camping out in memorable places.

We go into the heart of the Himba area, south of the Kunene River between the Ruacana and Epupa waterfalls. Here the rainfall is much higher and the older men and women have been able to retain most of their traditional dress, religion and pastoralist way of life. But like indigenous people all around the world they are today facing a seductive onslaught from our modern consumer society, which is spearheaded by a western education system that has little respect for alternative lifestyles. In the past two decades widespread overgrazing and degradation of the rangeland their livestock depend on, has also increased their vulnerability to the changes they see occurring around them.

We have longstanding links with traditional leaders there who have been standing up for their rights over the land and its resources. Through them you will be introduced to the authentic Himba world view, and visit villages where the inhabitants have made few compromises with the European way of life.

But this safari is not just about the past. We will also go to a local primary school where Himba children are learning to read and write, making them better equipped to meet the many challenges of the future.

Because overgrazing has had such a devastating impact on the Himba’s pastoralist economy, a visit to where traditional livestock herding practices are being re-introduced to address the widespread loss of perennial grasses can also be made. However, some of what we do will be opportunistic and based on what is happening.

As our main focus is interacting with Himba communities we will mostly be camping out close to them. Other places of interest are Epupa Falls, the Ehomba Mountain with its many strong springs, which was the home of a family of Zulu origins who migrated across the sub-continent with the “Thirstland Trekkers” in the 19th century. And not least, Opuwo, a dusty, unlovely town where old meets the modern, as traditionally dressed Himba, Zemba and Hakahona women mingle in its streets and supermarkets with Africa’s new urban generation wearing the latest western designer clothes.

Although most of the wildlife on the Kaokoveld highlands was killed in the 1970s, since the formation of communal conservancies many species that previously occurred here have been re-introduced. Elephants are also making a comeback, but are still seldom seen from the road.

Specialist Himba Safaris that are longer than eight nights have an option of descending the escarpment and spending the last days in the wildlife rich west of the region.

Although the Himba as a whole are a society in transition, the lives of the people we will be visiting are still largely governed by the ways of their forefathers, and in spite of the pressures the modern world is exerting on them, their ancestor’s spirits still play a major role in their lives. If this will be so when the present generation passes away is unpredictable, but the opportunity that Conservancy Safaris offers both to academics and interested laymen to learn about and have a dignified dialogue with one of the most colorful and traditional people on the continent is unequaled by any other tourism operator.

On request