Etendeka

If I ever returned to Namibia I would spend most if not all of my holiday at a small camp way out in the bush called Etendeka. There are several reasons for this, the main one being that Dennis, the man with the binoculars who had the concession, took his customers out on a three-hour walk every morning, usually setting off from the camp itself as there was no need to drive to find game - they were all around us. On the occasion shown in this picture we were no distance from the camp when he pointed to some faint tracks. Tracking that leopard for the next half hour or so was wonderful, partly because I was very frightened but mostly because having that fear, and controlling it, made me feel supremely alive.

Although Dennis took us miles into the bush he never carried a gun. It was utterly against his conservation principles to shoot an animal, any more than he allowed me to pick up a mineral, of which there was no shortage; if I did I had to put it back exactly where I had found it.

Even though Dennis was responsible for upward of six people on a typical walk, I never felt that he was worried except on this occasion, when we were watching....

....a small herd of elephants which was passing through the concession. I don't know why elephant bothered him so much but perhaps he had had a nasty experience with one. Certainly his wife had: one day while she was massaging a customer in one of the camp's tents an elephant stuck its head through the tent flap to see what was going on.

Dennis didn't seem too bothered by rhino - one morning we tracked a pair for some distance - but I never discovered what he felt about buffalo as this was the one species of large animal which was missing from the area. To many of the old 'white hunters', it was the most dangerous of the big game.

I also loved Etendeka for its simplicity, for its remoteness, for the stunning scenery that surrounded it, and for its peace.  I would love to return though I fear time has run out on me.

The camp is still in business, though perhaps a little more sophisticated than when we were there in 2009. Its website is here.