Cornie island

Posted on December 19, 2022December 19, 2022 by admin

An Almost tropical island

Camp Cornie, is the closed thing to a tropical island that I have ever been to. Palm trees swishing overhead, white sand underfoot and water rushing past. The only thing missing is the actual ‘island’, but I’ll take it. Cornie was our home base for the rest of our hike. It was so nice to come back ‘home’ after a hike, to not get up early to pack or to wait for our things to arrive.

Camp Cornie palms over white sand — If it looks like an island and sounds like an island……..

Camp Cornie a dassie in a palm tree — I can almost hear the ‘island music’

Afternoons were the best time to enjoy the environment. No need to be in the sun wondering if the next corner will be the last one and forgetting to enjoy the ‘now’. After morning hikes, we had lunch and then everybody disappeared to do their own thing. I found myself in the shade of the palm trees marvelling at how easily I could imagine myself being on an island getaway. My stretcher was set up under the palms and my siesta consisted of me listening to the swishing of palm fronds and the river babbling past and nothing else.

In the afternoons as the sun elongated the shadows, I moved more to the shore from where I could be hypnotized by the river and still search for the elusive crocs. More and more people found their way to the banks of the Kunene and we started up our afternoon debriefing so to speak.

Nighttimes we had dinner and conversation under the branches of a huge wild fig tree. The tree is named the ‘Tree of wisdom’. Probably named so for its age and the events that it survived, one being the Angola border war which is evidenced by a remainder of some shrapnel in one of its limbs.

Camp Cornie — The giant Fig of Wisdom on the banks of the Kunene

Camp Cornie Tree of wisdom — ‘Like a tree planted by the water’

We all usually turned in early because we were tired from the day’s excursions and in anticipation of getting up bright and early for the next day’s adventures.

So now you know of this awesome base camp, but not how we got there. Mostly by foot and bus, but let’s rewind a bit….

Kunene River Lodge to Camp Cornie

After a luxurious grass ‘mattress’ and breakfast without ‘headlights’ we were off…..or so we thought. Our water support truck was not going anywhere. Even after the help of some MacGyver-type tourists, it was still refusing to budge. Because the sun was already high we were taken by bus to a dry riverbed to start our day. If I remember correctly this was the day that we visited a graveyard and saw some a cool picture-worthy dwellings. We were also taught about the perfume from the Commiphora trees? (I am not good with plants) and how a factory was built in Opuwu to formally use the leaves and sap as a means to bolster the local economy.

Trying to fix the bakkie — It is eating him!!!

We made a pre-afternoon stop, and because our water was still stranded at the Kunene River Lodge, this would be our final stop for the day. Lunch was glorious and lazy under the trees while we waited for our bus to pick us up. We thought that by driving, we would reach Camp Cornie tjop-tjop.

Lunch en route to Camp Cornie — Lunch in a tree

A treacherous road.

Driving these roads in a bus is like sitting on a roller coaster. Up and down and up again. Always hopping up and down in your seat as we flew over the rocky road (and no, not the marshmallow kind). Every ‘up’ had the bus roar like a beast to try and get to the top. And then it was down again. Each ‘down’ ended in an almost stop, to get through the dip or through the dry riverbed (who knew, that in such a dry area, there can be a million river crossings in a road- I should have known). One of those dips proved to be too much to handle. It broke off the back bumper and lights all in one great bang.

After an hour, we thought that we should almost be there, after 2, still nothing. Then I lost track of time. It took almost forever to get to Camp Cornie. I can only imagine how long it would have taken if we had to walk there. That was probably the one good thing that came from the water bakkie refusing to budge.

en route to camp cornie — Car trouble of the ‘we lost a bumper’ kind

Settling into Camp Cornie

So that is how we got this pseudo island. We also ‘collided’ with the biking group. I would not want to bike in that heat on those incredible hills. The downs will be fast albeit bumpy, o my word, but those ups would have killed me softly and not to mention the ‘bike but’ after all those rocky roads.

After admiring our base for the next few days, we finally had our bonfire. We sat around the fire roasting marshmallows (so we did have some, just not on the ‘rocky road 😊). The bikers and hikers had to eat in shifts. While the bikers were feasting, we were bonfiring and roasting marshmallows and enjoying camp life. When the bikers were fed, it was our turn to eat under the stars and the giant fig tree. All turned in early.

The swishing leaves and the water rushing by woke me every night, and through my sleepy haze, I always thought that it was raining and tried to get out to close the tent’s windows. I only realised what the noise was once I was actually awake. Then I lay there laughing at myself and waited to fall asleep before ‘early bird gets the worm time’.