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Published: August 6th 2007
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I write to you now from Africa! I'm a week into my little adventure and I must say it's been a busy start!
Matt and I arrived in Cape Town (South Africa) on Wednesday morning and were met with a chilly air and brilliant sunshine. Our transfer from the airport took us to where we were staying for the next couple of nights: The Backpacker. The place was simple but nice, and there we met two other travellers, one of whom was going on the same Acacia tour as us. On the advice of the owner of The Backpacker, we shared a taxi to Table Mountain that day, while the sun was out - despite Matt having had barely three hours sleep on the plane! We agreed to meet Jane and Kim later that day as we wanted to climb Table Mountain by foot rather than get the lift. The walk was enjoyable but tiring and the view was well worth it. That night we went out with Kim and Jane and had an excellent meal in an African game restaurant where I ate Kudu steak (like antelope) which was really excellent.
The next morning we took a ferry
to Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. I must say it was somewhat disappointing, as we didn't see his cell because it was closed for renovation. We spent some time wandering around Cape Town and visited some really nice areas - the city itself is really beautiful, overlooking the large bay. We also visited a curio market (souvenir stalls) which had some really amazing things, but I was forced to save myself from buying things as I'd only have to carry them across Africa with me. That night we met the Acacia group we'd be travelling with. Many of them were British and the majority were aged early twenties to early thirties. We went out for the nightlife in Cape Town that night with some of the Acacia travellers and had a good time.
Friday morning the Acacia part of our journey began proper and our group went on a township tour. We visited some of the poorer areas of Cape Town and it was interesting to see the contrast, which can of course be seen in many less developed countries' cities. The people we met were very friendly and I drank a potato beer from
a used tin of paint. I'm going to stick with bottles in future. We got in our tour bus and set out on the road in the afternoon for our journey up to Namibia. Our first campsite stop was The Highlanders campsite which, by the time we arrived, was very dark and the campsite owner sympathised with our plight and we spent our first night not under the stars, but under his large shed which was big enough for our 13 tents!
The next day was a 6.15 start in the cold. Our day comprised driving about 500km through changing scenery as we drove away from the South African Coast. The scenery was stunning - large barren piles of rocks as high as hills littered the arid land. The campsite we arrived at was gorgeous - situated at the side of the Gariep (Orange) River, the toilets/showers and bar were made from bamboo, both overlooking the river, which we could watch at sundown.
The next morning I was sadly ill, and unable to go canoeing on the river, which was a shame. I must apologise to Matt, who woke to the sound of me vomiting into a bag
at 3am! I spent the morning recovering and by the time we were on the road again, I had begun to feel a little better. Sadly, we were a little late to see the sunset at Fish River Canyon, our next destination, so we agreed to wake up at stupid o'clock the next day to see the sun rise there.
Fish River Canyon is the second largest canyon in the world and was really beautiful at sunrise, even if everyone was tired and grumpy! We spent our longest day of driving today covering 600km. The campsite we stayed at had jackals patrolling its borders at night which was a little worrying when we saw their silhouettes darting about the tents! We sat around the campfire a little longer that night...
Another early morning to see the sunrise - this time at Dune 45. After a quick scramble to the top we could see the sun rising in the distance, which was, by this point, getting a little old in truth! We hadn't had a good nights sleep since we began, but our next stop was to make up for that. We drove near to the desert and were
met by a desert guide called Boesman (bushman). Boesman had been fascinated in a people called bushmen who were forced out of South Africa into the desert by the Blacks from the North and Whites from Europe who were arriving in South Africa around the time the Dutch were using it as a stopping point to India. We were told all about them and how to survive in the desert, which was all fascinating. After crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, we journeyed on to Swakopmund where we were due to spend a couple of nights. We booked our activities for the next day: Sandboarding and Quad biking as well as a Township tour the day after.
The sandboarding in the morning was amazing. The weather was perfect, and from the top of the dune we could see for miles around. I had been sandboarding before but could remember little of the technique so was equivalent to learning from scratch. After a couple of runs, I had the hang of going straight down and controlling my speed, but I failed to nail actually turning that day. We also went down on 2'x6' pieces of waxed MDF which was great fun
Table Mountain
a pose was required for speeding down - I reached 70kmph! Before we left the sandboarding I decided to use one the ramps on the slope. I managed to jump off and land, before speeding down the hill at a somewhat uncontrollable speed for a good 30m until I finally snagged the board on something and fell head over heels over head over heels over head over heels. All caught on camera it was truly spectacular! The quad biking in the evening was also brilliant fun - the bikes were very easy to use and the ride which went all over the dunes outside of Cape Town had some spectacular views out over the ocean. We went out for dinner that night to celebrate one of the travellers' birthdays. I had crocodile for starter and ostrich kebab for main, both of which were delicious though the crocodile was a little fatty.
This morning I have come to an internet cafe to write this and this afternoon I shall be going on a township tour, which promises to be interesting. I hope to update this again within the week. Until then!
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