Trekking Africa - Cape Town to Namibia

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Hi Everyone,

Hope you have all been well since our last blog.

We are now in the small, very German town of Swakopmund in Central Namibia on day six of our 41 day journey across Africa. After leaving Uganda we flew into Cape Town, South Africa (via Nairobi and Johannesburg) to spend a few days relaxing and seeing the sights before joining our group for the overland trek that will take us from Cape Town to Nairobi, Kenya.

Cape Town is a very pretty and modern city very similar in many ways to Sydney, but also quite different. Despite the fact that apartheid has been gone for several years, the segregation between the races and those with and without money is obvious if you look any deeper than the thin veneer that cloaks the city.

From Cape Town we visited the Cape of Good Hope and the penguin colony in the region which was great. On our last day before the trip started, we took advantage of a lull in the wind and managed to get onto the cable car to the summit of Table Mountain. The "Table" is an impressive sight and has a huge impact on the city - you can see it from anywhere.

The views from Table Mountain are also spectacular, but the cloud that rolls in (known as the Table Cloth) changes the landscape (and the temperature) extremely quickly.

After meeting up with our Acacia overland group, we set off the next day in the purpose built truck (called Pangani) that would be our home / prison for the next 41 days. The group is a real mixture of people - out of the 22 in the group there are only five guys (including me), one American, four Canadians, a couple of Brits and about 12 Australians!!

The first camping stop was a bit of a disaster - it stormed and rained all night from the time we arrived to the time we left the next morning - not a great start to our 6 weeks of camping. Everything was wet and had to be dried out at the next campsite (which thankfully was close to the desert and very dry).

Traveling on, we crossed the border of South Africa and stopped at Fish River Canyon for sunset - home to the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. The next major attraction we visited was the Namib-Naukluft Park, home to the famous Sossusvlei dunes. These were absolutely amazing - we hiked up Dune 45 to see sunrise (after a 4am start), but it was well worth it.

Anyway, next stop is Etosha - finally we get to see some animals.

Take care everyone and Merry Christmas!!

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Photos

Table Mountain, Cape Town
View of Table Mountain from other side of Bay

Cape of Good Hope
The southernmost point in Africa

The Tablecloth
Table Mountain is often swathed in thick, fast moving cloud - this has led the locals to name this cloud "The Tablecloth".

View of Robben Island from Table Mountain
Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years during the apartheid era. Unfortunately, we couldn't get out there as passes were booked a month in advance.

Quiver Tree
This tree was used by the San people (Bushman) as quivers for the poison arrows used to kill their food and enemies.

Dan & Janice at Canyon
Fish River Canyon is the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. Near the Orange River just across the border from South Africa, the canyon is 160km long and 27km wide and has a depth of up to 550 metres. At sunset, it was a very impressive place.

Dunes of Sossusvlei
Place that people don't return from

At Dead Vlei
The trees in this area have been dead for between 600 - 900 years, but due to the extreme lack of moisture are well preserved

Comments

[Cindy]

nice
Beautiful pictures as always! you both have lost some weight too.

[Silvanus]

This Pic is Good
Nice and Strange