Namibia

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We've now arrived in Swakopmund, a reasonably largish town in Namibia after nearly a full week's camping. Camping has been okay (especially considering I've never camped in my life!!), but we're staying in a lodge this weekend which is pretty nice in comparison, ha.

I'm quite impressed with the trip so far. It's very organized, and our trip leader, Kat, has been doing this job for four years and has a lot of experience, so it makes it easy. We've got a really nice cook and driver, and the food has been amazing. I don'tknow what I expected, but the food is awesome - I have no idea how the cook makes food for twenty people over a fire like that. We've been eating a lot of local game - springbok, oryx, etc., but we also have things like roasted potatoes, roast chicken and pork, cauliflower with cheese, etc. etc. etc. Everyone on the trip has been complaining that they were planning to lose weight, and now it seems it really isn't going to happen!!

The actual camping has been fine, although it does get COLD at night (and apparently it's going to get worse when we get to Botswana in the next few days.) It's not been bush camping just yet, as all the campsites have showers and electricity, but on Monday we travel to Spitzkoppe where there is nothing, so we'll all be peeing in the bushes. The tents are good quality, and I think we're luckier than a lot of people, since we bought really good quality sleeping bags meant for the cold, and nice sleeping mats, whereas some people didn't really think it would be as cold at night as it is. But we're coping and having a good time too. And I've been feeling better for the past couple of days as well - think the antibiotics for malaria prophylaxis helped speed it along.

Our group is quite nice - most of the people are mid twentyish, although there is an older couple on board, plus Tony, who is 74 and hilarious. He's not doing any of the adventure sports on offer today though!

So far we've been spending a lot of time on the truck, driving through the Namibian desert (breakfast has been at 6am a few days, yuck!), but we've been seeing a lot along the way. We spent some time on the border between South Africa and Namibia looking at Orange River Canyon, the second largest in the world... and yeah, it's pretty big! We did a desert walk the other day, which was something I'd never have ordinarily signed up to do, but it was pretty good actually. We learned a lot and got to see some of the spiders nests and lizards that live in the desert, and heard about the San bush people that lived there until about a hundred years ago. Our guide was saying that his grandfather actually kept a bushman as a pet. Hmmm...

Swakopmund is southern Africa's "adrenaline sports" hot spot apparently, so at the moment some people are off sandboarding and others are preparing for a sky dive this afternoon. We're not diving but are going to watch everyone, which should be fun too! I'm doing a township tour tomorrow, which should be really interesting. Swakopmund is also very, very odd, as it was settled originally by German colonists, so it's like a little bit of Germany (all the white locals speak German)... but in Africa. Weird!

We've not seen any of the so-called Big Five yet, but we have seen a lot of animals, and a LOT of bugs. We've seen herds and herds of springbok and oryx, ostriches, lizards (which appeared in my shower the other day!), and we stayed at a campsite where we had to keep everything in the tents overnight since jackals run around the place stealing whatever we can find. We've also been faced with HUGE bugs - I've never seen bigger ones in my life! Fortunately I'm not really scared of them, but they are huge - some the other day had a legspan greater than the palm of my hand, and their bodies are enormous. They almost look like small lobsters or something!

So that's it for me, and we're all well and good. I don't know when the next time we'll have internet will be - possibly in a week's time in Botswana (when we also have laundry again!), but I'm not really sure. Failing that, we should be online sometime at Victoria Falls.

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