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Published: June 18th 2008
Greetings everyone from Africa. We are sorry it has taken us so long to get in touch. We have not had the opportunity to get online or even find an internet cafe until now.
Where do we begin? The tour is very well organized and planned. We have three guides, one in training, and 11 total tourists. It is a good group of people: 2 Dutch girls, a British couple, a father and son from the states, 2 other American girls and us.
Little did we know that when we said we will be Charlie's Angels, that our main guide is named "Charles". Perfect, in fact yesterday morning when we woke up and got out of our tents, he greeted us with, "Morning Angels!"
So far we have covered about 1000 km, someone is the states should be able to do the conversion into miles. We didn't know there was going to be math involved. We started in Cape Town, SA, and followed the coast up to the artic of Africa, otherwise known as Lambert's Bay. Now we knew it was winter here, but we were not ready for that. It was cold!!!! We have also met the most racist individual in all of Lambert's Bay while warming up at the local bar. Probably the most awkard conversation ever engaged in. Ending aparthied has not gone over well here.
After a freezing morning and breakfast of toast and cereal we boarded the bus and soon found out there was no heater. It was a cold ride north to Green River. We camped at an awesome place right on the river and took showers in bamboo stalls under the stars. Every camp we have been to, lucky for us, has had a bar. This one was great, Leon was our bartender and canoeing guide.
We canoed the Orange River the next day, and since there are three of us, someone was able to ride with the cute, blond South AFrican guide. We decided on paper-scissors-rock. Well, Lynn, an evil mastermind, cheated! Kirsten and Chester threw down rock, and then about 10 seconds later Lynn threw paper and declared "I won!" Neeldless to say, Kirsten and Chester went around in circles on the canoe, and Lynn had a nice leisurely ride for 8 km. Paybacks are hell though, we will get her!!!
After canoeing we crossed over into Namibia. We have had some really long bus rides of up to 575 km. We saw our first animals on the way. We saw zebras, giraffes, springbok, oryx and urban cougars.
We stayed the next night at the Fish River Canyon that has the not so Grand Canyon. It was beautiful and big, but not "Grand". We still have the largest canyon in the world. GO USA!
We ate springbok that night at the lodge, and they are delicious. The shower facilities at these campsites have better tile that I have in my new bathroom. We have been pleasantly surprised and the accomodations of the camp sites and are becoming quite adept at putting up and taking down our tents.
We left the not so grand canyon early and headed to Sussreum where the largest and oldest sand dunes are. We traveled a long way to get there and had an early night because our guides got us up at 3 am so we could drive to the dunes to see the sunrise. That is really romantic for three women traveling together. After we huffed and puffed our way to the top of a 200 meter high dune, we really did get some great shots of the sunrise. It was worth it!!!
After the sunrise, we went on a walking tour of other dunes with a Buesman who is a very fast walker and fan of picking up animal feces and showing them to us. Needless to say, we did not shake his hand after the tour. The tour was nice though and we were in some place that even where J Lo herself filmed part of the movie "The Cell". We were like, there is no way J Lo hiked in to this place for the scene. Then we were informed that they helicoptered her in and she did the scene and left. Diva!!!
So now the booze kicked in this night. Our camp spot was awesome. We drank beer and wine on the deck overlooking the sunset. The wine went down really easily this night, for everyone in the group, not just us. The owners shut down the generator of the place every night at 9 pm, so we had to get our drink on. Well turns out, if Kirsten keeps buying the drinks, the generator stays on until we pass out or they kick us out. Casualities of that night: Lynn's t-shirt, flip flops and pride; Kirsten's sweat pants; Chester's sleep for the night. While Lynn and Kirsten tied one on, I stayed fairly sober, well, sober enough to have to take care of these two during the night. Both fell down a few times on the way to the tent, both tried to go to the bathroom during the night and couldn't get out of the tent, and Kirsten tried to spoon me as well.
The next morning everyone was a little bit slower than usual, no I mean, all 11 of us were dragging to get the tents down and get ready to go. Lynn gave me a tiara for the day, since it was my birthday, and everyone wished me a happy bday. It helps to remind everyone a few times that a birthday is coming up!!! We traveled 300 km to Swakamund. We are actually staying in a lodge, and don't have to put up or take down the tents for 2 whole days!!!! Best birthday present ever!!!!! The entire group and the guides had dinner together and they even got me a cake and bottle of champagne. Pathetically though, we were all in bed by 9:30. We want to get as much bed time as possible before we had to go back to the mats/tents.
Today we went Sandboarding, all of us and it was awesome. Just like snowboarding, only there are no lifts, so we had to drag our butts up a 100 meter dune to do it again. I clocked the second fastest speed on the lay-down particle board we used to slide down the back of the dune. I hit 76 mph. Kirsten was probably going that fast when her pariticle board started to turn and then she completely bit it. Lynn had a perfect run and stayed on her board all the way down. However she suffered the most sand in mouth, bra and underwear. It was not a pretty sight back in our room later.
Kirsten is skydiving right now, so hopefully she will be with us soon. The internet cafe is closing in 5 minutes so we have to go. Until next time.
love,
Charles' Angels
Kirsten, Lynn and Chester
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Monica Z
non-member comment
Happy B-day
Chester, I am happy to hear that you are still able to get your drink on as you near your 40's. I was a little concerned that your photo on your blog had no reference to alcohol, even though Kirsten and Lynn did. Have fun!