I left my heart in Swakopmund

We left Cape Town on time Wednesday morning, 5 days ago. Our first stop was in the Cederburg mountains north of the city. It was cold at night and dew formed, making it feel even colder. It's winter here, the sun sets early and we always eat around the camp fire in the dark. There are 21 of us in this truck, a truck built for overland travel. We sleep in tents, on a mat and in sleeping bags. It can be quite cold at night, but I've got a true Canadian sleeping bag rated at -12 degrees Celcius, so I can sleep in shorts and a T shirt. On the tour are Canadians, Americans, British, two Japanese who don't speak much English, one Australian, a German, Swiss and the guides are from South Africa. We've got a brand new truck that doesn't work well. We've now here in Swakopmund, our first big town in a week so the truck will have a chance to be overhauled. Some of us go all the way to Nairobi, some end in Livingstone, some finish in Windhoek next week and some circle back to Cape Town, so along the way we'l pick up new travellers and drop off newly made friends (and some enemies)

The best day so far was yesterday as we entered Sossusvlei, about 3 hours inland from the coast. These are the red dunes 100m to 300 m in height. We got up before the sunrise and raced to Dune 45 and climbed at least 100 m as the sun was rising. Once at the top, after a hard early morning work-out scrambling up the sand we saw the sun rise. There are some stunning colours, reds, orange and yellow set against the dark blue sky, a wonderful set of complementary colours. I stayed on the top about an hour, taking photos which you'll have to see once I return. We all returned back to the truck, some like me late because we made it all the way to the top and stayed for a while, and waiting for us was eggs and bacon, cooked tomatoes and tea. We're treated like royalty on this trip, except that the truck doesn't always start. After breakfast we we're given a tour of the desert by a local guide. She explained to us all the local flora, fauna, and geography of the area. The basic reason why there is a desert next to the sea is that this is the South Atlantic and it's cold, so there is little evaporation.

On the third day we visited the Fish River Canyon, the second deepest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. We were here at sunset, and our guides fed us sushi and champaign. There are two other tour companies doing the same trip as us, staying at the same camp sites and visiting the same places we are. Jealously, they watched the sunset too, but watched us eat and drink.

There has been a lot of driving, but I knew this when I signed up for the tour. We'll see a lot more. We haven't seen many animals yet, only a few springbok, oryx, ostriches, one jackel, a couple of zebra, and beetles. The wild life spotting will increase later one, once we reach Etosha Park and into Botswana. We have a little more sand to see yet. The sand gets everywhere, so as I write I'm getting a proper laundry wash. We drive on sand, sleep on sand; sands gets everywhere.

We're here in Swakopmund two nights and nearly two days and not sleeping in tents, but small A frame chalets, 6 to a "house" We're about 200 meters from the sea. The weather is clear, but it can get foggy. We're near the Skeleton Coast, where a fog forms and ships wreck. Wednesday morning is a long drive north heading toward Etosha National Park. Usually we travel one long day followed by a shorter travel day. Only another 5 weeks to go.

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