Awesome!

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Namibia is awesome! It's a big country - four times the size of the UK, but with a population of less than 2 million. It's a place of arid deserts, jagged mountains and haunting beauty. It's also a place that cries out to be photographed. So, despite ruthless deletions of photos from my digital camera, I've still uploaded 88 photos for this blog.



Distances between settlements in Namibia are huge. Public transport to many of the places that you would want to visit is non-existent. Also, many of the roads are not tarred. That means, it is necessary to either rent a four wheel drive vehicle or book yourself onto a camping tour. I used the budget camping option. One of the main reasons for using a tour is that I really didn't fancy driving the distances that would have been involved with self drive. So, I booked a 12 day camping tour with Chameleon which cost me about 500 pounds sterling. During that 12 day tour I think we covered about 4000 km's. Being a budget tour it involved a certain amount of participation, that meant that we had to put our own tents up and help with tasks like washing up. If you don't fancy doing the washing up, then it is possible to book onto a luxury tour which will cost you more than 3 times the amount that I paid.



Parts of the country also seem out of joint. Although you are in Africa, it sometimes doesn't feel like it. There are pretty little towns, like Luderitz full of German Colonial buildings. And the major towns are clean and tidy, with first world facilities. It sometimes feels like you've been transported to small town Germany, especially when you hear people speaking German! Of course, the reason for the German influence is that Namibia was one of the few colonies that Germany got in Africa from the European scramble for Africa in the 19th century. Which they lost after World War 1. It is also not rated by the international donor community as a poor country. It's officially classified as a middle income country by the UN. This though, hides huge disparities of income. Namibia has a sizeable skilled workforce and a professional and managerial class. But most of the population is dirt poor. 50%!o(MISSING)f the population lives below the poverty level. It's also a young country, in that it only got it's independence from South Africa in 1990. Even then, the enclave of Walvis Bay remained South African until 1994. That was significant because Walvis Bay is Namibia's only good deep water port. It gave South Africa a stranglehold on Namibia's economy.




At the end of my last blog I was still in Madagascar, about to catch a plane. Continuing the story...

THURSDAY 7th

I had to get up at 2.30 am, to catch a taxi to the airport as I was catching a 5am flight to Jo'burg in South Africa. It was an uneventful flight which arrived in Jo'burg at 7.20am . I then had most of the day to kill before catching another flight to Windhoek the capital of Namibia. So, I hung around the airport. I used the time to write up the last blog. Whilst I was working on the blog I saw the news about the bombs in London on the internet. It seems I'm much safer here in Africa than in Blighty! When I wasn't on the internet I was sitting in the airport cafe's or doing some shopping. I needed a new torch and money belt.



The flight to Windhoek in Namibia was at 4.45pm. It was a 2 hour flight in a 50 seater jet with SAA Express. It didn't cost that much, a mere 600 Rand plus airport taxes. There was considerable turbulence on the flight as we were flying into considerable head winds.



I arrived in Windhoek at 5.45pm, after a 2 hour flight, as there is a one hour difference between South Africa and Namibia. It was a long drive through countryside of 45 km from the airport to the city by taxi. The airport seems to be in the middle of nowhere! In fact its not possible to have an airport with a long runway close to the city centre. The city is surrounded by mountains. There is a small airport close to the city but that can only take very small light aircraft. Whilst I was in the taxi, the driver turned on the radio. He had the news on which was all about the bombings in London earlier in the day.



Finally we arrived at the Chameleon City Backpackers. I booked into a dormitory as that was the only spare accommodation that they had. It cost just 70 Namibian dollars. The Namibian dollar is linked to the South African Rand at a rate of one for one. In effect the currency is the same as the Rand except you can't use Namibian currency in South Africa, although you can use the Rand in Namibia. When I arrived at the backpackers everyone was clustered around the TV watching the news on BBC World, which was all about the London bombings.



At night the dormitory was noisy as it was just outside the swimming pool and the bar. Noise continued late, which wasn't helped by the fact that one of the windows didn't close. It only had wire mesh over it. This was also not very helpful as it was cold. The city of Windhoek is in a valley that is very high, and it's Winter in the Southern hemisphere. It appeared that everyone in the dormitory was going on a tour the following day.

FRIDAY 8th

I got up at about 7am and had breakfast. I didn't need to pack as I hadn't bothered unpacking anything the previous day. I went to the meeting point at about 7.30 only to find that my tour was leaving later. There were other tours leaving before mine. Finally we left at 8.30am. There were only a few of us on the tour, at least for the first few days. The 12 day tour I had booked on is a combination of a Southern and Northern tour. On the first day there were only 3 clients and the guide. Sarah, Teresa, me and Beany the guide. We were going to pick up a 4th person the following morning. Beany said that it was the smallest number of people that she had ever taken out. The 4 wheel drive that we were in had spaces for 9 people.



We drove out of Windhoek past the window to the South and Hero's Acre. Hero's Acre is a monument that commemorates the freedom fighters that struggled for Namibian independence. We continued, passing through the small town of Rohobath. The town is the major settlement of the Baster community. They are a racially mixed Afrikaans speaking people who arrived in Namibia from the Cape colony in the 1860's.



Beany continued driving, but as we were driving through a small settlement she was pulled over by the police. The policeman told her she had been speeding and asked if she was Namibian or South African. She said she was South African. Beany had been caught by a speed trap. The only one I saw in Namibia in the 2 weeks I was there. She had been doing 100km's an hour in a 60km an hour zone. He then asked her to get out of the car. She was gone for 10 minutes. When she returned she said the policeman had let her off with a warning. After that she was more careful to keep to the speed limits. It was a long drive all day, but the roads were good. They were tarred all the way. We stopped for lunch at a lay by near the Harpep dam. After that we continued until we arrived at our camp site for the night in the late afternoon. We set up our tents at Garas Park. The name Garas Park means Quiver Tree in Nama. The place is notable for the large number of Quiver trees. It's what is known as the Quiver tree forest. The Quiver trees are a very unusual looking tree. The name come from the fact that the San (or Bushmen) used the branches of the trees to make quivers from which they fired their poisoned arrows. We had a couple of hours to wander around the area. The trees were separated by groups of Dolomite rocks which were scattered around the landscape like so much litter.



Being winter the sun set early. When the sun set it got very cold, very quickly. When we were eating it felt much later than it really was. After our meal a couple of German women joined us. They had been playing a guitar and singing earlier. They were driving themselves around Namibia. We all retired to bed early.

SATURDAY 9th

We were up before dawn at 6am. We had to take our tents down before we could have breakfast. At 7.30am we were on the road. Our first stop of the day was in Keetmanshoop, which is the capital of the South of Namibia. Many of the buildings in the town reflect its German colonial past. In Keetmanshoop we stopped to do some shopping and to pick up Simon who was the fourth person to join the tour. Simon is German, but he arrived in Namibia too late to get to the start point in the morning of the previous day. He had arrived in Windhoek in the afternoon after we had already left. So, he got a bus to Keetmanshoop from Windhoek , arriving at a lodge at 11pm when we had all been safely asleep in our tents.



From there we continued on our journey passing the Naute Dam, which is one of the countries largest reservoirs on the Lowen river some 50 km's outside Keetmanshoop.



Before noon we arrived at the Fish River Canyon. Fish River Canyon is the second largest canyon is the world. Only the Grand Canyon in Arizona is bigger. Fish River Canyon though is very different. It's very bleak and arid, 161 km's long and up to 27km's wide. The rocks in the canyon are ancient - some of them are 2,600 million years old. We walked 3 km's to hikers point and back to the car for lunch. Hikers point is the start of a 85km walking trail which we didn't attempt. The walking trail is only open in winter, as the temperature in the valley 500 metres below is blisteringly hot in summer. But, when we returned to the car, there was a large group of tourists preparing for the hike. All of them except their guide were carrying large heavy rucksacks - much bigger than my rucksack. My rucksack is all I own in the world, and I carry half what these idiots were carrying on their backs. Frankly, it looked to me like they had made a rod for their own backs by the ridiculous amounts that they were carrying. But, that's not my problem.



After lunch we drove for a couple of hours to our camp site for the night. We were staying at Geisher Schlutt (Ghost Valley). So, called because it was reputed to be haunted by the spirits
of dead soldiers from the first world war. The landscape was hauntingly beautiful and is the start for a number of walks. We, though didn't have long before sunset, so we just walked to the entrance of the small valley and watched the sunset. We also had the luxury of not having to camp. The valley had a small wooden building, which has dormitory beds, a kitchen, a veranda, 2 showers and 2 long drop toilets. We needed to keep the toilet doors shut, as they didn't smell too pleasant! It was good that we didn't have to camp as it was very cold as soon as the sun went down. We also stayed up a bit longer, as we were warmer and the place had electric lights.

SUNDAY 10th

We had a lie in. We got up late, at least by the standards of this trip. We didn't have to get up till 7am! Nor did we have to pack up, as we were returning to Geisher Schlutt for a second night. 2 nights not in a tent! Half an hour after leaving camp at 8am we saw a group of wild horses in the Sperrgebeit or Forbidden Zone. The area is run by the Namibian Diamond mining company. At 10am we arrived at our first port of call of the day, Kolmanskop. Kolmanskop is a ghost town. It was the site of the first diamond finds. It developed into a busy town with a well equipped hospital that housed the countries first X-ray machine. But the diamond deposits in the local area ran out and the town was abandoned. The last inhabitants left in the early 1950's. The place was a company town, and without diamonds it had no reason to exist. We were taken around on an organized tour and then had half and hour to explore the old buildings ourselves. Many of the buildings are in a very poor state of repair.



At 11.40am we left the ghost town and drove into the nearby town of Luderitz. The town has a very German feel, many of its buildings dating from German colonial times. At Luderitz we stocked up in a local shop and then continued another 20 km's down the coast to Diaz Point. There is a cross erected there which commemorates Barthomew Diaz who was a Portuguese explorer. He took shelter from a storm in the bay . He was the first European on this part of the Namibian coastline. After looking out to sea, from Diaz Point, we had lunch. We may, or may not have seen whales or dolphins. We certainly saw something, but they were too far away to tell what they were.



We then returned to Luderitz, looked around the waterfront and drove around town to look at the old colonial buildings.



Then we returned to our camp at Guisher Schlutt, via a viewing area of the Namib deserts' Wild horses. Back at camp we scrambled up the side of the hill of the valley to watch the sunset, returning in the twilight.

MONDAY 11th

We were back to what was to be our usual routine of rising at 6am and leaving camp at 7.30am. We had a very long drive ahead of us. Only the first 20 minutes of our trip was on tarred roads. The rest of the day was on cinder roads. But the scenery was spectacular as we drove through the Namib desert. Red sand dunes framed by blue- black mountains and golden grasses. We also saw a surprising amount of wildlife, considering we were crossing the worlds oldest desert. On that journey, we stopped and took a picture of the Social Weavers nest that you can see in these photos. The source of water for much of the wildlife comes from sea mists which can extend up to 100 km's from the coast, first thing in the morning. There are beetles that carefully collect the early morning dew on their abdomens.



During the long drive , Beany our guide was assaulted by mad tourists.



I had noticed nothing sitting in the front next to Beany. But suddenly I saw a car overtake beeping its horn. Beany stopped and they screeched to a halt in front of us, leaving their car parked at a 45 degree angle. As if they thought they were Starsky and Hutch. Beany got out of the car to ask what the problem was. To find herself being shouted out by a middle aged couple, who were German. They accused her of hit and run. Their windscreen had a crack on the passengers side. They accused Beany of deliberately breaking their windscreen and driving away. Frankly, we thought they were going to hit Beany, especially the woman, who was very aggressive. To be honest a broken windscreen is not surprising when you are driving on cinder roads. Stray stones are always flying up from the road. There was also no way that we would have known that we had broken their windscreen. We would have passed them on the opposite side of the road in a cloud of dust. All the vehicles throw up a huge cloud of dust. So, Beany would have seen nothing, assuming that the stone was thrown up by our car. They screamed that they had been following us for 40km's beeping their horn. I had heard nothing until the last moment. Hardly surprising, as you couldn't really hear that much with the vehicle rattling on the road.



Beany kept her cool, despite the provocation. We though all got out of the car to give her some moral support. The mad tourists were driving a hire car. They weren't insured. Frankly, they shouldn't have been driving on cinder roads if they weren't insured or weren't prepared to cover the cost of a broken windscreen. Beany gave them the company's details. Presumably, they were hoping to get money back from the insurance. I suspect if they do try to claim they will find that they are on a hiding to nothing.



We finally arrived at Seisreim for a late lunch, after we had put up our tents. The Seisreim and Sossusvlei canyons are Namibia's leading tourist attractions. We some justification. The red sand dunes in the area are the world's highest and most spectacular. The Dunes can be 30 km's long and 250 metres high.



After lunch we had some free time to ourselves until 4.15pm. We then set out on a walk to a sand dune a few km's away. The Dune was over 200 metres high. To be honest I never made it to the top. We returned to the bottom of the dune when it was 5.45pm. It gets dark early in the Namibian winter. At 6pm we were picked up and returned to camp. Back at camp Beany found that she had lost her torch. And, then I found that neither my or Simon's torch would work. I was sharing a tent with Simon. Neither of us having a working torch was a pain in the arse.

TUESDAY 12th

We got up even earlier than usual. We were up at 5am. At 5.40am we were at the gates of the camp. We were rushing to get to Sossosvlei before sunrise. As we approached our destination the colours of the dunes and the sky in the twilight were beyond description. And as the light changed, so did the colours of the sky. At 6.40am we climbed the Sossosvlei sand dune. We watched the sun rise from the top. Then we slid down the dune and had breakfast in the pan at the bottom of the dune. After breakfast we had a short ride in the car, got out and walked to Deadvlei. The pan at Deadvlei dried up hundreds of years ago. Water once reached this far. But, flash flood waters haven't been here for hundreds of years because of the shifting of the Dunes. At the bottom of the dunes in Deadvlei is an amazing sight. The pan is full of dead camel thorn trees. These trees have been dead for 6-700 years. They died when the flash floods no longer came. Because the desert is so dry, they have been preserved. Some of those trees will have been 2-300 years old when they died. So, the landscape has changed very little in a 1000 years.



We left Deadvlei. On our way back to camp we visited Dune 45. It was now getting very hot. So, we had lunch back at camp in Seisreim and took a break for a couple of hours. During the free time I was talking with Beany about the possibility of taking a scenic flight when we got to Swakopmund. Swakopmund is the activity sports centre for tourists in Namibia. But as I was discussing the possibilities a man passed us. We asked his advise. He was a pilot for a scenic flight company that worked out of Seisreim. It turned out that his flights were cheaper than those in Swakopmund. So, I said I was interested. He had 2 other passengers, who were due up at 4pm. He went away to check everything out with the office. But he came back early. His other passengers wanted to go up at 3.30pm. I said that was fine with me. It meant that we had to leave straight away. So, I hopped into his car. He took me to the expensive lodge, which is next to the camp-site. The lodge costs 80 Euros a night. At the camp-site I met the other 2 passengers and paid for the flight. It was a one and a half hour flight for about 80 pounds. I had the co-pilots seat in the scenic flight over the sand dunes and along the coast. At some points we were flying only 100 or 200 metres above the ground. We flew especially low over the sea. Whilst I was in the air the others had gone for a hike through the canyon. I got back to the camp at 5pm before the others. I had a beer and took a shower. Eventually the others returned. We had supper and went to bed at the relatively late hour (for this trip) of 10pm.

WEDS 13th

Back to our usual routine of rising at 6 and leaving at 7.30am At 8.45 we called in at at Solitaire. It was so named after the sole Camel Thorn Tree. We stopped for refreshments, and to use the toilet. Whilst there, Beany bought what is supposed to be the best Apple Struddle in Namibia. The lodge in Solitaire has a very good chef. Whilst there, she also phoned the Chameleon office. They gave her news of the mad tourists' windscreen. The mad tourists hadn't contacted the company. But Chameleon had contacted the mad tourists' car hire company and complained about their behavior.



We continued on the drive, stopping off at the Kuiseb pass to admire the scenery. The area would keep a geologist happy for ages! We continued on to Walvis Bay. Walvis Bay is Namibia's only decent deep water port. At Walvis Bay we looked at the Salt Works, and admired the flamingos, after which we had lunch. Walvis Bay is different from most of the towns in Namibia. It doesn't feel German. It was never part of the German Colony. It started as a British enclave. It later became South African. Although it is in the middle of Namibia it remained South African after independence. It was returned to Namibia in 1994 by Nelson Mandela, four years after Namibian independence.



Whilst we were eating lunch we were introduced to four young women from another Chameleon car. They would be joining us on the second half of the tour in the North. Although we would be losing 2 of our group, as Simon and Sarah were only doing the Southern Tour.



After lunch we drove to Swakapmond, where we were booked into a very nice lodge. Hot showers, and a place that looked brand new! We had some free time to ourselves. Sarah went skydiving whilst I used the time to visit the internet, buy some new trousers, do my laundry and relax in a cafe. The town was very clean and tidy looking, with lots of buildings that looked German. In fact I joked with Simon that he hadn't left Germany at all!



After supper we all went out to a local bar. It was strange. It looked like a trendy bar anywhere in the world. They played American and British pop music on the sound system. A local gave myself and Teresa a very lethal short. It knocked us back. Whilst we were in the bar Teresa noticed that the German women we had seen on our first night at Garas Park were also in the bar. Simon hadn't been with us on that night. We encouraged him to go over and talk to them. Finally he relented. When I left the bar at about midnight with Teresa and Sarah he was still talking with the 2 German women. Possibly a case of lust at first sight?

THURSDAY 14th

I spent most of the morning Sand boarding. Frankly I wasn't very good. It was hard work. There was a very tiring walk back up the dune every time I boarded down. At 12.30pm we had lunch and rushed back to the lodge. I was covered with sand and had no chance to wash it off. Back at the lodge I said goodbye to Simon and Sarah. We were joined by the new passengers. There were 6 new people, so we now had a nearly full trip.



So, we set off on another drive. At 2pm we stopped off at Lichen Fields. The lichens are very slow growing and fragile. Tracks from hundreds of years ago are still visible. We arrived at our destination Spitskoppe at 4pm. Spitskoppe is a granite mountain. We were bush camping. The site had no toilets or water. That meant digging a hole in the ground with a spade and burning the toilet paper. Which I had to do, during the night. In the evening we all climbed up the boulders and watched the sunset. We were in bed by 9.30pm. Now that Simon had left I had a tent to myself again.

FRIDAY 15th

We were back to our usual routine of a 6am wake up. At 7.30am we took a short drive to Bushman's Paradise. It meant a steep climb of a hill. At the top of the hill in a cave were a number of San (bushman) paintings. They could be 3-6000 years old. Many of the paintings were very faded. This hasn't been helped by damage done by tourists. Some tourists have thrown water or Coca Cola over the paintings, in order to get a better photograph. Of course , in the process they are destroying the San art.



We continued our drive, stopping at the town of Uis, for coffee and Muffins. Uis used to a tin mining town. No longer. Austrian aid money has gone into the town in the form of tourist infrastructure. We continued our drive, stopping at 11am to look at the Brandburg Mountain. At 2,500 metres, Namibia's highest mountain. The mountain also has the worlds largest number of San paintings, which we didn't stop to see. Finally we arrived at our camp site for the night, Abu-Huab. We had lunch and then had some free time, which I used to take a shower. I was still covered with sand from the sand boarding in Swakopmund. So, I really needed that shower.



At 3.30pm we set out again. This time for Twyfelfontein, the site of San rock engravings. They are thought to be 3-6000 years old. You'll see my photos of the engraving in this blog. Mandy made a joke about the activities of the Giraffe and the Rhino in the rock art. It's explains where the wildebeest came from, and why wildebeest are so ugly! We then went past Burnt mountain and the organ pipes basalt columns, and returned to the camp bar. At the bar we arranged a performance of traditional music and dancing for later in the evening. After supper we returned to the bar for the performance. It was good to hear local music, not stuff I could have heard anywhere in the world, as in Swakopmund. The star of the performance though had to be the youngest kid. He wasn't taking it seriously and was somewhat cheeky. Much to the displeasure of the older kid that was next to him!

SAT 16th JULY

After the usual breakfast routine we left. After a short drive we visited the Petrified Forest. The area is full of fossilized wood and trees that are up to 260 million years old. The trees were washed down from the Congo in floods. We then continued our drive stopping at Outijo for supplies. Finally we arrived at the gates of the Etosha National Park at 1.30pm. At this point Beany was a bit worried for Sarah. Sarah has a mild type one diabetes. The idea was to eat at the gate. But Sarah said she would be OK. So we took the roof off the car and started a slow game drive to the camp, finally arriving in camp an hour later, where we had lunch.



At 4pm we went on another bush drive seeing a lot of wildlife, returning to camp at 5.30pm. Back at camp we watched Rhinos at the waterhole just outside the camp. The waterhole was lit up, so we could watch the game all night. Later in the evening, after dinner a lion was stalking the springbok, but was chased away by an elephant. A loin catching a springbok would have made quite some photo!

SUNDAY 17th

We left the Okaukuejo camp for an all day game drive, stopping at the Halalie camp for lunch. We continued our game drive at 2.30pm. At one point we stopped and watched a lion that was staking out a group of springbok. We waited... and waited... but finally gave up. The lion had more patience than us. So, we continued on and stopped off at Etosha Pan. The Etosha Pan is a salty pan that very little can grow on. It was once a lake. It attracts game, because they can see any possible predators for miles around. We continued our drive, seeing another group of loins. We finally arrived at the Namutoni camp at 5.30pm. Just in time to climb the tower of the colonial fort to watch the sunset. The camp was originally a German fort built in 1902. The original fort was burnt down in 1904 during a war with the Ovambo over land.

MONDAY 18th

We got up at 6 for a 7.30am start. We did an hour long bush drive, which was disappointing as we didn't see that much game. We returned to the camp and retrieved the trailer which contained all our bags and tents. We then did a bush drive out of the national park and continued to Otjikjo Lake. The name means big hole in the local language. The lake was formed by the erosion of the roof of an underground dolomite cave. During the first world war it was used to dump large amounts of weaponry by the retreating German army. We then continued on, visiting the world's largest meteorite fragment, where we also had lunch. We continued, passing through the town of Tsumeb, where we bought supplies. Tsumeb is a mineralogist dream. Of 184 minerals found in the town 10 of them are found no-where else.



Finally we arrived at our camp in the Waterberg Plateau park. The toilet was strange. It was open on one side to the hillside. So you had an unobstructed view of the mountainside from the toilet. It was our last night camping, and our last night of the tour.

TUESDAY 19th

In the morning we had an early morning hike through the Waterberg Park, after which we returned and packed up and had breakfast. Whilst we we getting ready to leave we were visited by the camp's resident Ostriches, who showed no fear of us. They were after water.



Then we had a long drive back to Windhoek. We stopped twice. Once to visit the craft market at Okahandja and the second time for lunch.



I hadn't made any arrangements for a room for when I got back to Windhoek. So, when I got back I checked availability. They told me they had a single room. It was a relief, because I didn't want to share a noisy dormitory. But... after they had given me the key, Teresa told me that they had given me her room that she had booked before leaving. So, I had to return to reception. It was Teresa's last night, she was returning to Australia the next day. So, she really did want her own room. So, I gave her the room. It was hers anyway. The receptionist told me that there might be a single room. They wouldn't know till 6pm. They were waiting to see if someone turned up. So, I had to wait till 6pm to see if I had a single room or a dormitory for the night.



Then I went with Teresa into town to get some money from an ATM. I hadn't seen Windhoek when I had arrived, as I had arrived at night and gone straight to Chameleon's backpackers. When we returned to the lodge I wanted to use their internet, to check flight availability. But someone was using it. They only had the one computer. So, I walked back into town and found an internet cafe returning after 6pm. At that point I discovered that I could have my own room.



In the evening we all went out to Joe's Beerhouse for a meal, where we were pretending it was Beany's birthday.

WEDNESDAY 20th

I slept in till 8am, and arranged to stay in a single room for another night. I had booked a flight for the 21st with SAA Express. It was cheap, just 600 rand. But the site doesn't accept non South African credit cards. So, I would need to pay for the flight today.



I walked into the city centre. I didn't take much with me. There were warnings all over the lodge about the alternative shopping habits of the local thieves. Despite the warnings the city didn't feel dangerous. City centres in South Africa have spooked me, but Windhoek felt safe. Even so, I heeded the warnings. I spent most of the day hanging around the shops and cafe's of the city. Whilst there I found a office for South African Airlines and paid for my SAA Express ticket. It was nice to chill out and not do much all day. The tour had been pretty full on. There was always some activity to do, which of course means you had no chance to ever get bored.



In the evening I went out to the cinema with Mandy and Brian from the tour. With us was Freddy who worked in the lodge and two of his friends. We drove out to a shopping mall, had pizza's and went to see the film, the Fantastic Four.

THURSDAY 21st

I was picked up from the lodge by the airport shuttle at 10am. My flight was at 12.30pm. The flight arrived in Cape Town at 3.30pm South African time. It was a 2 hour flight, a lot easier than the 20 hour bus ride. Added to which the flight wasn't that more expensive than the bus!



In Cape Town it was a wet winters day. It was 15C and raining cats and dogs. I got a taxi into town and booked into the Ashanti Lodge. I took a single room for 180 Rand with a shared bathroom. When checking my email, I saw that there had been another bomb attack in London. I did nothing much for the rest of the day. The Lonely Planet says that the Ashanti Lodge is one of the best backpackers in Cape Town. I wasn't impressed. Mainly due to the noise. There are notices in the rooms, saying not to make noise after midnight. But there was a lot of noise coming from the bar until after 1am.



Anyway, I'm now back in South Africa. I intend to travel from Cape Town to Durban along the coast. After that I will go to Swaziland and then Mozambique.



The journey continues...

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Photos

Camel Thorn Tree in Dead Vlei
These trees have been dead for 6-700 years. Preserved in the desert because of the lack of water

Comments

[Voxx 418]

Namibia ... Now I've Got to Go!
Thank you so much for your wonderful blog and incredible photos of Namibia. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, and I'm definitely going to go see it for myself. Thanks again for taking the time to share your experience. Regards, Voxx 418 http://www.voxxthepsychic.com