We arrived in the town of Luderitz in the early afternoon and had lunch at a nice cafe (mmmm toasties!). We don't have any photos of the town, but it is a very pretty place and really shows the German influence. The next morning we stopped at Kolmannskuppe, which is a ghost town from the diamond mining era of Namibia. Once a very rich place where counting diamonds was done on the kitchen table over a cup of tea and people were fed laxatives and x-rayed when they exited the town. After the war when demand for diamonds dropped, the town was vacated and fell victim to the desert sands.... read more

Over the last few days we've been getting used to a different style of truck with open sides and a few less of the luxuries that our last few trucks had. After crossing the border we stopped at a campsite just on the Namibian side where we had a day to relax and go canoeing down the Orange river. It was a fun day and a few short rapids made things interesting.... read more

Tsitsikama was one of the trip highlights! It's only too bad we didn't have more time here. Unfortunately the trail to the famous Storms River Mouth was closed due to unsafe conditions. It's supposed to be the one thing not to miss here; oh well, gotta save something for next time. Instead we hiked the first 3km of the famous Otter trail. A beautiful hike along the rugged coastline with amazing views. One day we will have to come back and complete the full 5 day hike. It's hard to get tired of watching the surf roll in and crash against the rocks - and even harder to stop taking photos of it. We even saw a pod of dolphins playing in the waves.... read more

Lesotho, is a gorgeous country! Known as the "Kingdom in the Sky" because it is the "highest" country in the world (measured from the lowest point if that makes any sense at all). Again, very different from other places we've been to in Africa and even better that we were here for three nights at the same place (yay, no driving). The highlight here (besides upgrading from our tent to a nice cabin - which we haven't done since Nairobi) was the pony trekking. These are the most stable ponys we've ever seen and it's amazing how effortlessly they can go up and down the steep, rocky terrain. Needless to say though, three hours was more than enough time to leave us feeling a bit saddle-sore. Of course, a three night stay in the mountains would ... read more

Mozambique is a beautiful country. After several weeks travelling through the relatively civilized southern African nations it was nice to encounter some real markets again and bring back some of the feeling we were missing from West Africa. Also the sea food was to die for. While the rest of the group headed out for a dhow trip from Vilanculos, we decided to opt out and stay behind. I think it was a bit of a group travel overload feeling again and we had fun eating the glorious sea food on offer at the restaurants in town. After Vilanculos we spent a night on the beach in Morrongulo where we had a massive BBQ featuring barracuda and crayfish. We had bought a huge barracuda and then were given another one for free that was the same ... read more