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Well, it's the anniversary of D-Day everyone, so take a moment to thank the vets from 1944!
On a more light-hearted note, having an awesome time on my overland tour. If you've been keeping up, I met my group on May 30th, and we loaded the truck up on May 31. There are 19 of us on the tour: beside me and the guide (from Zimbabwe) and the driver (from Kenya), we've got two Canadians, eight English, two Scots, five Aussies, and one Israeli. A good international mix.
The truck is truly a beast, and would act like one before the first week was out. Omauru by name, she did not like being loaded up. But, it was eventually all done and let me tell you, unloading for each day is a pain.
The first morning was a tour of some of the townships (where the blacks and coloureds were moved to during apartheid) as well as the District 6 museum. District 6 was a part of Cape Town that was integrated before apartheid, and afterwards, was declared a white only area and was, essentially, leveled after the blacks were evicted. Very moving museum, and a site for
The Fish River Canyon
OK, cheesy smile but I was happy, dammit!potential reconciliation. Hard to imagine all this took a place not too long ago.
After that, I said good bye to Cape Town (an amazing place to visit, and one where it's dead easy to make friends!) and we drove until just before dark to "The Highlander", and overlander campsite. Seems that there are these kind of campsites which cater to the overlander traffic. A spot for the truck, a spot for the tents, and cooking shelter, and a water supply. All that's needed. Everything that we need comes from the truck - tents, folding chairs, sleeping pads, a two-burner range with gas, tables, dishes, etc., etc. We only have to bring out own sleeping bag. But we do everything - cook, clean, load up, unload, clean the truck. The only thing we don't do is shop - although we can help if we want to!
And boy, are the days long. So far, we've been getting up between 4 and 6 every morning. Most nights, we're asleep before 9. But the days do go fast.
At the Highlander, we were shown how to put up the tents, and started to learn our duties. Everyone is in
a team of four, and each day we rotate between dish cleaning (we "flap" the dishes dry since dish towels get too disgusting), truck cleaning (the easiest), truck loading (the dirtiest), cooking, and the coveted "day off."
A meal was actually prepared for us at the Highlander, and we go to do a wine tasting too. Good a bottle of lovely shiraz-merlot, which has been saved until later.
The next morning, we drove off to Springbok to do shopping for the next four days. After that, we continued on to the Orange River, on the border of Namibia and South Africa. Stopped at the Bushwacker, another overlander campsite. This was a long driving day - didn't get to see too much, but went swimming in the Orange River after the long day. Surprisingly, it was quite chilly. But perhaps this shouldn't have been a surprise - it's winter here and the nights are quite cold. Not as bad as Patagonia, but lots of people moaning on the trip about the chill. Hey, it is the desert!
Up early the next day, and headed down the river for a beautiful paddle in an inflatable canoe. Got to enjoy
the river and the wildlife: tons of African darters, which look like snakes floating on the water with their long, thin necks. We finished up and then crossed the Namibian border. Took a while, but that's just Africa. ;-)
From here on in, the landscape really began to change. It went from semi-arid to arid to desert pretty quickly. We ended up on the side of the road after a while, as the truck's hydraulics went out. Paul, the driver, was able to fix it so after lunch at the side of the road, we continued on. The desert, still lots of life at this stage, stretched out around us, and we lucky enough to spot springbok (a type of antelope), bat-eared foxes, and gemsbok (another antelope). Thanks to Paul's driving, we made it to Fish River Canyon just in time to catch the sunset.
Fish River Canyon is the second largest canyon in the world, and it was spectacular. After a walk along the edge, we got another view just as darkness descended. It was amazing, and one of the things I had come 11,000 kms to see.
Another campsite in the national park, and then
up at 4.45 to start the next day. We drove off and arrived in Bethanie, the oldest settlement in Namibia to refuel. Namibia is unbelievably empty. Even the towns, where you'd expect there to be loads of people, seem deserted. And as we went north, although there was still some vegetation, everthing was turning a share of grey or white. It was beautiful, but desolate.
Saw more wildlife this day too - including steenbok (another antelope - from now on, if you read anything that has "bok" in it, it's an antelope), orynx and a jackal. We also saw our first sociable (or village) weaver nests. Huge condominiums for birds, the weaver builds them and lets them out to other species. Very cool.
Arrived at Sessriem, gateway to the Soussusvlei, the famous sand dune area of Namibia. Set up camp, and then had an early night. The next morning, we got up at 4.50 for a short drive into the park and a sun rise climb of Dune 45. Dune 45 isn't the tallest dune in the park, but it provides the best viewing for sun rise. It rises close to 200m above the pan, and you can
Soussusvlei
The dunes at dawn. see dunes all around. The climb was pretty tough - you're sinking deep into the sand with each step, it's icy cold, and there's a bitter wind blowing. But when the sun rises and the dunes turn a deep red, it's very, very worth it. Which is why there was about 100 people on the dune. But we had an advantage - Jackie, our guide, had said to do the walk only in stocking feet, and it was way easier than in shoes or sandals!
After a great breakfast that Jackie cooked for us, we had a wonderful desert trek - 2 hours with a guide, Frans, who showed us trapdoor spiders, hidden lizards (the sanddiver), and told us tales of tracking and living in the desert. It was absolutely fascinating, and the surrounding scenery could not be believed.
We were supposed to camp in the bush this night, but the wind was blowing too strong so we ended up at another lodge in Solitare - great apple strudel. Another early morning, and we were off. Stopped for a photo op as we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (yes, really cheesy I know, but hey, it's a glorified
bus tour); had to figure out how to get fuel from the reserve tank into the main tank (there's supposed to be a pump, but it's missing), and then we arrived in Swakopmund, the "adrenaline junky capital of the world." Turns out there's everthing you want to do here, if it involves sand dunes.
The geography here is crazy desert. The dunes, and they can be huge (up to 300m) stretch right to the edge of the sea. A cold ocean current meets the hot wind from shore and creates deep fog, at any time. Just north, the Skeleton Coast begins (we go there tomorrow).
To my everlasting shame, I elected to join some of the group on the dunes, riding All-Terrain Cycles, (ATCs). It was beautiful, but the carbon dioxided we put out, as well as the tracks and noise interfering with the dunes, did not make me feel good. Haven't been these conflicted in a while. Oh, well, take a look at the pics - see if it was worth it (difficult to get into the dunes deeply without doing this or sand boarding).
Today was not as much fun. The truck had gone to
Trapdoor Spider
The baboon spider. So called because they get as big as a baboon. Although not this little guy ... hospital, and declared "dead." So, while we wait for another truck to come up from Cape Town for us (it's due tomorrow morning), I went with Paul and Jackie to help unload the other truck and bring back all our gear. On the plus side, I got to see Walvis Bay, which no one else on the tour got to do.
And that pretty much brings us up to date. We leave Swakopmund, assuming the truck comes, tomorrow and head north to the Cape Cross seal colony, on the Skeleton Coast. I still can't believe I'm here. South Africa and Namibia don't feel like Africa, at least, not really, as they are reasonably wealthy and pretty well developed. But the views have been incredible!
I'll do my best to get the next update soon, but I'm not sure when I'll next be at an internet cafe. So, if you don't here from me for a while, don't worry. Take care, and I hope the weather back home is getting better!
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masao
non-member comment
don't feel bad for the dunes
or for burning 5 gallons on your atc! i'd imagine the tracks are blown over by the next day. if you've been following the news back here, noone is buying or driving their overpowered suv's anymore because of gas prices.