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Published: November 21st 2008
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We are currently in Swakopmund on Namibia's Atlantic Coast. It used to be a German settlement and the architecture is still reminiscent of it plus there are great Strudels, beers and pastries!! Not really losing the weight we thought we would with all this good food and the camp meals have been excellent.
We left Capetown on the 15th visiting the District Six museum which was where the endemic black population were evicted from in the 50's and 60's and moved into the shantytowns outside CapeTown. It was very sobering and revealed more of the darker side of this countries past. We then went to one of the Black towns 15km outside Capetown (Lamba) and went through some of the houses. The coloured towns were more affluent (had paved sidewalks and streetlights!!) than the black townships but since the abolishment of apartheid, any race was allowed to live anywhere. The problem is that most blacks still cannot afford to live in the coloured areas. We visited a B & B in the heart of one of the towns which was really neat and if we were to come back we would definitely stay there. The people in the towns were very
friendly and we went to an education/activity centre designed to teach people trades eg Ceramics and watched young kids in overalls, gumboots and hardhats doing dances the miners developed which involved alot of synchronised stomping and gumboot slapping which was very cool. (sortof like those fellas that dance on dustbin lids etc I think they are called Stomp)
We then had a long drive ~500km to our campsite where we were greeted with an enormous scorpion in the sink. We were staying at a winery and the host shared a few of his bottles. OK but not as good as the stuff around Stellenbosch. I was most pleasantly surprised to see that we had arrived 4 minutes into the All Blacks vs Ireland rugby game and spent the remainder of the night watching that with a bunch of Irishmen from another bus. Luckily the boys in black did not disappoint although it was hardly convincing.
Another long drive the next day to Orange river just on the Namibian border. Our bus driver coasted on past about 30 truck and trailers that stretched almost 1 km from the gate much to the consternation of the truck drivers. I now know swearwords
Intrepid Group
Our group for the Cape to Kenya trip in another two languages. Anyway it worked and we sneaked across the border with no major problems apart from one "official" in a Bob Marley T-shirt, shorts and jandals claiming to be a Drug Inspector who was looking for some dodgy German smuggler. I guess he was "under cover."
We stayed at a nice campsite by the river and elected not to do the kayaking the next morning but just chill out. The river was pretty low and there weren't any rapids to speak of so we didn't think we were missing much. One guy lost his camera into the river on the kayak trip and couldn't find it. It was a shame because it was waterproof and would have been OK if he could find it.
The next day was another long drive to Fish River Canyon which I think is the 2nd biggest canyon in the world. It is about 300km long and 20km wide at some points and about 700m deep. It made for some cool photos especially at sunset.
We had a 500km drive again the next day to Saskriem on the border of the Namib-Nukluft national park famous for its massive sand dunes. We got
up at 4am the next morning and drove 70 km to Dune 45 of the Soussesvlei and climbed it to watch the sunrise. I know we are not the fittest of people but it took us (and everyone) ages to climb the 300 vertical metres because the sand was so soft and fine. It was awesome to be there for the sunrise though and the red dunes contrasted beautifully with the azure sky.
We then went for a 3hour desert walk with a mad Japanese woman who was able to see and dig up wee trapdoor spiders and tell us which plants were good to eat etc. She was hilarious and a real highlight. We went to an old Soussesvlei which used to be a lake (they get rain every 7-10 years) and had all these blackened dead acacia tries on a whitish pan surrounded by the dunes. It made for amazing photos.
We camped that night in the desert after another 500km trip. All the roads are sand or gravel and the amount of dust that gets inside the truck is amazing (you have to leave the windows open for ventilation). We were greeted at the new campsite by
another massive scorpion that lived underneath the fireplace and kept scooting out when we doused the fire out at the end of breakfast. We saw a few jackals, oryx (Gemsbok), ostrich and springbok en route that day and the day before. The oryx are beautifuls creatures and have a really long, black tail like a horse which looks very unusual on the back of an antelope. I have just gotten back from having an oryx steak which was superb. Don't think I could shoot one though.
Speaking of steak, last night we went to a restaurant which had a 1.4kg steak for 20USD that if you finished it was free. Although I had pigged out all day, I felt I was up for the challenge however 15min later the waitress came out and said they didn't have any more. I settled for a 700g rump which was terribly overcooked so I think missing out of 1.4kg wasn't a bad thing.
Today we are just chilling out in this neat town. We could have gone quadbiking or surfing in the dunes but want to keep our cash for a flight over the Okavango delta in Botswana. We will be heading to
Etosha National Park in a couple of days which we are both looking forward to.
We have got 15 people in our group and they are all good people. Mainly Aussies and Poms with a few South Americans. At Vic falls we lose most of them and will only have 8 people on the second leg to Nairobi which will be a mixed blessing. Smaller groups are great because more room on the bus but we will be losing a bunch of people we like a lot.
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Melody
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Great Pics!
These pictures are awsome. It sounds like you guys are having a great time. Wish I was with you. We all miss you here. Love, Melody