Blogs from Swakopmund, Namibia, Africa - page 11

Matilda has now safely brought us to Swakopmund, midway up the Namibian coast. Since Fish River Canyon we've also passed through Sousselvlei (which is meant to be Namibia's No1 attraction), a set of sand dunes that make up the Namib dessert. We saw sunset from the top of Dune 45 there, after camping just inside the national park at Sesriem the night before. We then had a 6 hour drive through the Namib dessert to the Skeleton Coast. Our animal spotting list is currently limited to Springbok, Oryx and lots of Ostriches although our visit to Etosha National Park should extend this much further. We are pleased to announce we can no longer see our breath at night as the temperatures get warmer and warmer as we go north. After our first experience of bush camping, ... read more

The overland trip is underway and it is great so far. The truck is huge and definitely well equipped for African overlanding. The people are amazing and we're having loads of fun both in the truck (very long drives) and at the campsites. There are 4 Americans including me, a couple Canadians, a couple Brits, a couple Kiwis, and the rest are all German and Dutch. Socially, the group tends to split between the English speaking portion and the German/Dutch portion, but we all get along for the most part. We met on June 29 in Cape Town and the truck's battery died literally the first time we got on it. We had to all get out and push. But they sorted it out and there have been no problems since. Our first stop was a ... read more

Greetings everyone from Africa. We are sorry it has taken us so long to get in touch. We have not had the opportunity to get online or even find an internet cafe until now. Where do we begin? The tour is very well organized and planned. We have three guides, one in training, and 11 total tourists. It is a good group of people: 2 Dutch girls, a British couple, a father and son from the states, 2 other American girls and us. Little did we know that when we said we will be Charlie's Angels, that our main guide is named "Charles". Perfect, in fact yesterday morning when we woke up and got out of our tents, he greeted us with, "Morning Angels!" So far we have covered about 1000 km, someone is the ... read more

We arrived into Windhoek and were pleasantly suprised by how modern the city was. It was liked we stepped into Germany- surrounded by German architecture and cleanliness. We spent the night at the Cardboard Box- thankfully the rooms did not reflect the name of the place. Headed out for dinner that evening to Joe's Beer House. At the Joe's you can get platters of game meats to try. Zebra, kudu, ostrich, crocodile and chicken come all on the same stick and you can have a real taste of Africa. Needless to say I am not that food adventurous and stuck with the steak. For $12 I ended up with steak enough for two and felt bad at having to leave half of it. After consuming most of a herd of animals we headed back to the ... read more

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 ... read more