Blogs from Namibia, Africa - page 106

Yehaaa, die Reise kann los gehen!!! Nachdem mit dem Geldtransfer alles gut gegangen war, holten wir am vergangenen Donnerstag unseren "Sir Henry" bei Marlene (sie war wirklich wie eine Mutter zu uns und ein wenig entaeuscht, dass wir nicht bei ihr uebernachtet hatten) in CapeGate (oestlich von Kapstadt) ab und duesten los auf der N7 in Richtung Namibia (insg. ca. 600 km). Die fahrt durch die Region "Northern Cape" in Suedafrika ist empfehlenswert. Die Strasse windet sich in schoenen Kurven (Jungs, das waere eine schoene Moped-Racer-Strecke!) durch die bezaubernde Landschaft. Nach einer kurzen Nacht in Springbok kamen wir nach weiteren 115 Kilometern endlich an den Grenzuebergang "Noordoewer". Ruckzuck zwei Stempel von den netten Beamten und wir fuhren mit unserem gekauften "vehicle permit" auf Namibischem Boden. Fahren in Namibia ist so ein zweischneidiges Ding. Einerseits sind d ... read more

Hello, hello, So this week was a really good one... Our region is having an athletic tournament in a couple of weeks which is a really big deal...so every day this week and next week we have had to go back to school at 3 to practice (school goes from 7am to 1pm each day.) Can I tell you that I thought they were kidding when they told me we were going to be practicing everyday at 3?!? It is easily 100 degrees and I am dripping in sweat! But it is fun and I am looking forward to seeing them compete in a couple of weeks. They always want me to compete in the exercises too...let's just say long jumps and shotput are not my strengths! I started to try some positive reinforcement in the ... read more

It was in Windhoek that we lost our traveling companions (and their air conditioned motor) and had to go it alone again. We had a full day in Namibia's capital to plan the next 10 days of our trip before we needed to be back in Cape Town. Windhoek is a decent city with plenty of amenities to assist our mission and plenty of opportunities to eat more great steak. It also has some very interesting street names. The main streets in the city are named after world leaders: Fidel Castro St, Nelson Mandela Ave and (er) Robert Mugabe Ave. The area where we stayed they were named after composers: Bach Strasse, Beethoven Ave and Wagner Strasse. This got me thinking, the UK should definitely experiment a bit more with Street names. Maybe future town planner ... read more

Today is our last day in Namibia. We drove out of Etosha National Park early in the morning and as so often seems to happen managed to save the best for last. We saw 2 lions chilling out under the shade of a tree, so stopped to watch them for a bit. They must have been full because there were plenty of antelopes nearby looking relatively relaxed. Somehow they must know the lions aren't ready for a meal. The giraffes weren't so perceptive, or perhaps they are just more naturally cautious, and they looked quite funny as they passed the lions without taking their eyes of them. Then we spotted a further 3 female lions heading in formation towards a watering hole so the truck somehow did a 3 point turn and we went to ... read more

Passing yet another milestone, today is our 200th day away. Hopefully we're not fading from the collective memory entirely. We spent the day in Etosha National Park, driving for about 6 hours from one campsite to another via yet another (where we stopped for lunch). The stopover campsite was where we had our daily cool down swim, whilst waiting to see if our truck could continue. We'd broken down in the morning when the fanbelt broke and, despite the pre-departure assurances about the truck carrying an extensive array of spare parts, the only spare fanbelt on board was the wrong size. Alois the driver worked his magic though and as things turned out we were able to continue with our journey without breaking down again -lucky really since we were in the middle of a ... read more