Cairo to Cape Town, with a European Detour

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Day 128: Wednesday, Sept 27: Swakopmund

Yesterday, while sandboarding, I twisted my knee in a fall pretty bad, so today, I didn't feel like doing much. I did walk around town to keep the knee moving. Swakopmund is on the skeleton coast in Namibia. Named because the cold rocky Atlantic coast, combined with the fog has caused over 100 shipwrecks (including one last month) in the last 100+ years. When the sailors would get to shore, they would then die because of the hostile desert and sand dunes that contain virtually no water. Yea, fun place to be ehh.. Anyway, in the afternoon we hoped onto some ATVs and jumped across the sand dunes. A great way to see the dunes (without walking up and down them) and just a fun time as well. We headed out to dinner and played some pool in the evening.

Day 129: Thursday, Sept 28: Swakopmund

Knee still sore I went out and just did some basic errand shopping and booked a couple of things to tie up some loose ends before heading home. I did want to sandboard again, but the knee just wasn't having it. Otherwise, a pretty uneventful day.

Day 130: Friday, Sept 29: Swakopmund to Sesriem

Today, we drove into the Namib desert, one of the oldest deserts in the world (whatever that means) and has the tallest sand dunes in the world, 600+ ft hight. The dunes have created this oasis called the sossusvlei, which only contains water about every 5-10 years after a big rain in the mountains. In the mean time, the plants and animals in the area survive with the littlest water necessary. Sometimes the dunes close in the sossusvlei, creating a new one and turning the old one into a dead vlei. After decades without water, the plants and trees finally die leaving a very deserted looking region surrounded by the red dunes.

After our little nature lesson, we climbed up a 500 ft dune and watched the sunset. Heading back to camp, the sunset created the most vibrate reds and oranges you've ever seen.

Day 131: Saturday, Sept 30: Sesriem to Ai Ais

A long long drive day (trying to make up for the day we lost) we headed through the Namib desert to Fish River Canyon. Larger than the Grand Canyon (but not nearly as deep) and definate not as majestic, still made for great photo ops and we left for Ai Ais. A beautiful campsite with natural hot springs pools. We relaxed in the warm pools in the evening knowing our trip is coming to an end.

Day 132: Sunday, Oct 1: Ai Ais to South Africa

I can't quite remember the name of the place we stayed at but it was in between the South African border and Cape Town. The scenary was fantastic on another long drive day and the campsite was one of the best we've stayed at. Definately a treat for my last night in a tent.

Day 133: Monday, Oct 2: Cape Town, RSA

After spending a couple of hours cleaning out the truck, we headed into Cape Town. After checking in, we headed to the shopping mall, the first most of us have seen in over 2 months. I got some KFC for lunch and did some window shopping (I have no room for any more stuff). Tonight we are headed out to our final group dinner.

The next two days will be spent checking out the city, going up Table Top mountian and cage diving with Great White Sharks..

See you soon!!!

~Dave

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