The road to Cairo

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Today was the day, the start of my 4 month overland journey from Cape Town to Cairo. I spent the morning packing and bought a head torch (apparently an essential item for camping). At 1pm, with everyone accumulated, all 24 of us, we put our stuff on our vehical, 'the Truck', and left Cape Town. There is a full truck at the moment but 3 will leave at Victoria Falls and another 3/4 at Nairobi in 2 months time. Age range is from 18 to 58! Impressive eh?! Most people are in there late twenties/early thirties and have quit their jobs to travel (takes some guts I imagine!). The group which has travelled through West Africa have been through quite alot already; they've all had malaria, typhoid and some dysentery, been robbed at gun point and got caught in a mini-civil war in the Congo, having toabandon their truck and fly over Angolia!! Anyway, we hope everything will run smoothly now!

We headed north to South Africa's wine capital, Stellenbosch for 2 nights. I was plesently surprised that bush camping would be delayed for another 2 days as we were staying in a hostel, 'The Stumble Inn' - how appropriate that would be! On the drive to Stellenbosch, only an hour, I sat on the 'beach' at the front of the truck. The beach is a big flat cushioned viewing platform where you can kneel of lie on allowing you to get 360 degree views of the surrounding area. We've been warned not to stand up and to watch out for overhead cables as you can imagine the accidents which may occur! It was great to drive through Cape Town witheveryone waving (felt like royalty!) and Table Mountain getting smaller (well not a lot). Stellenbosch is a quaint little town but obviously feeling the effects of all the money being pumped into the local wine region. Us girls went out for lunch/dinner and spent the afternoon gossiping!
The following day we were picked up for our wine and cheese tasting tour, most of the group participated which meant all the new people could get to know thew originals. We went to 4 vineyards during the course of the day and had lunch, I think we must have had more than 30 samples in total. The vineyards all had spectacular locations placed beneath mountins. Some people bought bottles of wine and shared it around on the mini buses during the journeys from one farm to another (usually only a 20min max drive), so you can imagine how tipsie everyone was by the end of the day! The wine tasting tour rolled into a night out but I couldn't drink anymore and stuck with the meal that we had out!

The following day (18th), with several sore heads, we began our journey further north towards Namibia. We drove all afternoon on tarmac roads (I was assured that this was not going to be a common thing) through plains of shrubland and the occassional hills covered in boulders (similar to what we had seen in the Outback of Australia). That evening we pitched up at a campsite ouitside the town of Clan William by the river. The first experience of camping for us new ones, so the original people watched and laughed as we struggled to put the tents up! My tent buddy is Zoe, 32 (although you wouldn't know it), really bubbly and hit with the lads (lots of stories I'm told - I'm sure i'll hear them in due course!). That evening we had mash potatoe with bean cassorole - quite nice actually and sat around the fire.

My first night of camping was ok but I didn't get much sleep, maybe as it was a new place or was it just because Zoe is the loudest snorer EVER, yes, everyone failed to mention that one to me, THANKS! I'll have to find the earplugs! Good thing we didn't have anything strenuous planned for today. We continued north, driving all day through semi-arid areas with not a lot of vegetation, stopping for lunch on the side of the road. We finally made it to Vioolsdrif, on the South Africa/ Nambia border, staying at Fiddlers Creek campsite alongside the Orange River, a delightful setting and strange knowing that Nambia is the otherside. Me and a couple of others went for a walk before dinner, passing through the local village and watching the sunset (they are truely amazing in Africa) over the river.

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Photos

Road to nowhere, Cape Town
Apparently they got it wrong and the two ends weren't going to meet so they just left it like that! It has been used in Speed...