Jonathan in the Jungle

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Sitting in an internet cafe in Swakopmund, a town on the Namibian coast. The music in here is appalling. At the moment we have a bizarre version of Bridge Over Troubled Water which actually sounds like it's being sung underwater.

Namibia is a strange place. There's not much more to add. It's an old German colony and some of the women dress like 19th century German women. Full on outfits with hooped skirts and massive hats. They're not stupid though - they charge tourists money to take photos of hem. I managed a quick photo of one woman from inside our truck which involved some nonchalant waving of my camera before pressing the button. The photo's a bit disappointing though- just a face with a hat.

Since Windhoek, we spent a couple of nights in Etosha National Park, a huge game reserve. There were some ominous instructions ie "oh, we'd better pack everything up well because hyenas / jackals / wild dogs / badgers (apparently there are vicious badgers that like to spit at you or something absurd) might eat everything". Also, "keep your tents zipped up and don't go to the toilet alone". Yes, because I'm really going to start gallivanting round a campsite, avoiding various dangerous animals. Someone also advised not to "let hyenas surround you". Thanks for the tip.

Anyway, we saw loads of wildlife during our game drives round the park. We even saw a lion wandering about in daytime which is seemingly unusual. Apparently it was an old male lion who's too old to be with his pack or something. He was moving really slowly. I felt sorry for him. He looked a bit like Jonathan. (The last comment is just to keep certain people happy.)

There was also a manmade, floodlit watering hole near the campsite where we could sit at sunset and into the night, watching for animals coming to drink from the pool. We saw some rhino and a leopard. The leopard was amazing - none of us even saw it approaching the pool & it was only by chance someone spotted a slight movement; it was so well blended into the rock. We were only around 50 metres away. The leopard looked a bit like Jonathan too.

Last night we went to a place called Spitkuppie, which is right next to a mountain range in the middle of the desert. The views were great at sunset. Ridiculously I agreed to sleep outside (the stars were very impressive and I sort of fancied myself as an Indiana Jones type). I lasted around 2 hours before getting into the tent. It was so cold I couldn't feel my hands or feet, plus we were warned to be careful of scorpions & I don't think my lying wide awake scanning the ground all night was going to work.

Ross also gave up at the same time as me, although that was probably to do with me repeatedly kicking him because I thought he was snoring, even though it wasn't actually him. Oh well.

Food of the week: Gemsbok (pronounce the G like the "ch" in loch). It's some sort of deer.

Quote of the week: me "yes, I'll go sandbarding down the dunes". That's happening tomorrow. Will update on that next week, assuming I'm not still attempting to climb out of sand.

Bye.

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Photos

Local woman in Germanic clothing
Actually I got a better picture than I remembered.

Giraffe
A giraffe

Lion
The poor old lion.

Zebra
A zebra.

Comments

[Al]

Friction
Am deeply jealous of wild-life spotting, even the scorpions. Also, some fellow feeling for the elderly lion who's discovering what there's nothing more pathetic than. Hope all goes well with the sandpapering - sorry, boarding - tomorrow.