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Somebody might have told us that Pavarotti had died!
Angela and I had tickets to the opera singer's farewell concert at Reading's Madjeski stadium in 2005 but it was cancelled with the promise of a re-scheduled date, tricky one to arrange now!
Having said in my last postcard (I'm sorry but I hate calling them "blogs", that word sounds like something you clear out your nostrils) that we needed to speed up our trip a bit, we've done the opposite and dropped anchor at the Alte Brucke campsite in Swakopmund for over 2 weeks now.
Given that most of you reading this are in the midst of the usual wet windy and cold winter, it will be difficult to understand our joy at waking up to damp, misty, cold and overcast conditions.
A pelican wing flap inland from us is one of the driest deserts on earth, the Namib Naukluft, but on this coastline we wake up each morning to cloud and overcast conditions. This affords Angela the chance, readily and eagerly taken, to lounge in bed until lunchtime and it gives me the opportunity to sit at the laptop and write this drivel and wade through thousands upon thousands of photo files and do some metaphoric animal culling.
Another reason why we are staying here so long is that Alte Brucke provides that camping luxury beyond all other luxuries, your own personal toilet, and shower. When people ask us what we miss about home whilst on our trip the first thing on my list is the toilet. I'm OK about sharing showers but call me "old fashioned" if you want, I do like a personal toilet.
Whilst reflecting on the joys of camping you may recall we've mentioned South Africans and in particular Afrikaaners in previous missives. Strange then that we are actually missing them here in Namibia!
Alte Brucke is full of European couples in rental 4x4s with rooftop tents doing the 3 week Namibia circuit either clockwise (Sossusvlei then Etosha) or anti clockwise (Etosha then Sossusvlei). A friendly greeting from us usually shocks them or has them wondering if or where we've met before. Their response is usually short, polite and final (perhaps Angela frightens them, she scares the life out of me!)
Contrast this with last Christmas in Tsitsikamma National Park where our neighbours had introduced the whole family, vividly described their medical ailments and invited us to dinner, all within 5 minutes of our arrival!
As always there are exceptions. Alte Brucke is where we first met Susie and Florian, who are no doubt working very hard to complete and furnish the guest suite ready for our visit (don't rush it guys, we'll be out here for at least another 6 months). If only Arjan and Patricia had given us that polite "Well, thank you…..now mind your own business" response when we met in Maun, Botswana, we'd have skipped the Moremi trip with them and avoided hours repairing a Defender 110!
To those of you wondering what there is to do in Swakopmund, the answer is, not much! That's to miss the point though, thanks to the climate this is a lovely place to do "not much"
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