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Uh oh... go see if you can find a Tractor
We crossed another border into Namibia and most of the day was spent driving. We were going to bush camp that night, (Dale loves bush camping but we all whine because obviously there's no toilets or showers if you stay in the bush). Then Dale saw signs for a camp site so we headed for it. The roads were quite flooded in places and we stopped the truck to go investigate how deep the water was and whether we could get through okay. At which point all the children from a nearby village (just a lot of little mud huts) came running up to investigate the truck. Some of the poor things had swollen bellies so we gave them all our sweets. I'm sure it won't save them from starvation but it made them happy. Dale decided the truck wouldn't make it through the puddle so turned it around, we went over some sand and the truck got bogged- very stuck in the mud. Much to the entertainment of the villagers, even the adults came to have a look! I suppose it took 5 weeks to get stuck which isn't bad going really and it's quite fun.
John, Sam, Susan and I walked to the campsite to try and blag a tractor to come get us out as the digging wasn't working. I think they regretted sending us because we were lost after 2 minutes and had to walk back past the truck- whoops! With the help of some of the villagers who insisted they take us the entire 2ks we arrived at the campsite about 30 minutes later and set to work on the blagging! The campsite was beautiful (and well posh for being a campsite) and the people were really helpful they tried to use 2 land rovers to pull the truck out (it was good we got a lift back to the truck!). But they didn't work and we had to leave the truck there over night and the land rovers took us to the campsite, me and John were snobs for the evening and upgraded- it was only 15 quid for a double room and the room was stunning and had en suite- a god send! We were so made up we took lots of photos of the room- sad isn't it but ths is what camping does to you! It was my cooking groups turn to cook tea- which worked out quite well as the owners let us cook it up in the kitchen. It beats the gas stove or camp fire we normally have… we even had an oven (wow!) so we made garlic bread. The next day the locals helped us dig and we found a tractor... we got the truck un-stuck! I was feeding my breakfast to the kids and the skinny dogs on the sly so no body could accuse me of wasting food! Again I dont think it would have helped that much, but I was giving the most buttered bread to the kids that looked poorly- We are saving Africa one slice of buttered bread at a time- or something like that! We also give them some diesel, loads of bread that we hadn't eaten from the delta and some books and pencils.
The Walton's in Africa- Good night John boy!
The whole day was spent on the truck driving and Dale made us bushcamp. But we forgive him as we all decided to sleep in the truck because everybody couldn't be bothered to set up tents and he read us some traditional African stories till we fell asleep. I should point out that most people are in their 30's so we are all a little old for bed time stories but it was really nice! Had it not been for the snoring we would have had lush sleep! Check out the pics of us all on the truck it was somewhat of tight squeeze but John and I got lucky as we were the only couple we were allowed to put the double mattress on the floor! Peoples sleeping habits are so funny, there was lots of snoring, wind and chatting! Gabby is from Chile and was speaking Spanish in her sleep, I apparently was shouting "Did you see the lion? Did you see it? " Which is not what everyone wanted to hear and Jodie was really scared till she realised I was asleep!
Our Final Game Drive
The next day we were doing a game drive through Etosha National Park, we had a pyjama day (just because we can really) and stayed in pyjamas till we got to camp at tea time. Etosha is a beautiful park and we were spotting game as soon as we got into the park. We set up camp and had a couple of hours rest then did another evening game drive. Over the entire day we saw lots of elephants and giraffes who were doing the lovers thing where they wrap their necks around each other. The zebras were fighting and playing and we saw the springboks jumping around which was so funny to watch! We got really close to hyenas and saw bat eared foxes which are a difficult spot and really funny looking- so that was cool. So although we didn't see any cats we had a really good day. We all got wrong off Jodie because we were laughing lots and it would scare away the animals… I think the 20 ton truck is more likely to do that than us laughing! It was so funny getting wrong and we all got the inappropriate giggles… whoops! I just concentrated on moisturising my legs to stop laughing and John made use of the bush "facilities"- the others carried on laughing much to her disgust! That evening there was an amazing thunder and lightening storm and we got stranded in the tent until it passed. After tea we went down to the waterhole which is lit up by floodlights and you sit on a raised platform and wait to see if any animals come to drink from the watering hole. After waiting for ages some impalas cautiously came and played in front of us, it was really nice to see them at night in the wild. Then we headed to bed- or should I say roll mat.
The next day we drove out of Etosha and we got a lion spot- 8 lions with some cubs, they were quite far away but you could still see them clearly which was a nice way to end the final game drive!
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