7th SEPT - After sunbathing on a raft in the middle of the Orange River we all packed up and set off on Shangani to head to the Fish River Canyon, Namibia - the 2nd biggest behind the Grand Canyon. Crossed the border and collected my first Namibian stamp - everyone is on a mission to get the most passport stamps and me and Nats are lagging thus far. We drove across the Namib Desert thus the scenery completely changed, obvioiusly very dry and arid with cloudless skies - more like the Africa you expect. South Africa was much greener and cold/cloudy! Our tour guide Heini is Namibian so a good guide to have here and he was very passionate about selling his country to us - not that he needed to, Namibia is fab. The roads became very bumpy and more like tracks in parts as we looked out at a vast uninhabited area and I worried about Shangani breaking down! Wouldn't quite be like breaking down on the M62! We reached the Canyon just before sunset so we could watch the sun go down - the canyon itself was breathtaking and made even better by the sun setting behind the rocky landscape. This evening we had our first taste of Heini's traditional Namibian cooking - a beef stew type thing - obviously with PAP...and so to bed.

8th SEPT - The first of many early mornings we set off at 5.30am for a day on the road towards 'Soussevlei' to see the sand dunes of the Namib. This was a 10 hour drive. You forget how massive these african countries are. We stopped at a settlement called Bethanie basically in the middle of nowhere, the people here Heini described as 'yellow people' and...they were. They come from a specific tribe called the Nama Tribe and to be honest they look pretty scary. Their eyes are somehow too far apart, their faces flatter and their skin pretty yellow. I actually thought i was in 'The Hills have Eyes' or similar when i walked into the supermarket. The people are very poor here and don't ever leave the 'town'. They speak the 'click' language which is THE hardest thing to master ever. Heini had attempted to teach us, not very successfully. There are Springbok jumping around everywhere around Namibia, but interestingly none in South Africa who have the Springbok as their national animal?!

9th SEPT - Another early morning - 5am wake up in order to reach Dune 45 before sunrise. Dune 45 stands at 120m and we were to climb it! I set off at rather a pace - error. We all walked up in line along the narrow edge of the dune. It was hard. Walking in sand is about 100 times more difficult and it seemed to go on forever. I kept thinking i was near the top but no...I was following Andy who is a mega fit 60 odd year old who paced up there like it was nothing - put me to shame! The view at the top watching the sun come up was definitely worth it though, despite us all being massively out of breath and having developed a chesty smokers type cough! The wind was blowing and I feared falling off the top in a sand drift/storm...but i didn't i'm still here :-) In the afternoon we carried on through the Namib Nakluft National Park stopping at a few small settlements along the way. Still amazes me that people inhabit such places where there is not another town for miles and miles to say the least. We had pictures at the Tropic of Capricorn and eventually reached our first bushcamp! Basically our home for this evening was in the middle of the desert - just a random pitch not a designated camping ground. No facilities, just us and our tents - amazing. We set up camp and after a bit of rock climbing settled down for Bangers and Mash Supper! We sat round the campfire toasting marshmallows underneath the stars - cliche but that's how it was, just amazing. Still amazes me how much amazing food we've been able to cook on just campfire and the stove in the truck. The truck is so well equipped with everything we need compacted very nicely.

10 SEPT - I was first up this morning as i couldn't sleep, the sun hadn't even risen and Heini was still snoozing so i took myself off for a nice little bush wee in the dark ha! I refused and still do to do anything more than this as it involved taking a shovel along with you and digging yourself a nice little hole for a toilet and you can imagine the rest...today we reached Swakopmund, the adventure capital of Namibia and stayed in a HOSTEL. Slightly different to last night! It was bizarre being in a 'real' town after what we'd been used to and to be honest it still feels that way, i'm missing the bushcamps and nothingness! Swakopmund itself is a really nice little town and is where tourists tend to reside if they visit Namibia. This evening Heini took us on a tour of his own Township called 'Mondesa' which is where his family live and where he also lives when he is not on the road. This evening was one to remember - it is one that sticks in my head and will forever. Basically he took us around the township, visiting local Shebeen's (pubs), shops (little shacks, see the pics). This is a more developed townships - you could tell - less shacks and more houses made out of actualy bricks. There were children playing football in the streets, riding bicyles which looked like they were about to give way, people walking back from a days work in the town, small businesses on the side of the road. I bought a 'fat cookie' from one lady - basically like a doughnut but they eat it with main meals. Andy got his beard shaved in a barbers - again a shack and cost him about 20p! The communities here are so close knit it's great. You wouldn't come here alone however but we felt safe with Heini. We visited a local Medicine Woman who showed us all her lotions and poitions made out of various plants and one particular one from some animals testicle - i forget which poor animal it was.But Toni managed to drop the testicle on her lap which was nice for her. We visited the 'DRC' which is basically the informal/illegal part of the township, a couple welcomed us into their house which was acutally amazing, i could live there myself ha! Although no electricity wouldn't be fun. Their sun Daniel told me about his love for rap/hiphop (he had Snoop Doggy Doggg posters up on his wall) then tried to teach all uf Mzungus click langauge. Then we had the finale and went to Heini's house where literally gazillions of kids (his family and neighbours) welcome us by dancing and singing and sat us down for a formal African style meal - the food was interesting...FIT chicken and fat balls though. They then treated us to about an hour of dancing and music, and some kid dressed as Michael Jackson did a Jacko dance which i reckon he could actually win 'Africa's Got Talent' for! The kids couldn't get enough of us. A night i will remember forever. Back at the hostel we got a small bit drunken after everyone was on such a high from our evening, good job we had a real bed to get into!

11 SEPT - Today was activity day, i was going to skydive but it was not as cheap as i thought, more expensive than if i were to do it in Oz so i decided on quad biking. Southern Africa really is not cheap, not much cheaper than home, and is much more developed than my stereotypical little brain expected. Hoping India will ease the wallet a little! We visited an open market where i perfected my haggling technique and got collared by the most amount of Namibian men you could ever wish for, then onto quads in the aft. We rode for 3 hours over the sand dunes, views were to die for however me and Soph would have liked to have gone a little faster me thinks. We had a meal at a local game restuarant where i had Springbok steak with 'skydiver sauce' - secret recipe appartently but oh my word it was amazing. The best steak dish ive had. The service was typically african, very slow but the food made up for it. TIA (This is Africa). We went to some local bars/club and had my first rather drunken evening in Africa. Me and Nat ended up back in the township with Heini and his cousin after running around the beach and going for what would in england be a cheesy chip stop - which in nat's case was actually a 'snoek' stop - a local fish. Then we rocked up at Heini's house as you do, the most random end to a night out i think everrr. Reprobate lives on ha! Perhaps mine and Nat's vocation in life is to shack up in a township ja?!!?

12th SEPT - Today i went to perhaps the stinkiest place on the planet - the Cape Cross Seal Colony. Basically gazillions (80-100,000) of cape seals live here on the shoreline up this part of the Namibian coast. It was amazing to see so many of them however i had to walk around with my finger and thumb strictly clasped to my nose so as not to breathe any air. Fit. All seals do is eat, sleep, waddle about and make a load of noise. Me and Soph decided they were quite like ourselves really. We made our way to our next bushcamp experience for the night at Spitzkoppe where we would camp beneath the rock formations of Damaraland. This evening we had performances from everyone in the group according to their nationalities. The Brits did a rendition of Spice Girls, I was of course Baby and Nat Ginger. Then a bit of jeremy kyle sketcg. This is England. Great. Generally a pretty comedy value night from all!

13th SEPT - We set of early for our first night in Etosha National Park for our first taste of safari - exciting times. Stopping at a place called 'Outjo' we came across traditional 'Ovahimba' woman at the side of the road selling various items. They come from the traditional Himba tribe and paint their bodies and wear specific clothing made from animals etc and these clothes do not cover their breasts. And wow I would say they were more like udders, well especially the older woman. One lady had the cutest baby ever. Our campsite was amazing, gorgeous pool and bar area and the highlight was definitely the Waterhole just below our camp where you could go sit to watch the animals come by to drink. The waterhole was lit up with spotlights in the evening and we sat by very quietly and admired elephants, giraffe, lions etc come by for an evening drinky. The giraffes are hilarious when they drink they basically do the splits to get their long bodies down to the water. Seeing the lions cruise by and scaring off everyone else was pretty special. There are Jackals (a bit like wild dogs) everywhere and they roam about the campsite like they own it. They can be very aggressive though, at one point one just hopped across the bench we were sitting on and over the fence to the waterhole. The fence between us and the waterhole was scarily small, a lion would have no trouble hopping over.

14th SEPT - Set off early for our first safari. Etosha which means 'Great White Place' covers and area 110km by 60km and is home to the Big 5 which we really hoped to see. Since it's the dry season there are many man made waterholes dottted around the park which you can see numerous animals at all the time. It's a good time to visit because you can guarantee the animals will be here as it's a reliable water source for them when others are all dried up. At the first waterhole there were many animals - zebra, Springbok, Impala (they are everywhere, like little bambis), hartebeest, kudu, oryx. They were all on the constant look out for dangers - ie approaching lions etc. A hyeena trotted in at one point and scared the whole lot away. Aherd of elephants were splashing around at another waterhole, the little baby elephants kept slipping, looked like they we on Dacning on Ice!. At the next was a family of lions chilling out, and later we saw some male lions laid sunbathing in the afternoon sun at side of the road. They were looking after about 5 lion cubs, then one by one four females came out of the shaded area they had been resting and wandered right by the truck. Photo Opportunity me thinks! One female had blood stains all over her from a recent kill. That evening Soph and I decided to try sleep out by the waterhole, sleeping bags in tow we set up camp on the rather uncomfortable bench! We lasted til about 3am which we thought was pretty good going. Along the way we saw rhino, elephant, giraffe who were visited by a couple of lion packs at various points. We were more worried about the jackals attacking us again though!

15th SEPT - Today we reached the capital of Namibia, Windhoek. Very bizarre to be in such a built up place and i didn't like it. Where were all the animals!?We ate at a gorgeous game restaurant which is infamous around here called 'Joe's Beer House'. Was all set outdoors with ponds, palms, wooden huts and tables like an exotic beach bar. Fab.Tomorrow would be our first stop in Botswana.