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Well, the last 2 weeks have been an absolute blast. We have a great group - 23 of us in total - Marcus and Ollie (the tour leaders - both Brits) are great, Charles is our cook from Kenya and booms out 'Don't wait' when the kettle has boiled and tells us to do everything 'immediately'. We have a really mixed group - 50/50 gender split (which is fab!) and people from all over the world - UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Holland, Denmark and Norway. I've met a kindred spirit in Tanya from Canada - but she can't possibly replace my Evil Twin Michelle and I appear to have married a 23 year old Ozzie (we had his stag do last night which was hilarious!! Better not to ask questions on that one!).
Anyway, back to the trip. After bidding farewell to Cape Town we headed north to Citrusdal where we camped at Highlanders, a pretty spot on a winery. We spent the rest of the afternoon drinking Savanna cider (I had forgotten how much I love that stuff) in the pool and then tasted 7 wines (poured by ourselves - dangerous!!) which were delicious. Of course, I had to buy a couple of bottles for later so it ended up being a fairly drunken night. A few people were suffering the following day.
So, into Namibia - what a fabulous country. I had heard lots of great reports about it but couldn't imagine what could be so good about a country that is mainly desert and most of it is inhabitable - but it's stunning - different landscapes every hour, wonderful people (not many though as the population is only around 2 million), good food (oryx is my favourite meat so far). We stayed our first night in Namibia on the edge of the Orange River in Noordoewer, right on the border. Half of the campsite was flooded as the river had risen by something like 200% and was about 15 feet higher than usual and still rising! And bloody hell it was hot - over 40 degrees with no respite.
Our next stop was Fish River Canyon which is one of the biggest canyons in the world. We got there for sunset with some beers and it was beautiful. I then stayed up late with Kian and Bob and got ever so slightly drunk. The next 2 days were awesome. We camped in sight of the dunes at Sesriem and watched an amazing African sunset and then got up at 4am to walk up Dune 45 and watch the sunrise - what a fantastic sight. The climb on the sand was tough at that time in the morning but it was well worth it. We had breakfast at the base of the dune and then headed to Sossusvlei where it was so damn hot I actually felt like a rotisserie chicken and could feel my skin crackling under the heat.It was a stunning sight though. Bright orange sand dunes with a white ground and what looked like dead trees dotted around. It was almost like being on another planet.
We then spent 3 nights in Swakopmund which is a weird place as it's all very German so you feel a bit confused about where you are! It's the adrenalin capital of Namibia so lots of people did the whole skydiving and sandboarding thing but as I'd already done it, I used the time to catch up on internet stuff and chill out. We all had a very drunken first night which was the first time we'd really been able to properly let our hair down as we didn't have to pack up and set off early the next morning. Some of us did a fantastic tour on the 1st day - it was an afternoon in the township. I've always been a bit wary about this kind of thing but it was actually one of the best tours I've ever been on. We were accosted by a whole load of kids who were jumping on us and asking us to swing them. They were so confident and friendly although we did all share around the hand sanitiser afterwards!! We met Oma Lina who is the 86 year old chief of the Damar tribe and sat in her house asking questions as she spoke back in clicks - fascinating! We also met a lady in traditional dress from the Herero tribe and a herbalist with all of her weird and wonderful medicines. We then had a Damara clicking lesson which was great fun (but difficult) - it sounds fantastic when you hear people conversing at full speed. Finally we went to a shebeen for some traditional Oshivambo food including some ginormous caterpillars - most of us were gagging - not that they tasted bad but knowing what they were was just horrid! Anyway, a really worthwhile tour to go on and lots of fun too.
After our stint in Swakopmund, we stopped off at the stinkiest place on the planet - Cape Cross, which is home to an 80,000-strong seal colony. There were tons of babies as they give birth in December but a lot were dead which was horrible and certainly didn't help the smell! Then it was off to Spitzkoppe which is known as the Matterhorn of Namibia. We climbed up the rock for sunset which was just beautiful with the bright red skies - it's hard to capture properly in a photo. Some people slept outside on the top of the rock in just their sleeping bags but I decided to stick to my tent. Another early start the next morning as we headed to Etosha Park where our campsite had its own floodlit watering hole, although we didn't actually see anything there. After a game drive in the truck, some of us went out on a night drive. We saw a few small things including some baby jackals but none of the big stuff was there - we thought as it was Sunday they were perhaps having the day off! Still, it was nice to do.
On Monday we had an early start as we were driving right through the park to camp at the other end. We saw a lot of buck, giraffes but that was about it. Just as everyone was about to give up hope of seeing anything exciting (ie lions), we spotted a load of hyenas. We suddenly realised that they were chomping on the body of a rhino. The excitement on the truck was tremendous but then, as if all the gods were answering our prayers at once, we realized there was a lioness chomping away at the other end of the rhino. The lion and hyenas kept having a stand-off and there was almost a fight but the hyenas always backed off early and then surrounded the carcass and lion from a distance, I guess waiting for their chance. It was incredible to see and right on the side of the road. We actually think the rhino had been poached. We couldn't see properly but it looked as though its head had been totally removed and its hooves were also missing which was odd. Unfortunately we couldn't stay very long as we had a curfew at get to the next camp but the truck was buzzing after that.
After a brief overnight stop in Grootfontein and a visit to the bushmen's village (where I seemed to be emitting maternal vibes (HA!!) and attracted a whole load of kids who insisted on sitting on me and playing with my hair - where's the sanitiser and nit shampoo?!), we made it to Bagani to the Rainbow Camp where I upgraded to a hut as we are here for 2 nights. And it's from there where I'm writing to you now in a beautiful setting by the river (full of hippos and crocs), nursing a hangover after a very heavy night last night where we drank numerous shots, including something called Royal Vodka which is the most bizarre (and horrible) thing I think I've ever had. It's 96% proof (yep, you did read that correctly) and you swill it around your mouth for 5 seconds before swallowing it. I thought my mouth was on fire and then everything went numb. We were all dribbling as we couldn't control our lips and it was almost as though we had had an anaesthetic at the dentist. The tip of my tongue is still numb today! On top of that we had mampoer, better known as hakkiesdraad (which is what Peet has fed me before - the bottle has barbed wire around it!!), tequila which I never drink, Springboks which I love and various other weird and wonderful things! The boys started dropping one by one with Ollie first who passed out over Tanya at the bar and had to be carried to bed. He was closely followed by Andrew who also passed out in a chair and then Marcus who was out cold but still clutching his beer - yes, our 2 fearless tour leaders were the first to drop! A very fun night though and of course there's been lots of gossip this morning. My hut has been a bit of a drop-in centre as people have wandered in and out to dissect everyone's antics and catch up on various snippets of gossip!
Anyway, this trip is shaping up to be possibly the best one yet - it really is all about the people. That's what makes a country or an experience memorable. You can be in the best place in the world but if you're surrounded by idiots you only remember the worst parts - and vice versa - the crappy places can be made fantastic with good company. So, I'll leave you on a high note from a country that is going on my list to come back to. I think my blogs will be few and far between in Africa - I only seem to get internet access about once a week - if that - and it is usually very slow. I have a lot to say about the places I'm visiting but just don't seem to have the time to put it in writing. So, some of it will just have to be a case of what goes on tour, stays on tour!!
Latest pics as usual are on picasa. Until next time………
- comments
Debs Fantastic reading mate sounds like a blast...be sure not to burn out...I want all the unwrittable news on your return...Safe, fun trip. Love mex
Evil Twin ET is happy to still be number tent buddy. Your blog is very nostaglic trip down memory lane for me. Loved Africa, glad you are too, the interaction with locals only gets better the further north you go.