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Western Namibia is defined by the barren and desolate landscapes of the Namib Desert. The Nama wor for 'Namib', which inspired the name of the country,means ' vast dry plain'.
Woke up at 5, leaving at 6 for the game drive. After 2 hours we stand at the gates of the Etosha, grab breakfast and we start driving through the reserve encountering giraffes, kudus, wildebeests. First the landscape was still green, but bushy. The deeper we drive into the namiboan desert, the more arid it gets and it is stunning how i get into this desert feeling: nothing, simply nothing, just the heat and dry earth and from time to time a small bush jumps infront of the trucks sidewindows.the "fata morgana " fascinates me, i've been staring at it for the last hours.
This is awesome: i am sleeping in the namibian desert. The earth underneath my sleeping mat is still hot, really hot. Next to a waterhole, where there will probably be no animals cause we are in the middle of the summer here and it's too hot for them, but anyway, the roaring lions can stil be heard, we planed to wake up at 2 am and check for animals, so now i will just wait for Gaz to shake my tent IF he will wake up! The campsite is insanly expensive: 25 $ per night per person in a tent, 160$ for a room. This is namibia! They know they can make so much money out of tourism and they don't really like overlanders and travellers on a shoestring. In Etosha we are not even allowed to open the beach on the teuck cause the police simply doesn't like this idea, and we get a fine of 2500 rand, which is about350 $!!
The next morning, on our way out from Etosha, we saw a lion family with 2 cubs, feeding a kill, we just missed! Then we continued driving to the Cheetah Park where we will stay for another night. The cheetah farm story: in Namibia farmers are allowed to shoot cheetahs if they attack their animals. Those 3 guys who run the cheetah farm, have decided to keep the felines in a tamed environment, even though it's not their natural one, because it's still a better life for them that being shot dead til they will be endangered. Although they keep them for the tourists, but the money they get go for the food. So it's a pretty fair deal and good for the animals.
About how things are going concerning the trip... In the beginning the end of it seemed so far away, and i had this constant " on the road feeling" , when the finish line is so far away that i didn't even have to think about it. But now we have the last page of the itinerary on the board, there are 13 days left but still so much to see and do! Sometimes I don't feel like coming home, although i miss it, but it is still so comfortable to be on the road all the time, tent up in the evening, dinner, put tent down in the early morning- before sunrise, eat breakfast and watch the sunrise from the truck while the Old Foxy Lady heats up it's engine. It's a on the go lifestyle which i completly enjoy, just that the people here make me a bit tired, because some of them moan more than others, they gossip around- which i do understand, cause after 4 month on this truck with the same people and nothing is going on, certainly when anybody does something interesting,
everbody talks behind your back and you get all sort of eyesights and weird smiles. But yeah, thats trucklife! I would love to travel for an unlimited period of time, and have nothing to go back home to, but that is not my case, i missed that train, so i just have to thonk about catching the next one and make the best out of the momebt. Get momentum! :) i am really looking forward to take this sort of trip with you, my friends, and try to make a lifestyle out of it. People say it's going to be hard to travel with friends, but you can get enough time of your own i you need it and if I survived with those people, WE as friebds will definetly have a brilliant time. And all in all it's the cheapest way to travel and it' s
Reaaaaaally safe! If somebody can travel and enjoy it by spending 1-3$ a day on food per person... You will getall my respectand admiration. This is how much we spend aday.
Oh! A kudu just ran in front of our truck. That was a hard brake!
So now, full speed ahead to visit a Himba tribe and then : Skeleton Coast here we come! Bushcamping on the coast and hiking The White Lady.
The Himbas were really interesting, but they are sustained by this woman who charges tourists to see the village and gives them allthey need. But that for they don't do much, just sit and drink beer and do some handcrafts. The women make some dreadlocks with red clay in their hair and they put the clay all over their body in a matter of aesthetics.
Then Jules had a surprise for us and we took an amazing route thru the Namib Desert and went to see some rockpaintings. Brilliant colours!
We had the most amazing bushcamp in the heart of the namib desert! Baked red sand, the air was so hot as if it came from the hairdryer, the light so bright that it almost blinded me. We were into the desert nowwith the hot wind cutting across the plains, the country arid and dusty. The road was edged by dry yellow grass and thinly spaced quiver trees. Volcanic rock on all sides, sharp as razors, the landscape isalmost lunar. We rode across thee desert all the way to the sea, following the Skeleton Coast. You smell the salty air of the Atlantic Ocean while being in the desert and then i suddenly appearson the right hand sise, this vast and heavy liquid beauty, splashing it's waves on the wrecked ships on shore. We continue to the smelly seal colony, which starts to be overpopulated so it was not unexpected to see decapitated baby seals under the bridge... I don't understand why they don't have the right to live, they don't even get the chance...:(
All in all the desert is stuning, and we still have one bushcamp left tonight. We haven't met one single person for two days, not even a car. So beautiful and quiet but i still think people make up the places, the roadside; without them the landscape is beautiful but empty.
I hiked up Spitzkoppe, it was a bit of an adventure and i was going alone. I didn't really enjoy it because of that. We went early to bed, had a 9 hours sleep and we got reasy fir Swakopmund! Yuhuuuu! Skydiving here i comeee! Jules was really sweet this mornin: because we are not going to have meals off the truck for the next 3 days, she gave each of is 100 Namibian Dollars for the meal, i really appreciate this! She is like a mama for us!:)
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