Our Mauritius stop over was probably very different from most people's image!For a start it was no swanky hotel on the beach, but rather La Bamboo, a guest house quite a distance from the beach in the town of Mahebourg. Whilst the idea of relaxing on the beach had some merit, our plan was to experience a bit of the real Mauritius, not just a multi national resort.We arrived at about 9.30pm and immediately fell into conversation with our fellow guests, who wer...

Arriving at borders, shell shocked from a night's bus travel, has a surreal feel. We arrived at the border of Namibia and South Africa just as daylight was dawning, after being on the bus for some 10 hours. Get off the bus, out with the passports - fill out the declaration forms - go through the leaving procedures. Then it is back on the bus, over the bridge of the Orange River and off again, and go through the passport, declarations, etc all over again.We w...

Yes, it finally happened - a reunion with our luggage! We left Swakopmund very early and found it quite a picturesque journey back to Windhoek, We chose to take the sealed road all the way rather than the shorter unsealed route. Eerily there were quite dense patches of fog which slowed us down somewhat and then whilst we were still some 80 km out of Windhoek, the petrol gauge suddenly dropped from 1/4 full to dead empty. This is not a land where petrol stations a...

Perfect seafood and lots of it! That is the most endearing memory of Swakopmund. We usually eat fish and seafood quite often, but in Africa it is not that easy to find, however in Swakopmund we were spoiled for choice.We arrived quite late in town and checked into the Dunes Backpacker Lodge that we had found on the Internet. It turns out they mostly cater for the big truck tour groups, but allowed us a four bed dorm room, with bathroom on our own. We set off for...

Namibia is a bit like Australia - everywhere is a long way, away and there is not too much to see on the journey!After a few more dramas and delays, we finally set off for Sesriem (the gateway to the biggest sand dunes in the world) about midday, in our little Avis hire car, with hired sleeping bags and pillows. On the way we stopped at a strange town called Rehoboth for lunch, where everything was barred, the service station was a bit like a bank tellers cage, w...