Cape Town to Nairobi Day 13 Windhoek

It was our last day in Namibia and one traveler finished here and we picked up a new one. The new guy, 60ish from Ireland, had done a double decker bus tour the day before and wasn’t prepared for the sun and is now suffering 2^nd degree burns all over his face. What a crappy way to start a trip! He’s only with us for about a week until we reach Livingstone and half our group will change.

We crossed the border in Botswana and immediately noticed lot of livestock on the road. There are no fences keeping animals off the road here and it slows down the drive. Cows, horses, goats, donkeys, everywhere! We are also told not to drink the tap water anymore. I have been strictly on bottled water but lots of others have been filling their bottles from the tap. It’s a chance I wasn’t gonna take!

We turned off the highway and followed a goat trail into the wild unknown and found our camp in the bush, in the middle of nowhere. Weird. And it has a bar and a restaurant and we have the option to sleep in grass huts for a whopping $5. They have beds in them on a cement pad and it means I don’t have to tackle our stinky tent just yet, besides, it’s just gonna rain again tonight anyway, I just know it!

We have a couple of options to take part in tonight and tomorrow such as a bushman walk, which I’m not sure what is encompassed, and some traditional singing and dancing. I’m still tired from the night before so I’ll just see how I feel when the moment arrives.

Cape Town to Nairobi Day 11 Waterberg Plateau

This morning when we woke up we could hear the Baboons in the hills making an extra amount of noise. It’s a weird sound, to me it sounds like men with deep voices grunting and screaming. Our guide said there was probably a leopard or large snake in the baboon camp and that’s why they were yelling so loud and so much. It was an eerie way to wake up. I much preferred waking up to the lions roaring when we were in Etosha!

Today is just a short drive to Windhoek, which is about 300,000 people and we get to stay in a hotel!! YAY!! No messing with that damn tent! Although it was put away wet and probably stinks now….oh well!

Since the drive is short we stop at a coffee house that has a crafts market across the street. I went to check out the crafts before grabbing a coffee but I didn’t stay long. The set up is like a whole street full of single car garage sized shops all selling the same thing. The crappy part is that you have half a dozen men trying to get you to their shop and you are constantly followed closely with them almost trying to trick you into buying something. I touched a cloth that had a painting of 2 Giraffes on it and right away the guy took it down and tried to force me to take it. I have a habit of touching everything while I shop and here if you touch it means you want to buy it. I need to keep my hands in my pockets! Even when in one persons shop there are 3 or 4 other men waiting for you to come out so they can try to get you to go to their shop. I browsed for a bit but then a large woman yelled at me to buy something from her and I didn’t understand her and so she yelled at me again to buy from her and support her, that’s when I decided I would just go have a coffee, lol.

We got to Windhoek around noon and were dropped off at a mall to kill a couple hours until our hotel was ready for us. The lobby was nice, the rooms were mediocre, the internet connection was horrific!! Facebook and Blog sites were blocked and the connection took forever and often cut out.

We went to Joe’s Beer House for supper, which was great! It’s kind of an indoor/outdoor set up where the tables were covered but you had to run through the rain to another canopy for the bar. I got to try some Zebra – delicious, Crocodile- kind of like fishy chicken breast, Ostrich- delicious but I’ve had it before, Kudu- yum!, and something else I can’t remember (I also had a bottle of wine!) All the food was great! Everyone loved it.

Cape Town to Nairobi Day 10 Etosha Day 2

Lions!!! Almost immediately during our morning game drive! Plus Rhino, Turtles, Kudu, Giraffes,  Gnu, Zebra, and a drink or two! 

Cape Town to Nairobi Day 9 Etosha National Park

 It was a late start today and nice to be able to sleep in a bit. As always we made a couple of quick stops to look at assorted things. One plant we checked out is called the Dinosaur Plant. The one we saw we were told would be approximately 900 years and the oldest ever is dated around 2000 years.

We made it to Etosha National Park around 3pm after searching for animals and finding some Impala, Griaffes, Oryx, Gnu, and a Chameleon. We checked out a watering hole at the campground that is set up with flood lights for night viewing and I saw some Zebra and a Gnu, set up camp, then went for a game drive. I finally got some pics of giraffes and a white rhino. There were lots of Springbock,  Jackels, and Guinney Hens. We drove for approximately 2 hours. The camp gates close at 7pm so we are back to camp early. I went to bed really early to try to kick this stomache sickness I’ve managed to pick up.  

Cape Town to Nairobi Day 8 Damaraland

Day 8 Damaraland

We got to sleep in a bit as our bus didn’t leave the hotel until 8:45. The drive was relatively short, maybe 6 hours, and we stopped in a little community called Uis (Wheess) for a bathroom break where we were charged R1 to use a bathroom that had no paper and the facet was falling off, lol. But 1 Rand is like 15 cents and it was better than peeing on the side of the road with oncoming traffic!

I keep laughing when Marietta says that it NEVER rains in Namibia and yet we have seen a rainbow nearly every day!

Today we seen a bit of the poorer side of the country and stopped at a roadside market to buy trinkets. The ladies dress in full dresses that I imagine would have been worn 200 years ago in the USA, and the hats…..well, that was completely unique! They were cloth caps with something like a cloth rolling pin across the front

We spent the night at a campground. No pool this time but there was the option to sleep outside and I chose to sleep in a straw hut. Some others slept on cement pads and the rest slept in the tents. After lunch we drove to a near by World Heritage site, Twyfelfontein, and checked out some ancient art work on the rocks. It was very awesome and I saw 3 different types of lizards or geckos.

After the hike we gave a ride to the 4 women working at the site and got a lesson in Damaraland language. They use 4 different types of clicks when speaking, none of which I can replicate, and they are used as exclamation points at the beginning of the words. The women also all had a design in gold on one of their front teeth. I didn’t have time to ask what that was all about.  

After a kick ass supper of some sort of creamed chicken with rice and veggies we went over to a gathering area for some local singing and dancing.  It was a lot of fun and we all joined in the dancing and singing at the end. All in all it was an okay day. Tomorrow will be Etosha National Park where we will do our first game drive. I’m EXCITED!!

Cape Town to Namibia Day 6

I LOVE Swakopmund!! LOVE IT!! I bought a couple small things, wandered along the beach, ate the best seafood I think I've ever had, enjoyed a couple glasses of great wine.... I love it here. No wonder Angelina Jolie and Brad Pit came here to give birth to one of their many children! What a beautiful town. It doesn't seem very big, maybe 40,000 people tops. I even had locals take MY picture, lol!!

I checked out a market and I'm apparently a sucker for a sob story of starving families and so on. I bought a couple of cheap nick nacks and ended up giving away a small bottle of bug spay and purell, I have lots and they seemed to need it more than me.

I walked down the pier to a little restaurant where I tried some amazing seafood and 3 glasses of wine. After dinner I gave the waitress $1 and asked her to give the cook $1 as well. Here that is a lot of money and when I went to the till to pay my R199 tab (equals approx $30 + I left a $3 tip on top of it all) they were all very happy to come and shake my hand and say good bye and invite me back. It just reminds me of the different economy's and ways of life that I am seeing here. So for my $35 I got an appy of 4 jalapano poppers that were the hottest I've ever eaten! They were pickled I think and stuffed with cream cheese and pecans, and a skewer of various fish and shrimp with fries and 3 glasses of wine. CHEAP!!

While I ate my lunch I watched seals playing along the shore line and I just chilled and enjoyed being away from the truck and all my new friends. Sometimes I just need a minute along to really absorb that fact that I'm in AFRICA! That's right! Half way around the globe and loving EVERY MINUTE!! I think this is the beginning of a long list of travels!

Cape Town to Nairobi Day 5

This is how the truck look so on the inside most of the time. Everyone sleeps alot, lol. Sometimes I burst out laughing watching people knocking heads together in their sleep. It look like a truck full of 3 year olds!

So today we are travelling from the desert to the ocean at Swakopmund. More driving! I saw an Oryx. In the pic it looks like he's in a field but the fence the road off to keep animals off it. And I saw 4 giraffes but I was too excited to actually see them that I didn't get any pics. I'm sure there will be many more to come in the weeks ahead.

We took a break at the Tropic of Capricorn for some photos and to make our truck a bit more unique.

Didn't I warn you that the bugs are CRAZY BIG???!! This is a cricket!! Afikan Style!

We made it to Swakopmund around 3pm and took some time to hang out before we met up for supper. I finally got to eat some local wild meat. That little Springbock was delish!! I can't wait to get to try it all! And just if anyone is curious it is only 27 C here in Swakopmund but it's overcast and we ARE on the ocean!! 

Cape Town to Nairobi Day 4

Today we are up before sunrise (5am) to drive farther into the desert for sunrise on the worlds largest sand dunes. I used to think I was a morning person but this trip is proving me wrong!

 


While we hiked the dunes our crew cooked us breakfast. As you can see from the picture, everything we need rides right under us in the truck. It amazes me that this truck can sustain 25 people for days at a time!

So after breakfast I did an optional drive deeper into the desert. Of course this costs extra, R150 or roughly $50, for 3 hours of a guided tour and a hike through some dunes to Sossusvlei. It's a very famous spot where the water evaporated 900 years ago and the petrafied trees remain standing. Jennifer Lopez filmed a part of The Cell here and they helicoptered horses over the dunes to bring them here. It was AWESOME!!

       

After the tour we headed back to camp which was only about 10km but I saw some Ostrich and Sprinbok.

The rest of the afternoon we took for ourselves because it is just too hot to do anything. I went to the pool and got a really great sunburn in what looks like a reverse farmers tan. I must have been standing in the water long enough to burn my shoulders but my lower arms are white, lol. I did some laundry in the shower, but to be honest I had been avoiding the showers and bathrooms since we got here. They are FILLED with moths from the night before and some of the biggest beetles and locusts I've ever seen. It's ridiculous!!

In the evening we went to a canyon and did some hiking then back to camp for an open fire cooked supper of chicken kabobs, sausage, potatoes, and home made bread. A couple bottles of wine rounded out the evening nicely and I slept like a baby. I have been sleeping surprisingly well in a hot musty tent.

Cape Town to Nairobi Day 3

Every morning we wake up around 6 am so we can have our bags packed, tents down, breakfast and truck packed by 7am. Breakfast is usually cold cereal, yogurt, and fruit. Some people have coffee or tea but I just find it too hot.

So day 3 we're up early and on the road heading to the Namibia Desert where we'll spend 2 nights. Alot of our roads are washed out so we spend some extra time detouring. Yay, more time in the truck in the sweltering heat! We still stop frequently, we try for every 2 hours, to take pictures, bathroom breaks, and stretch.

Today seemed to be snake day! First was a King Cobra that tried to climb into our truck and so we had to keep moving it. Second was a Black Momba, seen in the pic with our driver Jan (pronounced Yawn), and lastly was a Yellow Cobra that was sneaking in to huge bird nest. AMAZING!!!! A very exciting day! It must be from all the rain that the snakes are out. Marrietta (sometimes I call her Maza), our guide said she has never seen so many snakes in one day.

We made it to camp in the late afternoon and set up camp then we were on our own to check out the pool or hike some near by small dunes. I went off exploring with Lawn from Oregon and Naomi from Britain. We were looking for more snakes and checking out some of the crazy bugs in the area

The bugs in the area are HUGE!! Moths, beetles, crickets, all of them!! So after some adventures we sat around and had a few beers. Our start the next morning would be at 5am!!