CApe Town to Nairobi Day 1

The night before our departure we had a meeting to cover the basics. By this point the only person I have met on my tour is my room mate, Christina. She's 34, German through and through, tall, blonde hair, blue eyes, and a bit of a bitch.

Our meeting lasts for about an hour as we do paperwork and are told the truck leaves at 7am. The group consists of 22 people and 3 crew. There are 8 Brits, 7 Canadians, 1 or 2 each from Switzerland, Netherlands, Portugal, and USA. The oldest being 77 and the youngest at 18. Should be an interesting group!

In the morning we meet our truck outside the hotel. It's huge and I love it, and it will be my home for the next 40 days! I sit with a girl from Amsterdam, Nadine, she's really nice and reminds me of my sister in law, Jasmine.

We head out of Cape Town for our longest day (I hope). 10 hours of driving! We make frequent stops but there really isn't much to see for the first few hours. I thought the area looked a lot like southern Alberta and Sask. Dry farmland.

Our destination today is the Orange River which is in Namibia which means a border crossing from South Africa. When we pull up to the crossing we are told to put our cameras away or they will be confiscated and we can see a lot of military personel sitting around. The crossing takes forever because there are 25 of us and we have to check in on both sides.

It's 30 - 35 C here and my body is trying to climatize by drenching in sweat. It's a gross feeling for 10 hours in a truck with a bunch of people I don't know yet. We make it to our campsite just across the Namibia border and set up our tents in the dark, meet for supper, go for a swim in the pool, and pass out. I find out that several of our campgrounds will have swimming pools! Thank Goodness!!

Here is a pic of some nuts and seeds I bought for R14 (14 Rand) or approximately $2.50