I SURVIVED: 20 Day Camping Trip through Africa

I'm sorry about not posting in a while, as I was studying for exams and then I went on a 20 day camping trip through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and then Zimbabwe.  I know what you are all thinking, "Katie Carpenter is camping???" Yes, I, Kaitlyn Lintz Carpenter, slept in a tent that we had to pop up every evening and down every morning.  I actually now miss sleeping in the wilderness though.    I woke up two nights ago when I was in my bed again, disoriented, not knowing where I was and thinking I was in my tent.  Anyways, this was the trip of a lifetime.  I am so thankful to my parents for sending me on this trip and I am proud of myself for going and surviving.  I am going to break this trip up into 4 blog posts because otherwise you would be reading the one post for hours.  Each blog post will be a country traveled through.  I hope you enjoy reading my experiences that I had, and consider going on a trip like this yourself.  There is only so much joy these posts will bring you before jealousy takes over and you will want to explore Africa this way yourself :) Enjoy!

SOUTH AFRICA

Day 1:
After traveling to Cape Town and packing up in our super cool Overland Adventure Truck, we met our guides for the trip; Hofni, our tour guide/ cook and Dingi, our driver.  We could not have asked for better guides to take us through these countries.  They were full of knowledge of all sorts.  Hofni is from Namibia and knew basically everything about his country.  Dingi is from Zimbabwe and was an amazing driver on these terribly difficult roads that we encountered.  After loading in the truck, we went to view Table Mountain from afar, as some people had not yet seen it.  It was a super clear day in Cape Town, so we had a perfect view of this landmark that we would be saying goodbye to for a few weeks.  After the viewing we went about an hour out of Cape Town to visit an area where few Sun people (politically correct version), or rather "bush people" still live.  Here we learned how these people lived off of the land and natural resources.  They are both hunters and gatherers and live in little straw huts.  We got seven people in one of these huts, as this is how many people can sleep in one, and it was an extremely tight fit.  Props to them for living that way.  They fed us lunch there as well and we had minced meat with yellow rice and fresh bread with tomato relish.  We then drove up the West coast through the Cedarburg Mountains where we saw snow on the top of some of the really high peaks.  We haven't seen snow since we left home in January! We stopped for the night at an Orange Grove campsite.  We got to know some of the people that we would be spending the next three weeks with.  There were two Dutch girls, three German girls, two Canadian's, a girl from Columbia, a guy from Portugal, a guy from Wales, and us crazy Americans (or rather five of the greatest people you will ever meet!!).  After eating fresh oranges off of the trees for an appetizer, we had some of Hofni's delicious cooking and froze half to death in our tents.  As I was laying there that night, I was thinking how I would get home the next day, as I hated this camping thing because it was so cold.  Obviously it got better though as we went along and I didn't leave.

A final goodbye to our roommates and girls we were leaving behind at 6 am.  Melodi, Katie, Ally, and Lindsay accompanied me on the trip.

Melodi and myself in the little, baby hut.  We got seven girls total in this hut! It was a challenge.

The huts were very short. 

Day 2:
We had a 10 hour drive to the South Africa/ Namibia border ahead of us this day.  We stopped for lunch on the side of the road.  Basically all meals were included.  When we ate lunch, we would help Hofni prepare it.  It was a very breezy roadside lunch and the wilderness was our bathroom.  We stayed at a campsite right on the Orange River, on the South African side, over looking Namibia.  I took a shower over looking the river and when I looked up, I saw the gorgeous African stars.  There is nothing quite like the stars here in Africa, especially in the desert where there are no lights.  We slept well after a lovely braai, as it was nice and warm here.

Our campsite for the night.

Next up: Namibia!

xoxo,
kCl