Namibia: "God was eager when creating this country"

NAMIBIA

Day 3:

We woke up to a beautiful morning with only a slight chill in the air.  We traveled the short distance to the border.  South Africa was a painless crossing, but at the Namibia border, we ran into some issues.  Anna-Maria, the girl from Columbia, wasn't let into the country because she didn't obtain a VISA before we got there.  No one else needed a VISA, but she did and it could not be purchased at the border.  She ended up having to return to Cape Town on a bus.  Hofni kept telling us that "T-I-A; This Is Africa, expect the unexpected".  This was our motto for the whole trip.  We then drove to the Fish River Canyon.  After crossing the border, we encountered dirt roads and did not see paved roads again until Windhoek (Day 12).  We experienced the "African Massage" on all of the dirt roads as they were very bumpy.  On the way to the canyon, we saw several groups of huts where the people of Namibia live.  There are only about 2 million people in all of Namibia, but it is a very poor country.  These huts were made of reeds and straw.  These people did not all have jobs.  The ones that did worked on nearby grape farms, the ones that didn't waited until people came looking for workers on grape farms.  This are in which they live is super windy all year around as well as their houses being like ice boxes in the winter and ovens in the summer.  That night, we hiked along the Fish RIver Canyon, the World's second largest canyon, next to the Grand Canyon.  After hiking along it and stopping to take several pictures, we watched the sun set over the canyon while enjoying some of Africa's greatest wonders: Savannah Dry Hard Cider.  Our dinner included brussels sprouts and they were actually good (Mom, don't plan on feeding them to me anytime soon though!).  

The huts people lived in at the base of the mountain. 

The tiny huts the people lived in. The ones with no roofs were the bathrooms.

The roads we drove on for the next ten days.  This one was the most smooth of all of them. 

Ally, Melodi, Katie^2, and Linds all in the front of the truck.

The whole group in front of the canyon. 

The Canyon

On the edge of the canyon- a little nerve wreaking.

Random piles of rocks in the middle of the pathways.

Literally the only tree in the whole canyon. 

Watching the sunset over the canyon with some of the best friends a girl could ever ask for! 

Day 4:

After a 10 hour drive full of African massage, we stopped at the Namib-Naukluft National Park.  Here we hiked into the Sesriem Canyon for the sunset while enjoying a bottle of wine that tasted like soap.  Katie and I DJ-ed from the front of the truck, a different view than the back, on our way back to camp from the canyon while enjoying the colors of the sunset.  There were jackals that roamed by our tents that night while we slept.  We were literally in the middle of nowhere.  I bought a bottle of wine for R80 when it should have cost me about R30, ye-haw!! 

Inside of the canyon

The canyon 

Does anyone else see the old man in the rocks?

The girls in the canyon; Mel, Katie^2, Ally, Linds.

Beautiful colors in the sunset.

DJ Katie^2!!!!

Day 5:
We woke up at 4:30 am this morning so we could be the first ones in line for Dune 45.  Dune 45 is part of the world's largest dunes- The Sossusvlei Dunes.  We watched the sunrise from the top of the dune, arguably one of the prettiest moments in life.  The sand on the dunes were an intense orange color and the sunrise over the dunes reflected wonderful, bright colors on the sand warming it up for our cold little tootsies.  After a delicious egg breakfast at the bottom of the dunes, we packed up and headed for Solitaire, Namibia's smallest town.  To be called a town in Namibia, all that is necessary is a gas station, a general store, and a post office.  This was basically all they had, except for a German bakery as well which was famous for their apple pies.  From Solitaire we went to the Namib-Naukluft National Park where we were staying for the night.  We went for an early evening 4x4 drive in the desert.  There, a local expert taught us how the bushman survived in the harsh desert conditions.  He told us why to never take shelter under a lone tree in the desert during lightening.  This is because it is basically a lightening rod.  The roots go down 80 meters into the ground.  We saw two dark spots in the sand in one area of the desert from where two trees were stuck and burnt down.  We were also taught how to eat a lizard, he showed us a dead gemsbok, and then we watched the sunset over the mountains.  After dinner, we went to the "bar: which was right by the water hole.  There was no electricity in the camp ground, so using a large torch, we saw lots of zebras and gemsbok just feet from us.  There was one point when they all got spooked and ran away from the water hole and we wondered what they could see that we couldn't.  There are leopards and cheetahs around the area so it was a little nerve-wreaking. That night I went to sleep with the sound of zebras frolicking right by all of our tents.

The start of the sunrise.

Dunes for miles.

The orange of the sand was brilliant. 

The sunrise over the dunes.

Getting ready for the 4x4 desert drive.

The Namibian desert

Where the trees that were struck by lightening burned. 

Me, Linds, Ally, Mel, and Kitty

The dead gemsbok antlers. 

The dead gemsbok. 

Katie^2 and the sunset.

The sunset and moon.

The truck and the way we set up our dinner along with Andrew and David.

Our delicious chicken dinner.

Day 6:
We got to wake up after the sun rose today, which was a rare luxury.  We stopped at the Tropic of Capricorn and the Walvis Bay Lagoon where we saw tons of flamingos.  After a wonderful, hot shower, we enjoyed a wonderful diner out and drinks in Swakopmund, a town found by German settlers.  We got to sleep in real beds this night and the next night at a hotel!  They were nothing special, but felt luxurious to all of us.

Our lovely Overland Adventure truck!

The Tropic of Capricorn! 

Thousands of flamingos!

Day 7:
Due to our early to bed; early to rise sleep schedule, we went to bed at 10 pm and woke up around 7 am, even though it was completely unnecessary.  After a nice hard breakfast, we made a trip to the beach and the boardwalk.  I then went skydiving later in the day with Marga (a girl from Holland) and David (a guy from Wales) over the Namibian desert.  Skydiving was the highlight of this trip for me.  I was never nervous about jumping out of the plane, which made me a little worried.  Generally a person would be nervous and want to stay in the plane.  My tandem master was Jack-Ass, and boy was he a jack-ass.  We ate dinner after at Jetty's 1905 on the end of the pier over the ocean.  The floor had several glass windows in it, where you could look down and see the water.  I had delicious Sweet-n-sour ribs for dinner along with Jalapeño pepper poppers that were so hot that I began to tear up.  This place was so fancy that they brought finger bowls for us to clean our hands with after dinner.  Needless to say, I felt very out of place in my camping attire.  After dinner we hung out at the hotel bar with our bungee jumping "masters" and watched the DVD's of our plunge to death.

Marga and I in our pretty 80's jumpsuits.

The tiny ass plane.

Jack-Ass and me

Landing

Day 8:
We departed Swakopmund after a delicious hot breakfast and headed for the Spitzkoppe Mountains in the bush.  Our campsite was at the base of these mountains with long drop toilets and no water, ye-haw.  I did survive, but had to do so with lots of wine.  The mountains looked like they were airbrushed and fake, but that had a unique sense of beauty.  After a long day of sunbathing on the roof of our truck, we had a traditional African dinner consisting of pop (boiled corn meal) and onyx stew.  We then slept on top of the truck that night.  The stars on top of the truck were amazing and made up for the awful sleep I got on top of that hard-ass truck.  I would have rather slept on the ground.

Day 9:
We drove 5-6 hours on the bumpiest roads yet and got an extreme African massage this fine, hot day.  We drove towards Kamanjab to visit the Himba tribe.  We saw giraffes on the way grazing casually on the side of the road.  The Himba tribe are pastoral people who breed goats and cattle.  In this particular tribe, there are 39 children, 25 women/wives, and 6 men.  The men are very dominant towards the children and women and the men practice polygamy.  We took rice and corn meal for the tribe as they accept help from the outside world, but stick to their roots.  Each age has different dress/ hairstyles for their different status' in the tribe.  The traditional Himba dress made us all think of National Geographic and these people looked like they were straight out of the magazine.  They use a red pigment and butter mixture to clean themselves and protect themselves from the sun.  They clean their clothes using smoke from a fire and their clothing is mostly made of cattle skin.  When the women turn about 15 and get their periods, they get long extensions in their hair and but the butter mixture in as well.  These people were amazing and the children were so loving.  Apparently they are attracted to white people, which seemed true after they were hanging all over us and giving us tons of love.

Kids playing in my sunnies.

This lovely sandy lolly was shared with me.

Our campsite

Day 10:

We drove to Ethosha National Park in the morning where I bought a super cut wooden owl statue!  When driving to our campsite, we saw an abundance if giraffes, zebras, springbok, gemsbok, wildebeests, and one ellie.  There were water holes at all of the campsites, but only jackals were spotted.  There were honey badgers running all around camp everywhere.

Day 11:
On our early morning gamedrive, we saw all of the animals that we saw the previous day plus one lion from very far away that was laying in the bush.  The animals at the water hole could sense its presence and were very alert the whole time looking its way, waiting for any movement.  I layer at the pool for the rest of the day after lunch and then after dinner went to the water hole where I saw a young male rhino drinking lot of water.

Day 12:
We traveled 7 hours to the city of Windhoek.  After a brief town tour, we walked around and did a little light shopping in the town center.  When we got to our lodge (another night in a real bed!!) Mel and I were stupid and went for a brisk swim.  It felt as if pins and needles were being stuck into my body, as it was about 60 degrees outside and 55 ish in the pool.  I had a fillet mignon for dinner at our lodge restaurant and we got to watch TV before bed! The little things we have at home such as a bed and TV were luxuries to us on this trip.