On Wednesday 8th June we entered Namibia and on the drive to Windhoek, the capital city, we started to notice a considerable difference in the landscape. As we looked out of the windows of the truck, we saw large rocky mountains, with an endless land of dry shrubs. When we arrived in Windhoek, it instantly reminded us of South Africa, with its main street crammed with retail outlets, restuarants and cafes and a German feel. Along with with our new travel buddies, Greyson (from Canada) and Beckie (from Australia), we set out to explore the city, but with very little time due to having to stick to our very tight schedule. One of the best bargains of the day was Nat purshasing a pair of knee length black and white fluffy socks to keep her feet warm, due to the coldest winter Namibia had seen for 25 years!
That night all of us from the tour went out for dinner to a restuarant called 'Joes Beer House', famous for its game meat and had a unique decor of Namibian memorabilia collected over many years. One of the guys ordered a large piece of Kudu, which when it came out looked like it belonged on the table of King Henry VIII....it was huge. Pretty much everyone around the table tried a piece and there was still meat remaining.
The next morning we were back on the road heading up to Etosha National Park in the North of Namibia. As we drove through the park to get to our accommodation, we were fortunte enough to see pride of lions lazing around a watering hole. The campsite we stayed at had a watering hole with benches around it and a light reflecting on to the water.
That night, wrapped in a blanket and holding a cup of hot chocolate, we saw giraffe awkwardly drinking from the watering hole, as well as well as a black and white rhino arguing over whose turn it was to drink next.
Friday 11th June - WORLD CUP 2010 STARTS. Before heading out on our early morning game drive we popped down to the watering hole and saw a large group of zebra, drinking in sync with each other. On the game drive we saw the Etosha Pan, which is a large flat area where nothing grows due to the extremely high quantity of minerals in the soil. When we got back to the campsite everyone was anxious to watch the opening game of the World Cup, South Africa vs Mexico. Due to being in the middle of nowhere we knew this would be a challenge but luckily one of the staff hooked up his TV outside his house so that we could watch. By the end of the game we had half the camp site watching along with us and cheering on Bafana Bafana.
Our next destination was a place called Spitskoppe, in the west of Namibia set in an area called Damaraland. Spitskoppe translates 'sharp heads' due to the dramatic shape of the rock formation rising out of the ground. After arriving we went on a walk with a local guide who taught us about the local 'click !!!' language, how the Damara people lived off the land and bushman paintings of animals and tribal dances. We climbed up on the rocks and took in the beautiful scenery as the sun melted in to the distance. After watching a very disappointing England play in the local bar, we all slept out under the stars around a fire that mananged to burn throughout most of the night.
On our way to Swakopmund the following day we stopped off at the Cape Seal Colony which was very smelly and noisy. It was quite a sight seeing so may seals all together, literally lying on top of each other and also barking at each other to get out the way. The town of Swakopmund is often described as being more German than Germany as this became apparent after driving through the town and seeing all the German architecture and German flags. We were very lucky enough to have a dorm to ourselves at the backpackers as alot of the group decided to upgrade to a twin room after so many nights of sleeping on the ground in our tents. That afternoon we went out to the place where some of our group were going to do a skydive, which was pretty much in the middle of the desert. Everyone had a go at hitting a golfball into the desert while we waited for our friends to come back down to earth. In the evening we grabbed a few pizzas and along with Greyson and Beckie watched Germany demolish Austra;lia 4-0 (us English now know how that feels!).
Most of our group had decided to go sandboarding, so the next day after a hearty breakfast we all headed out to the dunes filled with excitement and also a bit of apprehension. We had a choice of either standing up or lying down so we both chose to stand up as with that choice we could try the lying down after trying the standing up. The dune we had to sandboard down was fairly steep and for a beginner it was definately no nursery slope. As Kim had snowboarded before he strapped on his board and headed down wiping out a few times and getting sand everywhere. Nats being a beginner slowely snalied her way down the sand dune toppling over every few seconds. Unfortunately the walk back upto the top of the dune was so tiring that you had to wait a while to catch your breath before attempting to surf down the dune again. We both tried the lie down boarding which was pretty hair raising and fun and Kim managed to reach a speed of 70km/h. After getting back and having a shower to try and get rid of all the sand we took some time to wander around the town and post a few postcards. That night we had dinner with a few of us from the group and shared our stories from the exciting events of the day.
As we did so many exciting things in Namibia we are going to split it into 2 blogs, so this is it for now. Hope you are all well.
Love
Kim and Nat
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