Rock On

Wakee came at 5:30 - bleh! It was a very cold evening. I took the long trek to the long drop toilets at 2:30 am - that was fun. I think I need a new battery for my headlamp.
We packed up quickly and will eat on the road. We have quite a bit of distance to cover (as usual) and the park we're going to has a very strict gate locking policy. If you miss the closing time, you get fined.

We stop briefly in a village of sorts to shop for stones. I bought a garnet, yellow floride anda green floride with amythst. Brad picked up a very nice tiger's eye. One of the women selling the stones whispered to Kerrie and asked her if we had any food for the children (two young boys looking cold and underdressed). She gave them some muesili bars, pens, paper and jumpers.

Our next stop was a small town for a drink, snack and top up. The landscape keeps changing from nothing to maybe a few bushes, sometimes rocks and trees, sometimes grass. You will catch a glimpse of people standing on the side of the road like they've emerged from no where.

A family of baboons crosses the road ahead, there are signs showing wart hog crossings and bridges that indicate rivers but all you see are long stretches of dry ground.

We did see 4 warthogs, lots of birds with interesting beaks, and Dik diks (deer like, all brown with really big ears). There is so much land and so little habitation.

We finally reach Etosha National Park entrance at the Anderson gate. We stop here for lunch. The campground with the gate closing policy is deep in the park. That is where we have to reach by dark.

In recognition of the next World Cup being in Africa, Acacia is sponsoring bringing soccer balls to villages on its overlanding routes. Our group purchased a soccer ball for $20US and gave it to the children that were gathered around when we reached the gate. Their parents work in the park and they live in a small village at the gate. They had great fun playing soccer and kicking the ball around. They also managed to give Claire and Kerrie new hairdo's and Jeneen was piled high with kids.

After lunch we headed into the park towards our camp (Halali). As soon as we drive through the gates we spot zebras, giraffes, lots of springbok and elephants just hanging out by the side of the road! COOL!!!

We stopped at our first watering hole and it was jammed with 24 elephants including babies. We drove on and spotted a lion sleeping under a bush. It was too far away for a photo. We drove on and saw more elephants, antelope, zebra, secretary bird, and the corey bustard... to name a few.
I guess the point of a wildlife reserve is for there to be lots of wildlife! Etosha is 20 thousand square km - lots of land to try and find some of the elusive critters.

We made it to camp by nightfall and set up. We are staying here for two nights. This is a seriously high end camp. There is a bar, nice swimming pool, a shop, lots of showers and toilets. Its very clean and tidy. Its also filled with campers hoping to see the "big 5" (elephant, lion, cape buffalo, leopard, rhino). There is also a watering hole (Moringa watering hole) near our campsite that has a viewing area and is lit at night so you can watch the animals all night if you want.

Brad and I strolled over to the watering hole after dinner. We had been sitting for 20 minutes or so when a rhino strolled in quite slow and non-chalantly out of the surrounding bush. We watched him for 15 minutes. Brad tried taking some photos but it was dark, the lighting is very orange and he was on the far side of the water so hard to capture. I started to get cold so we headed back to our tent. Tomorrow we do a game drive nice and early to see what we can see.

Octopus Garden

Up at 7:30 am. The bed wasn't quite as nice as the hotel but it was nice and warm. Breakfast was eggs, bacon and toast. What a civilized way to start the day.
The van picked us up at 8:15 and Lerece, Jim, Ryah, Mick and I headed off to our dolphin cruise. The morining is cool and foggy as we head back to Walvis Bay (where there were no flamingos yesterday). It takes 30 minutes or so to drive to the docks and while you could still see the fog hanging around the edges, the fogs magically lifted from the bay as we passed the half way point.

We're travelling on the Ocean Lady with another group of tourists. When we line up to go down the plank it seems like we all won't fit on the boat but in the end, there was plenty of room. Our guide is a young man with a good sense of humour. He motors us out into the bay and we receive our first visitor. A seal named Robbie. He's pretty big and he hops right up onto the rear gang and into the middle of the boat. Our guide feeds him fish (I guess Robbie knows the routine) while he tells us about this type of seal. We can pet him and have our photo taken. They look slimy but they are actually furry - the inner fur stays dry and only the outer fur gets wet and shields against the cold water.

Next a smaller baby seal and then a big seal named Spotty. Spotty didn't seem to want to leave. He just laid down in the middle of the boat like he was going to go to sleep. I think he's had too much to eat from all the other tour boats that have already been out on the bay. Our guide has to toss some fish off the back so Spotty will go after it and then take off at high speed so he can't keep up with us.

We come across an abandoned Russian cargo ship that seems to have been taken over by cormorants (you can smell it before you see it). Apparantly as soon as the ship reached the bay a few years ago, the company went bankrupt. The sailors had to live on the ship for two years until someone from Walvis Bay bought it for scrap and sent them home.

We headed out to the edge of the bay where there is a large seal colony. All there was besides the seals was a single lonely looking lighthouse to guide the ships into the bay. The seals here pretty much ignored us and continued playing and barking and generally splashing about. Our guide passed around glasses of brown sherry to warm us up and help us "see the dolphins".

News went out that some bottle nose dolphins had been spotted closer to shore so off we flew! You don't often see this type of dolphin so it was our lucky day. The dolphins were found close to the 'poop deck'... a large platform that is used to let birds to nest on so they can haul it in later to harvest the guano and sell it... who knew poo could be profitable!!

There were already 3 boats drifting about when we arrived. We spent some time trying to entice the 3 dolphins to swim in our wake and generally do those touristy things you always see in the promo videos. They weren't in the mood but I didn't really care - we got to see dolphins being dolphins.

We watched some men hauling in a large fishing net by hand. Our guide said it was full of sardines. The local birdlife seemed very interested in what was going on!

We motored back to the bay for champagne and snacks and floated about enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. Our guide was feeding Pelicans from the boat that would fly next to us and grab fish from his hand.

As we started to head back to the docks I noticed a seal swimming along side and leaping in and out of the water. It eventually pulled up behind us and somehow hauled itself up onto the boat (we were moving at a fairly good clip). It was Spotty again. We had to use the same tactic to get him off again and then took off for the docks.

We all loaded back into the van and made the trip back to Swakop to hook up with the waiting truck. After several glasses of champagne I was a bit sleepy so I snoozed the entire way back. At the hostel we loaded back into the truck and headed out.

We made a stop at the Cape Cross seal colony. There can be 80 to 100 thousand seals here at any one time. As you walked closer to the shoreline and the seals, the smell grew stronger and stronger. There is a walkway that you are asked to stay on as you walk up and down to view the colony. We also spotted a pack of black backed jackals skulking about. They definitely looked like they were well fed which I'm guessing is from the ample supply of baby seals. We also could see the remnants of one or two meals. If I could have picked up some bones for Michael or Peter (no, not Becker) I would have!

After a brief visit with the seals we were off to the truck and driving the 45 minute back track to the main highway. We are driving to Spitzkoppe.

As we were driving we noticed markers in the fields made of white sand bags which formed large squares. We were told that they were to mark plotlines for uranium prospecting. This country has a very rich mineral wealth. There are many stalls along the roadway with tables full of shiny stones for sale

When we reach Spitzkoppe we are struck by the unusual rock formations. There are large round mountains of stone and then sideways stacks like the Flatirons in Boulder. There are cave drawings nearby but we arrived at camp after dark and need to set up camp and eat dinner so we can't check them out.

We're camping at the base of a very large, very smooth rock. The family next to us seems unimpressed that an overlander truck has arrived and I'd say the dad was downright rude. The mother was shouting something in Afrikans that I'm pretty sure was not pleasant and a very poor example for their young daughter.

After dinner we sat around the campfire and talked into the evening. Tomorrow we head to Etosha for big game hunting.

Chillaxing

We spent the day hanging out in Swakopmund. We slept til 8 am (luxury!!) and ate breakfast at the hotel. A relaxing morning getting organized, checking out and heading back to the hostel. Paul and Melissa have gone skydiving so they won't be back until after lunch.

We strolled around town some more and Brad bought a new fleece jacket. Not that we need more fleece but its been cold, especially at night, and all of our fleece is at home. I got a nice tshirt and Brad also picked up a fleece scarf.

It seems everyone here is trying to sell those little carved nuts!

We headed back to the hostel for lunch - schnitzel, salad, roll, donut, juice, chocolate and a banana. Very good schnitzel!! I guess there's still quite a bit of German influence here.

We picked up our laundry and headed back out. Many of the shops are closed for two hours in the afternoon so there's not much to do but relax. I had spotted some nice loose cotton pants in a small local shop that I wanted to buy for when it gets really hot. I liked this shop partly because it used local artisans but also because some of the proceeds went to fund an African AIDS project.

how do you steer
a planet gone wrong
decisions made
success defined not for
good but goods
how many can you get
more than you and thats all that matters
forget your impact on the network of life you are bound to
atleast from your mountain of trinkets you will have the perfect view when the last tree falls

We head for dinner with the group again tonight. This time we're going to the Lighthouse located by the water. More game meats on the menu! I have prawns this time. Very filling.

To the sea

We're up early again (have I mentioned there is no sleeping late on this tour??), breakfast, pack up and a short drive to Walvis Bay. We have reached the ocean and it's excellent!

Walvis Bay often has flocks of flamingos but they have not arrived yet. We drive past some seriously high end beach front homes that look like they would be found closer to Miami than the Skeleton Coast.

This stretch of coastline is called the Skeleton Coast because it is a treacherous bit of shoreline and, if a ship grounded or wrecked, even if the sailors managed to survive and make it to shore they were met with a vast desert that stretched on for miles. It's likely that they would have had a quicker passing if they'd died in the wreck.

We drove on to Swakopmund where we'll be spending two nights in the Dune Hostel (located on Lebowski Drive... DUDE!!). We're booked to share a dorm room with Paul and Melissa. We'd all like a bit of a break so Brad and I book a night across the road in the Prinzessin Rupprecht Heim Hotel and Paul and Melissa will stay there on the second night. This will give us all a chance to have some alone time and relax in a nice hotel.

The hostel is nice enough and the bunk beds are a welcome break from the tents but the hotel is even better. The hotel is actually a retirement home with small buildings in the back nestled in the beautiful gardens. The main front building - where the hotel rooms are - was a German military hospital in the 20's. This means that the rooms are nicely spacious and the doors are big enough to wheel hospital beds through.

We headed back to the hostel for our Activity Briefing where we get to find out about all the fun things there are in town for us to spend more money on. There's sand surfing, sky diving, paragliding, township tours, quad bike riding, horseback riding and dolpin cruising. You name it, they've got it. Brad decided to take the next couple of days to relax and chill out. Me? I can't turn down the chance to go on a boat ride so I'm checking out the dolphins on Saturday morning.

We dropped off some laundry at the front desk and go for a stroll around town to check out the shops and cafes. This is very much a tourism driven town. Its filled with adventure stores, souvenir shops, bars and cafes. All the travel outfitting stores seem to be filled with clothing by Jeep and Bilabong. Weird.

We strolled down to the beach to take a photo (our hostel/hotel is only 3 doors up from the beachfront). We are immediately accosted by the local scam. A guy selling nuts that have a leather thong attached (key chain-ish). They are carved with giraffes, elephants, etc. He says hello and is friendly asking where you are from and what your name is. Of course, then he asks how you spell that - not very good English and all. If you tell him, he starts to carve your name in the nut with a small exacto blade to guilt you into buying it. I gave him an "H" and then realized what he was doing and told him to forget it. All I wanted was to take a photo of the waves but my camera battery took that exact opportunity to konk out. He kept talking away about his poor daughters and school fees and give you a good deal and how he carves them all himself and all the work involved and blah, blah, blah... of course, if I decided to buy one in the shops they would be much more expensive and he'd sell to me for ONLY 80N. We were ignoring him and then he said maybe he'd give me for only 40N. I said OK but I didn't want my name on it, I wanted his (as the artist and all). He agreed and started carving away. At one point he mumbled something about maybe charging me 50N since it was his name and I told him to forget it, the agreed price was 40N. The next day I saw them in the shops for 18N. Ah well, he scammed me for $3CAD - I think I'll live and maybe he'll have a slightly better day.

We went to a cafe and hung out, did a bit of internetting and met the group back at the hostel for our dinner out. We walked to Cafe Napolitana. They serve several game meats and seem pretty popular. We all ordered something different so we could share and try them all. We tried Ostrich, Oryx and Springbok. They were all very tender and (sorry to say) very delicious! The Springbok was the best.

Some people went out to a local pub to have a few drinks. We decided to go and enjoy our hotel room.

Red Desert Sand Racing

The 4:30 am wakee wakee WAKEE was very uncalled for but it sure got us moving. Jump out of bed, race to the toilets, brush teeth and hair and jump on the truck. The truck then raced to the gate and we sat waiting for it to open. It won't open until 5:15 am but we wanted to make sure we were one of the first in line to exit the camp. The other Acacia truck was there first but they cheated!!! Their truck drove to the gate with no one on it and then their group just walked out to the truck when they were ready.

The gate opened and the race across the desert begins! We were second to reach the dune and we all jumped out and started heading up and up and up. People were in some kind of crazy frenzied race to the top... some in boots, sandals, just socks and then me in bare feet. The sand is very soft and cold and red and we are climbing up the ridge line. Its about 150 metres high and the climb seemed easy but as you go it gets steeper and the sand is shifting around under your feet. The urgency seems to push people beyond what they would normally do. I took off a bit faster than I needed to and jogged 1/2 way up the hill. Now I remember why I hated hill work when I was training for marathons. I'm breathing quite hard and the air is very dry. We haven't even had breakfast yet!! I came to my senses and slowed down a bit. I passed an older gentleman who had to sit and rest as well as a woman who was wheezing terribly. I hoped she had her inhaler with her. I went to the top of the first ridge and sat down in the sand to rest.

Some people kept going further onto the next ridge but that would have involved going down a bit and up again so I decided my viewing spot was perfect. My feet were feeling a bit chilly now in the morning cool - I guess socks would have been a good idea.

A cheer went out as the first rays appeared on the horizon. We watched the sun peek up over the distant mountains and light up the sand dune. Well worth the climb. Lots of camera shutters going off as Kodak share prices rose with all the amatuer photographers hoping for that money shot. My feet were getting really cold now so I decided to head back down and get my socks and shoes on. I was totally unaware when a woman told me that my nose was bleeding. I guess it was the exertion and extremely dry, cold air. It stopped quite quickly and I seemed none the worse for wear.

I ran down the dune to the bottom... ah yes, I remember how much I like going downhill!! When I got to the bottom of the sand I knew my feet were pretty much frozen since I couldn't feel the gravel from the parking lot under my feet. I put my socks and shoes on and waited for the rest of the gang to descend. We had bacon, scrambled eggs and whole wheat bread for breakfast next to the dune. I collected some red sand in an old water bottle to add to our sand and stone collection at home.

After breakfast we drove into the bush in the back of an open pickup to meet our guide - Bushman (yes, that was his name). Bushman is barefoot and hasn't owned a pair of shoes for 10 years. He is married to a Japanese woman that he met on tour. When he flew to Japan to have the wedding he showed up at customs with no shoes on. I guess the customs guys were a bit amused. I also heard he had to wear shoes in the traditional Japanese ceremony but as far a anyone knows thats the only time he's worn shoes since he threw his last pair away.

The other Acacia group joined us as Bushman took us on a tour of the desert and dunes. This area is called Sossusvlei. Bushman took us in to show us the life in the desert and tell us about the plight of the original tribes of bushmen (San).

Apparantly there are only about 30,000 bushmen left and, due to intermarriage, there are none of the original bloodline left. They used to be short and more yellow skin (vs black). This skin colour helped them to hide behind bushes when they were hunting with their poison arrows. I guess when the blacks and whites were moving north from South Africa to the dunes in Namibia and the bushmen were first found they were classified as animals rather than humans. The worship the moon and they believe that when you die, you go to the moon. If you're good that is... if you are bad you turn into a jackal and if you were just grumpy all the time you turn into a dust devil. Who's to say who's right??

On our walk we got to see lots of small creatures managing to survive in the desert. We saw a mouse, lizards who bury themselves under the sand, spiders with trap doors, black beetles that collect liquid condensation in the ridges on their back that then runs into their mouths, a small green succulent plant that gives humans stomach problems but the Oryx can eat it and then humans can eat the Oryx, marigolds with small bulbs buried under the sand that are rather like potatoes and a small plant with dried buds that will open with a single drop of water. If it gets more water, it will release its seeds, if no more water comes, it closes back up again. This is to ensure that the seeds are not eaten by animals.

There are scorpions in the desert but, according to Bushman, they only come out when it is windy since the insects they eat will be grounded from flying around and they can find something to eat.

Bushman also tells us that the easiest way to climb a dune is to walk straight up the back (away from the sun) rather than up the ridgeline... which we had all just done! He said that going straight up was a shorter route... I think he may be right. He also said that the San owned pretty much nothing but a loin cloth. The desert gets cold at night so to stay warm they said all you needed was a full belly, to be very tired and not to think about it. To ensure they didn't think about the cold, they would tell each other stories to keep their minds off the cold.

After the bush walk we headed back to the truck and drove back to camp. We took down our tents, ate lunch and hit the road. Our next camp is in the middle of nowhere off a long stretch of highway. We drove around behind some large rocks and set up tents. This is our first bushcamp meaning its just us and our tents... no bar, pool, toilets, showers, etc... no worries, we have a shovel!

The rock formations are very cool and its so quiet as night falls. We go to bed early and listen for animal sounds.

Drive she said

6:30 am always seems to come really early. My hips ache, my nose is cold and I don't want to get up but we have to hit the road by 7:30 so I have no choice. We are driving 600 km today to make our next camp. Cereal, tea and some sort of banana flavour instant oats that look like pudding for breakfast (I decided not to try this). After loading up we were off almost on time.

Team Leopard has the day off today.

We saw baboons, 3 types of antelope (no horns, curly horns, straight horns), zebras, ostrich. We stopped for a bathroom break in the middle of a long stretch of highway - boys in front, girls in back. There weren't even any bushes - Africa doesn't really have what you might think of as a rest stop.

Driving and driving, hot and dry, tall yellow grass that grows in small patches but when you look across the horizon it fills in and looks like a solid field of tall soft grass that reaches all the way to the mountains. More antelope and ostrich - we make lots of stops for photos.

Lunch was at the side of the road near a huge tree that was almost overtaken with a huge nest built by Social Weaver birds. The nests can also house love birds and pygmy falcons.

We stopped in Bethanie to buy biltong which is dried meat like jerky. I bought some made with Oryx. A bit chewy and spicy but pretty good all in all.

Our next stop is Sesriem Canyon. Sesreim means 6 ox leather thongs which indicated how long a drop it was to lower a bucket into the canyon to draw out water. Its not very deep and we hiked to the bottom to look around. It's very dry right now and, like hiking in the Indian Himalayas, its all river rock cemented in sediment. I saw a Shiva rock but it was stuck and it was really too big for me to lug all over Africa.


We headed back to camp and set up the tents. I hit the showers. It was only a dribble but the water was hot so it was one of my best showers so far! We've hit the dry dusty desert and it was nice to wash away the day. Tomorrow's wake up is the insane hour of 4:30 am!! We have to get up early to race to Dune 45 to climb to the top in time to see the sun rise.

I could hear the jackals again in the distance. You can't leave anything outside your tent at night or they will steal it (Tony says they think they can eat it). Some people went to the bar for a drink but there's no way I'm staying up if I have to get up that early so I go to bed at 9pm. I've now started to put a Nalgene filled with hot water in the bottom of my sleeping bag to help keep me warm at night.

Yoga Nomads get their start...

We got to sleep in today... 7:30 AM! We're not leaving until later in the afternoon and some of the crew are going canoeing after breakfast.
Team Leopard is on washing up today so we get to clean up after breakfast. Brad is on Team Warthog and they are in charge of loading and unloading the truck. They don't rotate duties so he'll be doing that the entire trip.

The paddlers get driven up river to load into their canoes and paddle back down to the campsite. The rest of us just hang out and relax. They should be back around noon or so.
I took an excellent hot shower in a grass thatched hut where the I could see out over the volleyball court.

I decided a couple of days of sitting was getting to me so I decided to do some yoga. It turned into an impromptu yoga class on the grass with some of the team who had decided to hang around and relax. Anna, Tony, Nadine, Helen, and Michel all joined in. Everyone did great and Tony was laughing through the whole thing. Tony (our driver) is from Nairobi, Kenya and has 3 kids with the oldest only 6 years. He was so stiff... too much time behind the wheel!

I may have done too many chaturanga since my right shoulder started to act a bit funky.

The paddlers arrived around lunch time and we had hot dogs and tomato soup. A quick wash up and pack and we're off driving to the border. The Namibia side is right across the river... we could have swam there!

We drove the short distance to the border and started the process. First, you have to exit South Africa through their border checkpoint, then you have to enter Namibia. The time in between... I guess you are no where. At the Namibian side we had to fill out forms and stand in line to get checked in. It wasn't as slow as it could have been but it definitely was not speedy.

Our next camp in in Hobas. It has great scenery with mountains and plains that stretch out forever. We spotted some of our first wildlife - ostrich and little antelopes!!

We stopped along the roadway to look at some of the plantlife. Steph showed us a Quiver tree. Its from the aloe family and it has a fibrous core. The Bushmen used use the hollowed out branches to hold their arrows - thus the name Quiver. There are also many, many pencil bushes. Apparantly only rhinos can eat these and live. Steph tells us not to touch, smell, burn, eat or even get too close to these bushes. They are used to create strichnine poison. The Bushmen used to use it to tip their arrows for when they were hunting.

When we arrive at Hobas we whip up the tents and take off for Fish River Canyon to watch the sunset. The truck drops us at one of the lookout points and we walk back to the entrance for about 20 minutes along the ridgeline. Fishriver Canyon is the second largest canyon in the world (next to the Grand Canyon) and to say it was impressive is an understatement. Now I'll have to see the Grand Canyon so I can compare.

As we strolled back to the truck we took some great shots of the sunset. When we arrived, Steph had laid out a feast of crackers, cheese, smoked mussels, crisps, sweets, champagne... Once the sun dropped the wind picked up and it got chilly quite quickly.

We headed back to camp ot get our bags out and set up our bads. We weren't very hungry after all that so we had soup for dinner with bread and tea. The campfire was warm and toasty so I really didn't want to drag myself away to do the washing up... but I did. Tony was teaching me how to say things in Swahili: cool bananas = poakichizi kamandizi, thank you very much = asantasana.

The toilet is around 100 yards from our camp and it's cold. We went to bed around 9:30 since we have an early wake up tomorrow since we have a long drive. I go to bed with my silk sleep sheet, cotton sleep sheet, sleeping bag, fleece blanket, long johns, pjs, fleece hat and wool socks and I'm still cold! The camp we're in shuts the generators down at 10 pm so I had these visions of me having to get up in the middle of the night and not be able to find the toilets (or my way back to the tent). Luckily they leave the toilet lights on. Whew!!!

At one point in the night I thought I heard a wild animal in camp but it was only someone snoring. I could hear the jackals in the distance but I don't think they came into camp.

Did you say Scorpions?

I forgot the ground was so hard camping - even with a sleep pad. Steph was up at 6am to get breakfast out and hollered at 6:30 "GOOD MORNING SOUTH AFRICA! Wakee, Wakkee WAKEEEE!!!" I'm pretty sure everyone in the country was awake after that.

Brad went to take a shower but all the hot water was gone - he used the term "brisk" to describe it. Breakfast was cereal, fruit, yogurt, coffee and tea. We got to watch a beautiful sunrise over the mountains.

After breakfast a quick clean and pack up of the tents. We have to check under the tents when we're packing up in case a scorpion has decided it would be a nice place to sleep. Everything loaded into the truck and we're off at 8 am (only 30 minutes over schedule... we're getting better)! The truck had been making some funny noises and Tony had decided it needed looking after so we ended up waiting while they replaced the fan belt anyway. I strolled over to look at some birds who were building nests next to our camp. They are weaver birds and build nests that look like upsidedown straw baskets. Lots of chirping and activity! Steph said that the male builds the nest and if the female doesn't like it, he has to start over and build a new one.

The day is sunny and clear, a bit cool but really not all that bad.

do you ever wonder
why you wonder
wandering in wonder
wondering in wandering
what will you find?

We stopped in Sprinbok for a chance to stretch our legs and hit a bank machine. We stopped at the Super Spar for snacks and water. We've been driving for over 3 hours! We're not having lunch until late and we were a bit hungry so we had a Moroccan Chicken Pastie (no, not the kind you twirl in the girlie shows).

Springbok was named because there were once vast herds of, yep you guessed it, Springbok. Steph says that now you can only really see them in the game reserves and that they are protected.

Anna's ipod is hooked into the sound system and we're cruising along listening to an instrumentalist named Manuel or Ricardo or something Gabrielle. I like it. There is plenty of napping on the truck with these early wake up calls..

The land stretches on endlessly in all directions... so far that the clouds almost seem to sit on the earth. There are random piles of boulders like some giant has been stacking stones at the beach for fun. Then there is the steep sided valley cut through the rocks... not mountains really... just big rocky hills.

We arrive at the Orange River Bushwacker camp. Another nice camp site... bar, swimming in the river, HOT showers. Everything is grass thatched - rather rustic. There are two dogs here - Sam and Mamboza. Mamboza looks just like Arusha. I'm told that they are brother and sister (sooo cute!!!)

I'm on team leopard (full participation camping!) and our job today is to clean the truck after dinner. We have to keep it swept, tidy and the most important, keep the windows clean so we can spot the animals! Dinner was a pork spit. We had a great evening of drinking in the bar and listening to 80's music. The cider here is excellent - not too sweet. Some good wine, some good eats, tired and decided to get to bed.

Some of the more adventurous stayed up later into the evening playing Orange River Dare Jenga. It was very loud and went on very late... I heard some of the strange requests... wear a bikini all night, eat a moth... of course, if you didn't, you had to finish your drink (probably why it got so boisterous!) Fun yes... but I was too tired.

The Truck

The alarm went off at 6:30am and we were up up up!!! It's still quite chilly and it's cloudy as well... we're hoping it will warm up a bit (we're in Africa...right?)
We organized and packed the bags the previous evening so all we had to do was get dressed, grab the bags and head to the truck. We're hitting the road at 7:30 so we need to catch breakfast in the bar quickly.

Yogurt, honey, muesili and fruit in a parfait glass... how yummy!

The truck is quite the machine. (And it's a truck... not a bus or van or motor home... it's a truck - so says Steph, our guide). The bottom of the truck is all storage for tents, poles, washing up gear, tables, cooking gear, camp chairs, food, jeri cans with water, etc... With all that under truck storage, the first step up into the back of the truck is quite a doozy! Any shorter and I'd need a boost! Once you get into the passenger compartment, the rear wall of the truck is all lockers. Each locker will hold one person's luggage and can be locked with a small luggage lock. They're pretty roomy actually. Our info told us we would be able to fit only a 70L pack in each but I think Brad and I could fit both our luggage into one locker if we tried. Maybe its just because we don't tend to carry much. Behind the seats there is a battery powered freezer and two coolers for keeping cold stuff on ice. The truck has two by two bucket seats and nice big windows for photo taking. The bus seats about 24 people but there are only 20 on the tour so lots of room. The back two rows are set facing each other with a table between for card playing or whatever. This is where Brad and I end up sitting. The bus was pretty full when we got on so we just took the seats at the very back. Everything is loaded onto the truck but we're not leaving Cape Town just yet.

We load into two small vans and are going on a township tour. Our first stop is District 6 Museum. I know that if I'd thought about it that I would have realized how recent apartheid really was but I hadn't thought about it and somehow I couldn't fathom that it had actually taken place during my lifetime. I guess I thought that it had to have been something from a long time ago when people weren't so open minded and educated... or maybe that's my rose-coloured glasses view of the world. I guess if I think about it, that kind of thing is still going on even today and even in our own country. The world has a long way to go still... and that sucks.

District 6 was a mixed neighbourhood before apartheid. It was one of the areas where they removed all the "non-white" to the townships and then knocked most of the buildings down. People were segregated by colour. Blacks, coloured (not black and not white) and whites. Apparantly one of the very scientific tests they used to determine what ID card you carried was a pencil test. If they put a pencil in your hair and it fell out, you were white. If it did not fall out, you were not white.

Our guide for the tour was Richard and our driver was Titus. After the museum we headed into one of the townships where the people were relocated to once segregation started. He headed to Langa township which is the oldest of the townships. When we reached the township to walk around and into some of the homes, it started to pour down rain. There were a couple of different types of township housing. Families were put into small two room "houses" and young men were housed in more of a dormatory style apartment building. There were 4 bedrooms for each common room and there were 3 beds in each bedroom. These buildings only housed men and only those who were working in the hopes of controlling population growth.

At some point they decided to let men have their families with them in these buildings but they didn't give them any more space... so now you have entire families living in one bed in a room with potentially two other families. Richard said you could end up with upwards of 90 people sharing one common area. The spaces reminded me a bit of Delhi except it didn't smell as much.

It was pouring down rain so much that an old man invited us into his home to stay dry. He had two small crowded rooms and a TV was blaring away up on a shelf. When the vans arrived, we made a run for it to head off for lunch.

We had lunch at Moritz Meat... a local spot to catch some gossip and food. BBQ chicken, pork, something that looked and tasted like polenta, salsa and ginger beer. It was pretty good actually!

After lunch we visited one of the "illegal" townships. These were not the ones sanctioned by the government and originally they had no roads or power. The buildings are made from whatever they could find - old scrap lumber and tin mostly - and the floors are dirt. We got to enter one of the home to drink some homemade beer from a big tin bucket. They called it a Shabeen which they said was the Scottish word for an illegal drinking establishment. Cool! The beer was made from sorghum and something I didn't quite get and tasted rather sweetish. Kind of beery aftertaste but not as fizzy. It wasn't all that bad really but I don't think I could drink all that much of it.

Back to the vans who dropped us back at Shangani (the truck). We were off on our adventure. We stopped in a mall to pick up supplies... water, snacks, etc. We were shopping in something called a Pik'n'Pay which was rather like a big Walmart. We only had 40 minutes to get anything we wanted and get back to the truck. Melissa's bag was still missing from their flight and it was becoming a bit stressful so we decided that we should give them more time to find a camp store and get her some clothes. The weather is rainy quite cool and she didn't have that much with her on the flight and was only wearing sandals. We left around 3pm and drove to our first camp site.

We arrived at our first camp around 6:30 pm. It's called Highlander. Arusha the dog was the first to greet us - a damn cute little pit bull terrier. We set up camp in the dark and it was cold (around 10 C) but atleast its not raining! As soon as the tents were set up I dove into my long underwear, fleecy hat, vest, jacket AND socks!

The campground has toilets, showers and a bar! It's a small campsite really, seems like there are only two or so large plots for Overland trucks that come in. We are uphill to the toilets and Intrepid is downhill on this night.

Dinner was in the bar - chicken stew for meat eaters, roasted butternut squash for veggies. There was some great homemade bread and apple crumble for dessert. After dinner we had a wine tasting. Highlander is part of a wine co-op in South Africa. We ended up buying a couple of bottles... they were so cheap!!

Off to bed early - our wake up call is 6:30am.

Welcome to South Africa

Another overnight flight, another seat screw up from our original seat booking, and again with the lost meal selection... this time on Swiss Air (acting as a Star Alliance Partner with Air Canada).

In our decent over South Africa I was surprised by how much it looked like everywhere else... atleast from the air. There are fields being cultivated and there are buildings and roads. I'm not sure what I expected to see. Maybe its just a way to be reminded that the world isn't as different from place to place as we like to think.

We landed in Johannesburg (Jo'berg for short) and flew through border control. It was actually pretty similar to Zurich in the way it was organized. We were immediately spotted as tourists when we stepped out of the luggage area and a guy with a bright orange jumpsuit stenciled with PORTER asked us where we were going. We said "Cape Town" and he simply said "Follow me". We were a bit dazed I guess and started following him. It became apparent once our senses returned that we were going to have to pay him for his assistance. We got to the top of an escalator and he grabbed a cart to put our bags on. We stood there having a discussion of whether to put our bags on the cart or not long enough that he got sick of waiting for us and simply walked away.

We knew the general direction now to get to the local flight terminal and started off. We had to go outside and down a walkway and then we were there. It is actually quite a distance from the International terminal. It seems like every airport on the planet is under some sort of construction/renovation/improvement!!

When we walked into the terminal a man with a walkie talkie (I thought he was security) asked us where we were going and we told him. He took us to the check in desk (jumped the queue actually) and then asked us to give him $10US!!! By this time I was done with the silliness and told him he was crazy. I wouldn't pay that at home and he didn't even carry our bags! We gave him $4 and were done with him.

After we checked our luggage through to Cape Town and checked our boarding passes we simply hung out for a few hours waiting for our flight. We ate a meal at an American type steak house and relaxed. The flight to Cape Town was only a couple of hours and fairly uneventful.

Landing in Cape Town we picked up our bags and headed out into the main terminal. We were met by a friendly gentleman from the backpacker hostel we were staying in.

On the trip from the airport he gave us a bit of a tour, pointing out the Table Mountain and the harbour. It's quite a nice little port city actually. We also had our first glimpse of the tin shacks that form the unofficial townships. They are constructed with whatever is at hand and the floors in them are just dirt. Apparantly, there are now roads into them and they can get power. There are community taps to obtain water and there are community bucket toilets that are emptied by the city four times a week.

The hostel is really nice. It has a pool, a bar/restaurant and the rooms are small but clean. Being a coast town and winter is just ending, its fairly chilly here. In the evening the temperature dropped to around 15C or so with a fairly constant breeze. The hostel is courtyard style so the door to our room opens into the courtyard and you have to go outside to access the shower rooms and community toilets.

The predeparture meeting is in the TV room at the hostel. It looks like its going to be a full house. The crew: Paul and Melissa from Boulder Springs who are on their honeymoon
Claire and Jenine from London, both starting their final year of university
Michael and Ryah from Australia but live in UK right now and moving to HK
Sabrina from Mexico City but living in Madrid
Michel and Nadine brother and sister from Switzerland
Jim and Lerece from Australia who travel to get away from the kids for a bit Anna a travel agent from Scotland who lives in England
Kerrie a chef from Australia
Daryl and Kate from Brisbane, Australia
Wendy and Helen from the UK
Nicholas a former wine grower from New Zealand
Quite the bunch!!

The 6pm meeting was to review the itinerary do's, don'ts, questions and logistics and to make our local payment for the tour. We were soooo tired and hungry that I thought this meeting wouldn't end. It was hard to process everything that she was telling us but I'm pretty sure we got enough to get us through... and she'll keep reminding us as we go. Steph is our tour leader and Tony is our driver. Tony is from Kenya and quite a jokester.

The meeting ended at 8:30pm. We have to be at the truck (not bus, TRUCK) with our bags at 7am! EARLY!! We headed to the bar for a bowl of soup and toast and then off to bed.

The hostel rooms aren't really insulated but there is a radiant heater and the showers across the way were nice and warm. There is also a nice puffy duvet on the bed to help keep the cold at bay. Being dead tired didn't hurt either!

Sleep Walking

It seems like anyone can stroll into Zurich fairly easily. We checked through passport control very easily. They didn't ask a single question. Then we picked up our bags and went through the "nothing to declare" line and we were officially in Zurich!

We planned to take the train into the city and look around since our next flight was not unitl 10pm or so. The train arrives directly into the airport complex so it's an easy matter to lock our day packs into a locker and take the train into the city. Our mail packs are checked all the way through and (hopefully) will arrive in Jo'berg on time.

The train apparantly dropped us near the main drag where most tourists go to stroll up and down doing a bit of shopping. The city centre is old and there is construction and none of the streets seem to run at right angles so it takes us a bit to figure out where the heck we are compared to where we want to go. (I'm sure the fatigue had something to do with it.)

We stopped into a Movenpick for a small snack/breakfast. We had very yummy croissants and some tea. Our waiter told us which way to go and the best place to get a watch battery (Brad's watch is dying).

We did eventually find the main street and walked down to the waterfront. Very pretty park filled with tourists who had bought the train/boat ride combo deal. We opted for just the train ride. While Brad was getting his watch battery replaced (man there are alot of watches here... duh) I browsed around a bit. What did I spy with my little eye.... ORANGE TIGHTS!!!!! How cool is that!!!! Of course, I had to get them.

Our second order of business... after the coffee and croissants... was beer and chips on a patio. Great people watching on the avenue. We faded pretty quickly with a drink in us and decided to go back to the airport and find the dayrooms.

The dayrooms were located in what was likely the furthest point in the airport from anywhere. I think it took us 15 minutes to walk there from the main terminal (and there were moving sidewalks). We rented a room for what amounted to $10US per hour but, we just didn't care. We slept for 5 delicious hours in the pitch black of the dayroom. Ahhhh.....

When we got up, Brad even managed to catch up on some of his Olympic viewing in the TV room. After that we headed to our gate to catch flight number 2 of 3.

And They're Off...

Morning comes and we're packed and ready to go.
Brad goes to work in the morning to tie up some final loose ends and I head off to my BNI meeting.

The bags are waiting and yes... we managed to have time to double check the packing lists and are pretty sure we have everything we need.

Thankfully Boe is driving us to the airport so we don't need to try and figure out how to time the bus schedule to arrive on time. Now with international travel, it seems you have to almost arrive at the airport the day before your departure to check through on time.

We arrive at the airport around 3pm for our flight at 6pm. We're flying Scare Canada. They messed up our prebooked seating somehow and we end up in a three across and no exit aisle. Bleh. We discovered later that they also seem to have lost our special meal requests - they call this progress?

It's an overnight flight to Zurich and the entertainment system isn't working. Hmm.... what to do, what to do.... sleep you say? That would have been great. For some reason I can sleep anywhere except the middle seat on an overnight flight.

We landed in Zurich around 8am and strolled off the flight.

We're Leaving Already?!?!

Picture Sunday evening and we're leaving on Wednesday.
Brad has been packing and unpacking and repacking for weeks... I haven't even started.
We've just come off four days of intense information overload at the CanFitPro conference and I have to find time to get my packing organized!
Well.. sometimes the less time you have to think about it, the better it is.
Brad ensured I completed an initial "rapid pack" Sunday evening before I was allowed to crash into bed. No worries, what will I really need??

Calm before the storm

One week to Go, clothes, camping gear, supplies all over the floor - now the fun of fitting it all into the backpacks and keeping the weight to 25 lbs.

Heather has done it she is a RMT!!! (Registered Massage Therapist) and looking forward to the 5 weeks of travel and community work in Zambia.

See you in cyberspace we hope to have access 3-4 times during the trip in between the camping sections.

Bye for now from Horse and Dog - next entry from South Africa