Don't forget to eat

Up at 5:30... move, move, move!!!
We needed to get on the road by 6:30 am. The cooking team had to get up at 5:15 to prep lunch for us since we'll be eating en route without stopping. We managed to get organized and loaded and hit the road at 6:45. I guess its hard to get 20 people fed and loaded that early!

We stopped at a watering hole on the way out but it was quiet. At the next were two male lions lying about but they weren't doing much and we were in a hurry so off we went.

I started to feel nauseous and decided to take a nap. I hadn't had much to eat that morning since we were so rushed and I had ended up taking my malaria tablet on an empty stomach. This was not a good idea but I was OK after about an hour or so.

We stopped in a small town to pick up supplies. There seemed to be guys selling those small carved nuts popping out of the woodwork everywhere! Sabrina took a photo of a young person from the Himba tribe. They were very interesting looking. They were naked from the waist up (males and females) and their skin was stained with the red clay that caked the braids in their hair. Apparently they use tourists taking photos as one of their sources of income. Sabrina got nabbed taking the photo and had to pay him/her. As we drove out of town we saw many of the same tribe sitting on a patch of grass. They threw rocks at the truck as several on the truck snapped photos on the way by. I guess this was their method of expressing their displeasure that the photos were like stealing from them (but not their souls).

As I mentioned earlier, because we were arriving at our next stop later in the afternoon we had packed ourselves a lunch while we were eating breakfast (which is why I had been distracted and hadn’t eaten enough breakfast!) We ate lunch enroute and reached Windhoek around 1:30 or so. We made a brief, 45 minute stop in town and had a chance to internet and look around a bit. So much pressure!! How can one create and type in such a short time span when the internet crawls along slower than drunken snails!?

We loaded back aboard and headed to the hostel we’ll be staying in tonight. It’s called the Cardboard box. We’re doubling up again… we have two rooms for eight, one room for six and one room for four. We manage to swing it so that Paul and Melissa are sharing the room for four with Brad and me. Paul is not really impressed with the hostel and truthfully, it’s not really much to write home about when you are accustomed to the western hotel/motel life. He and Melissa headed out to see what they could find in a hotel room. I decided that it was warm, the bed was pretty comfy and there were hot showers so I was pretty darn happy.

So we are staying at yet another hostel/campsite with yet another swimming pool and bar. This country/continent has it going on! We spend the afternoon at the bar relaxing and contemplating life. The gang is heading out to dinner at a place called Joe’s Beer House. We are told it is the most popular beer house in Africa (that’s gotta be impressive) and is well known for its game meats.

Dinner seemed to take awhile to arrive and the natives were getting restless so someone started a game of Chinese whispers (I always knew it as broken telephone but there you go.) Michael kept changing the outcome on purpose just to mess with us. It was very entertaining! Dinner was cold when it finally arrived but we were starving so we ate it anyway. I guess being the best beer house doesn’t make you the best restaurant. Brad, Kerrie and I all ordered something different so we could sample each other’s plates. We ordered Kudu, Zebra and Gemsbok steaks. I thought the Zebra was a bit tough… it may have been a bit overdone. The Kudu was good and the Gemsbok was excellent (very tender and delicious). Darryl ordered the Bushman’s Dinner which came with a shot of something that tasted kind of like Jagermeister. The shot circled the table so we could all take a sniff/sip and try to figure out what it was. It was very strong and burned on the way down. We never did figure out what it was.

Some of the crew stayed on past dinner to party a bit. Me? I was tired! We left around 10:30 and went to bed.