For the last week of my four week trip, I decided to hang in the desert. Much to Mom and Dad's relief, I decided to join an overland camping tour. I had heard that the Namibia overland was the way to go, because it's a little hard to arrange transport get around the desert otherwise.
So... a little bit of a last minute decision, I booked the overland tour on a Monday morning and was set to go that Wednesday!
The first stop along the way was to a traditional village. It was a little strange to visit the village, after living in a Kenyan village. But this was really more of a display
of the traditional nomadic way of life. By far my favourite part was to hear them speaking their local language though. The languages has lots of clicks and sounds I can't make.
Next stop, the Orange River, this is the border between Namibia and South Africa. It was a pretty nice little camp ground we stopped at. The water was a little muddy, but we went swimming anyways. It was actually quite fun, the current was pretty strong so we ran along the river, jumped in the water and let it carry us back to the camp, then did it again.
The next day, we had a canoeing excursion planned. Wow...look how touristy I sound now...talking about excursions!
What they didn't tell me when I booked the tour, was that it was a German departure tour. They had a German translator and everything. The first day when I showed up.. I barely heard any english.... oh boy! Luckily, there was another girl on our tour in the same situation as me. Tara, from Australia. Looks like I found my tent partner, canoe partner, bus partner....
It worked out though, we got along well and had lots in common. The Germans were also quite nice, although a little hard to communicate with at times.
After our canoe day, we officially entered Namibia. Lots and lots of driving.....
All this driving allowed us to get to know a few more of the people on the tour. What a tour it was..... we had this guy, a Spanish guy, who stood up the first day on the tour and said 'I am a nutritionist and I work in a hospital. Spices are bad for you, so I suggest that we cook everything on our tour dry. That is what is healthy. We should also not eat any tomatoes because they are too acidic.' ....... WHAT!?!?!
This was only the beginning of Spice Man's antics.
The very first day, we had quiche on salad in a restaurant. He removed the quiche, and we all thought he would just eat the salad. Nope....he indicated that lettuce was bad for you, and ate the quiche. Then, when the bread was being passed around, instead of taking a slice and passing the basket to his neighbour.... he took ALL of the bread out of the basket and wrapped it in a napkin and put it in his pocket!!!!
Later....in the bus I saw him eat an entire package of cookies! What a health expert. He also liked to put the window down in the bus and stick his head out the window and yell. Oh spice man...
At first, these things were pretty funny...after awhile, they got a little annoying. Like... he drank all of the soy milk reserved for the lactose intolerant person on the bus. Just drank it all....cause he felt like it.
Oh boy... some people! I also heard, he was booked on a 42 day tour all the way to Nairobi!! YIKES!!! (I have actually since heard that he was kicked off the tour)
This is the tour bus we were traveling on. It was actually really cool how everything packed away in it. All our tables, chairs, tents, stoves and everything had little compartments to fit in.
This is another friend I met on the tour, Thorsten. He is actually also doing the 42 day tour to Nairobi. He had been doing a student exchange in Cape town for the year. He is planning on doing some volunteer work in Kenya when he arrives there....in a village not far from where I am! I think he is actually going to come and visit the village when he is there.
He was pretty funny and good kid for sure, he got a thermometer to keep track of how hot the desert was, so we were constantly asking him the temperature.
Oh he also looked like Justin Beiber, which was pretty funny. He'd even been mistaken for him in the airport before. Anyone from home want his autograph?
I must admit, it was kinda nice to just relax on the bus and not have to worry about food or where you are going to stay. For lunch, they just pulled the truck over and unpacked tables, chairs, food... it was great!
Wanna know what is creepy about the desert..... the bugs!!
Look at the size of these guys.
Although there was not quite as much physical activity as I would have liked, we were able to stop and get out at a few of the canyons to explore. Here we watched the sunset at Fish River Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world......
I think I'm going to have to do the Namibia update in parts.... too many pictures. I haven't even gotten to the dunes yet!
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