Pole Pole

All right, I have some more time now so I can explain what I've been up to this last days. After leaving Swakopmund, we headed north towards the Spitzkoppe. Some rock formations about 1700m high. Here we had our first bush camp, that is no electricity or water, just us and the mountain, bonfire between the rocks and so. That afternoon we tried to walk up as much as possible to watch the sunset from above and then made our way back for dinner.

Next morning we went to Cheetah Park, a small reserve, where they hold around 20 "wild" cheetahs and 3 tamed ones, these 3 live around the house and can be pet. Some nice pictures here, not sure if I really liked the whole pet cheetah thing, but still cool to see them so close and touch them. Then we went to see the wild ones and see how they are fed, and drove back in the middle of the rain. That night we celebrated at the bar the birthday of Andrew, one of the guys from the trip, had a very nice time there.

So next day we went to a campsite, very nice and apparently expensive place, had some nice lodges, pool, huge bar very nicely decorated. Just chilled for the rest of the day in the pool and getting some rest. The next morning we went into Etosha National Park, this is the 3rd largest park in the world, 22,000 km2. Thats pretty big. In there we saw loads of animals, mainly springboks, giraffes and wildebeast (gnus) but also a few hippos and a few lions quite close to our truck. Stopped for lunch at a camp place and swan for a while before doing some more game driving and the setting up camp and trying to spot some animals at the waterhole nearby. No luck. Only some jackals running around camp.

Now we had a couple of rough days, since one of the guys forgot his passport back in Swakopmund, and the tour leader could arrenge for another truck to pick it up and drop it off somewhere in the route, so we had to go to that place, instead of our original destination in the Angolan border. Pretty much the next 2 days we just drived a lot across northern Namibia. The higlight thoug was the campsite, they had a small game reserve in there, so we could see cheetahs and a leopard, and the headed to the bar where the owner gave away a lot of drinks, I think in the hope more trucks will stop at his place, which I would recomend.

So finally we arrived to Botswana, our third country on the tour. Botswana is a pretty stable country, which is exemplary in Africa, they have a stable democratic government for the last 40 years, while is true they have some serious AIDS issues. Nonetheless is worth visiting. After a night in a camp place near Maun, we drove 3 hours to the Okavango Delta. This is the largest inland delta in the world. Meaning the water does not reach the ocean, but empties in there. It is about 16,000 km2, and most of it is protected because of its wildlife. Once in there we took a makoro ride to our campsite. A makoro is a carved boat, very flat to deal with the shallow waters of the delta.

That night, we set up camp and took a little game walk, in which we spotted a few zebras and giraffes, before heading to bed. At around 2 AM we had a massive storm, blowing stuff all over camp, and then we learned that a lighting struck a camp not so far away from ours. In the morning we took a 4 hour walk in the bush, where we got about 20m from an elephant, impressive. Saw a bunch of other animals like hippos, impalas, giraffes and baboons, tracked some hyenas but couldnt get to them. In the afternoon I tried to drive a makoro, it looks so easy but is very tricke, failed misserably. Finaly we went to a hippo pool to look at the sunset before heading back to camp for dinner and a little singing a dancing show by the polers and guides. The next morning we took our last bush walk, really short one and not really lucky on it, but afterwards we went to the airport to take a small plane to fly over the delta. This gets you a whole new image of it and you can appreciate the sheer size of it (is larger than Jamaica) and the amount of wildlife in it.

Leaving the delta we traversed Botswana to go to Kasane and the Chobe National Park, which boasts the largest population of elephants in Africa. We took a boat in there to spot elephants and hippos from the river and got a massive storm that forced us to run half naked from the boat to the truck and run to get the tents and clothes safe and dry. Fun stuff. Next day we headed into Chobe Park for a game drive and camped in a very nice camp set up by the park, had an awesome dinner and a few beers before going to bed. Next morning went back to camp to pick those who didnt go into the park and headed into Zimbabwe.

Now, I wasnt supposed to be in Zimbabwe since I didnt have a visa, but in some places a little money goes a long way, so I bought my way in and arrived in Victoria Falls. Walked all the way to the Zambien border and saw a mate bungy jump from a bridge and then took the famous booze cruise, all you can drink for 3 hours in the Zambezi river, got a guy to play the guitar and all singing along, then took the party back to the hostel.

Then I started my own adrenaline tour of Vic Falls, early in the morning I went water rafting in the Zambezi, supposedly one of the best rivers to do it. Given the amount of water some of the rapids were level 5, the biggest doable, level 6 are beyond limits. I did manage to fall into one of those and got swung around for a while in the river, scary but quite fun. The next day i did something called adrenaline, basically is two ziplines, which is alright but i,ve done a million times, but it also does a gorge swin, which is basically jumping of the cliff, kinda like bungie jumping, but instead of bouncing up and down for a while, you swing across the gorge over the river, 3rd best thing i,ve done in my life.

Afterward I finally went to see Victoria Falls, the single largest courtain of water in the world, a mile wide. The views are breathtaking, the water falls over 100m and raises a big cloud of mist that actually makes you think is raining, you end up completely soaked. Mosi-oa-tunya, the local name, means the smoke that thunders, and is quite accurate. Then walked back to the hostel to start saying goodbye to people from the group leaving.

I liked ZImbabwe, people is very friendly, but is also very annoying. Being such a poor country (inflation was over 1000%, they had ridiculous bank notes, like the 30 trillion one, they just changed to USD a year ago) you cant step out without being swarmed with people trying to sell you stuff or trade for something. Later that night we went for a drink to a very nice and posh hotel overlooking the forest. The next day, it was time to leave and turned out to be the worst day I had in a long time.

Is hard enough saying goodbye to everyone you've been spending all your time for the last 3 weeks, then my flight got delayed more than 4 hours, nothing to do in the airport. Then they lost my car reservation, couldnt print the new one and then I got a mail saying I had been charged twice over a withdrawal. Exhausted, hungry and mad, just got to the first hostal I found and went straight to bed.

Finally, we reach today, I dropped Lukas off at the airport and drove to Pretoria, the executive capital of SOuth Africa, found me a place to stay and drove around to see the sights, the Voortrekker monument, Church Square and the Union Buildings, the seat of the Government.
Tomorrow I shall be driving around 6 hours to the east coast in Durban.

Thats it for now, Hope it wasnt too long and you enjoyed it, I certanly did.

Take care y'all

Quick update

So after a few days in Namibia and Botwana I finally got internet acces, not too long though.Ill ritea proper entry later on, but just tolet people know im still aliveand actually managed to getme a Zimbabwe visa, so ill be crossing tomorrow to ee vicotira falls.When im back in outh Africa ill update properly.

Overlanding

Hey y'all, whats up? Been off the radar for a while now, since I started my overland tour. An overland tour is done in a big truck, with a bunch of other people, going around places and camping. The truck looks something like the one in the pic. There are 23 people in my tour, from all places and ages and basically every day we all have different duties to help with around camp.

Anyway, day 1 took us to the Cederberg area, a few hours north of Cape Town, this is part of the wine country, so we camped next to the vineyards, jumped into the pool and then had some wine tasting. The next day we pickep up camp and drove all the way to the South Africa-Namibia border, at the orange river. Here we could swim in the river and relax at the awesome bar they have in there. Some people would go canoing for a while, while most just relaxed and got to know each other. I have to say this group of people is amazing, so much fun, nice and easy to talk to, which is always great, specially when you are a solo traveler.

So after a night of beers and night swimming we crossed the border into Namibia. Namibia is one of the most sparselly populated countries in the world with around 2.5 people per square kilometer, Namibia actrually means Land of open spaces. And it shows. When driving through it, theres really nothing but a big barren land, pretty desertic, yet beautiful. Is a funny feeling when you drive across the country, and instead of seeing cows or sheep, you run across springboks, gemsboks, baboons and even giraffes and cheetas. Unbelievable, love this place.

So our fist stop in Namibia is the Fish River Canyon, this is the second largest Canyon in the world, so we had to check it out and do a little walk next to it to finally see the sunset from a vantage point by the canyon. Of course it called for individual and group photos and a few beers with such a nice landscape. The next day we drove quite a bit to get into Sesriem, in the Namib Desert. Here we had a nice pool and just chilled for the rest of the day. Is worth noting that up to here, the campsites have been amazing, hot showers, bars, pools, clean bathrooms, really amazing. We expect them to get worse starting now when we venture into the more remote areas of the country.

Well, Sesriem is in the Namib Desert and is the perfect place to explore it, with the highest dunes in the world and the Sossusvlei. We started the day early by going up Dune 45, which is 120 meters high to watch the sunrise, very exhausting to get up, but worth it, in the way back we took a 2 hour walk to go into the Vlei, this is an area where water once stood, so trees grew up but later died. THis once dried up 69,000 years ago, but the dead trees remain, is one of the weirdest things I,ve seen in my life, but one of the most amazing as you can see in the pics.

Hectic, isnt it?

Afterwards we drove to Solitaire, our camp for the night. Here we got engaged in a pretty international footy game with some locals, all was going awesome until tragedy struck, while chasing a ball I hit a glass bottle and completely destroyed my right foot, big toe finger nail, took some healing to it, pains a bit, but in the end is all right, just been limping a bit for a couple of days, which hasnt prevented me of having fun as you'll find out.

Son on Friday night we re-spotted civilization as we arrived into Swakopmund, nessted betwwen the Atlantic Ocean and the Namib desert, so you have sand dunes dying into the sea. Swakopmund is an adventure town, lots of outdoor stuff to do, specially the "Big 3": Skydiving, Quadbiking and Sandboarding. And so it happens that I, being the adrenaline junkie I am, decided to do all three.

Friday was Skydiving day, 3,300 meters jump (thats 10,000 feet) over the Namib desert from a teeny tiny plane. It has got to be the best thing I've ever done, cant describe the feeling of falling at 220km/hr, turning around, a must do for anyone. Also had the best adrenaline rush afterwards, literaly not ebing able to walk, but had to run and jump around everywhere. Saturday was Quadbikinbg for a couple of hours in the desert. Pretty fun stuff, going up and down dunes, doing rollercoasters and even a couple of jumps. Unfortunately one of our mates fell over and broke his collarbone. He'll be allright, a bit bummed though. And finally today I did sanboarding, basically snowboarding on sand. Tried a couplke of jumps, couldnt land them but pretty fun, specially when we did it lying down on a board and going downhill. I reached 67 km/hr and a mouthfull and trouserfull of sand.

An added thing to Namibia is the food. I've had a bunch of game, thats just delicious. I tried a Springbok to die for, some ostrich, kudu and am aiming for crocodile. Anyway, it might be a long time until you hear from me again, since the next 2 weeks will be spent in the absolute wilderness of Northern Namibia and Botswana, going to places like Etosha Park (the 3rd largest national park in the world), the Okavango Delta ( The largest inland delta of the world) and Chobe Park (The highest concentration of elephants in the world). Will try to keep an updete but will be tough, but will definitely love it.

And now with the random stat of the day I say goodbye to y'all. Skynny dip count for the trip: 5