Namibia is exhausting

So as my last post mentioned, I left Cape Town about 8 days ago and joined an overland camping tour with 17 other tourists, aged 21-64 (The tour company was Nomad which I definitely recommend). It was the most jam-packed week of my life, and I'm thoroughlly exhausted and in need of a sleep in. What a diverse group we were, but I've never people get along as well and become friends as quickly as we did. It was really sad for the 3 of us that are ending our trip here in Swakop to wave bye to the rest of the people as the truck pulled away. My least favourite part of traveling is the constant making of good friends only to have to say goodbye. Thabani, John, Jean-Paul, Frank, Birgit, Jonna, Maike, Moni, Christiana, Abir, Linn, Casey, Mika, Nanae, Batya, Shaak, Tracy, Teres and Crystal: you guys are awesome and will be missed. Good luck with the rest of the trip and I hope to run into you again on the road or at least online.

Day one of this week long epic was spent in the Cedarberg mountains, a place where the orange orchards span the valley for kilometres. I'm happy to say that I think my lame sense of humour had something to do with helping the group bond. Arriving in the afternoon, we went for a quick dip in the nearby river which was great because it was DAMN HOT here. Come to think of it, going for a 2 hour hike in the sun was probably not a wise idea, but our Rastafarian-Bushman guide Skoki was hilarious and we did get to see some several-thousand-year-old San rock paintings. Who knew 4 blurry, faded blobs could lead to a 20 minute explanation?

Up early the next morning - and every morning after - we filed back onto the truck, "Sammy" (don't call it a bus or Thabani will get upset) and headed directly north to the Orange River, which is the border between South Africa and Namibia. I was amazed how quickly the landscape changed; I closed my eyes for a nap, surrounded by lush greenery, and woke up to a dry landscape that looked something like Arizona. It got hotter and dryer as we moved north through Springbok, sweating the whole way. Arriving at our campsite, we pretty much headed straight for the bar, where the wind began to kick up something fierce. The massive dust storm across the river was fun to watch but not so much to eat. After a quick dinner break it was back to the bar, where we waited for the expected 60 Swedish to arrive on their pink buses. No, it wasn't a gay tour company but apparently they operate all over the world so that Swedes don't have to be bothered with interacting with other nationalities. Some of these people had been drinking all day already, so the show was pretty entertaining.

Day three started with a leisurely 9km canoe trip down the Orange River, which was a lot of fun. Because it was so hot I jumped out for a cool down at least 5 times. Fun Fun. Getting back on the road, we crossed the border into Namibia and booted it for Fish River Canyon, the second largest in the world (which, means I've seen the big-3: Grand, Fish River and Blyde River.) We arrived at camp and set up tents just in time to see hands down the most beautiful sunset I've witnessed. You could look in 4 different directions and see a completely different background, I couldn't shut up about it for hours after. This was probably my favourite experience.

On day 4 we entered the Namib-Naukluft National Park, which is mostly semi-desert. A day of mostly driving, and a roadside lunch under one of the only trees along the way, we got to enjoy a long "African massage" thanks to the "African style roads" (unpaved). Setting up tents, we made our way to the Sesriem Canyon. Although this one was much different than the last - maybe a thousandth of the depth, it was really interesting nevertheless. Plus we got to hike down to the bottom. Another amazing sunset. At home, "somebody" started a game of 'I never' which really helped the bonding, and I think I won (lost?) the game.

Day 5, we woke up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 to make sure we could hike to the top of Dune 45, a 250m high sand dune in 'Sossusvlei' for the sunrise. This brought me back to the Moroccan Sahara - the colours were killer - but somehow I was not as impressed by the view. That is until I got to the bottom of the hill (via a short sprint), and got a better sense of how freakin' massive this dune is. REALLY IMPRESSED. Our guide said something interesting - in his 37 years it had never rained in this desert... except for the massive downpours the past 2 years. Climate change anyone? We didn't have far to drive today, so we decided to take advantage of the fact that our campsite had a pool and broke out the rum. To convey the quality of this rum, a bottle of Captain Morgan's spiced rum costs about 10 dollars in Springbok. This stuff was half that price. But hey, when you mix it with Litchi-Apple juice, it doesn't taste half bad. So with 4 or 5 of us having a really good buzz going, we got on the bus. Drunk people usually aren't punctual so I missed a chance to shower, but I did manage to get half the bus corked with this evil concoction. We had some great laughs.

Arriving at our new home in Solitaire, the smallest city in Namibia, we continued with a few beers and some apple crumble.This afternoon was another one of the highlights - I don't remember the last time I had a group of people in stitches for so long, including myself. I love to laugh. Eventually and inevitably the conversation turned more serious - a dozen people discussing life, the universe, everything, and attempting to solve Africa and the world's problems. I am really happy to know that there are so many amazing people out there that want to do good in the world and I have no doubt that they will. Thanks guys for an amazing conversation.

Day 6 we traveled inland to Walvis Bay to take shots of flamingos in the distance. Unfortunately I didn't bring my 9 thousand x zoom lense so the pics might not be great. Finally we arrived at my current location, Swakopmund, the self-proclaimed 'adventure capital of Namibia'. A bang on description. We checked into a real hostel (!!!) and took a little tour around town, did some shopping, and went off to an amazing dinner. I had crocodile (kind of tasted like a cross between chicken and halibut), oryx (a kind of antelope - like beef) and springbok (a kind of deer... which tasted like deer and was damn tasty!). And of course these crazy things called 'chips' that look like french fries to me.

Day 7 was yesterday and completely kicked my ass. We started sandboarding at 9am. It was loads of fun but it takes 10 mins to climb the dune and about 1 to get down it so the 'fun efficiency ratio' was kind of low. Although sandboarding is done with a snowboard, we also got to try lay-down sandboarding which is done with a piece of laminate wood. I got up to 75kph!!! The pictures to follow of me wiping out off a jump are legendary. Later that afternoon I had the most exhilarating experience of my life:

I jumped out of a plane at 10,000 feet.

They aren't kidding when they say it's the most fun you can have with your clothes on. The first 4 seconds out the door you find yourself in absolute terror, then it's incredibly peaceful, exciting and liberating to be free falling. At 5,000 ft they open the chute and your tandem partner lets you control the direction (extreme right!! yaaa!!!). I couldn't stop smiling for the entire day, and it wasn't just because of the beers and shots we had at the airport. This morning as I said I waved bye to my new friends, and to get over my melancholy I decided to spend 2 hours catching air off sand dunes on a 350cc quad bike. Great fun!

Now I'm looking forward to a quiet night where I can do nothing at all. Hopefully tomorrow I'll do a bit of sightseeing and move onto the capital, Windhoek, day after to meet up with a guy I met in Pretoria some weeks ago, and eventually into Botswana. Thanks for reading this long winded post, you guys rock!

note: pictures hopefully up tomorrow when I can find a better internet cafe