Best. Day. Ever!

We have nearly finished our Safari tour - photos later when it's not 4 million degrees.

We have been in the national park and seen lions and elephants and zebra and giraffes - extremely close...

We are now in Zambia - today we saw Victoria Falls - we flew over them in a helicopter this morning - then this afternoon went out to Livingstone Island where you can swim in a pool RIGHT at the edge of the falls. Amazing pictures - I cannot think of a crazier place to swim!

Have to go now - this is costing me 300 Kwachas per minute!

J&J

Camping

We have survived our first two nights of camping!

We had to be at a hotel in Windhoek at 10 am on Wednesday to meet our tour. We expected to find a big safari truck, but instead we found a guy with a sign and and a van. And there was only one other guy on the tour! (Plus the four of us). Hmmm, this might be interesting.

And it got even more interesting when our van driver was stopped at a police checkpoint outside the city and had to turn back because he didn't have a fire extinguisher!

Once we got underway again, we got an unexpected chance to appreciate the scenery while our driver changed a flat tyre...


Once we got to Sesreim though, we discovered our Van Man was just a transfer and we met up with the real tour, and an actual safari truck:

Our tour group is cool - with 14 people in total; 5 Australians, 2 Danes, 1 Portugese... as well as 2 Italians who don't speak much english! There are two guides as well - Rino and Willie, who are great fun.

We set up camp under the stars: (bonus points for whoever names the constellation visible here)

The camp was actually really well equipped - with a toilet block and hot showers... but somehow I don't think they'll all be like that!

And then went out for a sunset walk in the dunes. The next morning we got up ridiculously early to see sunrise from another dune, but I think you've seen enough sand for the moment, so I'll skip those 300 photos :-)

Later that day we did a 5km walk in the desert (which is HOT) and saw the Dead Vlei - which is ESPECIALLY hot and dry - even by desert standards!

That evening we took a walk down into Sesreim Canyon...

And saw our very first (WILD) live snake! It was pretty small, but also very poisonous, and sounding very pissed off the way it was hissing!

Yet another gorgeous African sunset to finish an amazing (and tiring) day!

We are heading north tomorrow, away from civilisation, so I'm not sure when we'll get to the next internet cafe. We'll post when we can though - so keep checking!

J&J

PS: Also got a chance to try out the underwater camera the other day.... and it works!

Sand, Sand and More Sand.

We had the wedding on Saturday, it was very nice and everyone looked lovely etc etc.

No time to blog about that just now - just enough time to load a few photos of ... sand.

The day after the wedding Ronald (he's my brother-in-law's brother-in-law - work that out!) took us out to find some sand. As I mentioned earlier - that is not terribly difficult in Swakopmund. He took us out to Dune 7 - which is apparently the 7th tallest dune system in the world. And we climbed it....


Picture walking up the downwards escalator - except it's sand... and twice as steep.

I just about died. I was seriously considering telling the others to send me a postcard from the top.


Quite satisfying once you're up there though..... and it's a long way back down (check out the size of the cars) - but much MUCH quicker.

The views from up here were amazing though - and for the first time we really felt like we were in Africa.


We are back in Windhoek now - officially starting our Safari tour today - but we don't meet up with the group until tomorrow morning.

J&J

Namibia!

We made it to Namibia!

Sorry, no photos just yet, as the internet cafe I have found has a 'no USB' policy.

We spent one night in Windhoek (the capital) after our flight up from Cape Town. The next day we caught a minibus shuttle out to Swakopmund at the coast (4 hours - but so hot it was much worse than the 19hr bus ride!)

Here we met up with soon-to-be extended family, and had a 'Braai' - (a bbq).

Swakopmund is an amazing town - the sand dunes are literally right up to the edge of the houses - I'm sure they have to go out each day and sweep the desert back!

I'll find some way to get some more photos on here.

I have to dash off now, because the wedding starts shortly.

J&J

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