So, as many of you know, I spent my spring break trip in the Namib Desert. We booked our trip through STA travel's Nomad Adventure tours and really did not have any expectations before we took off on our journey.
We arrived on departure morning eager and ready to experience the 'real' Africa, because according to most South Africans, Cape Town is not the 'real' Africa. We were going for a week, so of course I brought one of my rolling duffels and filled it with anything I may want to put on while chillin' in the dessert. Needless to say, I was that girl with the rolling bag, while everyone else seemed perfectly content with their giant camping backpacks or small duffels. I'll know for next time what to bring ;).
Our home away from home was a giant over-lander truck -fully equipped with a fold-out kitchen, ipod speakers (which didn't work) and a 'cooler' for our water and alcohol (it was really just a metal box that we filled with ice every so often). Although the amenities were less than desirable, we were on our way to the freaking desert and were not expecting much! and we were off....We stopped at a grocery store to stock up on food and water (and of course wine) and drove all the way up the west coast to Namibia (stopping along the way for food, scenic views, and sleeping at some really cool camp sites, of course).
we spent the night on the Orange River, which separates separates Namibia from South Africa and met another overlander truck that would be following us to all of the same campsites for the rest of the trip! This was probably one of my favorite parts of my spring break. We met so many cool people who were making there way through Africa, some even around the world, on a motorcycle or a 4x4...or even through public transportation. These people had no idea where they were going to stay until they got there, and they made plans based off of advice from other travelers along the way, or from the Namibians themselves-all 1.8 million who populate the country.
We would drive for hours and hours and not see any living things. We spent a lot of quality time together, sharing stories, playing cards...sometimes the bus rides were so long and bumpy we even decided to play drinking games to take our minds off the amount of nausea we were feeling from the heat, bumpy dirt roads, and amount of processed foods we were putting into our bodies. I don't think I will ever eat a chip again!
Amidst all the driving, we really did some once in a life time activities. We went canoeing and swimming down the orange river, took a tour with a traditional bushman guide into the mountains and looked at some paintings on the rocks that had been around for thousands of years. Our guide told us crazy stories about how he used his own urine to wash snake venom out of his eye and pulled a scorpian and a big turtle out of his pocket in the middle of the walk! We went to fish river canyon, the second biggest canyon in the world, and ate dinner on the edge of the cliff and watched the sunset. Now I can say I've been to the 2 biggest canyons in the world! We stayed in a town with a population of 15 people-that's right-15! The name of the town was Solitaire-how fitting. The Namibian camp sites were not at all like the camp sites I had stayed at on my 4n4 trip across the West Coast of the US with Camp Echo Lake 6 years ago (still not over the fact that that trip being 6 years ago). Instead, they were very well maintained, with beautiful views, bathrooms nicer then the one in my apartment in Cape Town, a unique looking and well stocked bar, and the company of travelers from all around the world. This aspect has really made me realize how much of the world I have yet to see and I am now very excited to see what else it has to offer.
Our final destination in Namibia was Swakupmund- the second largest city in the country (big deal, I know). Our guides, Pilani and Suli had been fueling us with excitement about the 'big' city of Swakupmund and telling us all about the clubs we were going to go to. It really wasn't as 'lively' as they had described, but it was nonetheless a great time. We stayed in a hostel which was a nice upgrade from the dessert floor! We explored the city and went to lovely dinners at night. On our last day in Swakupmund we went sand boarding and quad biking, which I was surprisingly not horrible at! We took lessons with the same people whom we had been traveling with all week so it was nice to see some familiar faces. We also met a couple of guys who were back packing form Kenya and making their way down to Cape Town and are actually going to meet up with us when they come down here to Cape Town!
I think we were all dreading the long-ass bus ride back to civilization-not because we don't all love Cape Town, but because we had 2200km to drive in two days-it was horrible I won't lie. But this made me all the more happy when I came home to civilization. the night we got home, I fiddled with my blackberry for about 2 hours, took a nice hot shower and got ready for dinner. I had heard alot about a restaurant called Beluga-a nice place in Greenpoint with a beautiful atmosphere and great food. Although usually on the pricey side, I had also heard that their sushi and cocktails were half price on Sunday nights-We decided it would be a perfect treat for the end of our 'roughing it' trip through the desert-and it was.
