Prinzessin Rupprecht Residenz Swakopmund

... had reservations for dinner at a restaurant that served game meat. We walked there and arrived at what looked like and smelled like an Italian restaurant but actually served game meat too. They had a few different kinds of game meat to include kudu, springbok, and oryx. We had already eaten kudu previously so I opted to go for an oryx and springbok stir-fry. Oryx and springbok are a variety of deer and the oryx is actually a very beautiful animal with its ...

... the flora we passed and took us to see rock paintings from the Bushmen who lived there 500 years ago.

The next day, we spent the entire day in the truck traveling up to the Orange River, which forms the natural boundary between South Africa and Namibia. On Thursday morning, we went "canoeing" in inflatable canoes that were more like narrow rafts. It was pretty fun, but our local guide was a bit of a snot, who was kind of rude and didn't even try to ...

... dont worry parents every 150 km there is a service station!!
So i will be back online in 10-14 days with some more stories and hopefully some great pictures of vast nothingness!!

BTW, yesterday i did a skydive , Jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet!
rather then rewrite the whole episode again .....here is an extract from a mail that i set Ollie ...summing up the experience (excuse the swearing and use of local lingo)



"it ...

... end of the night was crashed out on a sofa and clueless when two girls sat next to me and started making out until Dan's jaw just about hit the floor. Sorry guys no there is no continuation of the story even though I tried to introduce Dan to them. We only ended up stumbling into our hostel at 6 AM and I had to get up at 8...again not a great idea. On top of it I couldn't sleep. So tomorrow Durban, and find a way to get to Sodwana where they have world renowned diving.

... ended up at another bigger bar that was Heini’s favorite. So although my head hurt and most of the girls were fairly tired we headed over to check it out. When we got there it was really crowded and smoky and there wasn’t much room to move. Krista and I were ready to go after about 15 minutes and so Gabe walked back with us. Then apparently after we went to bed he joined everyone in the hostel bar until 2am or so. It’s amazing how little sleep he needs!

... beelined it for skydiving. THAT WAS AMAZING! I was in the last group of us to go up and even got to wear a pink/ demin flying suit - totally funky. My tandum diver was Mias and (although I think they say it to everyone) was satisfied in calling me 'Crazy Girl' when he found out I'd swam with crocdiles once. When we jumped out of the plane (well, fell...) it was so hard to breathe but I remembered that they said to scream if that happens so I could not ...

... from far away as it is up close. A pity we never got a chance to get up there, maybe next time!

So basically the way the tour works is you get on a custom designed safari truck that has 3 crew and up to 30 passengers. Starting out we have 17 passengers but that will increase and decrease as we go along as not everyone is going to Kenya and others will join us as well at certain points. So far there are 6 Australian, 4 Irish, 2 French, 2 Dutch, 1 German, 1 ...

... different here without those two. I think a tear is about to roll down my cheek.
I can't even imagine what it's going to be like when I leave Namibia, too! I am happy that I am going to Victoria Falls for a few days before I go home so I can slowly readjust myself to not being in Namibia and being back in The States. I really do not want to go home. I am in love with this country and the people. I don't think it'll be hard to ...

... mobile would not work in Namibia and had no way of getting his mobile number. Doh.

The first day we arrived seafog was pretty much encasing the town bringing the temperature down with it. Reminded us of chilly days spent in San Francisco.

Swakopmund's biggest attractions, besides the beautiful sand dunes, is adrenaline packed activities - sky diving, quad biking and sandboarding to name a few. As much as I love sky diving we had to give ...

... ugly as the first attempt. The sand boarding was awesome! They made us lunch at the dune and we hung out there for awhile. My body already hurts but no time to think about that because I am on to my next adventure... In the afternoon, I went quad biking (4 wheelers) in the desert. The guides gave us two options. We could follow the crazy guy or stay with the more mellow driver. Almost everyone went with the crazy guy! He took us flying through the desert on the quad ...