Canon Lodge Keetmanshoop

... off your sunglasses. I thought he was joking at first and then he opened the fence and walked in and so did everyone. The owner pulled out a bucket of raw meat and poured it on a mat and the two cheetahs went at it. The owner was talking about them and their habits. The cheetahs were orphans and raised there at birth. He said we could come up to them and pet them from behind as long as they were eating. I was the second person in line and got to pet a ...

... rest stop. Chatting to the petrol station attendant, I ask him about a Naute Dam Recreation Area I've spotted on the map: it seemed fairly close and possibly a good place to camp. He says there is a campsite and it is only 100kms away. Excellent news, even if we are still a little wary about the Namibian pricing system - prices are per person AND per site per night, plus often a fee for your vehicle. We decide to go, and drive along another enjoyable gravel road ...

... a coincidence, and a fortunate one at that. The seven of us booked a campsite together at a Namibian discounted rate, courtesy of Marissa and Terence being Namibian citizens. Bonus!!! Just prior to sunset, we piled into Terence's bakkie and drove through to the Fish River Canyon lookout point. Again, I was out of luck when it came to taking photos. The sun was setting directly in front of us, making it very difficult to take detailed photos of the canyon. But regardless of ...

... contributed to understanding of protected area needs in response to climate change. Known as Choje to the indigenous San people, the Quiver tree gets its name from the San practice of hollowing out the tubular branches of Aloe dichotoma to form quivers for their arrows. We also stopped at a place called the "Giants Playground" because of the large rock formations that look like blocks.

... Namibia, but its flow in the present is a puny trickle compared with the immense volume of water that poured down its length in ages past. It cuts deep into the plateau which is today dry, stony and sparsely covered with hardy drought resistant plants. We stopped during middle of the day, the view was very interesting as the pictures show.

... two torches, I had to walk around with others in the dark!). We followed Charlie and ended up at someone's house who didn't speak English. Imagine a big Kenyan guy a small Dutch blonde girl and me entering some poor persons house in the dark, carrying a plateful of food and a bottle of wine!! They looked at us and went to their kitchen and came back with a big pan! I think they thought we wanted to cook something! How friendly is that! We ...

... was a little bizarre to be eatting German Sausage and Apple Strudel in Africa through! From Swakopmund we drove down to Sossusvlei, the famous red dunes. We spent the day driving around and walking up some of the dunes, then eventually watched sun set from Dune 45, very beautiful. Next stop was the Quiver Tree Forest at Keetmanshoop. These trees are endemic to this area and the branches of this tree were used by the Sans ...

... until independence in 1990 . The majority of the population speaks Afrikaans as a second language, while Oshiwambo is the first language of half the population. German is spoken by 32% of the European community whereas English is only spoken by 7%. Estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower ...

... grow. We were up early the next day, by the way Beth is waking up with the sun now, to visit Giant's Playground. This is an area with gigantic granite pilars and boulders naturally stacked on top of one another, like children's blocks. It was a fun place to hike around for a couple hours in the morning, then off to finish our drive to Luderitz and the diamond fields.

... the campsite since she would have to drive the car from Keetmanshoop in the South to Windhoek, which is further north. This is a long drive (5-6 hours) and she needed to get more practice before setting out. Then we went further into the quiver tree forest to explore. I forgot to mention that Yuichi, my travel companion, looked very much like a Japanese Kurt Cobaine. So I took a few pictures of him sitting ...