Hansa Swakopmund

... was an all-day drive to Sesriem, which was tiring but not as bad as you might think -- numerous pleasant stops along the way, including one to see a tree completely filled with interconnected nests of the aptly-named Sociable Weaver.

The following morning (Saturday), we got up before dawn and drove out to the enormous sand dunes at Sossusvlei. We climbed Dune 45 and watched the sunrise, which was pretty cool. After breakfast, Ewald ...

... days early. It was a 24 hour bus ride from Swokopmund to Cape Town, with a switch in Windhoek. A very nervous German girl was also travelling and immediately attaced her self to Sarah, and she was happy to have a travel buddy. When she switched buses at Windhoek, to her suprise, she knew the guy who had been assigned the seat next to her. It was Craig, one of the Dragoman drivers from Ngepi in Botswana. With Craig and the German girl, the ride was much nicer than expected.

... that Melissa sent me as I (stupidly) forgot it back home and jumped in the car with Fabio to tour the wineries. Now some of you may not agree with what I did next but what can I say some times I'm a sales guy. I went to these crazy mantions where they had tasting and there were fees. They weren't huge $20 at some estates but a lot of the best wines were even more. So I kinda told a little story...I was writing an article for the SAQ magazine le Cellier on the region ...

... Only to have Gabe go down once more and get 77! Now people were really egging me on as I breathlessly arrived at the top and insisted I had to go down once more and with more wax. I didn’t beat him though and I gave him a good high five and a hug as we happily prepared to slide our way back towards the truck. We made sandwiches for lunch with rolls, another exciting surprise, and beer. When we got back Krista and I went shopping while the boys went to a ...

... pick up our last passenger who had an adeventure overnighting in Johannesburg Airport.
We crossed the South African Namibian border a few days after and then stayed at Orange River. This was where the group started to get along quite well as we had "a night cap" lasting many hours and many more drinks. Lots of fun. The next day we were off canoeing down the Orange River at a fairly decent pace. I was with someone who'd never been canoeing before ...

John:

ok this was cool. we jumped on a 6 seater, single prop plan and flew over sand mountains, skeletons of ship wrecks, thousands of seals and 300 ft dunes dropping straight down to the breaking waves. once in "swakop" we toured this historic german seaside town, went to the Fouries beautiful seaside home and checked out the local museam and aquarium. boys were psyched to have internet access...little ...

... since 1912, due to them being hunted and kept as pets by locals. It's quite sad...

After our exciting day in the desert, we had a another drive to the very German influenced town of Swakopmund...more to come on the town later...Although I will say we had a lovely game meal at the Napolitana restaurant in Swakopmund. I had a Kudu and Springbok burger, that was comparable in size to my head!

... a sidewinder snake, and also a small gecko. The sidewinder is unique in that it moves sideways as it slithers, to keep its body off the hot sand. It's amazing how much can survive in the dunes. Tomorrow morning we push north up coast a bit more, check out a seal colony at Cape Cross, then head inland, making our way towards Botswana. I've been so impressed with Namibia...it has a lot to offer for a country that is off the beaten path. I really expected the desert ...

... Swokop Lodge and spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping. Well I did, Oliver had constant hiccups so sat up watching rugby. Headed out to dinner that night at the restaurant under the hostel... bloody awful. I ordered a steak medium rare which came out cold and pretty much uncooked. I ate it anyway but wasn't happy. How hard it is to ef up a steak? Seriously.

Another night a group of us went out for Italian and that was equally not nice. Actually half enjoyed, half did not ...

... your nose inches from the sand whilst holding the board up in front with your hands and making sure your elbows and feet were not dragging in the sand.. Sarah C went first and used her feet most of the way down and achieving only nana speed. Cesca in usual dare devil fashion ignored the brakes and clocked 65km/h on the speed gun. I followed and much to my chagrin only managed 64 k's although I did get some air on the jump at the bottom unlike my smug wife. Lastly ...