Vending Paradise in Africa
The hostel where we stayed had beer in the vending machine. I’d seen this before at other hostels. The cost of the beer, twenty rand, is somewhere between $2.50 and $3 depending on whether you exchanged dollars for rand at the hostel or got them out of an ATM. Either way, want a beer at 3:00 AM? No problem. They had chips in the machine as well so that you could get a balanced meal.
South Africa Vehicle
This is the vehicle we had to use in South Africa. The reason is that the south African government requires all overland vehicles in operation in South Africa to be South African vehicles. Or some other silly rule. I saw many other overland vehicles in South Africa but not any from the overland company I used. This means that we got up early in the morning, made the border crossing from Namibia into South Africa, transferred our bags and persons to the bus pictured here and then high-tailed it into Cape Town. No camping or other recreational activity. Just scoot. We arrived around 4:30 PM. We checked in. We grabbed some refreshments and had our departure dinner at 7:30 PM. It was a touching moment.
Namibia Africa Prison
As I said before, it was a really nice campground. The problem was that it was located several miles from anything else. There was nowhere to go and not a lot to see at the campground. I guess the whole point was to lie around and relax. Sounds good, but I was pretty well relaxed-out. It seemed that a high percentage of the campgrounds that we went to in Africa were of the same variety. I’d call them destination campgrounds. The problem for me was that I wasn’t really trying to find destination campgrounds. I tend to be a bit more active than that. In the end I realized that an overland trip was a lot more restrictive than I needed it to be. Maybe I’m just not a relaxed, destination-campground sort of traveler.
Last Evidence Africa
This is it. Last evidence. It was kinda paltry by some of the party standards the group has had before. That it until you realize that they had also almost filled up a 20 gallon trash can with beer and wine bottles as well as the left-overs you see here. It was the last party night as the trip was over the next day. One of the guys at the next campsite said he thought they went to bed around 2:00 AM. I went to bed much earlier and I used ear plugs, plus the driver helped me get a place where I could pitch my tent far away from the festivities that he knew were bound to happen.
Namibia Final Campground
It may well have been the nicest campground that we stayed in the whole time I was in Africa. It had a beautiful setting on the Orange River where several of the group took a canoe trip from the campground. The swimming pool was great. The bathrooms were ultra-clean and there was more hot water than I could use for a shower or doing my laundry. They had internet that was very spotty, but when it worked it was excellent. The only problem was that it was out in the middle of nowhere and we were there for two days and there wasn’t a lot to do.
Namibia Africa Out-of-Gas
What does an overland truck do when they run out of fuel? They sit and wait until someone comes along that is willing to help them. In this case the someone who will help them is the overland truck on which I was riding and the truck out of fuel was a competitor. Dave, our driver, gave the other driver enough fuel to get him to a fuel source. It took a while. While they were making the transfer, the passengers in our truck and their truck had a little get-together. All of the people in the other truck were from the Netherlands. They seemed really nice and I felt that I liked them until they told me they had a full-time cook on board. After that I did not like them as well.
Namibia Africa Dune 45
This is Dune 45, one of the most photographed sand dunes in the world. It is located in Sossusvlei, a huge salt and clay pan set among sand dunes that rise as high as 1,000 feet and cover and area of almost 20,000 square miles. These sand dunes are Namibia’s #1 tourist attraction, according to the Lonely Planet web site. We stopped at Dune 45 for about an hour-and-a-half so people could take some pictures and do a little dune climbing. Luckily, no one got lost.
Africa Tropic of Capricorn
It’s the Tropic of Capricorn sign that was in place where we stopped. If you wonder what is in my hand it’s a video camera. I’m filming the truck stopping and taking photos of the crossing of the line. So what is the Tropic of Capricorn? It’s the southern version of the Tropic of Cancer. They marks the most northerly and southerly latitude on the Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. That’s interesting, isn’t it? I think there’s something called a “solstice” associated with it. It gets sort-of scientifically regulated and confistibicated after that. Cosmology is not my thing. I often have problems describing where to find a rest room, let a lone the nature of reality.
Namibia Africa Flowers
I went for a walk and found these flowers. The picture does not do them justice. Swakopmund, Namibia was an up and coming town. It was modern and landscaped nicely. I saw some civic pride in the town. The urban landscape in Africa can, at times, be a little less well-groomed than a local progressively minded citizen might want. Swakopmund had no such distinction. It was a tidy place.
Namibia Africa Eggs
You might ask why I would take a picture of two eggs and a couple of strips of bacon. That’s because the fellow who cooked the two eggs in this style absolutely could not cook eggs properly when I ordered them over-easy and he was simply the best sunny-side-up egg man I had ever seen. These eggs tasted absolutely delicious. They were as close to perfect eggs as I had ever seen and every time I watched him deliver the eggs to anyone in the breakfast room they always looked this way. Plus, this had to be some of the best bacon I ever had in my life. After two days of near-perfect eggs and wonderful bacon along with all the guava or orange juice I could devour, all the fresh perked coffee and tasty fruit yogurt I wanted I knew I did not want want to go back to the tasteless porridge we would have on our overland adventure. Darn the luck.
