Amy: Day one of our safari started with a tour of a local township. It was the first township in Cape Town. The townships started when areas were declared white only during apartheid and the non-whites were moved out of the area into the townships. People were separated from their neighbours and friends and often the men were separated from their families when they moved into hostels in the city to find work. The government thought this would be a good way to keep the non-white population down.
We also had the opportunity to see the temporary shelters that people had built and were living in. Eventually when the government allowed the men in hostels to bring their families to live with them, there were 17 families living in 3 bedroom dwellings sharing common areas like bathrooms and kitchens. They began building the temporary shelters so they could live in single family dwellings. Our tour company used a local company to take us around and they were excellent tour guides. I was torn between enjoying the opportunity to see and learn about their stories and not wanting them to be “tourist attractions”. Our guides assured us that having people come and learn about their history and bringing tourist money into the communities was a good thing. We went to a second township to have lunch at a restaurant that was well known in the area and the BBQ was really good. From there we headed to the outskirts of town to meet up with our Acacia truck and start out on our travels.
Our first night was spent in a campground run by someone who used to lead Acacia tours and is now a local grape grower. We were treated to a wine tasting of the wine made from the grapes in the area. It was a good opportunity to start to get to know some of the people in our group. Day 2 was spent at Orange River and we got to go for a 2 hour paddle in the morning of Day 3. Later in day 3 we crossed the border into Namibia and we camped out near Fish River Canyon. We went for a late afternoon drive to see the canyon and had supper at a picnic spot and waited for the sunset. We had an early start to day 4 (4:30am) so we didn’t bother setting up the tent, we just slept under the stars. It was a beautiful night. After a long day of driving on day 4 we arrived at a campground near the Sossusvlei sand dunes. It was quite hot so we set up camp, went for a swim, ate some ice-cream and then went for a walk in a canyon near by. We had to set up the tent that night as there were a lot of black backed jackels in the area and we did see some as we ate a late supper of Kudu steak. Another early start to day 5 (4:30 am) but this time it was to climb dune #45 at Sossusvlei to watch the sunrise. It was quite fun to run down the dune. After a desert walk with a bushman we were back on the road and camped out that night in the middle of nowhere. We camped out at a picnic spot but there was not much around. We were happy that there was an outhouse though. Day 6 and 7 have been spent in Swakopmund relaxing and catching up on pictures, journals and some laundry. We had an amazing dinner of seafood last night and may be having some fresh fish for supper tonight. Apparently we are in a bush camp tomorrow night (no facilities) but then in Etosha National Park for 2 nights.
Internet access has been scarce but we will continue to do our best to keep the journal updated.
