Sat 25th Aug (day 42) - Saw Harry potter & the order of the phoenix at the cinema. As usual, an epic movie full of good effects. Being a potter fan, thoroughly enjoyed it. Catching up with stuff for rest of day as back on the road tomorrow.
Sun 26th Aug (day 43) -
The next photo stop was at the 'Tropic of capricorn' latitude sign. Check out a map to see where that is.
Lunch stop in a place called Solitaire. This from what I gather, is officially the smallest registered town in Africa with a population of 26! It's other claim to fame is the best apple pie in Namibia. For $N11 you get a small tray of the stuff and it's a nice treat. After being stuffed with apple pie, time to hit the road again to our campsite for the night at Sessriem in the Naukluft National Park. The park's claim to fame is for having the highest sand dunes in the world at around 300mtrs. The site iteslf is in a superb location with views of the dunes in the distance and mountains to other sides.
Mon 27th Aug (day 44) -
No time to waste and onwards for what turned out to be a great time. Destination was Sossusvlei, only 15km away, and a 3hr or so 'bushman' walk for those of use who paid for it. It was going to be tiring and some didn't fancy it so stayed behind. We got picked up by 4WD pickup-truck and had to ride in the back, which was an experience in itself as the tracks are exteremely bumpy. Just like riding a bucking bronco! Our guide was an incredible japanese girl called Yuri. She came to the area as a tourist 9yrs ago and decided to come back, and has lived here ever since as a guide. Her style was hilarious, with her lively japanesisms.
A 'vlei' is a water bed and sossusvlei is a 'live' waterbed. In other words, water still comes here periodically due to the terrain allowing water to flood in when rain occurs. When the terrain changes due to the sands shifting to form a barrier, blocking in an area, then that area will get starved of water and everything in it will eventually die to become a 'dead vlei'. Sossusvlei only gets 20mm rain a year and so everything has adapted to maximize the use of water. Plants and trees have very long root systems to reach down upto 50mtrs to the water below. Freshwater shrimps lay their eggs when it rains and die after a month. Their eggs can survive for many decades after the bed has dried up, Buried in the ground until the next water arrives and they then emerge, to repeat the cycle. There are plants that retain every tiny drop of water that condences from the atmosphere during the night and the leaves can be eaten. One of them, the ostrich plant, tastes slightly sweet and is pleasant to eat. There is a spiky shrub called the !Nama, which grows spiny fruit that are edible. Now you may wonder why I spelt it !Nama. The exclamation mark is the local way of showing that it is pronounced with a click. This area is home to the khoikhoi tribe, who speak what is known as 'click' language. '!a' means ok or yes.
We were shown loads of different droppings of animals that only appear at night and also tracks of many of them. In my best japanese..a 'bruddy gerbil' is one that is responsible for a lot of damage. An interesting fact...animals don't like to pee here, because moisture is valuable and so they have adapted to retain as much as possible. Whatever is left to come out, is virtually crystalline as it is so concentrated. When it comes out it turns into a solid crystalline slab almost instantly. You can pick up what look like gritty stones but are in fact crystallized pee! Nice eh!
Temperatures here reach 50°C during the day. Hot enough to melt the sole of your shoes, so you don't hang around for long! We were shown some tracks of tiny beetles that sleep in the sand and leave little marks where they bury themselves. Yuri dug one out. It looks dead but when you put it down, it comes to life and digs itself back in. Really cute to watch. Another one is a 'headstanding beetle'. It does what it suggests so that water droplets run down its back and into its mouth. Clever eh!
The dunes vary from gold to red with grey and black deposits. The redder the sand the more iron it contains. You can run a magnet across the sand and the iron particles pull out of the sand. Millions of tons of iron ore for the picking.
One highlight was the final section of the walk into the dead vlei mentioned earlier. As the atmosphere is so dry, nothing decomposes, so the area has remained as it is for nearly a thousand years since it dried up. The scenery is stunning as the surface is caked in limestone deposit which covers the area in a sea of white amidst the surrounding red dunes. Amongst this are petrified trees a thousand years old. The scene has been used in many films due to its unique apearance.
Diamonds used to be collectible on the surface of the vlei. Not so much anymore. The locals used to come out under moonlight and crawl on their hands and knees with a pot around their neck to put the diamonds in.
As water is in short supply, the bushmen used to use ostrich eggs to store water in and bury them in the sand, where the water would keep for upto 5 or 6 months - as long as they remembered where they put it! Yuri showed us a little party piece of one of the plants that had been dead for around 10yrs. With one drop of water on it, the apparently dead seed pod burst open to reveal its seeds. Drive to Konkiep campsite for the night.
Tue 28th Aug (day 45) -
Wed 29th Aug (day 46) -
Thu 30th Aug (day 47) -
Destination for today is Citrusdal in the Cedarberg area via some stunning scenery. The most noticeable change on entering S.Africa is that it is green, compared to Namibia which was predominantly sand. Not far into the country and the roadsides and fields are full of flowers of every colour. This area is known for its wild flowers and attracts hoards of visitors as a result. Further on sees the appearance of mile upon mile of vinyards. Our resting place for the night was a superb hostel - Gekko backpackers. This place is part of an orchard business so the house is surrounded by orange, lemon, mandarin and kumquat trees. Didn't need to be told twice when told to help ourselves to fruit - out there with a bag in seconds. Really nice people who run it and the facilities were great. First cappuchino in a while too. Little luxuries that I miss. Also, now that I have mobile coverage, I can get on and organise some of my forthcoming event all will be detailed later. On the walls of the hostel are photos of various visitors to the site. Apart from the human kind are scorions and snakes! I had gone for a walk earlier in the surrounding bush without knowing!
Fri 31st Aug (day 48) -
Another product that S.Africa is known for is Rooibos tea. I have been drinking it back home for a couple of years or so. It is only grown in the area of Clanwilliam, the area I am in now. It was originally known locally as mountain tea, but was later discovered to have healthy properties for which it is now sold by the company, Rooibos limited. The stuff available here is more pleasant than that back home due to being fresher.
Heading further south and Yuk! It started to rain, cloud cover became total and it all went grey. Just like home. It shouldn't come as a surprise though, as it's like Wales - it isn't green without reason! With it the temperature has dropped significantly too. Apart from a very brief sun shower in Malawi, this is the first real rain I have seen in months. One other change to make it seem like home, is the appearance of cows and sheep in the fields. You could be on parts of Scotland at times.
Our home for tonight is at the wonderfully named 'Stumble Inn' in Stellenbosch. Didn't get much time to settle in as off on a wine tour of the region. Our guide was Lucas, very knowledgeable on the subject of wine. First vinyard was at Simonsig. They produce 2 million bottles per year. The main harvest is between Jan & Feb, so nothing is happening at present other than tasting. We were taken through the wine making process that would normally be taking place in the main season. From grape - de-stemmer to remove the grapes from the stalks, the crusher that uses airbags to exert 2 bar of pressure to extract the juice. Too much and the juice vgoes bitter. Then the fermentation stages. Red wine has some of the skins added so that the colour leeches from the skins, otherwise the colour would be white. Then into oak barrels to age.
Despite attempts to not drink the wine between samples, much went down the neck and straight to my head. Yippee! Off to the next vinyard at Fairview. This one is a bit unique in that the owner originally decided to take the urine out of the french Cotes du rhone and made his own brand called 'Goats do Roam'. Got the T-shirt as a souvenir! At the entrance to the winery there is a round brick tower with a goat in it. Complete with its own spiral staircase for access to the entrance half way up. This was a cheese and wine tasting, so plenty of flavours to sample. I had paid a 15 rand upgrade so that I could sample the most expensive wines they had on offer, and to be honest wasn't impressed.
Onwards to lunch at the Goederust farm kitchen past the prison where Nelson Mandela spent 2years under house arrest. Traditional Bobotie and rice for lunch, obviously washed down with red wine! High as a kite by this stage. Next, on to Dieu Donne in Franschoek. And finally the Moreson vineyard via a chocolate shop before heading back to the hostel.
Out for a coffee and cake in town at the mugg & bean café after dinner.
Sat 1st Sep (day 49) -
Off at 9am for drive to Capetown and the finish of this overland tour.Off at 7am to Stellenbosch, an area famous for its wine. The area we drove through was dense with citrus groves. A nice sight at this time in the morning, all completed by a breathtaking backdrop of mountains with clouds clinging to the tops. One major difference as already mentioned is that, north Africa has had the colour drained from it, being very arid and dusty. S.Africa on the other hand, has been coloured in! left at 7am to head to south african border. Exit Namibia at 7:30 and enter S.Africa at 8am. Fairly simple pass through customs. On previous occasions the whole truck had been emptied and searched for drugs by sniffer dogs. We obviously looked honest! Free visa for 90days. First stop will be Springbok for provisions in 117km. Managed to get 1/2 an hour on the internet for 3 quid! It's expensive here. So many things to do in so little time. One of the disadvantages of travel is having to organise stuff on the road. After reaching Cape town I am independent for a while, so have to sort transport & accommodation. Been trying to work on a plan with the occasional bit of mobile coverage, hardly any internet and some help from back home. I want to spend as much time overland and minimum time in the air but that is difficult in Africa, being such a massive place. I Want to do some stuff in capetown that also needs forward booking. To be honest, i'll be glad to get off this organised tour at the weekend and spend some time on my own for a while. It gets tiring after a while, with so many early starts and camping plus long days on the road. Looking forward to a spell of sleeping in a bed and doing my own thing. Did see some e-mails off Sally-anne and Katie today. Miss them both a lot as well as Amy & Tim. This travel time is giving me a lot of time to evaluate what I want from life and what I miss.on cook duty today, so pancakes for breakfast. Yummy! Off at 9am to canoe down the orange river. This is about a 10km trip in the back of a pick-up truck. We got dropped off upstream of our finishing point and the scenery was stunning. It is a good way of warming up the shoulder muscles after a very cold night! Took til noon to cover the distance at a relaxed pace. Not much wildlife to see, mainly birds - african fish eagle, pied kingfisher, egret. An interesting one is locally called the snake bird after the way it snakes its neck as it perches in the trees ( otherwise called the dipper). Chillin' in the afternoon as the temperature is too hot do do anything else.a bit of a drving day today. First stop fish river canyon, the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand canyon. This one is 160km long, 27km wide and 600m deep. The main viewpoint is at Hobas at the northern end. At the southern end, ai-ais is a hot spring oasis. Not much water at this time of year as the water is low. High level is around march/april. Stopped at a viewpoint for lunch al fresco. Awsome view. Afterwards headed off to the orange river. Short stop at a 'quiver tree'. Native hunters would make the holder for their arrows from it as it is like cork. The scenery on the way south is stunning, with flat plains surrounded by majestic mountains. Clocks went forward 1hr on arrival at our campsite for orange river(Provenance campsite - base of Felix unite river adventures). The site is a beauty. If you can afford the upgrade cost, thatched huts overlooking the riverbank. up at 4:30am to get away early enough to catch the sunrise from the top of 'Dune 45'. The dunes along this coast are in the shapes of a horseshoe and the peaks are numbered upto 63. The highest is dune 17 I think, but dune 45 is the most accessible and is about 220mtrs high. At this time in the morning in August. The temperature is near freezing and climbing to the top numbs your hands and feet. The view from the top is awesome though, and worth the trek. Watching the sun rise is beautiful as the shades and colours of the surrounding area changes. Running down the dune afterwards is fun - especially when a warm breakfast awaits at the bottom - what I call eggy bread but everyone else calls french toast. I think I am getting more unfit as the weeks go by on this trip as I am finding some of this stuff knackering. Too much to eat and lots of time sitting in a truck doesn't help. Need to do something about it. Hardly any dancing in many weeks, so missing that enormously.Casual start today, leaving Swakopmund at 10am. I have enjoyed this town as it has a relaxed quality to it, nice restaurants and bars and an open layout so it doesn't feel crowded. A couple of photo stops on the way south. First stop was more of a panoramic viewpoint, but the interestinvg thing I thought was that the ground glistened with metallic particles. Some of the rocks were that metallic they chinged if you banged them together. Not sure what metal it was but the rocks were also covered in a mica type of substance? 