Joe's World Backpacking Trip Stories and pics from my travels.

What an awesome country.  Other than the unpleasantness of being liberated of my wallet in Windhoek, really cool place.  Used to be a German colony, german architecture, german beer, and bratwurst.  I went to Swakopmund in western Namibia.  Right on the Atlantic, and bordered by huge sand dunes.  It's a little town, you would swear you were in Germany.  Spent a few days there, went quad biking in the dunes outside of town with some finnish guys I made friends with.  I ended up renting a 4x4 with two other solo travelers.  A Romanian girl and a Japanese guy.  We rented cooking equipment and a big tent and drove out to Soussusvlei.  Which is in the middle of nowhere.  Hung out there for a few days before I hooked up with the Finnish guys in their truck and went south.  We stopped at Fish River Canyon, second only to the Grand Canyon.  Gorgeous.  We went for a day hike into the canyon, and drove around the top stopping at different points to get pictures.  The beauty of Namibia is vast and barren, and very unique.  One of the more beautiful places I've been.  I've looked forward to Namibia since Kili and it didn't let me down.  I'm in Cape Town now, the Finnish guys fly back home tomorrow so I'm on my own again.  This is the most developed place I've been in Africa.  You would think you were in Western Europe or the states.  Everythings ordered and clean, reasonably priced, people smell nice, no livestock wandering around, no elephants, appalling crime rate.  Just like a western country.  It's nice to be around something familiar for a change.  I'm thinking of renting a motorcycle and driving around South Africa.  We'll see.  So far this country rocks and it's nice to relax a bit.