An insight to Namibia

11 July. Heja Game Park.
We rose early as we had a long drive in front of us. The air smelt fresh, our guide assured us this promised to be a glorious day, he was right. By 10am the temperature soared, we all stripped off our winter thermals and replaced them with shorts and t-shirts as the lorry heated up like a furnace. We were on our way to the world famous Waterberg Plateau. As the crow flies it wasn’t that far but Namibia is a complicated country so getting there was a challenge on its own. A burst tyre and a good 5 hours later we arrived at our camp for the next few days. This camp nestled against the base of the plateau. The scenery had changed to dry and dusty yet still held an element of extreme beauty. We got off the truck and Robinson (our guide) demonstrated how to erect our tents, within 3 minutes his tent stood proud. He made it look as simple as riding a bike. We later found out that just like riding a bike it was simple… once you get the hang of it. We struggled with our tent for a good hour until Robinson pointed out we had it inside out and were missing a pole. After we remedied these problems we got the tent up relatively quickly. During this mammoth task we were joined by a huge number of mongoose. They’re the tamest little animals imaginable. Tiny heads popping out from behind trees and scampering around our camp with an incredible amount of energy, kicking up little clouds of dust behind them. This provided great entertainment to the group and lifted our spirits after a long day. We ate early and sat around the fire talking and laughing. I wandered off from the group to collect my thoughts... Having found an animal free piece of ground to lie on, I let my head fall back and stare up into the night sky. The sky was the biggest I’d ever seen, completely filled with tiny stars twinkling away at me. It was only then that it hit me, I’d arrived in Africa. The smell of smoke clung to our clothes that night and still filled the air in our tent the next morning as we were woken by the early light streaming in.