I loved reading the names painted on shops and restaurants we passed on the road. I also loved how most businesses had painted on their wall, underneath their name, ‘We offer the following services…’, often followed by a long list of what seemed like quite randomly chosen goods and services, and ending in ‘etc’.
In Tanzania, and Zanzibar particularly (outside Stone Town), the names were quirkily aspirational:
Nice Hair Dressing Salon
Aalya Beautiful Salon
Bob & Bad Boy Ritzy Barber Salon
Tulifo Modern Butchery
In Zambia, things tended to take a more philosophical tone:
Reasonable Shop & Take Away
Reasonable Restaurant
No Money No Power Grocery
New Deal Tarven (sic)
Be Strong Enterprises
Be Strong Barber Salon
Tropics Depot – for all your stationary, food, signwriting etc etc
Just Imagine Investments
Hope Dot Com (internet cafe)
Sex Thrills, AIDS Kills (billboard)
Namibian businesses seemed to have less personality overall, apart from a couple of interesting ones:
The Dog Is Hot Bar
OK Food (actually a big supermarket chain, where we bought food to cook for dinner, and yes, it was acceptable)
But one of the best signs we saw was in Malawi:
Road Signs Save Lives (painted on a road sign)
Day 187-190, Saturday 21st – Tuesday 24th February 2009 (Al & Cath)
Another long drive day, the highlight was stopping for lunch at Africa’s largest canyon – Fish River Canyon. Not much need be said here – it is a large and very impressive canyon that looks not unlike the Grand Canyon I believe. Fantastic views from the lookout assisted by blue sky and sunshine.
We then arrived at a rather green camp site on the Orange River, which forms the border between Namibia and South Africa. My group and I prepared dinner (for the last time!) whilst others showered, swam in the river and got ready for that evening’s “Wine and Cheese Party”. The cheese was good, but some people probably drank a little too much wine, resulting in some unpleasant incidents that we won’t go into here – the outcome was that two people left the truck on a sour note. Generally though (until that point!), a fun time was had by all. Pranks were played, including hiding a few tents. I won’t name the culprits…
Very innocent looking pranksters
The next day was our final long drive day which included our final border crossing. Having the sides down to enjoy the view meant finding ways to warm up as it was colder than usual, despite the bright sun. As the weather warmed up after arriving in South Africa and having lunch, the mood improved on the truck with some 1980’s rock singalongs.
We never thought of using our sleeping bags on the truck like this until the last long drive day – cosy!
Sweet Child o’ Mine – Kiwi Matt does his best Axl Rose impersonation
Some air guitar by Jez and Mike
That night we stayed at an orange orchard, setting up our tents on nice, soft green grass followed by a quiet night watching TV and reading old Time magazines about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the last years of Apartheid. The next morning featured some thorough cleaning of the truck, and packing our tents away for the very last time! Our remaining accommodation would be in dorm rooms, so it was a bitter-sweet goodbye to our tent, St Louis. It had served us well despite being a little cramped. It was the roof over our heads and the protective wall between us and man-eating lions. We’ll miss you…
A short drive had us in Stellenbosch, a university town surrounded by wineries. While the group went on a winery tour the next day, I walked around town, updated the blog and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Not having to cook, coupled with visiting some nice restaurants for breakfast and dinner made this an enjoyable culinary stop. Not having to do the dishes is always a bonus!
Gourmet breakfast
Vineyards in a lovely hilly landscape – with dry paddocks in between the vines, it was easy to imagine you were somewhere in Australia
The last stop before the socially-lubricated group arrived back at the hostel. There some patient people waited for a couple of South African guys to cook up a proper braai (barbecue) in the backyard, while other people who couldn’t fight off their hunger long enough (e.g. us) went for a quick Italian meal down the road, then a night out on the town, feeling quite old compared to the uni students who vastly outnumbered and outlasted us.
Filed under: Namibia
Day 186, Friday 20th February 2009 (Al)
An early start today as we were heading into another sand dune desert – this one, in the Nambib-Naukluft National Park, home to the world’s largest sand dunes – in an area known as Sossusvlei. We were disappointed to be told by Mel that we would not be stopping at the climbable Dune 45 first thing (seeing it at sunrise or sunset was something we’d been looking forward to since first reading the itinerary for this trip, which said we’d climb the dune at one of those times), but instead we would be going on a guided desert hike. We were told this was to beat the heat by walking earlier, then we would get the chance to climb the dune later. However, by the time the guided hike started, it was already baking hot. When we finished and made it back to the dune, it was even hotter and we had to climb a 200 metre high dune with boiling sand underfoot.
The main reason we wanted to stop first thing to climb the dune was to be able to take dramatic photos of the dunes that really showed the contrast along the ridge line, with one side in the bright light and the other in complete shadow. We had to make do with what we could snap from the speeding truck:
The hike through the Sossusvlei clay pan was interesting. Our guide could point out signs of life in the seemingly inhospitable desert. He caught a lizard which had earlier been doing that cute thing you see on documentaries where it stands on two feet at a time to avoid burning its feet. He then found a trap door spider’s home, which are sometimes over a metre deep. By carefully peeling back the roof with two twigs, then gently pouring a little sand down the hole, he coaxed the spider to come to the surface and quickly close the lid!
Spider burrow – if you look closely you can see the owner’s legs
His final trick was showing us how plants can survive here when it rains at most a few times per year. He poured a drop or two of water on a dry, closed bud of a plant. Within 90 seconds, the bud had opened up ready to receive more water. When none came within the next few minutes, it closed back up – amazing how everything adapts to survive. We visited a clay pan (called Dead Vlei – vlei means clay pan) that looked like a graveyard for dead trees – some of them died thousands of years ago, and are still standing, scorched and dry, because there is not enough water for the wood to decompose. Getting the right photo was difficult with a group of brightly dressed Japanese tourists wandering through the trees taking cheesy peace sign snaps.
Soon after we were able to climb Dune 45 – now in the midday heat. It was tough going but spectacular – and fun to run down on the other side.
We thought that the summit was where the farthest person in this photo (the speck) is – but not so – it was another 5 or 10 minutes on from there. And there are dunes in the desert almost twice as high as this one.
Finally at the top – with hot feet!
Our truck dwarfed by the dunes, while we had lunch – note the mini-tornado towards the left of the picture
Back on the road, we even saw some green throughout the day despite spending the morning in the barren, red desert.
Once again forcing us to adapt to a different environment, this night our bush camp had few trees (which means little toilet privacy) and the ground was covered in stones that had to be shifted to get a relatively flat sleeping space. Upon packing up their tent in the morning, Nita and Nate found a scorpion under their tent – we were all glad that none of us had thought of scorpions until we were leaving, but still managed to avoid them in blissful ignorance.
Stony bush camp – our last bush camp. Would we miss staying in places with no toilets in the future? Only time would tell…
Filed under: Namibia
Day 185, Thursday 19th February 2009 (Al)
Today was a stormy day. The entire drive we either had wonderful views of distant stormy skies over mountains, or we were driving straight through the storms. At one point we had to pull over very quickly to put the sides down in the stinging rain whilst being warned to stay away from the sides in case of lightning strikes – which we could see in the area.
Self-explanatory
Moody skies – we later drove through this storm
Arrived safely at Agamba camp – 100 metres away is where the truck and our tents were pitched. It still looks gloomy.
What a difference ten minutes can make – the storm moved on, the setting sun came out and put a golden shine on to the mountains and our browning tans
Another glorious African sunset
Filed under: Namibia
Days 182 – 185, Monday 16th – Thursday 19th February 2009 (Al)
Aaah… Swakopmund. We had finally crossed the African continent and were now on the Atlantic coast. This was also the most “Western” town (both geographically and culturally) we would visit in Africa which can be both a good and bad thing. Internet worked, service was great, food was tasty, prices were still decent. It also meant that the social differences were easier to spot. One observation from the cafe we ate breakfast in each morning was that almost all the customers were white, and all the staff black. There were brand name shops all over town, but most had locked gates where ’safe’-looking customers would be buzzed in. But everyone seemed happy and went about their business in the clean streets.
Swakopmund was another “Xtreme” town where a range of activities were sold to us through an action-packed DVD with loud music and tourists going “that was soooo awesome!!” and “yeeeaaahhh!!”. Several people from our group skydived – then spoke of nothing else for days. Their Facebook profile pictures still bear witness to their dives. Others quad biked and sandboarded, etc. We used this time to catch up on the blog, explore the town, and spend some quality time with dairy products again – mainly milkshakes and ice cream – whilst enjoying the sun.
Cath typing the Feb 17th ‘Africa Summary’ blog post; Al being bored and taking a ‘making-of’ photo
Whilst Cathy and the rest of the group sandboarded, Tom and I walked the 2km out to the coastal dunes that this area is known for (incidentally, Cathy was clocked by the sandboarding speed gun doing 66kmph down the dune- Xtreme!)
Very coastal these dunes
These look giant, but were probably only 20 metres high
The only thing separating the desert dunes from the ocean was the road – we walked towards the coast and followed it back into town
Things turn green and flowery
Swakopmund is a German colonial town – above is Bismarck Street where the architecture does seem a little ye olde European
Clean, wide open streets with few people – not a typical African scene
The cafe we frequented
Enjoying icecream in the park with Jono and Tom. As per usual, whenever you stand still in Africa, locals will come and talk to you which is somewhat different to back home. Two guys asked us questions about Australia including “how big are kangaroos?”, discussed our travels and their struggles with getting into university.
That night, a few of us had some drinks, played some pool, grabbed a quick KFC dinner and went to a movie – just for something different. It was ‘Yes Man’ with Jim Carrey – had some funny bits but would likely have been better if it stuck a little closer to the true story it is based on. A late night walk along the beach and through the quiet town was a nice way to end a nice few days here.
