Leaving Namibia – long road South. October 29, 2007

So on from Swakopmund, had last morning there did our first laundry run with number 1 dobey in The Swap, excellent clean under-crackers!  Also had first sunbathe on beach, which is pictured above.  Long gold sands with the higher dunes of the desert behind, very nice.  Looks like they started building a bridge at the entrance of the river, but nature had its’ way and all that’s left is the main pillars – looks cool close up.  Then drove to Walvis Bay for a cheeky half in the Raft pub (on stilts on end of pier)

 

very nice + bowl of chips see phot, found out negative camp sites in Walvis so had to travel north again to Longbeach leisure park, had the site (which can house 120 tents) to ourselves, bit spooky but view lovely and facilities good, cooked on Trangia for first time..on the menu tonight beans and salami bits, phenomenal! Next day we were on our way through the Namib after home made coffee and dunkable rusks, but were gutted when after Dune 7 (a dune that looks like a dune but is as big as a small mountain) there were no more dunes, we think that there are more to the south of the C14, but in the VW we aren’t allowed to go there, so back east to the main road over some particularly dodgy ground, really feared for Marco as he struggled on the ground but we made it through to the Solitaire petrol station where we had what all self respecting desert travellers have , refill petrol check, water check – large slice of apple strudel check, it was our dessert in the desert.   Just after that passed the Tropic of Capricorn, so all kids (under 12 that is, not you Nick) what are the tropics??  See phot really hot! 

By this stage we had been travelling much slower than anticipated and were trying to reach Mariental to get digs, there.  Unfortunately when there we realised that the guide book..he LIE! No camp site as promised so we then had to make decision ..sleep in car by roadside or pan south to get to Keetmanshoop.  Latter won out and Chris did awesome piece of driving at speed in reducing light to get there as the sun set, unfortunately the first camp site chosen near the local quiver tree farm was owned by a very very miserable German woman with a shark’s smile, so we fled there in the dark back along a dusty road with a dirty windscreen (which I didn’t let Soph clean ‘cos i was in a strop) quite some trip but luckily only 10 miles.  See phot below for distant pinkish mountain in dusky light.

 

Anyway finally got to Keetmanshoop central to stay at the aptly named Central Lodge, right in the middle of town and lovely.  Stayed in AC with telly and watched DIE HARD (the original and best) amazingly Soph had never seen it, has she never done a submarine patrol! Next day more driving by this time we were getting tired of it, and i realised that i may have overdone the driving demands!! At the end of the 28th we had passed 2500miles in Marco.  Through border after another dusty dry day on the road and steamed bits to reach ClanWilliam (orig plan to get to Springbok, but when there pretty much everything shut, it was sunday and these afrikaners are a religious lot!!)  Anyway luckily got to the ClanWilliam Dam complex and secured a pitch by the reservoir, which was good view.  Evening marred by bugs aplenty, we put on lots of anti-mossie cream, and a meal of undercooked spag and tomato pasta sauce on the trangia. 

 

Still, in morning we woke to lovely sun (see phot) and had coffee and went for a walk by the water and all was well with the world.  Plus we only had another 150 miles on the road today to get to Cape Town, where the Boks were due to parade their World Cup (for now).  We noticed that the area with the dam was beautiful compared to the flatter areas south of the Piekenierskloof mountain, where it’s all dry and dusty again.  You’d think the dam’d area would be worse (boom, boom).  Thank you i’m here all year!  Because of the Boks celebration, took a hairy detour through Cape Town back streets to get to Simon’s Town (not yours Morris?).  That’s where we are now in the Oatland Camp Park with nice views of the Boulders area of Simon’s Town, see phot. 

 

In town for nice meal tonight we think and maybe a glass of wine, who knows??  Love to all and for those who didn’t see the elephants see next quick blog. Chris and Soph

Namibia road to Etosha Chris 26/10 October 26, 2007

      

Well we finally passed into Namibia via Vioolsdrif the border, uneventful no-one seemed to care one of girls on Namib side stamped our card without stopping playing solitaire (reminded me of Sam up in Bristol work).  Roads instantly a bit more ropey on Namib side, but VW up to it.  Bombed it North on a big driving day, Soph starting to develop real driving skills, chatting, looking out of the window, eating and not looking at road all at about 70 on single road – excellent, the pupil has become the master.  Travelled to Grunau and stayed overnight in the ‘White House’ lovely place and Kinna upgraded us, as we were lowly travellers.  she said she hoped by being nice to travellers others would be nice to her son on his travels, nice sentiment Kinna now lead us to the AC and showers.  stayed in a big old house (1914 our house older!!)  no-one else there and played scrabble on stoop before walking a short way into dark to look at the stars, why are we so scared all the time?  didn’t last long and we never lost sight of house but the sky was amazing -stars so bright you could almost touch them etc, you can’t describe it but it was good!  Slept very well and had coffee and home made dutch rusks (dunked) great.  On road again and this was going to be a fairly dull day 23rd lots of miles, cracked the 1000 mile mark and further.  Stopped at armed police check but had our International Driving permits so all ok (thank god we got those last minute from post office, great planning).  ONwards and eventually to Windhoek, the capital – not sure why but we were suprised by the size of it as we came over a hill and it was spread before us.  Quick stop at the hottest tourist info office in the world, could have taken our towels and had a sauna while waiting.  By the way – best invention ever, (not the blind – or it would have been curtains for everyoine) but the travel towel, absolute must (after taking mick out of Taylor I now apologise) (thanks from soph to momma and Lamb)  Quick quessie Gil Thomas what is your new e-mail address? Anyway back to travels, up to Okahandja (saw giraffe on way, v excited and an ostrich ..I think i like them but i may be burying my head in the sand!!)where we had established a tent pitch for night in okahandja lodge, pulled lovely fast one used tent and then had run of facilities so nice meal in restaurant (the steaks come with lots of sauce choices pepper, mango and ..monkey gland (what is that?? tastes lovely) and a cooling beer.  Hot when went to bed, using newly purchased sleeping mats and then FREEZING overnight, crazy had to do top snuggling to keep up temp.  Up early again and getting into swing of pack up and go, so on road early.  North again to Etosha game reserve through Outjo sent some postcards (we’re doing it in alphebetical order 5 at a time so if you don’t get one for a while zac zanzibar pse understand) and thenon rougher road to the reserve, bit disappointed when we got there. the only way to see watering holes in the night is to pay through nose with big company, so we just standard fare and bombed in past all the big 4×4s and trucks in our little WV polo (nickname Marco obviously), anyway decision justified, lucky Soph strikes again, first watering hole 8 adult elephants and 2 babies all in the mud see photo, we parked up in our armoured VW and watched them from amybe 30 metres, fantastic experience.  Saw a lot of other animals and some photos above.  Anyway out of there before sunset 1855 hours and bombed south to make tent pitch before dark just outside Outjo.  Funny on way up we stopped to see Wart hogs and Springbok by side of road, on way back down we beeped horn to get them out of the way, after elephants just not interested meester wart hog.  Arrived and pitched tent just after dusk, same deal as before live in tent and use all facilities, nice place and we very excited by our game viewing so in celebration drank 2 bottles of the vino blanco, wobbled to tent and slept like logs but still up early as sun beats on tent after about 7.  little hazy but got a free coffee from owners and sat by pool drinking it in shade – awesome this is what i call roughing it.  Then we were off to the beach, which is where i’m typing this in Swakopmund.  To get there we had to leave the tarmac for first time and go off road – poor Marco, he struggled a bit.  Soph and I shared driving and I swear to god, she would have beaten me in a time trial.  The car was slipping around all over shop on rough scree and everytime passed by truck or 4×4 it was mayhem and you couldn’t see for 10 seconds or so it seemed, scary but fun (just like X box, but also near death).  We travelled a good 180 miles on this sort of road and came through the elongo desert area, see last picture, very little on road and all i could think of was (why didn’t i check the spare tyre situation before we left!) .  Anyway as approached coast it was obvious from sky  as it has its own weather system of cloud build up in pm, due to heat of desert and cool of atlantic air – beautiful.  On deck more confusing, heat created mirages that looked like sea from 40 clicks out and little dunes started at that point too, good to see but near end very tiring.  Anyway got to coast at Hentie’s Bay and were massively disappointed, ‘this town uh hu is coming like a ghost town’ as we sang, nothing there but black guys fixing up holiday homes(not theirs unfortunately), sad.  So kept going down coast road to Swakopmund.  Arrived and luckily got a nice little BandB in cheapest place in town ish.  Very german and looked like an old persons home (no offence Mum) but comfy, apart from soph getting bitten in bed (not me, a bug) she slept in her sleeping bag (i think she loves that thing!) Continental breakfast on 26 Oct and we’re just going to beach to top up tan before going on to Walvis Bay and then (scary music) the Namib.  Hopefully Marco will survive and we catch the sun.  Starting to love this tenting around and the general feel of freedom and what do we do next, ie walk along beach last night was like a massive Weston Super Mare, but hugely enjoyable, with massive waves crashing into the skeleton coast and the outline of a wreck further down the beach.  Take Care all and we’ll blog again soon, unless our sun bleached corpses are discovered in the desert in 2016.

SA to Namibia Chris 26/10 October 26, 2007

Well here we are again back in a bit of civilisation with internet access, first few photos are a reminder from Sophie’s last blog where we couldn’t load the phots,  

2nd of bar where we watched rugby, third view from table mountain over signal hill and town, first of beach at Muisboom kerm where we stayed briefly in tent until got scared and went to car! Pictures are bigger for people at Sophie’s ex-work (for you Gill get that eye test!)

south Africa continued 22.10 soph October 22, 2007

Hello all,we are just about to leave South Africa for Namibia but have had a few good days to catch up on.

We finally got our air conditioning to work on our last night in the hotel,so instead of waking up sweating ,we woke up freezing.

We managed to go back up to Table Mountain even though its been a bit windy lately and so its been shut(southerly wind apparently).Gorgeous up there and think we found the spot that Chris proposed to me on.Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!Ironically we were freezing the last time we went up as it was foggy and raining,took our fleeces this time in preparation for climate change and it was boiling!

We had a stroll around looking up the cape and saw the view we missed out on last time.A tour guide walked by and asked if we had sun block on,quite cheeky we thought and lied and said we had.She was a bit like my old history teacher Miss Searle ,a bit ubrupt.any way when we got home we were inevitably bright red and felt foolish for sniggering at her. 

Quite pleased that we had covered a good uphill walk to get to the cable car though and had a face as red as my nephews after a game of football(his nick name is beetroot ) for about 3 hours.

Did our first laundry session in hotel sink and put our clothes on our brilliant camping clothes line accross the bathroom(thankyou taylor simms and walnutetta).looked like the tinkers had come to town but the novelty of a line without needing pegs was very exciting and felt like proper travellers(who stay in nice hotels)

We were pretty nervous about the rugby and went to the V and A waterfront to watch it.Not many English rugby tops and was a bit worried about getting duffed in on the way to the match.We managed to sit by an english couple and had a small gathering of “swing low,sweet chariot”core group singers.lots of red wine later and we were part of the mad cape town celebrations,lots of singing,jumping around,flag waving e.t.c great atmosphere but not really our party,so after an exciting taxi ride home through steets nearly at a stand still,with car horns going nuts,we retired to bed.Good fun and what a time to be on hols in Cape Town. 

It was our last night in a hotel and so made the most of its luxuries before inevitably hitting the road.have got a VW polo for the next few weeks.Brilliant,has a extendable drink holder and everything! 

We set off with real enthusiasm about our first bit of travelling and left cape town and table mountain behind.Drove to Lambert Bay for our first night and talked of going for a swim on arrival.arrived about 4ish and it was not quite as beachy as we thought and it turned out that we had been there on our last visit.We found the gorgeous open air restaurant (Muisboomkerm restaurant,maybe on line)that we had visited before and popped in to see the boss Tersius.Last time we were there we had arrived just after a coach party and he had given us a free meal with the fish that was left.Really lovely memories of the owners generousity and photos of the beach were on our wall before we left.Anyway ,i dont think he remembered us but we explained how nice he had been and how we had remembered his kindness.He offered for us to stay on the beach to camp and even gave us a bottle of wine from his vine yard.What a lovely bloke.

We set up camp on the sand with the sea noise in the background and were in tucked up by 8. we were then up again by 11 and back into the car as we were really uncomfy due to no sleeping mats and i was a bit scared due to our isolation .And the tent kept flapping like some one was trying to get in!!!Slept ok in car,great seats you can put right back and up at 6ish for our next day as proper tracvellers.looking a little dishevelled now and need a tan to hide the bags under our eyes.Have now covered 440 miles in the car! and writting this in the town of Springbok!Onwards to Namib(as Taylor calls  it) not far from the border.

Before i go i also wanted to say a big hello to Haribo who is blogging in and lots of love to you all.very exciting getting comments on blog,even though Nik is being rude about my husbands physique. 

Additional to Cape Town blog (C 19/10) October 19, 2007

     here is piccy of table mountain at it’s most striking

Additional to Cape Town blog (C 19/10) October 19, 2007

 

 looks like have to do pictures one at a time, so here is the first beer in SA, thanks rich and sha

Cape Town SA (C 19/10) October 19, 2007

       

well the tall travellers have finally travelled 6277 miles to date, 7 of those walking up signal hill in Cape Town.  quick thanks to mike and charlie for putting us up for the last night in uk and cooking olde english roast for us, we also enjoyed a final walk through a leafy autumnal wood with ned (the dog) which was v pleasant.  no probs with flight in fact it was very unwarnyish we got there on time and didn’t spend a lot in the duty free, although i bought a cheapo travelling watch, sekonda don’t you know with a trying to be young watch strap!  12 hours in air, 4 movies and 4 bottles of red (small) each and we were in CT, very tired having had no snoozing at all.  caught shared mini bus into town with members of Brentwood school touring cricket team and their south african p.e teacher who used to play rugby for western transvaal and played with mike catt when he was a schoolboy over here, first taste of strength of feeling the south africans have about WC rugby final tomorrow, they are as they say in salford mad for it over here. on way saw some zebras and wildebeests bizarre,  got to hotel and my suprise worked, had been telling soph that we were in a hostel first night but we’re in the same hotel we stayed in when we got engaged, not same room though.  so we arrived went to bed, very daring, and got up 3 hours later to explore.  straight down to the victoria and albert docks, walking the streets (no taxis on this budget) opened rich and sha’s card and bought our first beer with contents i also had a chutney burger in memory of rich’s (thanks thommos), last picture is us drinking it.  sat on the docks until it got dark drinking laughing and forgetting we were ever in work, seeing things like the middle picture with the cloud spilling over the edge of table mountain like a wave, b-e-a-utiful (that’s for you rich f).  we also saw a seal swimming by victoria pier, just great. we also saw a big crane which we’ve enclosed for rich and walshie.  next day we were up for breakfast and then straight back to bed for a prolonged snooze, we must have been very tired.  when we finally hit the streets we were a bit more lively and walked through the company gardens (been around since 1652) past the museum and then decided on a whim to walk up signal hill, which ended up being a 5 hour yomp, soph loved that.  still we deserved a big meal last night and unfortunately fell to socializing with CT finest (one of them a south african stage actor called claridge or something like that anyway), playing pool, bigging up english rugby and generally staying out until after our bed time.  today very quiet start and bit of admin, looking forward to match tomorrow as is whole population, everyone is talking about it, in all papers, people in the boks jerseys it’s just massive over here and i’m so glad i’ve got my england top to wear tomorrow, cheers sammy and sarah.  haven’t started missing people yet, but when we sober up it may happen – love to all

3 days to leaving Plymouth! (C – 12/10) October 12, 2007

 dear all just an update on progress, the house is very nearly packed away Soph’s has cleaned the oven and we’ve been parading around with our packed rucksacks on in the bedroom – all very bizarre.  the RN has finaly paid up the gratuity so it looks as though we’ll be able to eat in South Africa! we’ve also said goodbye now to nearly everyone bar Sal and Sean and kiddies, Sha and Rich and the Mum’s and they’re all booked in for Sunday.  Just said cheerio to the Samuelseys (or Jamuels, thanks for laughing Harry)and will be adiosing Ani Les and Emma and Mike tonight – it’s a social whirl.  That’s it but this blog also a trial run for a picture, we think we can now put them on the posts, so here it is a picture taken minutes after Sophs said yes to my engagement proposal altogether now ahh.

 

12 days to go! October 7, 2007

Crickey time is really running away with us now.There is suddenly lots to do and loads of people to see.This has meant an increase in red wine consumption as we say goodbye to people.Feels a bit cheeky having mid week drinks even though we are now officially unemployed.Thats right,we are no longer getting any wages.scarey stuff!

I had a few goodbyes last night as our final wine club meeting before i go and have already started blubbing about it ,so feels like it is going to be an emotional few days.Big thankyou to all the wine club girls for making me feel so loved ,i will miss you all like mad.

On Saturday we had a Suprise Christmas dinner at my mum,s house ,which was brilliant and a great idea.Thankyou mum,ginger,pat and les and to everyone who came along.Blubbed at that night as well mostly due to Bo bo and Charlie turning up,am such a sap!So now  we have had our christmas and will look forward to a slightly stranger celebration in Bangkok at christmas.

Luckily the celebrations are not over yet as having Hawaiin Party on Saturday and hoping to see lots of people we love to raise a glass with.Lets hope the rain stays away and we can keep garden full up til the early hours.And i will get to use my fairy lights and candles which my close mates know,makes me very happy!you can never have too many!So off to pack more stuff and will hopefully see a few of you on Saturday ! 

9 days to go! October 7, 2007

Hello,after giving out details to a lot of drunk friends last night i hope you have managed to find our blogg.After a great hawaiin party last night i am suprisingly well.no big hangover !chris and i cleaned up most of the mess this morning and have spent the afternoon snuggling up with occasional snoozes.too old for parties!Thankyou all who came to our party last night, was a great night and we managed to get  gorgeous rain free weather.Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and drink lots and it was so hectic,i mananged to  said lots of  painful goodbyes without blubbing .And i got to see my blogging mentor, Harry and brilliant garland giver outer,Amber.Feel very loved after all you beautiful people came to say goodbye to us and will miss you all like mad.Couple of people who werent able to come were deeply missed,especially for their, foul language,crude conversations and energetic dancing.no need for names,you know who you are! 

Travel wise we are still catching up with paper work and packing.Choosing  to opt for the “leaving everthing to the last minute”plan or as Karen may say “the devil may care “option.Am sure by the time we leave we will have remember everthing.bought all our first aid kit which has suture equipment in it and felt quite excited about the possibility of stitching some one up(not chris.)Is that healthy i wonder?So now we are just counting the days til we get going.really ready to go and starting to get excited about those South African beaches.Hurray!