Namibia Roadtrip

With Tanzania and Kenya checked off the “to-travel-to-while-in-Africa” checklist, I decided it was a perfect time to find another country to help cure my travel itch: Namibia. Alongside my flatmate Kevin, we partook in an epic adventure, traveling almost 5,000 kilometers in Kevin’s trusty Toyota Tazz around Namibia – A country whose landmass is almost twice the size of California, but has a population of a little under 2 million (Wikipedia fun fact = 2.5 people per square kilometer – 2nd smallest population density in the world).

Our journey commenced with a slow trip up the Northern Cape of South Africa, camping along the way before arriving at our first destination: The Orange River (border of South Africa & Namibia). For four days, we would be rafting down the Orange River, accompanied by 11 other Cape Tonian guys (hello sausage fest) and our oh-so-lucky-yet-soon-to-hate-us two female guides. While the majority of our trip unfortunately falls into the “blog-censored” category, our days pretty much went like this:

6:00AM: Wake up along a campsite on the river, unsure of whether or not any sleep was actually accomplished the night before due to excess partying and/or the various wildlife which managed to find its way into your sleeping bag (as we slept completely out in the open)

6:30AM: Bos Kak Queue (Afrikaans Translation = Bush Shit Line) – As we were in the middle of nowhere, our two best friends were a shovel and some matches to rid the environment of any “non-natural” products (AKA toilet paper)

7:00AM – 12:00PM: After a hearty breakfast, begin paddling in our 2-man rafts down the river, drinking beer, relaxing, swimming, and of course letting the 110 degree heat take its toll on our bodies (traveling to Namibia in the middle of summer is probably one of those decisions that falls into the “what-the-F-were-you-thinking” category)

12:00PM: Find a random place along the river to eat lunch

1:00PM – 3:00PM: More paddling/drinking/swimming until reaching our final camp for the night (usually infested either with gnats, mosquitoes, or random cows wandering aimlessly around leaving cow pies every 3 feet – which by the way look like lava in a fire)

3:00PM – 6:00PM: Mini-adventure time – Either involved hiking unhikable mountains in flip flops (hello bruised/scratched body), or finding wood for our evening fires (usually involved finding an entire tree to use as our wood).

6:00PM: Dinner – the only time silence is actually found during our trip

7:00PM - ?: Inappropriate Behavior Time – Given none of us had a watch or any determination of time, and several of our “crew” did not believe in the concept of sleep, the only options were to either accept no sleep and stay up all night helping fuel the neverending fire, or try sneak away and find somewhere to sleep where the potential of being jumped upon was minimal (rafts along the river ended up being a bad option, as the temptation to push those asleep out into the river was too fun to resist)

After four days on the river, and once again finding myself without a shower in almost a weeks time, Kevin and I set off for our next destination: ?. With no true goal in mind as to where we would go, we utilized our trusty map, and of course the fact that there are really only 3-4 places to travel to in ALL of Namibia. While I will let the pictures summarize the places we visited, the remainder of our journey consisted of driving, driving, braiing, driving, camping and a little more driving just for fun. Overall however, the trip was honestly amazing, and Namibia definitely has jumped to the top of the list of my favorite places to which I’ve traveled.

Oh yes, and if are curious of how my time was spent between my last post and now, here is a quick recap (as I was a bit too lazy to post a new blog):

- Nurse my injuries from Kilimanjaro (including a partially torn achilles tendon which made walking almost as much fun as watching the Lions on an offensive drive -- That one is for your Grace)

- Unwillingly consume more Mefloquine (anti-malarial) pills, in-turn eliminating any ability to produce a coherent thought for almost 2 weeks.

- XMas: Well, since I'm Jewish, this day normally is one of the most boring of the entire year. However, myself and almost a dozen other friends & frineds of friends visited various winefarms, partaking in a day of wine tasting and all-you-can-eat buffet... well... eating (4 plates later + 1.5 plates dessert = semi-mild stomach ache)

- New Years Eve: With endless parties from which to choose (including a 4-day trance party in the mountains & many other this-is-the-only-place-to-be-on-NYE events), our decision was only made at about 7pm the night of NYE. Visiting our favorite locale (Tiger Tiger), we actually had quite an amazing time (despite New Years Eve's ability to turn any night into an overhyped/overly-expensive dissapointment).

Onto the pics (damn this blog cutting off the captions!):

	Coasting down the river in our loyal/unsinkable/unflippable crocs (aka rafts)
	Taking a break from some intense rafting action
	Hiking up a mountain along the Orange River (i really need to stop doing that rock-on symbol with my hands)
	Driving through the middle of nowhere
	One of our many campistes in Namibia
	Fish River Canyon - 2nd largest canyon in the world (Grand Canyon is 1st - USA! USA!)
	On top of one of the largest sand dunes in the world in Sossusvlei at sunrise
	Deadvlei - An old dried up river bed in the middle of the Namib desert (aka photographers wet dream) -- Pardon the crudity :)
	Practing my flying techniques on the dunes
	Man i love sand!
	Attempting to mail a package in the worlds largest postbox (not random at all, i swear)