Antelope Park

Antelope Park is a conservation project located just outside the town of Gweru, Zimbabwe. Antelope Park is also a complex complete with a river, lodging and campgrounds, elephants that cut through our campsite whenever they want, miscellaneous lion activities on offer, mosquitoes, shoddy/expensive Internet, and volunteers who pay $3000/mo to take notes on lions. I don’t paint the nicest picture but it’s actually a lovely place where we’ve had our trucked parked for five nights =) Originally booked for three nights, we’ve extended our stay here and in other parts of Zimbabwe to give our passports more time to get to Harare.

I opted for Antelope Park’s Lioness Package (with substitutions):

Lion Feeding (substituted for the Boat Cruise): Gruesome. The lions are fed every six days or so and only the most aggressive ones get enough to eat. We were on one side of what seemed to be a very thin fence, the food was on the other side. The lions were called and it seemed like they were charging at us. Really scary. They growled and fought each other for the best pieces of cow flesh, intestine, and other miscellaneous parts. While eating, some of the lions were bleeding, having received territorial smacks from their fellow lions. Watching the King of the Jungle eat was gross, but not enough to put us off our enormous Sunday roast 20 minutes later :)


2x Lion Walks: I had the opportunity to walk with 18 month old cubs Meeka and Kali. In dog terms, I thought they would be roughly the equivalent of Pug size, still being young. But they were more Great Dane size. Big, big cats! We were advised not to crouch because height is a measure of dominance. We were also made to carry sticks—not for hitting but to extend the length of our arms. On the morning walk, the two were very active, wanting to play/fight with each other constantly. On the afternoon walk, they had just been fed so they would walk a few steps and collapse from the weight of their huge bellies. At one point, the two lions started to stalk some impala. But having been fed recently, they couldn’t be bothered to attempt a hunt.


Elephant Training (was not allowed to substitute for Internet…): I think these elephants were sadder than the ones I saw in the Moscow Circus. The elephants were made to stand on one foot or the other, turn themselves about, and joylessly take turns at kicking a deflated soccer ball. Then, the four African elephants allowed each of us to climb on top, though mine was a bit temperamental when letting me back down. I think it’s safe to say I look pretty stupid on an elephant =) I was on top of Amay. At 24, she is huge and still growing.


Elephant Ride (substituted for the Breeding Program Tour and Cub Feeding): Heather and I rode on 22 year old Chibi for a mini elephant safari. Animals spotted: Impala. I had heard that you couldn’t ride an African elephant so I was intrigued; I also had no recollection of what it felt like to ride some variety of elephant in Indonesia when I was a kid. You basically sit on top of a mat and it’s like straddling an overly wide and lumpy bench. As the elephant lumbers along, you get gently rocked from side to side and try not to feel bad for the elephant that really would rather sit and eat than carry three people on her back.

Horse Ride: Two days earlier, Zoe had fallen off a horse and was driven to a hospital to tend to her wrist. Her horse was named Rum and coincidentally (?), another rider had fallen off of Rum a few days before Zoe fell off. I was very relieved to be given Jackson, a white horse of unknown(-to-me) breed. Jackson was nice enough and we got along pretty well. Like me, he’s a multitasker who can walk, eat, and game watch at the same time. And, when Jackson would trot, I’d laugh until he stopped. Jackson Did walk me into a tree at one point, but the only injury I have is a bruised bum and resulting (temporary) aversion for hard benches.

Antelope Park was well timed because most of us on the rhino safari got sick the first night we arrived. It was also very nice being able to crawl back into “bed,” something I realized I really missed. In South America, I would have had to check out of the hostel or I’d be out sightseeing. With the truck, we rarely stay in the same place for more than one night and when we do, it’s usually not safe to leave anything in the tent. I most enjoyed having a tent to myself because a lot of people chose to upgrade to a nice room, leaving extra tents available. =)

Next up: Zimbabwe Ruins, Chimanimani Mountains, Lake Chiberu, and Harare!

The Hits Keep on Coming

Matopo National Park: Nine of us took the opportunity to go on a rhino safari approximately 25km away in Matopo National Park. We spent the morning exploring the "rhino cave" and then the "lion cave," looking at bushman paintings. The lion cave actually housed the most impressive cave paintings I've seen so far!


Our guide was a bit of a nutcase though and sort of rushed us up and down the hiking trails that led to and from the caves. On the way to one of the caves, he got lost. We're also pretty convinced that he poisoned us. (More on that in a bit...) Following a lunch that everyone seemed to enjoy except me, we set out on foot to stalk some rhinos. Two hours later, we were finally able to pick up their trail and spotted three of them at a distance. They eventually ran away, but we found them again and were able to get within 10 meters of them!


Finding rhino was cool but the rhino stalking itself involved a lot of bush walking (like what we did in the Okavango Delta) which, I've come to realize, I intensely dislike. My height is such that the tall weeds and grasses--that are pushed out of the way from the person in front of me--swing back and hit me square in the face. I spend my time navigating a rather menacing landscape of thorny bushes, spiky acacia trees, and presumptuous grasses. On this bush walk, a particularly nasty branch succeeded in drawing blood, giving me a couple cuts on my left cheek.

So bush walking sucks. What also sucks is waking up in the middle of night feeling horrible and not being able to make it out of your tent fast enough! Lying awake for the next few hours contemplating nausea is no fun either.... The night was rough, but there was some consolation when I woke up the next morning and found out that six other people were sick. Seven people afflicted, what could it be?! People spent the morning theorizing about what could have made everyone sick. Rather, some people continued to spew and healthy people theorized. The latter eventually came to the conclusion that all seven of us were on the rhino safari. Recall though that it was nine of us who went on safari and two were basically healthy (one girl fell of a horse and damaged her wrist). We then figured out that the seven of us had tried some berries handed to us by our nutcase guide - the two "healthy" ones had had the good sense not to eat them. So it could have been the berries, or it could have been dirt from the unwashed hands that handed us the berries. Really not sure what else it could be....

Bulawayo: Hate this place. To be fair, it was one asshole who tainted the whole city for me, but it just takes one. I was walking with Kat for a while in town and we had just split off to take care of different things. I heard a voice behind me say "don't hurry" and then I felt a hand grab my chest. I called him a "mother fucker," punched him, and immediately walked away. Then I started to cry. It wasn't so much feeling violated as feeling insulted, degraded, and wracked with anger. The incident put me off of everything I needed to take care of that morning and I went back to the truck trying to shake this feeling of utter disgust. In case anyone's wondering, I was wearing tennis shoes, baggy track pants, a zipped up fleece, and a jacket over the fleece. I guess even not showering and brushing my hair for days on top of wearing the most non-revealing clothing I own is just not enough! Hmpfh! Part of me wishes I hadn't walked away after one punch, but being without a passport in Zimbabwe probably means I should really avoid trouble...

On Passportlessness: Everyone on the truck was supposed to obtain a visa for Ethiopia while in Harare, Zimbabwe. We got word that the embassy in Harare was no longer issuing visas to non-residents of Zimbabwe as of last Friday. Ethiopian embassies have either implemented or started to enforce a rule in which you can only get a visa in the country of which you are a resident. After much frustration, deliberation, and research on the part of my mom, sister, and Theo, I have decided to send my passport home. Americans have a slightly more difficult time obtaining visas than Brits or Aussies because of shipping and processing time.... For example, our passports cannot go directly to the US from Africa, but have to go via Europe. I think the passports have already arrived in Australia and Europe and the US passports just have to make it a little further. I'm staying optimistic and hoping the passport arrives back in Harare by June 9th - that's when the truck leaves for Mozambique.

And now,dear reader, I must apologize for a) being too rant-y and b)the criminally slow $8/hour Internet in Botswana/Zimbabwe that has delayed picture posting. More cheery posts to follow and hopefully pictures too!

This blog post paints a rather bleak picture but its really not all bad: I Did get to see amazing cave paintings and rhino in Matopo National Park, I am pretty much fully recovered from whatever bacteria that was plaguing me, no further harm came to me in Bulawayo, and my Mom, being the best Mom in the world, is going to the Ethiopian consulate in LA on my behalf to take care of business. The truck is parked at Antelope Park for a couple days where I have elephant training and riding, horse riding, lion walking and feeding, and canoeing to look forward to. And! Two incredibly beautiful babies were born earlier this week and I couldn't be happier for the proud parents :) Spirits are relatively high on the African front! Hope everyone is doing well back at home :)

Botswana to Zimbabwe

Chobe National Park: Best game viewing so far! We went on a river boat safari down the Chobe River and saw a ton of elephants, hippos, monkeys, kudu, kingfishers, beeeaters, and a lone buffalo. We hadn't really seen a close up of elephants, hippos, or buffalo so it was very exciting! It was BYOB on the boat and though we were repeatedly told that it was not a booze cruise, some people turned animal sightings into a drinking game. For example: Animal sighting - one drink; hippo burps or animal sex - finish your drink.

Entering Zimbabwe: Anyone who wanted to cross into Zambia for a day had to obtain a double entry visa for Zimbabwe. It was nice for U.S., European, and Australian citizens in only costing us $45. Poor Canadians, however: Their visa cost $75 for single entry and they were not given the option of obtaining a double entry visa at the border. No Zambia for them.

On Zambia: I had a very short day in Zambia but it was wonderful! I opted for the "adrenaline day" where you can partake in a full day of adventure activities. Our first activity was abseiling down a 111 meter cliff. It's what you do in rock climbing after you've scaled the wall... only the drop is much, much higher. Regular abseiling was fine, face-first abseiling was a little more adventurous :) Next came the flying fox: You are put into a harness...then you take off running on a concrete platform and dive superman style over the edge of a cliff. This wasn't so scary, really. But the gorge swing, on the other hand, was one of the scariest things I've ever done! (Definitely scarier than jumping of the then-highest bungy in the world!) For the gorge swing, you are put into a harness and then made to stand on the edge of a platform overlooking the gorge. You are instructed to take one giant step forward into the abyss. It goes against every self-preservation instinct you have in your body but you really have to just take that one extra step into nothingness. You fall for about three seconds, but it's a long, terrifying fall that made even the toughest of us shout expletives. Really amazing experience! I spent the remainder of the day in Livingstone just to send postcards and collect the Zambian Kwacha equivalent of a dollar. People there were lovely - really friendly and helpful and made me wish I had had more than a day to spend in Zambia.

On Animals: We were based in the town of Victoria Falls for three nights. The town is small and a bit odd. Nowhere else have I been in the world where you can go for an afternoon run and come across warthogs, elephants, and monkeys at very close range. It was cool, but also a little scary especially because we had all heard that while we were in town, a woman was rammed from behind by a buffalo and, facing paralysis, had to get emergency airlifted to Johanessburg. Wild animals, who knew!? There were also baboons running amock, some even leering at us as we exited the immigration office. I Did get to see a baby hanging from its mother's chest as she walked up and down the road - very cool.

Victoria Falls: Having now seen Niagara, Iguacu, and Vic Falls, I'd say Iguacu wins! At Vic Falls, water levels were very high and you could see massive amounts of water flowing. But because water levels were too high, rafting activities were suspended and the mist was so annoyingly strong that you could hardly see the falls. On parts of the pathway, if it didn't feel like it was pouring rain, it felt like a wave of water would just rush over you. Silly us, we refused to buy the $1 ponchos from the street vendors.

African Drumming: I was able to partake in some surprisingly fun African drumming while in town (Victoria Falls). I've never done any kind of drumming before and being able to make and feel the bass-treble beats felt really good. It requires a bit more coordination than I would have thought: It's hard to switch from using the heel of my palm to using my fingertips and having different hands do different beats! They tried to make the girls ululate (when African girls flap their tongues while screaming "oohlulululululu"), but Heather and I failed. As we'd sneak sideglances at each other, the lead drummer said "You just do it, you don't need to look at each other to make the sounds." :) The boys were much better at the warrior grunting they were tasked with.

Victoria Falls was our first stop in Zimbabwe and now it's on to Bulawayo and Harare!

Introducing Botswana

We only have approximately 6 days in Botswana and so far, I’m not such
a fan. Things started off well: When entering Botswana, for example,
the customs lady was super cheery , bubbly, and welcoming to everyone.
Passing people on the streets, there was never a shortage of both
children and adults waving and smiling at us.

But some people, like my poler in the Okavango Delta, were beyond
irritating! (More on the poler in a bit…) All but one person on the
truck went for a 3d/2n trip in the delta. We took an hour-long 4x4
ride from the Sitatunga Camp (near Maun), crossed the top of the
Kalahari, and arrived at the largest delta in the world. We loaded our
stuff in canoe-like boats referred to as mokoros by the locals. Most
people loved their morning mokoro ride but I definitely did not. Kat,
my tent buddy, asked me, “Did you enjoy that?” My response to her was
that I endured it. Our poler had a knack for aiming straight for the
reeds so all these bugs would fly in our faces or land in our boat.
Nasty, lethal-looking spiders were among them. I had to put on my best
brave face in order not to scream continuously. It certainly did Not
cheer me up when the poler threw a frog on me.

George was his name. He poled for Miranda and me and though he meant
well, I think he might be one of the most annoying people I’ve ever
met. He spoke English well, but in this very deep, slow, and monotone
voice. He never stopped talking even when we were supposed to be
quietly game watching. He’d drone on and on and would just repeat
himself if you didn’t make an acknowledgement that you had heard him.
It was like being a kid again and having to feign interest in random
stuff being pointed out to me. Gah! I know he wanted to be helpful but
when, for instance, it came to putting up the tent, he’d just get in
the way. (It wasn’t just me who was annoyed…Kat was too!) I think what
irked me the most was the way he said my name. First it was “Camrie.”
Not accustomed to answering to names that are not my own, it would
take him about ten tries to get my attention at first. I told him he
could just call me “Kim” if it was easier. But for the rest of the
trip, I got “Cam.” Ugh, if I never hear that name again—the way he
said it at least— it’ll be too soon.

So I was having a bit of an off day that first day at camp – not
George’s fault (but he didn’t help matters). I suddenly found myself
super homesick. It was the worst it had been in five months of
traveling. It occurred to me that when I was traveling by myself in
South America, I had 100+ things to occupy my mind at any given time:
Where to go next… how to get there… what to see and do… etc. On this
trip, I’ve got nothing to occupy my thoughts but a journal and
sometimes overly trashy novels (like James Patterson’s “You’ve Been
Warned”). The sadness passed eventually and that evening I got to see
three elephants on a bush walk, a beautiful sunset, and a big,
beautiful full moon =) I know that I’ve been whining a lot in this
post so far – my apologies, Reader, but there’s a bit more ranting
coming up.

The next day we set off at 7am for another bush walk. It had started
raining during the night though and continued to rain as we trudged
along for hours. So there I was: Wet, tired, grumpy, and sick of
nearly stepping on animal poo and getting wacked in the face by
low-hanging branches. I am the shortest person on the truck and the
branches were a particular nuisance for me. Hmpfh! So the bush walk
was boo and back at camp everyone was wet and taking turns crowding
the fire to try to dry off. The rain eventually eased up and by the
time we left for a sunset cruise, there was sun enough poking through
the clouds to watch set beautifully over the water. We were able to
spot a couple hippos and two of them even burped at us! My poler was
very afraid of the hippos, however, so while everyone else in their
boats were poled in to picture range, we were steered well out of even
hippo sighting range and instead through more bug-filled reeds.

(Rant concluded.) Back at camp, dinner of jacket potatoes was amazing
and then the group of polers performed some songs for us. We were
expected to perform too and the best we had was the “Hokie Pokie” and
“YMCA.” Incidentally, the Hokie Pokie is done differently in the
world. When I learned it, “You put your right arm in, you put your
right arm out, you put your right arm in and you shake it all about.
You do the Hokie Pokie and you turn yourself around; that’s what it’s
all about.” But for Brits (and maybe Aussies) “You put you right arm
in, you put your right arm out, in-out-in-out, shake it all about. You
do the Hokie Pokie and you turn around, that’s what it’s all about .”
Then you hold hands and run into the middle of a circle screaming
WOOOO three times. Weirdest Hokie Pokie I’d ever done.

I skipped the next morning’s game walk and just relaxed at camp until
it was time to pack up and go. Great choice =) Some people have chosen
to do a scenic flight over the Okavango delta but I am at the pool
writing this blog post to all of you! Will have to post pictures at a later time

Next up: A couple nights bush camping, Chobe National Park, and then
we enter Zimbabwe and head to Victoria Falls!

Three Weeks Overlanding

Adventures in Namibia Continued:

Cape Cross Seal Reserve: I thought I had had enough of seals in
Antarctica, but that didn’t stop me from taking 200+ photos and
videos of them here! I had never seen so many seals before, and so up
close! They’ve built up a boardwalk so that at some times, you can be
inches from the seals. If I didn’t know better that their mouths are
full of bacteria and that they can be pretty vicious, I might have
tried to pet one. There are over 100,000 seals at the reserve and the
number doubles to 200,000 during breeding season. Some of the seals
were charming and posed for pictures… Others were mean and would run
up and try to bark you way like a guard dog does. The baby seals bleat
like sheep do. =)


Spitzkoppe: You can drive North along the skeleton coast and then into
the Namib desert for hours seeing nothing. Then out of nowhere, you
see these massive rock formations. They are particularly amazing at
sunset when they glow orange and red. We set up camp that night at the
foot of the mountains – it was our most beautiful campsite yet. We
went on a guided hike to see some rather unimpressive bushman
paintings so we made our own. On our way back, Zoe said, “I think
there’s a snake.” Her boyfriend Andy moderately lectures her and says,
“Zoe, saying “snake” in Africa is like saying “bomb” on a plane. Don’t
just say it.” Zoe then says, “Okay…. Snake.” (The snake was very well
camouflaged and at that point, about a foot away from Andy!) The snake
wasn’t that big, but probably deadly enough because if anyone had
stepped on it, it would have a long way to a hospital.


Brandberg Mountains: The Brandberg Mountains are yet another (random?)
natural formation in Namibia. The mountains house many bushmen
paintings including the famous White Lady. “The White Lady” is no lady
at all actually but the name stuck when someone mistakenly identified
the figure as a woman. (The figure is holding a weapon and wears a
penis.) To get to the white lady, we hiked in the mountains, crossed
nine streams, and spotted some very cool salamanders that were as
bright as highlighters!


Cheetah Park: I was expecting a zoo, but it almost seemed like we
drove to someone’s house to play with their pets that happened to be
cheetahs. The park is family-run and has tame cheetahs for petting and
then wild cheetahs that have usually been rescued/rehabilitated. There
were three tame ones that were freely roaming the property and much to
the resident dog’s jealousy, we all paid a lot of personal and camera
attention to two of the cheetahs. (They told us not to pet one of them
because she was grumpy.)We also got to watch a cheetah feeding in the
late afternoon. While in pickup trucks with trailers, approximately 16
cheetahs surrounded us and proceeded to meow, growl, and chirp until
they each got a ginormous raw giraffe steak.


Etosha National Park: Great game watching: Wildebeests, hartebeests,
zebra, giraffe, elephants, warthogs, ostrich, rhinos, springboks,
kudus, dik-diks, mongooses, vultures (and tons of other birds), a
honey badger, and a lion! We camped at Halali in the park. There is a
watering hole you can walk to and we were lucky to see four rhinos out
for a nightcap. On the way to the watering hole, I also ran into a
really nice Dutch girl I’d met in Draksensberg. Small world! The
highlight of the game drive was observing some pretty strange zebra
behavior: One zebra came up to another and there was a lot of sniffing
action. Mr. Zebra’s black penis started to show itself and then of
course there was more sniffing. Next, the sniffed zebra walked about
30 feet away and Mr. Zebra trailed closely behind. She took a dump, he
sniffed at her poo, and then made his own poo. The weirdest part was
that a third, non-pooing zebra got a hard on just observing all the
“action.” I think all of us watching made them all nervous and nothing
happened beyond that. Zebra mating rituals, if that’s what they were,
are so random!


We left Namibia soon after leaving Etosha. Hello Botswana!

Hello Namibia!!

You never really hear about Namibia as a go-to destination in Africa but the landscapes here are really quite stunning! It is an incredibly beautiful country and so worth visiting!

Adventures in Namibia:

Fish River Canyon: Second biggest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. We arrived when it was pretty much rendered invisible by the fog and clouds, but it cleared and it was just beautiful! I really wish I remembered what it was like to visit the Grand Canyon because I’m not sure how impressed I should be =)


Sossusvlei: I think these are the world’s highest sand dunes and they are really amazing to see. I walked about 3 miles to visit the dunes and then it was a grueling 20 minutes trudging through super soft sand uphill. Because the sand was so soft, it kept giving way underneath and it really felt like every two steps forward meant one step back. But I made it! I had an incredible 360 degree view of the sand dunes around me. As a group, we visited the famous Dune 45 and hiked to the top during a lightning storm. Pretty scary (yet amazing!)! What is particularly wonderful about this place is how untouched by humans it is… It is one of the major tourist destinations in Namibia yet I felt very much like I had the dunes to myself. There wasn’t another person in sight and all you see around are these massive dunes.



Tropic of Capricorn: Stopped by the side of the road with a sign for the Tropic of Capricorn: Saw a snake, took a picture. Wasn’t scared of snakes before, but now I am. Great!


Swakopmund: Cute little town where I celebrated my birthday, stocked up on biltong and booze, and took advantage of the wonderful (and free) wi-fi Internet!

Quadbiking: Quite possibly one of the most terrifying things I’ve done… I started the day having heard two very scary stories of people getting seriously injured while quadbiking. They gave us minimal instructions and then we were off! It is very scary to be a small person on a very big, loud, and powerful machine. You follow a guide through the sand dunes …. up and down… sometimes doing figure 8’s, or what they call rollercoasters … You feel gravity working against you as you’re almost completely sideways on an incline and precisely when you are most terrified, you have to will yourself to accelerate and beat the gravity pull. It was foggy and you couldn’t always see what was ahead of you but the guide would give a hand signal to slow down and you knew something big was coming, usually one of those stomach-turning drops that would sometimes make the backend of the quadbike fishtail. SO SCARY. The steering was super sensitive and sometimes you’d get jolted on the dunes and the jolts would force the steering awry and you’d end up off course. (EVEN MORE SCARY because they said whatever you do, don’t go off course because of potholes and whatnot.) At one point, the visor to my helmet slipped down and I couldn’t see a thing! It happened precisely as I was banking a turn on a steep hill… Those were definitely a few seconds of sheer panic. In the end, I was fine (and had fun…) but during most of the afternoon, everyone else seemed to want to go faster than me. And, though I had the accelerator down all the way at times, I hung back a bit from the group and sort of got my own private guide. He’d take me on his own paths and on different rollercoasters and it was very cool almost feeling like I had the dunes to myself.


Sandboarding: Amazing!!! I think because the sand dunes are so massive here in Swakopmund, you have such unique opportunities to enjoy them. I’m pretty sure that quadbiking here is unlike anywhere else in the world and from what I heard from other people, the sandboarding is too! I started off with standup boarding. I hadn’t been on a board since I sprained my ankle two years ago. I couldn’t quite manage toe side (as I never could on a snowboard) and did a couple runs heel side. One unfortunate thing about sandboarding is that there are no lifts. So you ride down and then you trudge up a mean and massive hill to get back to the top. After about three runs, I decided that the walk up wasn’t worth the ride down and I switched to lie-down boarding. This was UNBELIEVABLE! You go down headfirst on, basically a piece of plywood. Because I switched from standup boarding, I didn’t have elbow pads or shoes like the others. So, very nervous and feeling ill-equipped, the group started on its highest hill yet. I FLEW down that dune! I clocked a speed of 72km per hour (!), the fastest speed of anyone on that run. I eventually got beat out at 74km/ph and the overall record for that part is 83km/ph. So crazy!

Sea Bass: Fishing is also one of the activities on offer in Swakopmund and two guys from the truck went out in the morning. With crew, there were four guys in total and they caught about 120 fish!! The guys brought home about 1/3 of the catch and we had an incredibly delicious sea bass dinner. For any fishing enthusiasts, the guys said this was some of the easiest and most rewarding fishing they’d ever done.

Up next: We'll be bush camping for a couple nights and then visiting the Spitzkoppe rock formations and the Etosha National Park. I think I arrive in Botswana on May 14th! I also bought a Namibian SIM card valid until then... In case you want it: +264 81 6912931.

Random: I have the blogs of two people who are doing this overland trip with me in case you want a different perspective. Michael's blog: http://mcottam.posterous.com/ is updated pretty frequently and has a lot of pictures from my birthday. Matt and Jen's blog is updated as well I think and can be accessed here: http://mattandjenworldtrip.blogspot.com/ . Happy reading!

Oasis Overland

I don’t even know where to begin to describe the trip so far… It is really an incredible group to be a part of and overlanding through Africa is unlike anything I’ve ever done before =) My experience so far is very different from being in South America and the first two weeks traveling solo in Southern Africa: With the group, everything is taken care of and you don’t have to do much thinking or planning. You get there when you get there… you eat when cook group sets up food… It’s interesting to not be in charge of really anything or have little to no idea what will happen the next day.

I’m also unexpectedly experiencing a bit of cultural immersion because except for two Americans and two Europeans, everyone is pretty much a Brit or an Aussie. I’m starting to like beans on toast and I’ve already caught myself being “keen” to do things and saying words like “reckon.”

A “Typical” Day: I haven’t been doing this long enough to be able to accurately detail what is typical but this has been the trend so far: Early wake up for breakfast (breads, jams, tea, coffee, and sometimes DIY eggs) which is for a half hour an hour before the truck is set to depart (usually 7:30am or 8am). We drive until someone rings for a pee stop or we happen to be stopping for fuel. [A pee stop is basically when the truck pulls off to the side of the road… Men have it easy and pee wherever they like; women go off in search of a bush, preferably one with no snakes nearby.] More driving until lunch somewhere – sometimes by the side of the road and sometimes overlooking some really incredible landscapes. Lunch usually consists of bread, chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and onion, and either cheese or canned tuna/corned beef hash. If it’s a drive day, we drive until we make camp. On other days there are stops to see the sights.

At the end of the driving day, we pitch our tents and cook group for the day starts on dinner. Dinner can be anything from oryx steaks with potato salad to bangers-and-mash. (We are divided into groups of three for cook group and when it’s your turn, you are responsible for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.) Sometimes we stay the night at campsites with moderate to great facilities. Other times, we bush camp (pitch our tents at a randomly designated spot by the side of the road) with no toilets or showers. When bush camping, it is sometimes necessary to take a machete to level out the ground. Night activities include me trying to gather the will to exercise with occasional success, sitting by the fire and maybe having a drink, and trying not to scream at the creepy crawlies. (If you want a shudder, Google “camel spider” and see what it can do to you!)

So far:
Snake Sightings: 2
Scorpion Sightings: 2
Bugs In My Tent (that made me scream): 1
Using a shovel…: 0

Anyway, dear loyal reader, if you should ever want a postcard, please reply to this blog with your address and country of choosing. I will try to oblige :) (You only get a postcard though if I get an update on what's going on with you!)

Older Than Namibia

Today I am 25 years old! Although I miss everyone back home, I had a really amazing—and quite possible the best ever—birthday! I went out the night before for a terrific start to the quarter century life. The next day, I woke up and realized that for the first time pretty much ever, I didn’t have to ditch work or school… I could do whatever I wanted! It felt really, really good. =)

We were staying in lodges that night and everyone came over to start celebrating. Next stop: A fantastic dinner at Napolitana restaurant! I had an enormous meal (1 kg ribs, 300g sirloin) that well-coated my stomach for the evening’s drinking. After dinner came a few hours of ridiculously fun karaoke and then the night didn’t end until we danced at a nearby club. Awesome Birthday!!

I can’t get over how nice everyone was… one couple gave me a bottle of sparkling wine and beef jerky (LOVE)…. two girls bought me vodka, soda, and pineapple juice because they remembered me saying it was my favorite drink (!)… people offered me drinks all night… and my awesome dinner was either comp’d by the restaurant or secretly paid for by the tour leader! 22 of the 26 people on the truck were there and it was just wonderful! Other than having all you people I love back home here, I don’t think it could have been a better birthday =)

p.s. I am older than Namibia because it didn't gain its independence from Africa until 1990!