Namibia was absolutely amazing. By far, my favorite port so far. I loved it. It was definently a taste of how Africa really is. By far, also the hottest port so far. We arrived on Saturday, and the Girl's Namibian choir greeted us outside the port by singing a few songs and what not. I did a camping in the desert trip which was really amazing. We left Walvis Bay at about 1030 and headed to Sossuvlei which was about a 4 hour drive. The scenery on the way was the most beautiful thing ever. We drove through the mountains, the desert, and even a rainstorm. It was a mixture of everything. We stopped at several places along the way, for water, souvenirs, etc. We stopped at our first place, literally in the middle of the desert, with nothing around for miles and miles. This is where we were going to have a picnic on the mountain top. So we climbed the mountain and took pictures while they prepared lunch for us. As we were coming down the mountain, we found out that the door with our bags and lunch on the bus was broken and they couldn't open it. So, they told us that we were going to drive to find some help, talk about being stranded in the desert. So we drove probably 20 miles until we stumbled upon a guy in a excavator (once again, no idea what he was doing in the desert), and they asked him if he had any tools to help us open the door. And surprisingly he did, and they got the door open for us. So we drove another 15 miles to get to the place where he wanted us to eat lunch. We wandered around again until they had our lunch ready. There were shiny rocks and all sorts of interesting stuff all around the place. It was beautiful. We found a few lizards and random bugs, but nothing too exciting. We ate lunch and then continued on to our campsite.
On our way, our tour guide informed us that the average amount of rain for Namibia was 50 mm a year. As he talked about this, we looked to our left and a huge storm was coming in. We drove to the top of the mountain just to catch the beginning of the storm with thunder and lightning. It was so beautiful, although the sky was dark and the air temperature had dropped a noticable amount, the scenery was beautiful! Then the rain started, at first it was a few drizzles and we all got out of the bus to play in the rain, but then it turned into a downpour. It was incredible. The lightning bolts were incredible and overpowered the mountains, but at the same time, it was a once in a lifetime sight. It continued to rain all the way to our campsite. And we literally drove through rivers, there was so much rain. In one day, the rain doubled the average yearly rainfall. About 7 hours later, we finally got to the campsite. They had already set up our tents for us so we put all of our things in the tent and went to explore. We found the lodge which had a bar and a pool table. Since it was still raining, we hung out up there because it was the only place that was covered. We had a few drinks and played some pool, while we watched the south africa v. australian rugby game. Dinner was to be ready around 830 or so, so we went back down to the campfire to get some dinner. We had sausage, porkchops, and local sides. It was different but really good none the less. Afterwards, we sat by the fire and drank some wine and just hung out.
The next morning we had our wake up call at 530 am, and it was still dark. The bathrooms (aka outhouses) weren't lit so it was interesting trying to put my contacts back in, but I got it done. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast and left the campsite at 6 am to start our day. We drove to Sossuvlei and along the way the many mountains began to turn into hundreds of sand dunes. The sand was so dark, darker than any sand I've ever seen. The dunes were SOOOOOO tall. We drove past Dune 45 (each dune is numbered) and saw people climbing it. Then we finally reached the dunes we would be exploring. We had a 5 km walk (about 3.2 miles) to get to the actual dunes. And even at 830 am, the temperature was already in the mid 80s. It took us about two hours to get to the dunes, and the temperature just kept getting hotter. Luckily, I wore my bathing suit underneath my stuff so most of us just walked in our bathing suit tops, and shorts. the temperature probably reached the mid to high 90s. It was extremely, extremely hot, and absolutely no shade. But we all trekked through and made it to the dunes. We were brought to the highest sand dune in the world. So we began to hike up it, and let me tell you. We were ALL huffing and puffing, with the altitude, and the steepness of the dune, it makes it a lot more harder than you would think. So we climbed the dunes and the way down was the most exhilirating thing ever. You basically just run down the dune and it is the steepest thing EVER, but your feet just sink in the sand and carries you down. It was so much fun. It was starting to get to the hottest point in the day so we took the shuttle back to our lunch site because walking back in the desert, without water, at 1230 in 100 degree weather, was not my typical idea of fun. Once we got back to the campsite they had lunch for us, which was very eclectic, eggs, bacon, cole slaw and a carrot casserole thing. Then we traveled to a canyon, but it was still extremely hot, so we didn't stay that long, just long enough to take some pictures and take it all in. Then we stopped at a few gas stations that were small and had many interesting things, and we were back on our way to the campsite. After one of the hottest in the longest time, we took a dip in the pool which was the most refreshing thing ever! Then the storm clouds started coming in again, so we quickly changed and brought some cards and our wine up to the lodge house to play cards and drink some wine while the storm passed. Soon after we went to the campfire again for dinner. This time it was chicken broth and pasta, and some sort of vegetable medley. After dinner, we enjoyed some Namibian brews and wine by the campfire. We ended up talking to our bus driver who was extremely eager to know who we are and things about America, as were we interested to know about Namibia. He loved to talk about politics and Obama and JFK a lot and we nicknamed him JFK throughout the rest of the trip.
The next morning we departed back to Walvis Bay, and left the campsite at 630, and had PB &J for breakfast again. We stopped at a souvenir store called Solitaire which was like the local gas station/market and literally one of two buildings I saw on the drive home. It was so peaceful out in the middle of nowhere. We got to Walvis Bay around 1130 and put our stuff on the boat and went to explore. We ate at a local cafe and ordered cheese grillers, with chips (aka fries), now wouldn't you think that cheese grillers means grilled cheese? Nope, it was sausages filled with cheese, not what we were expecting at all, but still delicious none the less. We explored the local city afterwards and stumbled upon a beautiful beach with flamingos and pelicans. We went to a few shops and met a local lady who told us to make sure we weren't getting ripped off by the cab drivers because the cab drivers were ripping everyone off and laughing at us. But she was an extremely sweet lady. We had a few hours left until we needed to be on the ship, so we stumbled upon a local cafe/bar and had a few drinks on the water. It was beautiful. We jumped in the ocean to cool off and took a cab back to the good old MV Explorer.
It was an awesome time and it had literally everything you could imagine: beaches, mountains, sand dunes, desert, etc. And the people were extremely friendly and always asking how you were and wanted to know about Semester at Sea and everything.
We dock in Cape Town, South Africa tomorrow and we will be there until Sunday! South Africa is supposed to be one of the best ports on the voyage so I cannot wait to experience it all. Tomorrow morning we'll be climbing Table Mountain and then do some local shopping. Then from Thurs to Sat I am going to be doing a Safari, and looking for the "Big Five", which I'm assuming are lions, giraffes, elephants, hippos and rhinos. I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures and maybe catch an internet cafe the last day after sand boarding and put the pictures up. Once again, hope that everyone is doing well at home, lots of love!
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