Tasty Kudu.

We are currently back in Swakopmund once again and caught up with Peter Waggit and Sharon Paulka yesterday for a few beers and are meeting them a little later this evening for dinner. My phone is working again which is handy.

We have a much more normal backpackers lodge this time. Our last visit we stayed at the Alternative Space – the prime decoration being nude pictures of the hostess – at least 14 just in our living area with another collection in the library. Aside from that it was actually a really nice B&B.

I have decided that I like African conservation/wildlife appreciation. At a recent guest farm we camped at they had a selection of walks named after different animals found on the property. We elected to do the Kudu walk, helpfully marked with Kudu skulls nailed to posts along the path to ensure you didn’t get lost. Having successfully followed the Kudu skulls for several km we returned to camp for a tasty feed of Kudu steak grilled over an open fire. How good is that?! Once you have finished admiring the wildlife you can return to camp and eat it. Imagine that in Kakadu. Follow the wallaby heads up the hill, take your pictures, make that girly “oooaaahhh” noise, and when you return we’ll throw one on the fire for dinner.

Anyway I digress. Since our last posting we have visited the Kolmanskop Ghost town just east of Luderitz after spending a lovely night camped at Shark Island (a bare rock sticking out into the Atlantic). We spent most of the evening hiding from the cold wind in a local pub.

We then headed south and visited the famed Fish River Canyon, which was very impressive – and also very windy and cold with even a bit of rain. The camp ground left a little to be desired with a shortage of beer, showers, beer, hot water, beer, firewood, beer and day walks into the canyon are not allowed for some strange reason which was not explained – so we decided to bring our schedule forward a few days and head back north.

We stopped for the night in Rehoboth at the Reho spa. Driving into the camp ground we discovered it was completely deserted which was a little strange. It worked out well however as the spa bit was a local hot spring piped into a large indoor pool which the security guard opened up for us. After dinner we spent the evening floating around in lovely 38 degree water by ourselves as the temperature outside slid down to around 4 degrees.

Back in Swakopmund, this morning we headed out sandboarding in the dunes. Very cool, very sandy, and very hard work. I walked up a 90m sand dune 9 times and definitely eared the beer at the end. Great fun and very similar to snow boarding.

From Swakopmund we are heading for Etosha in a few days and have booked a bus to Livingston in Zambia for the 28th August to check out Victoria Falls.

The red rocket continues to charge along with only one flat tyre so far. The little beast is growing on us and it will be (almost) sad to leave it behind!

Namibia has been a very different experience than South Africa – prices have gone up markedly since our book was written and Mike and Brian traveled through here. A nights camping at Fish River cost us US$50 and the facilities were crap. You really get the feeling that the government just wants to fleece tourists out of as much cash as possible, for as few services as possible and really doesn’t give a sh*t if you enjoy your time here or not. It is a shame as the country is almost unbelievably spectacular, but being milked as a cash cow at every turn takes the gloss off a bit. In any case, we are still loving it and wouldn’t have missed it.