Fortunately, Susan went on the tour before us and told us what we should and shouldn't do. Thus we knew that the canoe trip wasn't worth the money and instead we spent the morning doing nothing at the beautiful camp at the river. Also, we could sleep much longer as we didn't have to get up at 6 am. :) I liked that. :)
So the morning activity for us was none. Before twelve, the people who went on the canoe trip got back and some of them were very disappointed (so here comes a big "thank you" to Susan :)). After lunch, we crossed the South African/Namibian border (and for the first time filled in the little form that we were going to fill in about hundred times :)). We entered Namibia for the first time and saw what a wonderful country it is - almost no people, beautiful nature, mountaints, sand, dunes, a funny tree in the middle of nothing from time to time...
Well, talking about the sand - after a few days in Namibia, it was everywhere. We pitched our tents, got in - there was sand inside, we opened our backpacks - there was sand inside, we got on the truck - sand, mugs - sand, sand, sand... What happens after spending a few days in a country with so much sand is this: your skin gets so dry that even if you were using a moisturizer 10 times a day, it wouldn't help. What happens when you live in sand and, moreover, you're alergic to everything, is something I'd rather forget. Day 3 was the first day I realized that it was going to be hard. I felt terrible and I started to take my allergy pills every single day, even though I usually don't do it. Did it help? Sometimes (and then - was it the pills that helped, or would it be just the same without them? :)) Later, I was told by a Namibian girl, that people in that part of Namibia get old really quickly. Or better - their skin is just so dry that they look much older than they really are. But the country is so beautiful that it is, maybe, worth it. :)
And, of course, we visited "a place of interest". :) We went to the Fishriver Canyon to watch the sunset there. Fishriver Canyon is the oldest and the second biggest canyon in the world. The oldest parts of the canyon are 2600 millions years old! Wow! And we were there! :) We were there, as you know, in July, and thus the rain season was over for a long time already. The Fish River (the longest river in Namibia) was dry. And here's something very interesting too - there are fish (called catfish) that can survive under the ground! They just "dig" themselves there and wait until the water comes again. Cool, eh? :)
We watched the sunset there and took some of the nicest sunset pictures (as we watched sunset almost every day, it gets pretty boring, haha :)) and we saw something I had never seen before. The Namibian sky... I can't explain how amazing that is. You can actually see all the stars! Here, in Europe, you'll never be able to see what you get to see at places like that... As there are almost no people around, there is no light pollution and I can tell you that when they turned off the lights of the truck, the view was simply breathtaking...
Well, after we had enough of the stars (can you actually ever have enough?), we went back to the camp (I don't know the name of the camp). And as we had had dinner already at the Canyon, it was just shower time, socializing time (which we didn't use much :)) and sleeping time. But that was the first day when I was sure that the tour was worth all the waking up and stuff like that. The Fishriver Canyon and the stars were the first highlight of the tour.
PS: Also, I learned a word that I was going to hear almost every day. As Wessel (our guide, to be talked about later :)) always said, before we went to watch a sunset: "Get some beers for the sundowner." Ok, I was confused... What the hell does he mean? Sundowner? Isn't that supposed to be the drink that you drink while watching sunset (or the sun going down :))? So we should take drinks for the drinks? What?? Jill explained that to me... She said that Wessel's use of English wasn't very good. :) So yes - sundowner is supposed to be the drink if you want to know the truth. :)
And one more thing I want to tell you. It isn't from my own head though, and you'll see that it actually even can't be. I've never been to Argentina (yet :)) so I couldn't know. But Geral told me that you can actually see millions of stars in Argentina too! Ok, guys, when are we going there? :)
So the morning activity for us was none. Before twelve, the people who went on the canoe trip got back and some of them were very disappointed (so here comes a big "thank you" to Susan :)). After lunch, we crossed the South African/Namibian border (and for the first time filled in the little form that we were going to fill in about hundred times :)). We entered Namibia for the first time and saw what a wonderful country it is - almost no people, beautiful nature, mountaints, sand, dunes, a funny tree in the middle of nothing from time to time...
Well, talking about the sand - after a few days in Namibia, it was everywhere. We pitched our tents, got in - there was sand inside, we opened our backpacks - there was sand inside, we got on the truck - sand, mugs - sand, sand, sand... What happens after spending a few days in a country with so much sand is this: your skin gets so dry that even if you were using a moisturizer 10 times a day, it wouldn't help. What happens when you live in sand and, moreover, you're alergic to everything, is something I'd rather forget. Day 3 was the first day I realized that it was going to be hard. I felt terrible and I started to take my allergy pills every single day, even though I usually don't do it. Did it help? Sometimes (and then - was it the pills that helped, or would it be just the same without them? :)) Later, I was told by a Namibian girl, that people in that part of Namibia get old really quickly. Or better - their skin is just so dry that they look much older than they really are. But the country is so beautiful that it is, maybe, worth it. :)
And, of course, we visited "a place of interest". :) We went to the Fishriver Canyon to watch the sunset there. Fishriver Canyon is the oldest and the second biggest canyon in the world. The oldest parts of the canyon are 2600 millions years old! Wow! And we were there! :) We were there, as you know, in July, and thus the rain season was over for a long time already. The Fish River (the longest river in Namibia) was dry. And here's something very interesting too - there are fish (called catfish) that can survive under the ground! They just "dig" themselves there and wait until the water comes again. Cool, eh? :)
We watched the sunset there and took some of the nicest sunset pictures (as we watched sunset almost every day, it gets pretty boring, haha :)) and we saw something I had never seen before. The Namibian sky... I can't explain how amazing that is. You can actually see all the stars! Here, in Europe, you'll never be able to see what you get to see at places like that... As there are almost no people around, there is no light pollution and I can tell you that when they turned off the lights of the truck, the view was simply breathtaking...
Well, after we had enough of the stars (can you actually ever have enough?), we went back to the camp (I don't know the name of the camp). And as we had had dinner already at the Canyon, it was just shower time, socializing time (which we didn't use much :)) and sleeping time. But that was the first day when I was sure that the tour was worth all the waking up and stuff like that. The Fishriver Canyon and the stars were the first highlight of the tour.
PS: Also, I learned a word that I was going to hear almost every day. As Wessel (our guide, to be talked about later :)) always said, before we went to watch a sunset: "Get some beers for the sundowner." Ok, I was confused... What the hell does he mean? Sundowner? Isn't that supposed to be the drink that you drink while watching sunset (or the sun going down :))? So we should take drinks for the drinks? What?? Jill explained that to me... She said that Wessel's use of English wasn't very good. :) So yes - sundowner is supposed to be the drink if you want to know the truth. :)
And one more thing I want to tell you. It isn't from my own head though, and you'll see that it actually even can't be. I've never been to Argentina (yet :)) so I couldn't know. But Geral told me that you can actually see millions of stars in Argentina too! Ok, guys, when are we going there? :)
Posts
1 comments:
I really enjoeyd that...wish I could be there...Cant wait to see those 1 000 pictures...Hm...You should count how many people you ll get interested in africa...:) ciao, linda
Post a Comment