So, I think we didn't do much this day. We spent the whole morning in the truck, I think I slept most of the time (thus I had no idea where we lost the sun and found the clouds...). Oh, yes, and we stopped at the Tropic of Capricorn to take a group picture. I don't think I liked that ("Ok, guys, that's the Tropic of Capricorn, you can get out and take a picture..."). But we did take a picture and it was actually quite fun. You know how it is with group pictures. You give all the cameras to one person. There were about 25 of us. Lots of fun, really... It seemed that Wessel had some never-to-run-out-of-cameras pockets... And then, the guides, Wessel, Jan and Helen, asked us to take a picture of them. To show them how it feels, we all took our cameras and started to take pictures of them. Oh well, if you say picture time then comes a real one. :)
Then we stopped somewhere, in a town which was actually the first town we saw, it wasn't Swakop to take a stroll along the sea which really smelt... The reason why it smelt was that there were plenty of flamingos. And those flamingos (they told us something interesting about them, I'm pretty sure... but don't remember it) did literally everything in the sea... Literally... (One of the Dutch girls went into the sea to take a better pictures of the flamingos, her feet were sooo disgusting afterwards...) I remember there were supposed to be toilets. And they were there but out of order. That's always the best joke when you're travelling :) Oh, and yes, I remember I fell asleep on the truck and then woke up and realized it wasn't sunny anymore. That wasn't very pleasant, pretty much like the flamingos smell. But neither lasted for a long time. :) And then, when the Germans were done with their flamingo excursion, which took them forever, we finally left for Swakop.
The main activity for the day was to stop at the adventure center in Swakop and book and pay for some optional activities for the day after. I'm not going to tell you know what we did... You'll have to wait :)
Then we moved to the Dunes Lodge where we were going to spend two nights. Two nights without the tents, at a backpackers. I missed the tents, seriously. My mattress in the tent was so much more comfortable than the one in the bed. Plus - there were 10 people in the room, whereas in the tent, we were only two... Well, we had to survive... :) (Also, the room was very damp which was very annoying...) The backpackers had a bar, an inside pool (dangerous for a local dog who almost drowned there) and it was not too bad, it just wasn't the tent. :)
In Swakop, we did some shopping (tissues and this kind of stuff necessary for survival) and also tried the Internet, which sucked, it was probably the slowest connection ever, but the local people seemed fine with paying for it.
Then we went for a walk with Jill. We went to the sea and walked around and somehow we got to a local crafts market, which we kinda regretted later. Of course, we were being stopped by people trying to sell whatever all the time. And of course, they didn't believe us when we said we didn't have any money (and we really didn't). I didn't like that. And there was this guy, he told us his name (it meant "small town" in translation, I think) and talked to us. Then said he'd give us a gift. Jill said no. She told me the reason later - Marie told her that when they say they're gonna give you something as a gift, they'll ask you for money anyway after you take it. I didn't know that, so I didn't say no. He gave me this thing about which he claimed it was an elephant. I could see that with lots of imagination. Anyway, I think, and most people do, that it is really a hammerhead shark. You can see it if you want to. :) And he didn't want any money from me! However, he wanted to know at what backpackers we were staying and our room numbers... Ehm... That he would camp (?!) there... Ehm... We said we didn't know. :) And sure - we'll see you out tonight! We were kinda running away then...
And the last activity of the day was going out, as a group, for dinner. To a restaurant called Cape to Cairo, which is a chain restaurant that you probably can find at different places in Africa. It wasn't bad. There were more than 25 of us, though, and it was a big trouble for the waiters. Everything took forever, they didn't have anything... I must say I rather felt sorry for them than was angry. What was worse - our new fellow-travellers. To make us all happy, they were Germans and they were far far far worse than those we had already (ok - nothing against Germans in general... it's just those we had on the tour, they were unbelievable). Well, Wessel wanted us to be nice to them so that they'd feel welcomed. We tried but I must say, for myself, that it was freaking hard.
I don't remember what we ate but remember that most of the people went out later. But we were so tired, plus we had to wake up early in the morning, that we decided to be the losers and went to bed instead. Well, I'd say nothing better than a good night sleep. But it wasn't the case at the backpackers. There was no good sleep at all. First - the mattresses were very uncomfortable. Second, people were coming back throughout the night... ten people in one room means not only no privacy, but also no silence, and sometimes no dark, things I need to be able to sleep. Third, we had to wake up in the morning into a room full of sleeping people. How I missed our tent!
Then we stopped somewhere, in a town which was actually the first town we saw, it wasn't Swakop to take a stroll along the sea which really smelt... The reason why it smelt was that there were plenty of flamingos. And those flamingos (they told us something interesting about them, I'm pretty sure... but don't remember it) did literally everything in the sea... Literally... (One of the Dutch girls went into the sea to take a better pictures of the flamingos, her feet were sooo disgusting afterwards...) I remember there were supposed to be toilets. And they were there but out of order. That's always the best joke when you're travelling :) Oh, and yes, I remember I fell asleep on the truck and then woke up and realized it wasn't sunny anymore. That wasn't very pleasant, pretty much like the flamingos smell. But neither lasted for a long time. :) And then, when the Germans were done with their flamingo excursion, which took them forever, we finally left for Swakop.
The main activity for the day was to stop at the adventure center in Swakop and book and pay for some optional activities for the day after. I'm not going to tell you know what we did... You'll have to wait :)
Then we moved to the Dunes Lodge where we were going to spend two nights. Two nights without the tents, at a backpackers. I missed the tents, seriously. My mattress in the tent was so much more comfortable than the one in the bed. Plus - there were 10 people in the room, whereas in the tent, we were only two... Well, we had to survive... :) (Also, the room was very damp which was very annoying...) The backpackers had a bar, an inside pool (dangerous for a local dog who almost drowned there) and it was not too bad, it just wasn't the tent. :)
In Swakop, we did some shopping (tissues and this kind of stuff necessary for survival) and also tried the Internet, which sucked, it was probably the slowest connection ever, but the local people seemed fine with paying for it.
Then we went for a walk with Jill. We went to the sea and walked around and somehow we got to a local crafts market, which we kinda regretted later. Of course, we were being stopped by people trying to sell whatever all the time. And of course, they didn't believe us when we said we didn't have any money (and we really didn't). I didn't like that. And there was this guy, he told us his name (it meant "small town" in translation, I think) and talked to us. Then said he'd give us a gift. Jill said no. She told me the reason later - Marie told her that when they say they're gonna give you something as a gift, they'll ask you for money anyway after you take it. I didn't know that, so I didn't say no. He gave me this thing about which he claimed it was an elephant. I could see that with lots of imagination. Anyway, I think, and most people do, that it is really a hammerhead shark. You can see it if you want to. :) And he didn't want any money from me! However, he wanted to know at what backpackers we were staying and our room numbers... Ehm... That he would camp (?!) there... Ehm... We said we didn't know. :) And sure - we'll see you out tonight! We were kinda running away then...
And the last activity of the day was going out, as a group, for dinner. To a restaurant called Cape to Cairo, which is a chain restaurant that you probably can find at different places in Africa. It wasn't bad. There were more than 25 of us, though, and it was a big trouble for the waiters. Everything took forever, they didn't have anything... I must say I rather felt sorry for them than was angry. What was worse - our new fellow-travellers. To make us all happy, they were Germans and they were far far far worse than those we had already (ok - nothing against Germans in general... it's just those we had on the tour, they were unbelievable). Well, Wessel wanted us to be nice to them so that they'd feel welcomed. We tried but I must say, for myself, that it was freaking hard.
I don't remember what we ate but remember that most of the people went out later. But we were so tired, plus we had to wake up early in the morning, that we decided to be the losers and went to bed instead. Well, I'd say nothing better than a good night sleep. But it wasn't the case at the backpackers. There was no good sleep at all. First - the mattresses were very uncomfortable. Second, people were coming back throughout the night... ten people in one room means not only no privacy, but also no silence, and sometimes no dark, things I need to be able to sleep. Third, we had to wake up in the morning into a room full of sleeping people. How I missed our tent!
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