Driving through the desert

I will rip through this next bit - some time later I might add more bits if we can remember anything interesting we missed.

We were faced with a big drive, basically around the Namib desert, with a night in the middle of before getting around it, at Fish River Canyon. The drive itself was spectacular - it was either mountainous dunes, massive gorges or layered mountains springing from nowhere. Amanda (a geologist) should go to this place - its geology was incredible - even us laymen could tell that. But with no plants and only the wind to expose the old bones of the earth - it is almost like a post mortem of the earth. Not to mention the tonnes of diamonds they pull from the sands and other gemstones and fossils...it really is geo heaven.

The night we spent in a camp in the middle of the dunes, near the Sissoku Vei (I need to check the spelling of that)....a vei, being a river bid. The heat was incredible and we had the option of a 2 hour tour with a bushmen and then a hike up a dune to watch the sunset. Josie rightly chose to remain in the shade by the pool, with laziness incarnate Josh and Dave. Me, coming from townsville could not be daunted with heat (foolishly forgetting 5 years in bloody england)...

The bushmen tour was great - he really new his shit, and he would want to -living out there. He told some great stories - some Josie should have been there to hear, about how a wife should behave.....and I shall summarise for this wisdom is pure GOLD. According to our guide, a wife should be like 3 animals. One - the Oryx, able to defend the home. A wife should be like the Ostrich, able to see a long way to gather foods and check for danger. And lastly a wife should be like a bee - with honeyed lips, because if she nags too much, her man will kick her out and go looking for a woman with sweeter lips. Ladies - these people are eternal, take heed!!

The climb up the dune was a killer - there was no trail...we had to make it ourselves. And whoever was leading would take one step up, only to slide back another half. Add in something near 35 degrees at 6pm and you had some sadistic fitness challenge. But we got there, I felt so sick, nah I shouldn't....but will. You know when you are that exhausted from the heat you feel as though you are going to crap your pants....no? Maybe it is just me then...shrug.

The next day was a run down to the Fish River Canyon - second biggest in the world. To be honest - I didn't go ooh, and ahh like many other places...maybe we were at the wrong spot or time? But we watched the sunset, did a bus moon of another overlander and then headed back to the campsite. Whoops, the other truck was camped next to us. The took it quite poorly - I suppose us getting pissed till late, playing loud music and stealing their chairs did not help the frosty looks we got in the morning?

We then got to the Orange River, jsut after the border with Sth Africa. A lovely camping site, right by a river (with water you could swim in) as well as grass - nice not putting a tent on baked earth all of the time ! This was probably one of the bigger pissups of the tour - with drunkest going to Ben, who provided extra enjoyment with some fine tent rolling in the morning. Special metion should go to Josh, whose hair rose to new heights; Breeny for trying to chat to every woman within 2 miles, and Dan for an excellent drunken rumour of Breeny snogging Miranda.

We then set forth into South Africa, or as we called it Sith Afreeca....to an even better campsite with hot springs. This was our last camping night...and we run up to the flash hotel after dinner and all consumed lovely desserts (with our drinks). Everyone was too tired to sneak back up for a nudey swim at midnight....happy to sit and talk religon and other heavy subjects around the campfire.

And then the next day - finally, and I mean FINALLY after 3 bloody weeks on the road - we arrived in Cape Town - and my wasn't she pretty !