Category: Namibia 2016

Fish River Canyon, a Club, a Bus

April 22 I was up at 05:30 to get to the Fish River Canyon viewpoint before sunrise.  On the drive, a herd of zebras ran across the small roadway in front of me.  Africa is special… The Fish River Canyon is the second biggest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon in Arizona.  I now have seen them both and Fish River is equally beautiful.  The colors are magnificent.  And the depth of the canyon, cut by the river…incredible. ...

Keetmanshoop: Never Underestimate a Determined Man

April 21 It drives me crazy how much plastic is wasted in Africa.  There is a serious lack of education on how destructive its destruction is as they can not seem to waste enough of it on this continent.  If you go into a supermarket in Namibia and you buy a juice, the people working will put it in a plastic bag if you do not stop them.  If you buy one banana, plastic bag.  Can of coke, plastic bag. ...

Kolmanskop Sand Filled Ghost Mining Town

April 20 I got lucky this morning.  I wanted to go to Kolmanskop, the site of the original Diaz Cross Ghost Mining Town, but there is no access to the place without one’s own transport.  I was going to have to hire a taxi to take me there and then wait for me for 100 Namibian dollars ($7.05).  That is not much money for an 11 kilometer drive and a driver that will wait one hour for you to be...

Hitchhiking from Sossusvlei to Lüderitz

April 19 Up at 04:48.  Two mornings in a row pre-05:00 is about as horrible as taking a medicine that is certain to make you throw up… [su_note note_color=”#b0b1b6″ text_color=”#030303″ radius=”6″]Random ‘Did You Know’ – Due to so many people shaving their pubic region, crab-lice are heading towards extinction?  (Though that could just be drunk-talk I have been a part of.)  Nonetheless, I feel like I want to make t-shirts that show a bush which say ‘Save the Crab!’  (I...

Sossusvlei Sand Dunes National Park

April 18 Getting up at 04:01 to meet a German family at 04:30 is unpleasant.  Wait, let me reword that.  Getting up at 04:01 is unpleasant.  The German family was great! They…Christian, his wife Steffani, and six-year-old, Konstantin, from Dortmund…came into my life last night while I was having dinner at the lodge.  They were at the next table over and I asked them if they were going to the Sossusvlei in the morning.  I needed a ride and I...

Solitaire: The Car Accident

April 17 I was up at 06:42 to get ready, made my goodbyes to Lala and Francois Loubser, and was on the highway by 08:30 to try to thumb a ride to Sossusvlei…about a six hour drive away.  I have had a very easy time hitchhiking around Africa.  Namibia has decided to take a different pattern and it was not kind in supplying rides.  I stood on the side of the road in the same place for three hours.  I...

Walvis Bay 4×4 Off-Road Challenge

April 16 The ‘Walvis’ of Walvis Bay is ‘whale’ in Afrikaans.  Awesome… I went for a walk around Walvis Bay in an attempt to try to find a tent.  I failed in the tent quest, but really came out ahead because I stopped at a business called Namib Off-Road, that was closed. There was a sign on the door that explained their closure was due to a 4×4 Desert Challenge behind Dune 7.  I asked a cabbie where Dune 7...

Back to Walvis Bay: To Psychoanalyze

April 14 I woke up in the car in a gas station, though I am not really sure where it was when I started off for Walvis Bay this morning.  I think a sign said that I was 56 kilometers from Swakopmund when I hit the road while it was still dark.  My third sleep in a car in three nights.  I do not live a comfortable life, but it sure is interesting. A cool thing about Namibia…they put up...

Etosha National Park and Hoba Meteorite

April 13 I think it was around 01:30 outside of Etosha National Park when I went to sleep in the car and it was 02:17 when I woke up to knocks on the window and flashlights shining.  When I really woke up, I realized that there were cops everywhere, with shotguns, surrounding my car (I would later count 18 camouflage-uniformed cops). I had been sleeping in the reclined driver’s seat just outside of the western gate to get into the...

Skeleton Coast National Park – Lions and Testing Idiocy

April 12 I had a pretty restless sleep, but considering it was in the back seat of a very compact car, I should be respectful enough to qualify it as a ‘good sleep’.  It was 07:17 when I checked the time and as soon as I moved, there were three Namibian police officers standing not far from my car and they watched me get dressed.  They seemed to have nothing better to do.  It annoyed me that they were so...

Skeleton Coast National Park – Shipwreck and Oil Rig

April 11 When I woke up, breakfast had been prepared for Julia and I on the terrace outside of the rooms by Lala, who runs Loubser’s Bed and Breakfast.  Awesome!  Julia and I ate and then I kissed her goodbye before she raced off to catch a flight to Bali.  I started getting myself ready when my rental car arrived.  Yes! Now, I had been to Avis, and they had a car for me for 552 Namibian dollars ($37) per...

Walvis Bay: Opposite Day

April 10 Lala woke me up at 08:00 because she had prepared breakfast for me.  Julia, right behind her, had a nice morning shine and sat with me for breakfast. Today would turn out to be Opposite Day!  Awesome Opposite Day. Play this while you read.  I heard this today.  It has been years since I heard this song.  Somehow I forgot how great the Bellamy Brothers were.  This is a beautiful song… Well, today went down like this… I...

Walvis Bay Flamingos

April 9 It has been nice to be a little bit lazy.  I feel super comfortable at Loubser’s Bed and Breakfast.  I have my own room, Lala the older woman running the place acts as my mother and her husband Francois gives me fatherly advice.  They are very sweet and it feels like I am a part of the family here.  I do not really want to go.  Today Lala found me a car to rent from one of her...

Walvis Bay: Comparison

April 8 Brushing your teeth with cologne is terrible.  I seem to experience this about once every 10 days. My toothbrush and my cologne are both in my shaving kit (among other things of the sort).  I am not sure how it happens really.  All I know is that it does happen… and seemingly often.  Somehow in my shaving kit, a sift of cologne comes of out the spray nozzle of the bottle and ends up on my toothbrush.  Unbeknownst...

Otjiwarongo to Walvis Bay: Hitchhiking a Train

April 7 I was up before my friends and I wanted to write my blog in the morning, but by the time I got out of the shower, Tosh and James were away and outside of the tent.  Tosh was smoking.  He told me, “I try to quit every morning!”  This morning seems to have been another failure. Tosh and James told me they had second thoughts about travelling all over Namibia with me.  Money is a bigger factor than...

Grootfontein to Otjiwarongo: The Last to Evolve

April 6 The Meteor Inn fed me a huge breakfast today and then I got into contact with two local friends, Tosh and James, who I had met yesterday in Tsumeb.  They asked me to wait for them because they said they wanted to travel with me.  I ended up catching a taxi from Grootfontein to Tsumeb to meet them.  On the way, a fellow rider asked me if I was travelling alone.  When I confirmed I was, he asked...

Botswana to Namibia: Was I Cursed Today?

April 5 I am starting to have weird flashes of headaches and earaches.  These are things I never have in my life, ever.  Sometimes I have a weird nerve-jolt of pain go through my eyes for a nano-second.  I am wondering if this is a side effect of being on malaria medication for nearly four months straight?  I can not wait to get away from putting this medication garbage into me… [su_quote]I am stiff to move lately.[/su_quote] I am going...