Welcome to South Africa

Because we were ahead of schedule, we decided to head all the way south to the Garden Route of South Africa. This required a few random stops that ended up being wonderful. The first was a stop in Bitterfontein and the Dawn Ridge guest lodge. The owners, Dawn and John, were really hospitable, if not a bit eccentric. They gave us a great deal, dorms for the price of camping, and let us use their well-stocked kitchen and watch movies from their extensive DVD collection. They also let us do laundry! For a small extra fee, Dawn and John made us an amazing breakfast with fresh herbs and vegetable from their garden. There was not really anything else there, though, so we reluctantly moved on the next morning. Outdshoorn, our next random stop, turned out to be one of the places that we should have put on our itinerary. The pass into Oudtshoorn, Swapberg Pass, was breathtaking. Then, we stopped in the town because it was getting too dark to drive. That night, though, we found so many fun things to do in the area that we decided to stay the whole next day. Our day started with Ostrich egg omelets, compliments of Alex. One egg is the equivalent of twenty-four chicken eggs! It was enough for all of us and then some. Then, we rented mountain bikes, which we used to explore the surrounding area, starting with Cango caves—Africa’s largest caves. From there we headed to Cango Ostrich Farm, where we got to have some strange interactions with ostriches. I got “hugged”, “massaged”, and bitten on the nose by this one. This last interaction may have been a result of the fact that I had Ostrich breath from the Ostrich Kebabs (yum!) we ate immediately before taking the tour. Also, Regina was chosen to ride an ostrich, and we all got to sit/stand on ostrich eggs, which are very strong.

Goodbye Namibia!

Because one can only spend so long looking at dunes, we left straight from Soussevlei to Luderitz via the 7-07. We stayed at the Klein Aus Vista. It was such a pretty campsite, we stayed for two nights.
We all made dinner together, then ate and drank wine under the stars. After my shower, Regina and I sat under the stars while she explained the various constellations. It was one of those nights when things are so perfect you actually think to yourself, “Does it get any better than this?”

The next morning, we drove into Luderitz to see the ghost town of Kolmanskop. It was the fanciest ghost town I’ve ever seen. It had two casinos, a hospital, a school house, a swimming pool, and several large houses. It was abandoned after diamond mines further south were discovered to be more prosperous. The sand has taken over a lot of the buildings.










We had a picnic lunch at Diaz Point, enjoying the best oysters I’ve ever eaten. The oysters were SO fresh. We drove around the scenic peninsula before heading back to Klien Au Vista.



The next day we headed to the beautiful Fish River Canyon. Because of the season, we were not allowed to hike there. This put us several days ahead of schedule. We stayed one night to at least catch the truly spectacular sunset and to hike around the rim.



Alex, sleeping on the bench at our Fish River Canyon campsite.

The next day we started off early to make it to the nearby hot springs, thinking that they would be better in the morning. When we got there, though, we were surprised to find a full on luxury pool with spa facilities. Not exactly what you would expect in the middle of a national park. We lounged well into the afternoon, getting pedicures and massages to boot. This time the massage were relatively normal even though the service was not great. I did have to get a "couple's massage" with Kaitlin because they only had one procedure room.

Happy Halloween!

We made it out of Etosha Park early enough to make it all the way back to Windhoek. It was the night before Halloween, and we could not pass up the opportunity to celebrate. We started at The Playhouse, which, we were told, was supposed to be the most happening place in town. It was closed for a private party. We noticed that all the people going in and out were dressed up in costumes. We stared longingly at them, wanting to come play. They must have felt sorry for us because they invited us in. We found out that they were not celebrating Halloween, but the host’s 30th birthday, with a “Dress Your Decade” party. We returned the favor by buying the hosts drinks and giving them our best karaoke rendition of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”


Alex was especially excited about our choice of songs. There were so many fun people. Our favorite was Justin, an Africaner, who kept buying us shots.

After closing down that party, we went to two more clubs: Zanzibar and another club that we cannot remember the name of. We met two really cute, local girls, who escorted us to the second, more happening club. Listening to these girls was an eye-opening experience. They referred to themselves and other mix-raced people as “coloreds”, which is an official ethnicity in many countries in southern Africa. Also, when the girls got pulled over (for a broken light), they jumped out of the car and walked over to the cop car, asking what the problem was. The cop let them go with a warning. He never even left his car.

After a late start (hangovers are fun) the next day, we made it to Soussevlei just before sunset. We watched the sunset from the top of Dune 45 (a bit of a hike). The sunset itself was just okay, but the light cast on the dunes was really beautiful. the dunes were breathtaking.








The next morning, we woke up early for sunrise at Deadvlei, a dune that is located in front of trees that have been dead over 900 years. We spent an hour enjoying the scenery and taking photographs before we realized that we were in the wrong place. But the place we were in was actually more scenic than the actual Deadvlei.

(The real Deadvlei)