An Even More Delayed Spring Break Post, Part 2

Flying into Namibia and the drive from the airport to Windhoek was so cool to see. If there was one word to describe Namibia I think it would have to be empty. It makes sense because it’s like the least densely populated country in Africa, but it was just shocking to see something so barren after coming from such a city. After about a 45 minute ride, we got to Windhoek and our accommodation there (Chameleon Backpackers).

Chameleon was really freaking nice. There was a huge self-catering outdoor kitchen, a pool, lots of communal space and the rooms were really great too. We ended up staying in a six-bed dorm with two very strange (and kind of rude guys). After locking up all of our luggage, we went to hang out by the pool for some time and then decided to nap for the afternoon. We didn’t really feel bad about doing this because Windhoek isn’t the greatest tourist destination in the world…it’s really kind of a sleepy city. We made dinner for ourselves that night (which was so cheap! Only US$1 a person!) and then called it pretty early because the next morning we had an early pickup for our safari.

The next morning, we got up early, had the complimentary breakfast at Chameleon and at 7:30 were met by Martin, our lovely safari guide. He showed us out to Sexy Beast, our Safari-mobile where we packed in all of our stuff and got in. We waited for a while in the car because we were told that two other people would be joining us on our Safari. Soon enough the two others showed up. They were two eighteen-year-old British boys named Henry and Hamish. We got off to a really amusing start with them because right away Griffin started sassing them. One of the first things she said to Henry was “Do you really need that window open right now?” Which came out way meaner than she meant it to, but it was pretty hilarious. We definitely posed all questions to each other in the same way for the rest of the time.

Anyway, we left Chameleon and headed over to Thimbi Thimbi (our safari company) to fill out some paperwork. Afterward, we stopped at Game (which is a strange store and also in Ghana) for some snacks and were on our way. Driving through Namibia was absolutely gorgeous. Again, there was so much open space it was pretty unbelievable. We stopped for lunch in a place called Solitaire and as the name might suggest, it was the only thing around. Martin and his assistant Safari guide Vares prepared an awesome lunch for us (lots of cheese!) which we downed quickly. Post-lunch, we were on our way again to the Agama River Camp, where we would be staying the next two nights.

Upon arrival at the campsite, we were put to work. We had to set up our own tents which we did so masterfully. Monica and I might have had a little help from Martin with our tent, but we still have ace camping skills. After set up, we all put on our bathing suits and spent the rest of the day by the pool at the campsite (it was not necessarily the cleanest pool in the world…you could really see any of your body when in the water). That night Martin and Vares made us dinner and we laid on the ground looking at the stars for a while (there were so many!) and then headed to be bed.

The next morning we were woken up at 4:30am to head to Sossusvlei. We wanted to get there before sunrise so we could see the sun rising over the dunes. We got to Sossusvlei around 6am and were the first in line outside the gate. It reminded me of the time (I think this happened unless I am making it up) that we got to Disneyland before it opened and were the first in line. Finally after about an hour we were let in and we sped our way to the first dune. Martin told us to get out and we went running up the dune…for a short time at least. The thing about sand dunes is that they’re really ridiculously hard to hike. Regardless, we made it partially up and watched the sunrise which was absolutely beautiful. Then we headed back down for breakfast to fill up before we continued our way through Sossusvlei.

Driving through the park we saw ostriches and springbok and lots of sand. Eventually we hit a point where four-wheel drive was necessary and kept going. We made it out to Crazy Dune which Martin led us on a hike of. We all hiked up barefoot (shoes just filled with sand) and took some awesome jumping off of dune pictures. We then ran down the side of the dune on to Dead Vlei, which is like this weird dried valley but really cool. I climbed a tree which I thought would be like petrified wood but was definitely really splintery and took a ton of pictures then we all headed back to Sexy Beast. We left Sossusvlei and headed out to Sesriem Canyon which was outside the Sossusvlei gate. We hiked down into the canyon a short way and found a river that ran through it. It was ridiculously hot, so we all semi-stripped down and went for a swim. We also partook in some mad fun cliff jumping. After our fun, we rode back to our campsite soaking wet and were lazy for the rest of the day.

The following day we headed to Swakopmund which we had heard was the “resort destination of Namibia.” First we stopped in Walvis Bay which certainly looked like the party destination of Namibia from all the empty beer and Smirnoff Ice bottles. We continued on to Swakopmund, passed Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s house and got to our really adorable guesthouse that we stayed at. We went into the town to go to a craft market we heard about and it was pretty much like a ghost town. Seriously, no one was around. We found the craft market, bought some stuff, saw some Himba People, and went to the beach (which was quite cold). That night we went out to dinner where we all ordered waaaaay too much food. Oh! But before dinner, our guesthouse had a really awesome happy hour where beers were only 7 Namibian Dollars or about 70 cents. We wanted to get the full value of this deal and downed many beers each. When in Namibia… Anyway, we tried to go out after dinner (and bear in mind this is a Saturday night) and the bar we went which was also a club like sort of deal had golf on…WITH COMMENTARY. Not like music or anything. It was fine though because we were pretty beat and called it a night after that disappointment.

The next day we went Quad Biking and Sandboarding in the Dunes in Swakopmund. It was definitely one of the cooler parts of the trip. I managed to hurt myself on the quad before we even made it on to the sand (no worries, just a small amount of blood). After an hour or so of Quading we got to some dunes were we meet some guys who had the sandboards. Now sandboards are pretty much just pieces of plywood that they grease up on one side. You lie down face first, lift the front and well just glide down the sand. It was pretty fun aside from the massive quantities of sand that end up everywhere you can imagine. After we all went a few times, we headed back to the homebase. It was on the way back that Monica got thrown from her Quad which then ran over her (she proved to be alright though). Our guide went back to help her and left me, Caroline and Griffin in the middle of a bunch of dunes. We got kind of nervous after a while because we realized we had no idea where we were or how to get back. Luckily, our guide returned with Monica safely, although shaken up, on his quad. We all made our way back to the base and then returned to our guesthouse to meet up with Martin and Vares to go back to Windhoek.

We spent the night in Chameleon again, in an even nicer room than our first, and this time, no nasty roommates. We decided we wanted some dinner that night, but failed to get to the supermarket before it closed. Our only choice was to order pizza from this place that delivered. It was our only choice because at that point, we were really freaking broke. I mean, we were so out of money, we were counting change. It was really amusing though and after emptying out every pocket we had enough for one pizza, which was enough for us. That night at Chameleon we hung out with some pretty cool people. One guy was from England and was biking from Ethiopia down to Cape Town. He had been doing it since January and had a month left to go. He kind of put us to shame in the way we traveled.

The next morning we had to get to the airport to fly back to Accra. We took a shuttle and had another very stress-free experience at check-in. We also had a stress-free flight getting to Joburg, where we had to connect to get to Accra. In the Joburg airport, we met up with the girls from our program who had spent their break there and exchanged stories. Again we had another awesome flying experience with a very empty plane with an empty seat next to each of us. It was pretty sweet. In the end we made it to Accra safely (although one bottle of my wine didn’t) after an amazing trip.