5000km

I had never been to Namibia before and was thrilled I had the opportunity to go! I have always had a thing for the desert - or at least thought I did considering I had never seen it! So, with no ulterior motives and a 1991 Opel Kadet, I left Cape Town and headed North for the desert with Grazia, a hot-blooded Italian dying to see her travelling boyfriend Tom, the next day and Katie, a funky American wanting to renew her visa for South Africa and learn how to drive a manual car. Now, for those of you who don't know, to drive to Namibia is really far. We left at 6am, got to the Namibian border around 3pm and got to shower and sleep later that night in the small town of Keetmanshoop. The next morning we ventured to the very German town of Windhoek, had lunch and continued north to Tsumeb - only 150km or so from Etosha National Park. It was here that we met up with the British hooligan, Tom, who had just finished his 5 week trip around West Africa.

The next day we headed for 2 days in Etosha with visions of seeing every animal on the African continent. Now being South African, I have already seen all the animals on the African continent on more than 1 occasion and even though I still enjoy it immensely it is a lot more fun to see the reaction of those who have not experienced 'the safari.' I don't think I have ever seen people more excited over a zebra and springbok than this crazy group! Can you imagine what it was like when we saw lion and elephant. Just let your imagination run wild... Etosha is incredible and you really get to see everything. You also get to enjoy a cold beer in a nice swimming pool at sunset. We then headed Southwest for Swakopmund and Walvis Bay on the coast. You drive for what feels like forever on flat, desolate and fairly good dirt roads, stopping only to check that you are in fact going the right way - hopefully.

Swakopmund is a small German and Afrikaans town in the middle of nowhere but it is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen when you have been driving on dirt roads for a full day in the heat, in a car with no air conditioning and the windows open. Dust becomes like uncontrollable hair gel after a while and by the end of the day we all looked ridiculous. It is the most unusual place - the sea next to the desert. We went quad-biking in the dunes, got chased away by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's body guards, saw millions of flamingos, climbed Dune 7 (apparently one of the the highest dunes ever - man I was tired!) and had numerous sundowners on the dunes watching the sun disappear behind the sea - not necessarily in that order.

2 days later we were on our way south to the Fish River Canyon hoping to stop at Sossusvlei (the red dunes) on the way. Now when you say 'on the way' in Namibia it means about 400km out of the way. So we only arrived at Sossusvlei at about 3pm, had a quick walk around this spectacular place and then headed back to try and get to the canyon before midnight and then relax in the hot springs. But as luck would have it, the trusty car that had been going so well for so far decided that the dusty and bumpy roads were enough and called it a day just after we had seen a small prop plane make an emergency landing on the road in front of us. She decided to break down about 40km from the nearest spec of civilisation. We sat in the car playing games to pass the time waiting for someone to come past us. It only took 5 hours. Some wonderful people were nice enough to tow us into the tiny village (population 20) of Sesriem at 10 o'clock at night and give us their lounge for the night.

The next day is a disaster. The car is.... well, f***ed. The timing belt has snapped and who knows what damage it has caused. The German tourists wont help and there is no spares shop for 350km - the town of Marienthal. Finally we pay someone to take 2 of us to Marienthal (we nominate the love birds), buy the spare part and get back so that the "mechanic" (actually a guy who sort of knows something about cars -he thinks) can fix it. Grazia and Tom arrive back, part in hand and we are very excited. But alas, the part does not fit. It is now Saturday night. We are now broke and I have to be back at university on Monday morning, as does Grazia and we are still 2000km away from home. So instead of worrying we party with the locals and once again exchange beer for the priviledge of sleeping in their lounge.

The next morning armed with a smile and my Afrikaans I stop a guy in a bakkie and start telling him our sad tale. I find out that he is South African, here on business. After a bit of begging, he agrees to tow us to Marienthal - that's 350km people, on a dirt road through the pass! So nice of him! We leave an hour later. The love birds in the Opel getting blasted by dust and stones and Katie and I with Tony (our saviour) listening to "Sokkie Treffers #7" cruising at 80km/h. After about 5 hours or so of really bad Afrikaans disco mixed with a bit of Steve Hofmeyer and Kurt Darren and lots of small talk, I felt in touch with my lost Afrikaans side. After that adventure, I decided to come home. Katie and I took the bus (a dodgy one) from Marienthal on Sunday night and were back in Cape Town by lunch time the next day. The love birds fixed the car and were back 2 days after that.

So all in all, it was great. I didn't get to go to the canyon or laze in the hot springs but I will do that next time. My advice is that you go to Namibia as soon as you can! Just go in a 4x4 with air conditioning though, with a few spare parts in the boot. BUT GO! It is the most amazing place with the most amazing people. A must for every traveller!