Hey everyone, so sorry that its taken so long for this. I've managed to sort out the pictures from the first half of the trip until about the Kalahari Desert in the heart of Botswana. The other half is mostly on Tom's camera (mine started to give me trouble again) but unfortunatly he's done something to the disk and we might need to try to use that recovery software when we get home pops. Right now we're just south of Birmingham and are headed to Oxford today to see the old universities and hang out around town for a bit. We didn't get as far north as we expected but Tom and I are planning on jutting up to Scotland when his parents head back to Canada still I think. Anyway I figure that I should go in order so I can try to remember as much as I can and to do that unfortunatly I have to take you back to the 25th of February, the day we left Capetown headed North on the tour.
The last day we toured Robben Island and Capetown largest township. The Townships were the massive fields that the Africans ejected from the cities set up their makedshitf cities in. The oldest one is ALexadra in Johanasburg but Cape Town has some of the most famous and most visited.
looking back at capetown and table mountain from the prison island of Robben island
one of the comunal cells of the island. Nelson Mendella had one to himself
Two of the girls from the Trip (Alex and Hannah, both English) playing with the kids from the Township. The houses are a lot like the scraped together houses of that we see in the DR. Most are differest sheets of scrap metal and wood nailed or glued together. The Townships are an odd place though, generally the people that live there (especially the younger generation) dress quite nicely and all habe mobile phones and often enough you see pretty nice cars (all decked out in rims and lights and that) driving through or parked in front of the houses. I asked out guide about that and he said that the way of living in the houses has become so much a culture thing that the people would rather buy nice things that a real house. He said generally speaking the people (with the aid of the government) could afford real housing but would rather spend their money on clothes and cars than on a house.
One of the first Township churches, one of the nicest as well
the children are the same everywhere, they love to climb on you and play with you and pose for the camera.
That night we stayed in a camp just to the south of the Orange River, the border between South Africa and Namibia. I actually went to Namibia 2 because we all thought it would be cool to swim across the river into Namibia. I didnt tell the border guards the next morning though.
looking into the vast sand dunes of the Namib Desert from South Africa over the Orange River. The Namib Desert boasts the worlds tallest sand dunes that tower from the coast to a couple of miles inland where the give way to the mountains.
That night we played ibble dibble (one of the many drinking games I've learned over the trip and I can't wait to bring home) Tom and Hannah aren't doing very well.
The next morning we passed the Fish River Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world, although I was told that niether the grand canyon nor the fish river canyons are actually canyons and that the third largest canyon (also in South Africa) is actually the largest "real" canyon in the world.
we watched the sunset over it the night before I think. Next we wen't on to the Namibian Border and crossed into the Namib Desert. Hiking is always hard, Hiking up sand Dunes is ridiculous. For every step you take up you slide about half a step down in the think snow like powder of the dune. The good part is its really good to go down, you can run or slid or summersault cusioned by the soft mobile sand.
looking back towards the mountains with my back to the dunes
we hiked up over the dunes into the middle that is an ancient oasis and the mouth of a river (there is not water). It flows underground still and when the rains come every year the water remains long enough for the plants to release there seeds. Its wierd, all the plants you see (well most) are dead. They've been able to grow fast enough to have there seeds ready for when the next rain comes. When the moisture does come the dead tissue of the plants release the seeds and the new plant has a couple weeks to mature and produce seeds of its own while it dies and waits for the next rain. Those are some dedicated parents huh?
the trees are old pertified trees, thousands of years old. They are hard as stone to touch but still can give you nasty splinters and cuts. Apparently a part of the movie The Cell was filmed here but I never saw it.
hiking back out over the dunes, I got burried by everyone.
between the dunes and the mountains is a vast plane of little shrubs and rocks.
That night we camped out in the Bush (which is what I thought the tour would be more like from the beggining) but usually we stayed in actually camp cites with bars and showers and pools and stuff. The bush camping was better
I wish I could have taken pictures of the stars. Theres not a whole lot of light polution in the deserts of Namibia, its Africas least populated country per square mile.
On the way up to Swakupmund we stopped at a seal colony which smelt worse than anything I've smelt before. But there were thousands and thousands of seals
We got to Swakupmund ( a namibian coastal town) on March 1st and the next day (my birthday) we went sand boarding and Quadbiking and then out for dinner to a famous game resturaunt. It was a pretty great birthday, missed you guys of course.
ITs a lot like snowboarding but slower and it doesn't hurt as bad to fall
The real fun part was the sledding
I nice progression I think. I did a bit of a face plant on that one.
our group that went boarding
The next day we left the coast and the desert and went into the mountains. It ws so beautiful, not like any mountains I've seen before check these out
Tom and Mel in the mountians...
I have to stop here cause We are leaving, there is still more Part 1 and a whole nother half after Botswana. Sorry it takes a long time to upload and format the pictures but I'm workin on it. Love and miss everyone.
