Angolan to South African border in a week

Fish River Canyon - amazing

Our group and our amazing tour guides

From the top of a mountain along the Orange River

Mountains at our first campsite

I am back from the Orange River, exhausted and happy to be back in the land of showers and beds and running water. My final week of travel was incredible. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking, and I am so glad that I got to see the southern parts of Namibia. This past Sunday we left at 5:30am, drove all the way down to Noordoewer which is on the border of Namibia and South Africa and spent time at the base camp. We drove the B1 (which I can now say has the nickname "the road of death" because there are no streetlights and there are only 2 lanes: aka no night driving), which means that we took the highway all the way up to Angola last week and then all the way down to South Africa this week.
The next morning we set off down the river, the mountains were beautiful. The river had occasional rapids which were so much fun, and Larry and I succeeded in not capsizing at any point! The other people on the canoe trip were really great and far more prepared than us- it turns out that being rushed means that we forgot basic essentials such as sleeping mats, utensils and plates. For being so minimalistic we had a wonderful time and did really well. This may or may not have something to do with the ability to scrounge things up from other people. After the Orange River we drove to Fish River Canyon, which is the world's second largest canyon. It was unbelievable how small it made me feel and how quiet everything was. The canyon went on for miles and miles. (As you can tell this trip was filled with beautiful landscapes). Then last night we stopped in Rehoboth, which is south of Windhoek. We camped along a lake, I won't mention the mountains and how great they are. I do have lots of photos, but typical of Namibia the internet is unwilling to upload more than the ones I have above.
It was a great week of relaxing and seeing more of the country. The month of October has meant more sleeping under the stars and less showers than I ever thought I was capable of and I loved it. I understand now how Namibia only has a population of 2 million, because there is so much empty land, which I would have no idea of if I stayed in Windhoek West. Driving back in to Windhoek this morning I felt like it was such a big city - that's when you know you've been in sparsely populated areas for a long time, when you start to feel that Windhoek is big! It is reassuring to get back to civilization, even though I have no desire to get back to work. I can't believe how quickly the month of November is going to go by, I have lots to do with the rest of my time here - starting with working on my list of restaurants to visit!

A Triathalon of Traveling

The last two weeks have been amazingly busy, and I am happy to be in Windhoek for even just a little bit so I can catch my breath. We started out our traveling with the rural homestay, which going into it I was nervous about. It turned out to be an amazing experience and so much more managable than I had envisioned. I loved my host family, they were really welcoming, and my host dad spoke English well so there was at least someone who I could communicate with. I spent a lot of time with my host mum, and she seems to like having me around even though our English communication was a little less. But she did like improving my Damara skills and forced me to use what I had learnt. Our days on the farm I did things like milk the goats, feed the chickens, help cook, collect firewood etc. The middle of the day was so hot that there was really not much opportunity to do anything. At night we would sit around the fire and eat, the stars were amazing every single night and you could actually see the Milky Way really clearly. I am really glad that I could end all my homestays on a good note and that I got so much out of it - there were a lot of times that I looked around and it felt surreal that I was on a farm somewhere in Northern Namibia.

After the homestay we went to Etosha for our game drives!! We were such stereotypical foreigners loving every minute of our safari. We saw so many animals; a rhino, elephants, lions, giraffes, ostriches, warthogs, springbok, kudo, oryx, and zebra. They were all a lot larger in real life than I had imagined, also ostriches are terrifying because they are about 12ft tall. My favorite were the giraffes, I liked the elephants but I had been told too many horror stories on my homestay about how elephants will wander into farms and destroy everything/trample people so I was a little more wary.

From Etosha we went further North, where I proceeded to get sick (again) and spend two/three days in bed, so not much to report from those days except for watching a lot of football. I watched more World Cup qualifying matches in one sitting than I ever thought possible. While we were in the North I was able to go to the Angolan border, so that was very cool. I really liked seeing more of Namibia, because the North is so different than Windhoek and you can see how issues of government and development differ by location. On our way back to Windhoek we stopped at the Osire refugee camp, which was a mindblowing experience. The camp has been there for the last 10 years, and 91% of those living in the camp are from Angola. We stopped to speak to the teachers, who gave us an idea of the political and social limbo that they are trapped in, and that they are more or less reliant on the UNCHR because they are not given any opportunities to support themselves. I really need to learn more about the camp and the Angolan civil war, which was the reason why most of the refugees ended up in Osire.

So now, I'm starting the third week of my crazy traveling. Tomorrow a few of us leave for the South, we are driving down to the Orange River to canoe until Fri/Sat. And then I will be glad to be back in Windhoek West for a while!

Where I'll be in October

...to remind both myself and others:
5th-10th Rural homestay
10th-12th Etosha (safari!)
12th-16th North
16th-17th Back in Windhoek
18th-23rd Fall break...the Orange River!
And then I'm in Windhoek again and will probably need a good long nap.