Day 161 - Swakopmund To Sesriem

Breakfast was at 8am & we were set to leave at 9am. It was blisteringly cold outside of the containers but the sun was shining. It was sad to say goodbye to the container full of civilization & privacy. The tour must go on!
We left 12 minutes late, it look's & feel's like everyone is dragging their feet. We have 300km's to cover today through the middle of the Namib Naukluft national park. A huge national park in Namibia that takes us right down to the border of South Africa.

The scenery starts off as rolling sand dunes with shifting patterns carved by the wind, before flattening out to long stretches of nothingness as far as the eye can see. Before lunch this is replaced by rocky hills, cliffs & gulley's which makes the roads incredibly bumpy. I can feel the end of my nose becoming irritated & itchy from the vibrations of the bumpy road. 

The drive is long & boring, it's hard to nap, read or watch TV because of how bumpy the road is. 

The truck stops for lunch & again later for a photo opportunity at the sign/imaginary line for the tropic of capricorn. 

At 3:59pm we saw 12 giraffe, some of the only animal sightings today. Earlier on I had seen a small group of ostrich & 1 lonely antelope running away from the noise of the truck. I couldn't identify it but it was likely an oryx. 

At 4:30pm we finally arrive at our campsite. I step off the truck & hurry down the sand path to the bathrooms & get hit with a sense of dejavu. I've been here before on my last Africa trip, I excitedly remember taking photo's of the moon. 

We are camped here for 2 nights, it's fairly basic with sand to put the tents on, power, hot solar powered showers & mountains surrounding us from every angle. 

Whenever we stay at a place with solar hot water, I make sure to prioritize my shower before the sun goes down or everyone else uses the hot water. 

The water in Namibia is 'hard water' & full of minerals. Sounds like it should be good for your hair & skin, right ? 

Well it's not. It's terrible. Especially when combined with the cold & dry climate. Both of us are exfoliating once a day, avoiding soap if possible & moisturising twice a day. My hair feels so dry & brittle, the nourishing oils I put in it instantly are absorbed, with no trace that they were even there. 

Just before dinner the sun sets & its a really nice one. Lots of purples, pinks & blues. Shortly after this in the opposite side of the sky, a huge yellow moon rises above the mountains. It is amazing & steals the show from the sun. It almost looks like a second sun rising cause it's so big, bright & yellow. We immediately realise the technology we have will never be able to capture it, so instead we just watch it. 

It's nearly a full moon & we can actually see its movement up into the sky. 

Within 2 minutes it has fully emerged from behind the mountains & we can admire it's shape. It's so bright that once in the sky it's very hard to see the stars that had been so bright a few minutes ago.

What a beautiful thing to have seen & a great way to finish a boring day.
- Alli

The above photo of our cook, Joseph, does need some explaining. One day we asked him, Steven & Jurumba what are some weird things about Westerners that consistently annoy you. They replied with our infatuation to know when we would be eating our next meal & what it would be! To them it is truly unfathomable that we would need to know this information & that we would ask it daily. Jurumab said he nearly dies from shock when a tourist will be sitting down eating a meal & want to know about the next one or the one that he or she will be eating tomorrow. The other thing that really makes them laugh, is that every single night someone will approach Joseph & ask if theres enough time to shower before dinner. In good spirit of our obscure questions, Joseph had a new shirt made in Victoria Falls to answer it all! hahaha