more notes for anyone interested

well im in arusha, tanzania. a realitvely big town with a huge tourist footprint. less rastas than malawi (less ganja) but more anoying touts and hawkers. o well. prostitutes too. here are some ntoes from the last few weeks,.

- left israelis at cape maclear
- got to mzuzu late, stayed at the zoo, got stoned with ellyn and tobias. distinguished shapes from within the fireplace
- amazing people at the zoo
- very politically minded, 911 conspiracy theory -- tobias, who doesnt trust BBC
- TOBIAS - walking across this earth, open door in italy
- ellyn, all for greenpeace and iceland
dove in the lake
- lots of cyclids, large rock formation, balharzia
- got malaria at nkhata
came back to mzuzu
- went to clinic, lab closed early, got prescription, shit meds
- everyone at the zoo helped out, everyone there working there!
- finally got coartem, everyone had malaria
- recovered for 3 days, no drinking or anything, with tons of diarrhea, head colds, cold shakes
- took minibus to karonga, bus ran over passenger
- guy in shock, quick bandage, back on the minibus
- drove for another 2 hrs, the guy next to me in the front seat leaking vital fluids
- get to hospital at border and theres a pool of blood below me, i feel like shit already
- cross as kalalalu or someshit, and another few hours to mbeya
- sleep at shitty african business traveler place across the street from bus station
- shit shit shit
- bus to dar es salaam, 13 hours... sucked
DAR
- massive, dirty, sprawling, staying at YMCA
- people seem nice enough
- bought a coffee for 2 dollars after ive been buying whole meals for 1.50 for a whole week, amazing that i could splurge and feel soooo justified in my decision!
- went to national museum, another really cool museum
permian, triassic, jurassic, cretacean
- african trade existed before colonial rule, traded iron/gold/slaves/hard goods with persia and india and extended route to china for textiles, glass, porcelain, spices, cinnamon, silk. (13th-14th centuries)
- ports ruled by sultans (Kilwa) dominant until 16th century when portuguese took it and all the trade routes over, declined quickly

later (18th century) -- kings formed alliances with germans, etc... then fought with them

hope

ok well i've given up hope on this blog. it's just too time consuming. i write notes and i feel that's enough... so i'll just post the notes of my journey thru botswana and zimbabwe. it will probably not interest anyone but my parents who will ask, 'zimbabwe'? but what the hell, if you want you can read thru and ask questions later?! besides that point, i want everyone who knows Dougy Fresh, my bro-in-law, to hope him the best. he's in the hospital after several doctor visits yielded nothing conclusive. the last one, and fortunately most competent, discovered some bleeding in his spinal fluid, which is bad shit. really bad. so he's in he hspital with diana at his side, and my mom soon to be. anyway, everyone keep him in your thoughts because we all know what an awesome dude he is.

Here's my notes (comprehensive enough I figure), and possibly my last entry. I'll recount tales of old over salta balta in july.

Botswana
- Crossed border from Caprivi into Shakawe (lost HDD) playing cards at bus station
- got to Maun (camped, used internet, expensive for lone travelers)
- met Paolo, old italian retired dude
- 2 crazy cats that were fancifully rich
- 2 norwegian chicks (lillian and catrine)
- took bus to Nata, got stuck, invited to spend the night at christian's house
- there were 3 of us (God)
- powered up generator to watch TV
- slept in sons hut
- puked all night due to uncooked chicken pie
- woke up he felt bad
- waited for bus, missed it!!! All come from Francis Town, and full!
- hitched for 3 hours, 4 girls picked me up, sat in front seat not comfy
KASANE
- Stayed at Chober Safari Lodge
- beautiful facitilies, pool, Chobe River, Bar, everyone nice to me!
- Victor (manager hooked me up!)
- met a german girl (mom from back to the future)
- Awesome game drive / river cruise
- leopard in tree, wild dog (greatest population in Botswana), elephants jurassic park style, haven't seen a hunt yet!!, eagles, dung beetles, tracking lions, tons of hippos, tons of birds, crocodile\
- bought African Genesis for 60 Pula
ZAMBIA - too expensive 135, went to Zim instead

- lost fotos.shampoo.towel.Tshirt.book so far



ZIM
hitched to zim border, (going into botswana was a mess)
- hitched from border to vic falls
- another engineer working on a road in mozambique (seems like all foreign workers are engineers)

vic falls - everyone wants shoes, T-shirts, clothes, rampant inflation (250-350 mil/dollar in a day)
- spoiled?? (Vic Falls was meh...compared to Iguazu Falls, get really wet, lots of water, moon rainbow)

- precocious 'Bright' showed me around, everyone asks for money, spar had old food, expensive as hell (Chocolate was 2 bucks!)
- met a guy from medicine hat, and 2 guys that knew Kovas
- hippy/stoner hang out
decided to take a night train to bulawayo
- victorian age class, but left to deteriorate somewhat, business man Gene (kuda) and friend Ethan
- looked after me
- played cards with untrustworthy folk, gene warned me, i wished i had more backup to let loose!
- slept comfortably, though somewhat slanted, 1.9 bill = 5 bucks for train
- got to bulawayo, walked with ethan, caught bus RIGHT away to Harare
- have not seen a white person since vic falls!
- nice guy on bus, looked after me after we got off, changed money (400 mil by now)
- can't change money illegally , counterfeiting rampant, Nigerians
- only guest in Harare
- walk around town, can barely breath, pollution
- remnants of something grand, very nice downtown area, big buildings etc...
- walked to bus terminal (Mbare) and wandered aimlessly
- didn't get any curious stares, more just scornful resentment at my presence, felt at stores/street/etc...
- no one begged for anything, just 1 man and 1 little girl (gave man OJ, girl got bread from stranger)
- see BMWs/Benz's on the streets of Harare (very segregated, Avondale 'low-density', town high-density, little intermingling

food expensive, hard to find, didn't eat well, 10 bucks for burger meal
everyone a money changer, i changed money at restaurant (street commission)
Harare in Shona land, Bulawayo in Matabele land
- i still sense some friction between the two groups
- All want mugabe out
- all fear reprecussions of run-off

coke bottles in pepsi fridge!! oh no!
resealing of plastic bottles - loss of pressure, coke was sugar water died brown, water resealed
barely enough to buy 1 shirt a month past food and shelter
nigerians/indians have big sections in Harare, nigerians affluent selling diplomas and money
gas wickedly expensive, and not abundant
basic commodities, forget it!!
didn't feel comfortable to whip out camera machine

MALAWI
26 hrs on bus from Harare
didn't have food or money!
many malawian refugees
left 3 hours late, sat above tire, legs ached
grandma taking care of me, feeding bananas!!
country, saw amazing mansion (def. of opulence)
cross border to Moz
people outside, dancing, playing soccer (finally!!!!)
kids playing roll the wheel with a stick!
road from Tete to border, horrendous
missed moz border, slept with legs straight up, grandma next to me
customs took 3 hours
bought grandma and friend cokes, 'madame', really happy!!!
bus driver wanted money! 'if you need anythhiiiiinnnnnggggggg, come to me'
Ren, really cool guy
Norwegian girls robbed at border! went home

Blantyre really nice... warned about attacks outside hostel!
played pool with Quincy and co.
really established city, banks, shops, everything

Africa Overall Impressions
Malawian/Zim violence in SA, everyone is fleeing
Zim obvious problems
Malawi former prez indicted for mass corruption, staging coup, Lilongwe in dire straights, 5 people killed
complete nutiness!!

photos -- all -- gone,m but afrika rocks!!

Well a lot, too much to recount actually, has happened since my last blogging adventure. I have finally left the mroe westernized regions of africa and entered another world where time doesn't move slower, it just takes a lot more time to get things done. I departed from Walvis Bay on another combi -- not Comm V, aka commuter van, which I thought it was called at first -- for a 6 hour ride up to the north central Tsumeb district. It seems that nearly every town I enter is some sort of administrative capital, which strikes me as rather strange. Thinking I was ahead of the game, I chose to sit in the center back row of the minibus so I could stretch my leg down the aisle. I was soon slapped with the reality that the back row was unspokenly reserved for families that wouldn't fit anywhere else! Throughout the majority of the bumpy journey in a vehicle whose shocks were way too stiff, my left leg was claimed by a baby whose goggle eyes were enough to make a grown bush warrior cry. The alien-like,penetrating, and supremely curious eyes of the infant were enough to distract me from all the other discomforts such as the rank smell, suffocating heat, and numbness of constrained limbs that came with the cheap price of the journey. That's not to mention the tinny distant-sounding voice of an African folk singer BLASTING thru the lone operating speaker directly overhead, which had to be pumped to the max to be heard up in front of the bus. It was quite bearable -- even enjoyable -- at first, but unfortunately it was the only music on board for the entire duration of the trip... and the drivers liked it enough to loop and loop and loop and loop it. By the end of the second flip of tape, I never wanted to hear that voice again.

I checked into the campsite and after a Frito-Lay Sandwich -- the dense bread they bake here is surprisingly tasty -- I crashed hard for the night.

GENERAL UPDATE:
This here old body of mine has finally adjusted to sleeping with nothing but 2 cm of foam between my lean, mean figure and the hard ground. I've been eating well, but I don't have any of those intermittent fatty snacks that induce a degree of indolence in one's system, and I am constantly running around. The main meals I do eat usually consist of just some bread, meat, and cheese. mmmm Bread. My body has also happily fallen victim to the sleep schedule used my the majority of the world -- the third world at least --. Sun down, sleep. sun up, wake up. I feel good. I wake up really early a read a chunk of the book an old guy gave me, author-Wilbur Smith, who startingly reminds me of Ludlum (RIP!!!) with a healthy love of Africa. Great way to start things off! Sorry Stoots, I lost Atlas Shrugged. I need to find another copy! I also lost/had taken all my photos up to this point, around 600, and the capacity to store more. FUCK. I don't want to talk about that. If you know how much I love my photos, you won't dare ask!
END GENERAL UPDATE.

The next morning I woke at the crack of dawn and as I was trying to gather information about entering Etosha National Park I saw two people packing up outside. I approached and without much deliberation cut to the chase and asked where theywere going. Etosha. 'Can I come' ? 'Sure!'

I ended spending the next two days with a greek pair who were on vacation in Namibia for 2 weeks. The guy was a window dresser for some posh fashion company who seemed too uncomfortable in a shirt to keep it on and the girl was a coffee shop employee who loved the simple things and had no time for an email address; Alex and Aphrodite. They weren't a couple, but friends who met each other at that same coffee shop 12 years earlier (they're both 35), and have been taking annual trips ever since. They were awesome and we had a great time with each other the next two days. They didn't let me pay for gas or anything like that, and treated me like a friend. We had some hilarious times, especially mixing shwag and safari. To the safari.

As soon as we arrived at the park, we decided to arrange accommodation for the next 2 nights. On our way to a campsite on the periphery, we were treated to our first animal sighting of the day... which happened to be a pair of cheetah's, helllz yeh. After that jazz, we proceeded to spot heards of springbok, impala, zebra, giraffes, beautiful birds, a bull elephant, wildebeest, wild boar, along with some others that escape my weak recollection. By the end of the day we felt like running over the throngs of impala and zebra that overflowed into the street. There was an equally sized surplus of giraffe but their demeanor and gracefulness left them exempt from our feigned grievances. Watching a giraffe run when it is only feet away is mesmerizing! We ended the day at Ethosha point which is an outpost extending into the Pan which serves as a permanent resevoir of fresh water for the game and fowl. It is MASSIVE and extends beyond the limits of sight, and on a windless evening like the one we stumbled upon, not a ripple exists anywhere. We were witness to the most spectacular sunset I have ever experienced; where the sky meshed seamlessly and seemed interwoven with the bleak distant waters, as the perfect reflection off the still mirror below created a disorienting effect as a multitude of rich, vibrant colors infused in the slanted evening light danced and played with my deepest emotions like a trippy Dali masterpiece. HAHA WAAAAAAHHHHHHHH. i didn't feel anything with my emotions at the time, but that'sbeside the point.

That night we enjoyed a view Windhoek Draughts and stumbled over to the local watering hole in hopes of spotting those elusive lions and leopards. My attention was purely concentrated on what turned out to be the stillest, most unmoving ROCK I have ever seen, which somehow I had mistaken for exotice game. Hey, it was dark, and Alex made the same mistake! We sat around longer and ended up watching really cool savannah thunderstorms unfold all around us, while directly overhead we were capped by beautiful stars. After around 90 minutes the breeze around us bgan picking up and the sweet smell of rain began to rise from the thirsty ground. We decided to retreat before we suffered from a brutal African downpour. They disappeared into their rooftop tent while I slipped discreetly into my trusty, rain-proof tent. Not ten minutes later, the wind picked up and so did the light show. I was experiencing a nice rush from being powerless and at the mercy of nature and then the buckets of rain starting falling. I dismissed a distant call from Aphrodite suggesting I sleep in the car, because I love thunderstorms and dis shiat was raw. I replied, 'I'll b fine! I love it!' Around 8 minutes later as I was battling to keep the tent in place against the maddening winds, I turned over and rested my hand on a soft water mattress. Apparently my campsite was not exactly on high ground and mny tent was acting as a water dam, holding all the runoff directly below me! I could tell this wasn't going to turn out good since my tent wasn't FLOOD PROOF and I didn't have a huge water pump. Half naked, I packed up my supplies and ran to the car where I desperately snatched the keys from Alex above and entered for a long uncomfortable night. Thank God they were there, as my camera/supplies were saved. I learned a valuable lesson on picking a camp site that night! The African storm still rocked though.

The next day we drove around the park more and in the morning we spotted a male and female lion illin' in the shade. It was awesome. Etosha males are supposedly the largest in the world! I snapped an awesome photo of the beast with it's massive jaws outstretched as if it was about to engulf the lionnesses entire skull. AWESOME! I lost the photos, though I may have saved that one at last computer I used.. i hope i hope i hope. Later on, shwaggity shwag, we went on a solitary isolated road in search of that cunning daredevil, the leopard. We spent 2 whole hours straining our eyes in search of the secretive creaturein the high branches above us. All we got in return was headaches and more impala. We saw the standard lot of animals throughout the day again but at the end on our way out of the park we spotted two jackals staring at something in the distance. Knowing what this could mean we took over the jackal's vantage point and soon discovered a Lion manging on a carcass of some impala. The site was awesome, and even though we missed the actual hunt, hearing the Lion crunch through the bones and tear the flesh from them was truly incredible. Even watching its interaction with the jackals was interestign as they danced in concentric circles slowly making their wayin for a few bites of the leftovers. All the animals seemed to come out and play during that sunset and it was spine-tingling good fun!

Slept at a camp,had a fancy dinner, blah blah... next day researched where to next...blah blah.

Took a minibus from Tsumeb to Groodfontein, transfered to another combi to Rundu, and then hithced all the way thru the Caprivi strip to about 10 km from the Botswana border (Mahange) where I spent the night on some guy's lawn(with his permission). Spent the whole night hanging with him and his broithers who were students in Windhoek on holiday. 19 years old and has a kid and 3 girlfeids, Foster. I hitched thru the border into Shakawe yesterday, where I waited for another 3 hours for a bus to Maun where I currently reside. I maystay hereI more night because it has internet and a nice campsite which is cheap. I'd love to headinto Moremi game reserve, which is in the intertior of the crzy Okavango Delta but it is too expensive. Itis supposed to afford the best game viewing in Southern Africa, of all types. I still have yet to see a hippo, croc, and rhino but I willno doubt see them as I take some time at Thebe, Botswana in a few days. I will spend some time in Chobe nat'l park, doing a river safari.

I am convinced that the only way to do a safari is privately. If you cn't self drive spend the extra doe for a private driver. This way you can stop anywhre anytime and you're not riding with a herd of 70+ year olds complaining about their backs and telling you to shut up. I see so many vehicles packed with 15+ people and they can barely stand still in one spot for more than a few minutes. How do you expect to get any good photos?!?!?!?! ahhhh,no bitterness.

Also note, the bus from Shakawe to Maun was 6 jhours and I have never stopped so frequently waiting for unattended cattle and goats to get outof the road. On the way I saw a group of hawks with wingspans like 747's that made the eyeballs pop ut of my head! Amazing! This place is gonna b sweet. Mama, Tete, I hope to see you in Afrika!!!

oh yeh... the purpose of this trip is finally becoming apparent to me! I feel like I'm becoming purified. haha. Happy Birthday Diana!!! I didn;t get to ride about my adventures with the JApanese pair but in short, Soussusvlei was awesome! The dunes and sunrise incredible and exhausting. Amazing pictures that I lost! fhsdbh;kgjgkjhdfg'hg'sdigh
'dgih'lghi'fghlf'gihfg'ih.........................bye bye

oh yeh, i met a bunch ofmech. engineers working for Hatch (cnadian based firm) in S. Africa. Left my resume with them. hmmmm interesting!!

Dear Sister... Holy Shit!!!!

So in the weeks leading up to my departure, my sister Diana kept telling me, don't hitch! Don't hitch! It's dangerous! Well, I'm happy to be here alive and well to tell the world... don't take public transport!

After a few unsuccessful hitching attempts in hopes of heading down south to soussesvlei (this town keeps evading my efforts!) I got a hitch back to the town of walvis bay. At this point I was hanging out about 10km out in the middle of the desert on a 'dead road', as termed by the nice couple who picked me up. It was also public holiday so no one was heading that way anyway on a saturday (long weekends mean long stays). They dropped me off at the place where I took kite boarding lessons when I came across two people, aged around 40 (the boss) and 18 (trainee), who I saw out the night before.

--- sidenote --- We were at the same bar and the boss was completely sloshed, and apparently it didn't take long for mr. trainee to catch up. The left for another bar while I stayed with some people I met... and while I walked home without incident they were each jumped individually once separated. Boss got robbed, Trainee booked a B-line straight home and escaped.
--- end sidenote ---

I quickly then hitched a ride back to Swakopmund from an American duo, and that is where the fun started!!!!!

I got picked up by a 'Comm V' (minibus) and prepared for the 5 hours cramped ride ahead. Aas we made a quick stop at the bus station to pick up a few more stragglers, I noticed one pass a rolled up joint to another inside the bus in exchange for doe that was used to pay the driver. I'm thinking to myself, "ok, I got a druggie next to me, and a dealer next to him. they're good" We stop at the gas station for people to buy refreshments and I notice the guy behind me and 2 spaces to the right steal beef jerky, and totally indiscreetly at that. When we get back in I figure, "ok, now I got two druggies and a thief who might be a desperate druggie" and so I might as well get on good terms with these people so I offered them each legal beef jerky. They glady accept and offer me some of their free jerky. I declined, thinking that I should be all right since I extended a hand of trust/kinship/whatever the hell one might call it. WRRRRONNNNGGGG!

Lying half asleep with my head in my arms leaning on the seat in front of me, I feel a tug at my cargo pocket. Idiot desperate druggie tried robbing me 1 hour into our 5 hour bus ride while I am sitting right next to him!!!! Instead of starting shit -- who knows what may have came from that -- I just sat up abruptly and looked around as if I didn't knw what happed. He quickly withdrew his hand and looked around too, quite comically. Now I know I need to keep an eye out everywhere.

As the sun set we kept trudging along until we finally hit a small town with a police checkpoint. We were ordered to pullover and disembark individually. In the middle of this process, one of the druggies was pulled to the ground and we were ordered to leave to local rest station to wait. Ok... no idea at this point.

As we wait in the rest station I have these hand size grasshopper like moths flying into me constantly and driving me nuts. Meanwhile, I have this guy next to me peddling uncut red gems at 'good price'. The guy that was sitting in front of me in the Comm V approaches me with casual air and proceeds to ask me what I think of africa. He then asks if he can ask me a personal question and so he shoots, 'have u ever *#$%^# an african? it's good to explore!' ... i replied nay, and he told me he could hook it up in Windhoek tonight. I think great, now I have a pimp rollin in my Comm V too. I finally hear what the guy got held up for, he robbed some place of a lot of money in Swakopmund. And this is where the kicker hits.

As I come back from taking a piss in the bathroom I notice my Comm V is gone. WHAT?!>#!?@## Strangely calm, I walk up to the street and wait. That is when a white str4anger pulls up abnd urgently askes, "where you goin? I'll give u a ride" I got him to take me to the police station where we dropped of the felon and on the way he told me he was in a rush to swakopmund. When I asked why, he told me it was because his flat was broken into and robbed earlier that day! Diana, that's when I said, HOLY SHIT!

So I spent the last 3.5 hours coercing my body to stay awake thru a steady stream of sugar candies and drinks. MY eyes were open as I kept an ever constant awareness of the remaining drug abuser, drug addict, robber's friend, and pimp that I was crammed into an un cmoretable vehicle with for 4.5 hours. My hands left my pockets not. Holy Shit, Holy shit.

Whimsical Stays

Walvis Bay is a small, stretched town of 40,000 people that lies mostly along the long straight main road, San Najuma. It also happens to be the busiest industrial town of Namibia, with globs of cranes viewable from a distance. There is a salt processing area with massive salt reserves down the road, a uranium mine nearby, oil fields not far to the north, and much more 'stuff' like that all around. You would imagine something like Golden, BC picked up and transferred to the middle of the desert on the coast and pulled on both sides to stretch it out. There is also a great lagoon here that is home to the migration of thousands of species of birdies during the summer months, and it is heralded as some sort of rare internationally recognized special bird sanctuary. I tried visiting an outpost explaining it all, but the grounds were covered in broken glass which I didn't feel like trudging over in order to read about birds I'll never see. Nonetheless, I have spotted large groups of flamingos and other unknown species here. That's right Aliukai, BIRDS PICTURES COMING YOUR WAY!

I was only planning to spend 1 night here and bust out south to soussusvlei to see massive dunes of shifting red sand and the famed Dune 45 and Deadsvlei (I am certain that this is where one of the Planet Earth Episodes was filmed, the scene with the desert going from nothing to full of life, I'll post pics and you'll believe me!), but as chance would have it, I discovered a new sport that caught my attention. Drinking in Michiana may have to move over to make room for kite boarding.

Lessons here, including full rental, come out to $33/hr, with a really cool private instructor. My instructor is a 22 year old, long blond hair flowin extreme sports dude named Rudi that looks like Tom Root, if any IMVB volleyball heads are reading. His boss is a stale salty cracker of German descent that moved here in August; a real lame-o. Anyway, I've had two lessons already and I'm picking it up and loving every second. Those kites carry some massive power, but at the same time you have great control over them! Sooooo good. I'll let you know how things progress.

I plan on staying here until May3rd or May4th, at which time I will hitch down to Fish River Canyon (The Grand Canyon's raw, unspoilt little brother). I will then heave and ho for 5 straight days on a epic trek thru dry desert savanna with a German couple that I met sand boarding in Swakopmund. I just obtained my permit today, and other than that I don't know what to expect other than craziness and nice fires and starts. I also expect to fight off lions with stones, thrown by monkeys raised by Springbok. I just hope the sunny weather continues. After the hike I will probably head to Luderitz for a free tour of the town by a British girl I met doing NGO work there. It is supposedly another great kite boarding locale, with great bratwurst. We'll see.

The most interesting aspect of my stay in Walvis Bay is the couple that I am staying with. The have been married for 30 years and opened up this Backpacker's four years ago. Before that, the old man was a chief marine engineer all over the world. He was also in the Namibian Army. He has some contacts in the Angolan Military (THAT is craziness) and it the most politically tuned individual I have ever met. He is also an expert outdoorsman who gives tours to some extremely prominent people. He is also one of those DYI guys to the extreme. He's fixed up all his overland vehicle from basically nothing. His only pitfall... he blabbers. The first night I shot the shit with him and learned more in depth about Zim's problems, it's history, and even of some CIA involvement in Mugabe's rise to power. Also learned about the crazy power of the Angola generals, the traditions of the clay encrusted Himba people (they basically live to breed and nothing else -- After first menstruation they are 'married' and taken into the bush for three days to get pregnant, from which they emerge with a new headdress that they wear until the husband dies, at which point the headdress is replaced and the husband is replaced by a brother. Many of these men have 3-4 wives each-- a bit different from us, eh?) I was also told about the Chinese invasion of Afrika which merits a whole separate blog, since multiple old men have complained to me about that. Learned about the deadly snakes and spiders, and of course I got the tall stories regarding crazy safari occurrences: elephants charging and trampling, rhinos overturning cars... stuff like that. Even got a short course on the mineral composition of the dunes... mostly quartz and the artificial shadow-looking blackness is magnetite. Also learned of the Russia drilling expeditions in the North which may prove to yield massive amounts of crude, and the probability of uranium enrichment activities to commence by 2012. Basically, he said Namibia 'don't give a hoot'.

I learned a lot about the area. It's pretty cool because Lala and Francois make me breakfast and I had Lala's traditional stew last night... which to be honest tasted like stuff from my Hong Kong cafeteria... but I was happy with it! To make a long story short, I really like it here but I can't wait for the true exploring to begin!

Desert Free Fall

Daina, I remember: I only want 1 desert, and 2 desserts.

Let me start off by saying that the beginning of the day was a drag. I was wicked tired, and hungover, just like I am now. I kept looking for a place to nap, as my head felt light and detached from my body. My eyes couldn't focus well, and my mind had trouble processing sentences visually. I hate not being able to read! Finalement, I found that my arms and back were dotted with little bites from the bastardly bed bugs in my sleeping bag! It really figures that the only equipment that I borrow turns out disastrous, but I'm gonna nuke the living hell outa the little bastards. Not a good day!

This was how I was feeling when I got in the van to go sky diving. We drove for some time to a small airport where we met our tandem partner and went through a short 2-minute briefing on how to exit from the plane and plummet down to oblivion. The small center was packed with lots of big-boned, overweight Afrikaaner regulars (jumpers) watching rugby and getting shit-faced at the bar; it was 2 pm. After the intro, we drove for about 20 minutes to a remote landing strip in the desert marked by nothing but a small concrete platform on the side. There were two other people diving with me and the instructors in the plane. One guy, Sean from Kenya, was doing a solo jump and the other tandem victim was a 40 year old women (on her birthday actually) with fake breasts blown up out of proportion diving in a bikini. She was the source of endless jokes between the instructors.

We got in the small single prop plane and in no time we were taking off, with all of us in snuggled positions inside the cabin. The amazingly scenic ascent lasted about 20 minutes, during which time we circled skyward and kept being treated to stunning views of all the dunes/desert/sea down below. Once at 10,000 feet things moved pretty fast. The door opened and I watched the lady and her instructor fall out. That was trippy; sitting next to someone who suddenly falls out a plane! At this point I still wasn't nervous or even anxious. I was really enjoying the flight, but was still tired. I neeeeeeeeeded a shot of adrenaline. When it was our turn we scuttled to the edge, I bent my knees back under the plane, touched my hands to my shoulders and AWAAAAAAAY WEEEE WEEENNNNTTTTTTT! No hesitation, I'm quite proud of that fact. I was thinking that I was totally safe since the if I was going down, so was my partner, and he wouldn't let THAT happen!

The intensity of the feeling that followed is indescribable. It must be what keeps the pros coming back time after time, racking up 10,000 jumps and more! 30 seconds of free fall followed, during which time I exhausted the air supply in my lungs by screaming out of sheer ecstasy! We did a roll out of the plane (falling backwards was NUTTY!) and as soon as we righted ourselves with our faces down, my instructor started spinning us like crazy, one way and then in the reverse. The spinning really does hit hard! When that stopped I was still screaming every profane compliment in my subconscious directory. After a time that was not nearly enough, the chute opened up, instantly taking hold of more than 200 sq ft of air space. Once this happed, I was given control and free reign of the parachute toggles. APPARENTLY, no one can screw up the steering. After showing me how, I went immediately to violently spinning us in both directions. You can definitely feel the G Forces of the chute-oriented spins. Intense! The guy then stalled us, with was definitely another experience I can't put down in words. Standing seemingly still and looking down 1000 feet is messed up and feels crazy and dangerous! I then took the controls again and cruised down, going in any direction that I wanted. This part felt like a dream, no-kidding. Upon landing, I was still screaming and riding a high unlike any other I have ever experienced. I stormed into the bar which was right next to the landing and took down a double Jack immediately. I told everyone there how friggin exciting it was, and even though they knew all too well, they still loved hearing about it! I rode that wave of ecstasy for about 30 minutes, then inevitably CRASHED, once my body knew it was safe again. In short, that was one of the best experiences of my life and I urge everyone to do it.

After the crash, i headed back to meet my friend. I thought I would nap, but that expectation was short-lived as we plowed to the bar. The previous night of cute overlanders had departed so we were expecting a mellow night. However, soon more and more of Chris' bike chronies began filtering in as they had 2 rest days and many came to swakop to try some cool stuff out. Some other skydiving buddies found the bar too and the shots began flowing. it was freeeeflow, fantastic! Began playin pool and the games started to get good. Then 2 huge groups of overlanders came in and the music got louder. Ah! So much for taking it easy.

It was all good until a group of 4 older people (2 husbands and 2 desperate housewives) put the equivalent of a pot of gold on the table, indicating that they were going to take over the table by water means necessary. They were cool but annoying. Some other local cat tried to pull that but we basically kicked him off... trouble almost ensued by the bartenbder helped us out. Fun stuff precipitated but ill fast forward to the end. We met 4 crazy S.Africans who were here for a wedding and these guys seemed rich. With names like Byron, they were sporting all white suits and were all involved in banking. One of the cronies, named Mark, spoke like an elitist but they were all cool as HELL! Anyway, I ended up saving some money by ditching out of my flea infested camp site and partying at their cool pad. As I was packing my tent up and old man saw me leaving at 3 in the morning without paying (i didnt sleep there, so i wast going to pay!) and starting losing his mind. Poor guy...

The next day I made it to Walvis Bay, 30 km south, where I didn;'t expect to stay more than a day but will probably end up staying for about 4 learning to kite surf, which seems AMAZING.

Cloudless Namibia Endless Craziness

The 20hr bus ride from CT to Windhoek was surprisingly easy. Sitting next to me was a really cool Namibian girl named Lizzeal who was a student in South Africa but was heading back for vacation. Her english, like for many Namibians, was impeccable and we joked around about how all this crappy media seems to maneuver its way from the States to far out countries. We ended up watching a movie called 'FlyWheel' on the bus... the telling of an epic struggle encountered by a man looking for direction in life and finding it through faith. If you are a heavy duty Christain I highly recommend it; if not, I still recommend it but just for a laugh. On the bus I also had time (20 hrs of it) to meet 3 other cool girls and a dude. If the bus as a sample was any indication of the ethnic proportions of Namibia's population, about 10% is white and almost all of that 10% is really cute girls. Indeed, there still seems to be a healthy proportion of native Afrikaaners that live in Namibia, though disappointingly some of them are males. oh well.

The cool thing about Namibia is that everyone speaks Afrikaans and English, so it is still very easy to get around. This is because the country was occupied by many different countries, the most recent of which was Britain who gave South Africa a mandate for control. South Africa of course tried to annex Namibia, but that was a big No-No in the UN's book. These days however, I learned that it is Afrikaans that is spoken among most families. The Afrikaaners are a funky looking bunch.

My first impression of Namibia was that it is a very clean and extremely dry country. I have been here for almost 4 days now and have not seen 1 cloud yet, which makes for good star gazing. The capital, Windhoek, seems like the perfect sized city for someone like me. You can walk everywhere, people are mellow, and there is definitely a small, but present, 'scene'. I only spent one day at the Windhoek hostel in hopes of finding some travelers to link up with to start exploring this amazing country. It was also this hostel that injected some wickedly excitable plans in my head. I met a bunch of people motor biking across the entire continent in pairs. There was one badass canadian couple going from cape town to cairo, and two british guys going north to south through every imaginable country. They had some crazzzzy stories about greasing the gears of border patrols and slithering away from rebel stand-off parties. Unfortunately, I had just missed two Norwegian cats who hired a car the morning I arrived and booked it out of Windhoek, so I spent the day searching for art in the name of Causation Galleries~!

I hit up the National Gallery of Namibia where I not only came across truly cheeseball attempts at good art, but also learned about its complex anthropological and ecological history. I visited two other galleries whose directors were unfortunately not present, but I manaaged to leave my card and set up potential meeting dates. Looks like I will be speaking with Namibia's National Art Gallery's director! ha, I must be big time.

There was an unusually high number of american students in my hostel. That was random, but I would like to take note.

Later on, I managed to meet a really down to earth American dude staffing a bicycling tour from Cairo to Cape Town. He's been on the road for 3 months already and had a few days off so he headed to Windhoek. Managing 80 demanding bikers is apparently no easy task! Biker personalities... ha. Chris was staffing his second tour, with his first being from Istanbul to Beijing. Badass! He's basically almost inspired me to buy some crappy bike and do-it-myself for the rest of my trip, struggling north against the unrelenting headwinds. Anyway, we decided to head to Swapokmund which lies on the western coast. We found the mini-bus station and paied 90 Namib dollars (about 12 bucks) for the cramped 4 hour ride in a heat box. Again, not a single cloud! We stayed in a hostel the first night (Gruner Kranz) and met an overland tour group, with most of the participants from Britain. They were cool and thankfully recommended sandboarding. The more and more overlanders I encounter (ie people who ride in a big bus together through an operator for the entire trip and make daily stops for activities and sleeping) the more thankful I am that I am doing this trip on my own. While I won't develop some of those longer term friendships, I am free to do what I want when I want for a fraction of the cost! The seem rushed all the time. That night we got piss drunk with them at a nearby bar, and the post bar conversation naturally turned into one of those American vs. British culture and english debates. I think Chris and I won the debate.

We went sandboarding the next day which was unexpectedly cool! We drove into BuFu desert land (it really felt like we were on Mars) and climbed up, boarded down, climbed up, boarded down. The blistering, blinding, sun gave me a nice burn in places that I missed with sun block while the sand found it's way onto every part of my body. We were covered. They even had a jump which was really fun to launch off of. The best part was the cold beer and sandies that we had after our last run. So smooth! Again, there are a few photos that I need to download! Later that night, they presented a video that they compiled that was included in the price. It was super well made! I can't wait to show it at home if the DVD survives the journey. We all also tried lay-down boarding which is just sledding down head first on a waxed piece of composite board. We reached over 75 km/hr! craziness!!!

That night we slept from 7-11 pm and when we woke, we raged. Had a bunch of beers and played pol with the town champs of the past 5 years. We held our own pretty well! Also partied with a bunch of girls from another overland tour. It was a f un night. While this town in small, the tourists defintieluy make it a good time. The total population of Namibia is only 1.8 million!!

I slept in my tent last night to start saving money (didn't sleeeeeep tho, i have to get used to it still). Today I go sky-diving!!!