17 February 2010
We were up before the sun this morning and had to pack up and dismantle everything in the dark. Something which I have actually come to hate with a passion. We took the tents down and packed the truck and then headed off for our full day’s drive to Bagani, our last stop in Namibia before heading into Botswana.
We drove back up the muddy bumpy road that only just seemed to fit our truck and managed to get a tyre puncture! We got off the truck while Sarah, Dave and Charles managed to change the massive tyre. We got back on and I slept until we got to the town of Rhundu, a little town almost on the border with Angola, so the crew could get supplies. We got a rest from the bus for about an hour and a half. I was going to use the internet, but the one in the shopping centre was closed. I had to walk about a half a mile out of town before I found some and by the time I got there I didn’t get to do very much.
Interesting being let loose in a place like Rhundu. Off you go, amuse yourselves for an hour. Oh what should we do here? Rhundu is a wild place, you literally cannot go any further north with out going to Angola. The place has dirt streets and people operating shops out of huts. By comparison other towns in Namibia looked fairly European and not what I was expecting at all. One thing is for sure, Rhundu and Swakopmund were different worlds.
We got back on the truck and drove for about another four hours, before we got to a heavily flooded road that led to Ngepi camp site, where we were staying for the night. After our bush camp, about half the group opted for an upgrade, including me. Siobhan and I managed to get a bush hut, and I got a double bed all to myself and a real shower. The shower had no roof and I showered with the jungle above my head which was really cool. I had my shower at night and the cold rain fell through the canopy above and mingled with the warm water from the shower. I could only hear the sounds of nature and small frogs emerged and hopped around at my feet. Best shower ever.
We had dinner and then sang happy birthday to Annette, she doesn’t like cake so Sarah made here a birthday tomato which was hilarious. After the rest of us had cake, we all went to the bar and had shots. I had a great return to form and ended up dancing on the bar (which was actually made of a dug out canoe and not all that stable), I went to bed after some terrible dance music came on.
All in all I think it was a very messy night, most people were drunk and the campsite was a bit of a maze. There were lots of different dwellings you could upgrade to and some people had elected to pitch their tents. I think Breda spent most of the night making sure people ended up in the correct beds.
I enjoyed my double bed with overhead mosquito net very much.