13 February 2010
Today was a good day for sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt. We were all very disappointed to be leaving Swakopmund and our nice comfy beds, which we traded in for a bush camp at Spitzkoppe tonight. We all went out for coffee this morning as Dave and Sarah had new tent bags made, but they weren’t ready yet. We got back on the truck and headed to Cape Cross to see a massive colony of stinky seals. For some reason there is a baseball bat on the truck and Emmett took it off the truck and had a picture taken with the seals with it. So funny…sort of.
We drove for about another 3 hours to our bush camp at Spitzkoppe, a place which looks like it has been ripped right out of the lion king, and was in fact the inspiration for Pride Rock. I keep looking at the mountain opposite where I am typing and expecting a baboon to hoist a lion cub above the plains and for “Circle of Life” to start playing out of absolute nowhere.
I went for a walk among the rocks after I had a sleep, it is amazingly hot here and I am looking forward to moving on to Etosha tomorrow, even though it is an 8-hour drive on a dirt road. I really don’t mind that at all actually, the group I’m with is awesome, in the last few days they have become my new family, as funny as that sounds. Everyone is about the same age, and I know it will be us all play silly buggers all the way to Etosha. Can’t wait.
About five of us decided to sit in the pitch black and look at the amazing sight that was the stars at Spitzkoppe. We talked about how big the universe is and how insignificant we all are. It was nice to talk about real things like that. The sky was so clear and pure, we could see the nebulas surrounding the stars, I don’t think I have ever seen a more star filled sky or felt more remote.
I went to bed in my tent and heard nothing. It was just pure silence and pitch black out here in the middle of nowhere.