8 February 2010
This morning we were up at 5am, I had cooking duty and had to help prepare breakfast. After breakfast we spent all day on the truck, as we were going along we saw some springbok, which was really cool. Later on we saw some more closer to the road and they were jumping, it was awesome, was also saw some more ostrich.
These drive days are so long and they give you time to think and wonder about the most mundane things. Namibia is just mile after mile of nothing. Mile after mile of scrubby desert. Mile after mile of the truck rattling along over the gravel roads. The thing that strikes me most out here is that there are fences. Fences! Someone owns this desert? Who owns it and for what purpose?
We had lunch by the side of the road again and got into camp about 6pm.The camp has a much nicer pool which was amazing after 11 hours on the truck. After I had a much needed shower and helped prepare dinner, I took some wonderful photos of the sunset and went to the bar with the crew. It was nice to talk to likeminded people and the group are all getting along really well.
On the way back from the bar I had my first encounter with scorpions. There were no lights in the campground and the only way I could see where I was going was the light from my head torch. Unfortunately for me the numerous small, yellow scorpions all seemed to be attracted to the light and chased me, or rather the light all the way back to my tent. To make matters worse, I was wearing thongs and there were three-inch Acacia thorns all over the ground that kept piercing my shoes and slowing me down. I eventually dived into my tent and burst into tears. I don’t know what it is about scorpions but they’ve always given me the creeps, I don’t have any other fear of any other creepy crawlies. They say facing your fears is supposed to help but I don’t think I will be getting over my fear of scorpions on this trip.
Tomorrow, we are up with the sun, to climb the tallest sand dune in Africa.