Some locals came to our camp this morning and gave us some eggs, which we boiled for lunch. We gave them some t-shirts and some aspirin (they complained about various maladies, apparently thinking that all white people are doctors) in return.

We departed at about 8:30am with Rafiki towing the Pinzy. The road at first was good and we were able to make about 60 km/hr. It soon deteriorated though, and we slowed back down again. We stopped at 11am to change tow vehicles and were able to spend the last of our Kwanza on fuel so we could enter Namibia with as much cheap Angolan fuel as possible. Toki took a turn at towing, and just before the Namibian border Sid took over again. We hit good road at Ondjiva and made it to the border by 3:30pm. We went through Angolan and Namibian customs and immigration and left the border area at about 5pm. Knowing there was a commercial camp ground in Ondangwa, we decided to press on and found the campsite by 6pm.

The transition to Namibia is shocking. Shops and grocery stores, good roads, ATM machines, functioning traffic lights (and drivers that obey them!) and good roads all make it seem as if we are back in the developed world. We feel like we have successfully completed our goal of crossing Africa by road and had a celebratory dinner at the campground restaurant. We enjoyed steaks, good South African wine, and beer, and even ice cream and Don Pedros for desert. Our rashes are still there, although everyone is getting better except Witt, whose sore behind his knee is making it difficult to walk. There are two doctors offices near the campground that we will visit in the morning.

Witt and Graham visited the nearby pharmacy this morning, hoping to sort out their rashes. The pharmacists here are empowered to prescribe medications and actually receive more training than the doctors. She looked at our maladies and prescribed "bactoban" which seems to be a generic anti-bacterial skin cream. This is simple and easy, not to mention much less invasive than amputation, and we're hoping it works.

Next we went to Oshakati to visit the internet cafe and shop for food, which we desperately need after finishing nearly all of our reserves in Angola. The internet cafe had only one functioning computer, and even after connecting Graham and Vicky's computers to the network, it took all morning to get all of us some time checking their email. Afterward we went to the much-touted Nandos, a South African fast food chicken chain for an excellent lunch. Next we went to the shopping center and visited "Game", a small version of Wal-mart, and afterward the "Pick-n-Pay" for groceries. Shopping for nine is always an adventure, and three hours later we emerged with two shopping carts and $200 worth of food. The early evening hours was spent dividing and stowing the food in the cars. Graham cooked the boerewors (sausage) on the braai (grill) and Urs made rosti, a swiss fried potato and onion cake. Together with Elza's salad, we enjoyed yet another wonderful meal. Nadine and David have re-joined us following a beautiful drive down through Ruacana.

We had all planned out to go and find the Laundromat which we have heard was in town. Jen, Krissy, and Connie emptied out the back of Rafiki and stuffed it with their washing and headed off. They had difficulty locating it and stopped at a Shell gas station for directions. Krissy hopped out leaving Jen and Connie in the car. A couple of guys approached the driver's side of the car and started talking to Jen. In the meantime, Connie noticed another guy at the passenger window reaching into the car. In an instant he grabbed Krissy's shoulder bag and was gone. Connie leapt out of the car and started running after him, shouting "stop thief!" Virtually all of a nearby market emptied out as people started running after the thief. Before the chase began, he had had the time to open the bag and empty a wallet of cash. He ditched the bag and threw the wallet to one of his accomplices. The thief escaped with the cash while the other two men, who had Krissy's wallet, were apprehended by the police. Meanwhile Jen tore off in Rafiki in pursuit of Connie and the crowd. Krissy emerged from the gas station in time to see Jen drive off in a cloud of dust and knew that something was up. She heard two gun shots and ran in the direction of crowd to find Connie. The gunshots were the police attempting to stop the thieves. Someone returned Krissy's shoulder bag to her and the police gave her the wallet. Jen came back to camp to retrieve Slade, who went to the scene with her. Jen, Krissy, Connie & Slade, along with one police officer, all piled into Rafiki and they drove to the police station. They spent about an hour giving statements, and the two accomplices will spend at least the weekend in jail. A couple staying at the campground (who have also lived in Namibia for a long time) told us that crime is rife in the area, and that we need to always keep our guard up. David and Nadine reported a similar attempt to rob them in Oshakati yesterday. The experience has rattled the whole group. We felt so relieved to leave the "dangerous" section of the trip and enter Namibia, where tourism is well established, but the fact is that we are probably in more danger here from petty theft than we ever were in the Congos or Angola.

We left Ondangwa this morning at about 10am after saying goodbye to Urs, Elza, and Bayo, who are staying behind waiting for the parts they need to fix the pinzy. We drove south through Ondjiva, stopping on the way for lunch. We were stopped at a "vet fence" which is intended to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease among cattle. We told them that we didn't have any meat with us, and fortunately they didn't look in the freezer. Had they confiscated all the boerewors we bought in Ondangwa we would have been very upset, but for Slade it could well have been fatal.

We saw some giraffe within minutes of entering Etosha National Park, which was exciting after driving all afternoon to find them in Niger. Namutomi rest camp is quite a shock after having spent the last few months in areas with no tourist infrastructure at all. There are clean showers with hot water, toilets, sinks, and washing areas. There are also lots of tourists and a few commercial overland tour trucks. We enjoyed some of the boerewors for dinner and went to bed early in anticipation of a morning game drive tomorrow.

We left camp this morning at dawn (about 6:15am) and spent the day driving around the area near Namutomi, stopping at water holes and photographing animals. We saw springbok, jackal, wildebeest, zebra, and a few others. In the afternoon we caught up with a herd of about 25 elephant. They were walking through the bush and unfortunately we didn't get a good look at them.

Today was spent driving slowly from Namutomi to Halali. The wildlife is amazing with huge herds of springbok on the plain along with various other animals. We spent a couple of hours in the evening at the floodlit waterhole at the campsite but didn't see much aside from loads of birds. We left Graham at the waterhole with a two-way radio and instructions to call if something interesting arrived. 30 minutes later the radio went off and we all trekked over to the waterhole to see two black rhino drinking and bathing. We watched for about a half hour before finishing a late dinner and going to bed.

While the others relaxed and ate breakfast this morning, Witt and Jen witnessed a kill at the waterhole, an awesome display of the raw savagery of nature. Jen averted her eyes as a cape glossy starling (a small bird) caught and pecked to death a large moth. The others were quite jealous of their sighting.

The remainder of the morning was spent driving toward Okaukuejo rest camp. Things were pretty quiet until we sopped for lunch near a water hole with about 25 elephant drinking and bathing. We watched for about an hour until hunger got the better of us and we decided to eat. During lunch we could hear the occasional trumpeting of an elephant. There were a few very small (small for an elephant anyway) babies in the group that were very cute to watch.

Later in the afternoon as we were driving back to camp we saw a mating pair of lions (literally) which we watched until we had to drive quickly back to the camp, as they close the gates at 535pm, after which you're stuck out with the lions for the night.

Today the group became two groups. Witt, Jen, Vicky, David and Nadine plan to leave the park and head South towards Brandburg to do some hiking. Krissy, Slade, Connie and Graham are staying in the park for another day. To follow Witt and Jen's adventures in Damaraland go to here.

We got up and had rusks and cereal for breakfast. Witt and Jen visited the waterhole, but nothing exciting was there. We then all spent two hours dividing up the communal food into the various trucks and haggling over food we wanted or didn't want. At about 10am, the whole group trundled off on a game drive, heading for unexplored territory in the West of the park. Not much game was in evidence except, of course, for springbok, wildebeast and zebra. We stopped for lunch at a picnic spot and Nadine produced another Slade defying salad. It was very good despite Slade's complaining. After lunch, we split up, first trading contact information and going over plans to meet again.

The stationary group (Slade, Krissy, Connie and Graham) continued on the game drive completing the loop back to Okaukuejo camp where we bumped into the other group at the camp shop. It is really hard to get rid of some people!!

On our afternoon game drive we passed the stop where the mating lions had been seen, but they had moved on. At the Oliphantsbad waterhole, a VW Synchro pulled up next to Graham and Connie and the driver asked, "Are you really from Colorado?" He was from Boulder and had been following us for a while. It's a small world.

Back at camp, we were preparing to have sundowners at the waterhole when a man walked up and asked about Pangaea Expeditions. Turns out he runs Off-Road Academy in Canada and has talked to Nathan many times. He saw the logo and recognized it immediately. It is a small world!

At the waterhole a small herd of elephants were snorting water and slinging mud. We watched them for a while and then Graham cooked hamburgers on the braai while Slade made salt and vinegar chips. Good stuff!

Today the group became three. Slade and Krissy headed back to Namutoni on their way back to Ondwanga to help Urs. Connie and Graham went South to Winhoek hoping to get their suspension fixed.

The road to Windhoek is very straight for many, many miles, punctuated only sometimes by small towns. In one town, Outjo, we saw a familiar Land Cruiser parked by the side of the road, and then a familiar Land Rover. We had caught up with the hiking group. We stopped and chatted and bought pastries at the coffee shop. Then we said goodbye again and headed South. We arrived in Windhoek at about 4pm and had a brief look for a Land Rover parts place. One was not immediately obvious, so we stopped at the Roof of Africa for the night. It is a fantastic place if a bit pricey. We got a room and had their dinner buffet which had excellent oxtail soup and salad as well as teriyaki chicken. This was our first night not camping in a very long time.

In addition to their excellent dinner buffet, the Roof of Africa serves a mean breakfast. Included with the room, and you get bacon, eggs, cereal, toast, coffee, tea, etc. Very satisfying.

Straight after breakfast, Graham called Roverland, the only Land Rover parts place listed in the phone book. He talked to John who said he thought he could get the parts we needed, and that we should come out to Roverland which is about 25km East of town.

After stopping at an ATM for cash we headed for Roverland. The great thing is you need a Land Rover (or other 4x4) to reach their facility! When we got there John made some phone calls, and located the Discovery Series II shock towers that we need in Pretoria South Africa. He ordered them by FedEx with a delivery for 8am tomorrow!

Really pleased with this progress, we checked out Johns large collection of Land Rovers (mostly Series IIbs and Series IIIs) and swapped stories.

About mid-morning we headed back into town to sedate Connie's shopping craving. We spent the rest of the day at various shopping malls, curing Connie's craving. We did buy a few important items like a potjkie lid handle and more biltong.

Feeling that the Roof of Africa was a bit expensive for continuous staying, we went to the Cardboard Box. It is a backpacker place run (currently) by Simon and Jennifer, a couple from Scotland who drove a 110 Land Rover down through Africa three years ago. We spent the evening swapping overlanding stories with them, drinking beers and gin and dry lemons and eating kudu burgers. All of this at the bar at the Cardboard Box. It really is an interesting place!

We got up fairly early and had coffee and rusks at the Cardboard Box bar. There were four American girls staying at the Box, all from Colorado. Three from Arvada and one from Grand Junction. It is a small world.

At 9am we headed out of town to Roverland. There we found that the parts had arrived, and Graham and John set about repairing the front suspension. Connie organized the inside of the car while this was being done. It took all day, but by the end Toki had a fully (and hopefully correctly) functional front suspension, new oil and a bath. John is pleased to be the Safari Gard suspension expert for Southern Africa. John invited us to go with the local Land Rover club 'into the hills' tomorrow, and we accepted.

Then it was back to the Box for beer, more kudu burgers and bed.

In the morning we walked into town, checked on email and went grocery shopping. At noon John from Roverland turned up at the Cardboard Box and we headed out for some trail driving with the local Land Rover club. There was a good turn out and we went off into the hills with a Range Rover, a Series IIB forward control, a Discovery and three 110s including ours. Windhoek is surrounded by low hills, and all the wheeling we did was actually within the city limits. The trail was not really difficult, but was not ideal for a fully laden overland vehicle. Still, we held our own and had fun and saw some baboons. The suspension worked well given that this is what it was designed for. The trail ended at an old German fort, and we spent some time exploring it.

Back at the Cardboard Box it was braai and movie evening. We cooked the last of our chicken and supplemented it with some Gemsbok steaks from the bar. The evenings entertainment started before the movie when the chip fryer caught fire. Graham grabbed the fire extinguisher and put the fire out, emptying the bar in the process. Back at the braai pit it was a comedy of errors watching a bunch of European backpackers trying to cook South African style. We bought Simon a beer, chatted for a long time with Alex, a Canadian backpacker and then had to chase down Flo, a Belgian who had off with our silverware.

Before going to bed we discovered that we had picked up a thorn in one of the tires, and the truck was leaning at an odd angle. Not the best for sleeping in the rooftop tent, but we managed.

Had a lazy day preparing to head out into the bush again. Connie did some washing while Graham repaired the flat from the trail driving the day before. We also went into Windhoek to do some shopping and bought a blanket to supplement the bedclothes in our tent. The night time temperatures are getting quite low!

Got up early and had breakfast at the Cardboard Box bar before hitting the road. We had planned to meet the others in Swakopmund by evening. On the advice of John from the Land Rover club, we took the C28 out of town. It is a very scenic drive on a well groomed dirt road. We saw very few other cars, and had a leisurely day. Close to Swakopmund, the road passes through the top of the Namib-Naukluft park and we saw ostrich, gemsbok and springbok. Coming down from the mountains into the desert was fantastic, and only marred when the left rear wheel tried to leave the car at speed. The wheel managed to destroy most of the threads on the wheel lugs, so Graham could only tighten it up with 2 nuts instead of 5. So progress into Swakopmund was a bit slower after that.

On arrival in the town we went to the Gulls Cry camp, the designated meeting point, but no one was there. Thinking it was a bit of a dive we checked in at a hotel called Gruner Kranz which had 3 overland trucks in the parking lot. Checking our email we discovered that the rest had arrived, so we met up with them and went out for dinner, trading stories of our travels.

We spent the day in Swakopmund, shopping and eating. We got groceries for the next couple of days, checked email and had milkshakes. It was all a bit disorganized with each group going a different way. We ran into a Dutch couple who had shipped from Ghana to Cape Town and were now traveling up. Vicky had met them in Timbuktu.

Sometime after lunch we all got together and decided to head for Sandwich Bay, south of Walvis Bay. So we went into Walvis looking for a permit. We then discovered that the drive to Sandwich has to be done at low tide, the next event for which was 3 in the morning! Anyway, we decided to skip the Sandwich Bay idea and Witt, Jen, Vicky and David booked a sea kayaking trip while Krissy, Slade, Connie and Graham went out to a restaurant on Walvis lagoon to see the birds. There are thousands of migratory birds that stop off in the lagoon, including about half the flamingo population of Southern Africa! Once the others caught up to us we decided to head into the desert to bushcamp. We arrived at the Dune 7 turn off and took it, coming to a picnic area at the base of the dune. We decided to camp there and most went for a very strenuous climb to the top of the dune. Since it was dark the view wasn't much, but the slide down was great fun.

The sea kayaking crew got up early to leave for their trip. Krissy, Slade, Graham and Connie decided to head north to the Skeleton Coast. We stopped off in Swakopmund first to get another milkshake and to get some more parts from the Land Rover parts place. Graham got new lugs and lug nuts to repair the stripped lugs on the right rear hub. We then started north. First stop was Henties Bay, just to have a look. Then on to the Cape Cross seal colony. It is an amazing sight with thousands of seals arguing over a few rocks for sunning room. And the smell is amazing as well! After Cape Cross we found a great bushcamp in the hills east of the road.

We went to the Skeleton Coast park and the guy at the gate was less than enthusiastic about the park and said that the wind was blowing and there really wasn't much to see, but we decided to go anyway. We had a little trouble making progress because when we stopped at the skeleton coast to look at the Winston ship wreck Slade discovered that his Landy had a broken transfer case linkage so when he tried to change into low range it was no go. Slade and Graham worked on Sid to locate the problem, while Krissy and Connie did the only other thing that could be done in such a situation and had tea and biscuits while alternately watching the ocean and watching the guys get greasy. On the way out of the park we met up with a Swiss couple that Slade and Krissy had been in contact with before they left on their trip and they were having far more trouble with their Series III than we were having with our Defenders, so we counted ourselves lucky. We invited them to camp with us, but they wanted to head to Etosha. We pulled off the road and bushcamped in a barren valley with springbok and gemsbok.

First thing in the morning, we ran into Grant on the road. He is an overland truck driver that Krissy and Slade had met in Cameroon. He was now down south with his truck of hard drinking Aussies. He highly recommended the Otjitotongwe Cheetah park, so we headed in that direction. We had planned to stop off at the Cheetah Park for a quick tour, but they didn't allow day visitors, so we decided to camp there. We tried to call the others to let them know that we would be late meeting up with them, but discovered that the phone line was out at the Cheetah park. So the guys drove back into town to the gas station we had stopped at earlier (where we had discovered we had a flat tire), but the call didn't go through. Our tour of the cheetah park was great. Not only did we ride in an open back pick up truck through the wild cheetah area, but we also learned that the large plastic trash can in the back with us contained the cheetahs dinner. This was no surprise to the cheetahs and we soon had several large hungry cats following the truck. We also got to pet tame cheetahs and wow! What a purr!

If you listen closely you can hear the purr on the cheetah movie.

We had planned to meet back up with the others today, but every time we told one of the locals how far we were planning to get we were met with gales of laughter. (Apparently our plan was a little over ambitious). As luck would have it we passed the Tsaobis Leopard park at about the right time to make camp, and confirmed that their phone line was in working order before we decided to stay. The facilities were incredible! The camp site was beautiful and the shower was fantastic. We were given a brief tour in which we saw Cheetah, Leopard, Caracal, Ardwolf, a monkey and a troop of baboon on the hillside in the distance. Then we headed over to the bar for a drink. We cooked dinner and then phoned Witt, Jen, Vicky, Nadine and David to arrange a meeting time. We were the only guests there so the night was very quiet.

Having arranged a time to meet up with the others, we had a lazy morning at the Leopard park. We took a short hike in the park, but didn't see much. Connie introduced Krissy and Slade to biscuits and gravy made with borewors. It was really good, and we resolved to do it again sometime. Once on the road we discovered that we had misjudged the distance to the meeting point (or at least discovered that Slade's map was wrong about the distance), so we were one hour late meeting the others. We had lunch with everyone by the side of the road and exchanged stories and passengers; Vicky rejoining with the crew in Sid. Then we all split up again, Witt and Jen heading for Johannesburg to catch their flight to Tanzania, David and Nadine heading for Fish River Canyon, and the rest going to Sesriem, Vicky for the second time. On the way to Sesriem, we had a flat on the corner with the dodgy lugs, so we had to change the wheel and hope that the threads would hold. At Sesriem we got a campsite, had a braai and went to bed.

4:30 should only come once in a day, but it came twice for us. It was Vicky's third time getting up that early to see sunrise over Dune 45. The sunrise was spectacular, marred only by the number of tourists spread out on the dune. Connie collected rocks and we had coffee and rusks at Dune 45. Then we drove on to Soussesvlei going to the 4x4 parking lot. The Namib is a fascinating desert, and we enjoyed the scenery over second breakfast, this one cooked. Then back to Deadvlei, which is a 1.1km hike through the desert and quite soft sand. The vlei is a white plate in a red desert spotted with dead trees. Very scenic, but would be better with fewer tourists. And that's hypocrisy for you! We then went back to the campsite and worked on the cars. Graham and Slade first replaced the ruined lugs on Toki's left rear hub, then replaced the hi-lo range selector in Sid. Slade had got the people at the Cheetah park to weld the linkage back together. Late in the afternoon we left Sesriem and made it to Hammerstien Rest Camp for the night.

In the morning we wandered around Hammerstein and saw the animals they had. A mad zebra who took a liking to Slade and rusks and was nicknamed Squealer because that's what he did, another purring cheetah and a young leopard who seemed alternatively happy and unhappy. Then we hit the road to blast down to Aus. Vicky and Slade were hoping to get some horse riding in, but the place they were going to, Klein Aus Vista, no longer offered that service. We decided to camp there anyway, because their campsite was so pleasant. It was set in rock cliffs with few people and hot showers. We drove down the road to a waterhole to see if we could find some of the Garub wild horses. We did see several and one came up to the waterhole to drink. Back at Klien Aus we stopped in the bar for drinks before heading back to the campsite for food and sleep.

We spent the day in Luderitz and surroundings. We toured the diamond ghost town of Kolmanskop. Unlike such places in the US where you are not allowed into the buildings, in Kolmanskop you are allowed to go inside the houses, some of which have been mostly reclaimed by the desert sand. There is glass and detritus everywhere, but it is very interesting. Slade was selected to bowl in the ancient bowling alley after claiming to be the South African bowling champion. At least he hit the pins! We then went back to Klein Aus Vista for another night, and discovered that David and Nadine had been there two days before and we had just missed them!

We arrived at Fish River Canyon just after lunch. After checking into the camp site, we headed to the canyon. The Grand Canyon this isn't, but it is still very impressive. The views are spectacular. We drove down the 4x4 trail that goes along the canyon rim and saw a few klipspringers. The trail could be navigated in any self-respecting Ford Escort, but we appreciated the 4x4 designation for keeping a lot of people out. Just before sunset we went to the Westernmost viewpoint and watched the sun set while enjoying cheese and drinking beer and wine. Just as we were leaving we stopped to talk to a Canadian lady and her South African companion about our trip. They highly recommended a farm in South Africa to camp at called Klein Pella.