Namibian deserts

So our bus journey from Cape Town to Windhoek was all going so smoothly until we got to the top of the quickly moving queue at immigration on the South African border. We brought an abrupt halt to the 'quickly-moving' nature of that queue. The officier checking our passports pointed out that we'd overstayed our 3 month holiday visas by two days, and that we'd have to pay a fine of 100 Euro each. This came as a bit of a shock, but in fact I was just relieved that the process was actually quite painless, and they weren't going to arrest us, or send us back to Cape Town or anything. We held up the queue of people by about 10 minutes, but that was just because the guys had to fill in loads of paperwork. We didn't have to pay there and then (luckily, as I didn't have the cash anyway), we needed to go to the South African embassy in Windhoek to pay, otherwise we'd never be allowed back into South Africa.

It was a bit weird though, I just never thought originally that we'd have spent 3 months in South Africa alone, so I never really thought to check the visa expiry date. Also, it wasn't really our fault (kinda), and I could probably get the fine back, as we'd actually left South Africa two months previously by entering Swaziland for a week, and then re-entering South Africa. The border official when we re-entered South Africa should have given us a new 3-month visa, but apparently he didn't, he just left us on our original one, and really that's why we overstayed.

Anyway, so once we arrived in Windhoek (at 6 in the morning), there was a guy waiting for us from our hostel (Chameleon Backpackers). So after a very quick van ride to the hostel to dump our bags, I got out some money and we got a taxi straight to the South African embassy to pay our fines. Again the process was actually very quick and painless, and so much relieved we had the whole day to ourselves.

We looked at renting bikes (too expensive though), checked out the Alte Feste museum after a late breakfast (great proper African food again after all the first-world food of South Africa), and used the 'auld Interweb to check out car rental deals. Then it was back to the hostel, which I really loved.

I think, in fact, it's been my favourite place so far (expensive hotels and lodges included!). It just had a fantastic vibe to the whole place, and best of all it had a great pool. The weather was brilliant for our whole time in Namibia, really sunny and hot - so I ended up using the pool first thing in the morning and then throughout the day while relaxing. The hostel was very close to the city centre, and so was easy strolling distance to everywhere. The town itself is quite nice to walk around (and has a really cool meteorite display outside one of the shopping malls).

The following day I explored more of the town while Sarah relaxed and that evening our rental car was dropped off at the hostel for us. We used the car to drive about and check out some of the fancier restaurants (like Am Weinburg), and then had a drink in the famous Joe's Beerhouse (huge place, but actually had a great atmosphere I thought), before dinner at a recommended Portuguese place (where again I felt I was back in Africa proper, as we were the only white people in the whole place).

The next morning we began our Namibian odyssey and headed more or less straight to Sesriem (albeit the long way around, but on better roads), which is the gateway to the desert (http://www.namibian.org/travel/lodging/sesriem.html). Luckily we had taken camping equipment from the car rental people (initially I thought we wouldn't need it, but she said it was free and we should take it, so we did), as the campsite didn't have any sort of accommodation - literally only camping sites. There was a luxury resort place next door, but it's room rates where outrageous of course, so we wouldn't have stayed there anyway (I did, of course, pop over there a couple of days later to use their lovely pool, have a drink and lounge about all day, as any self-respecting Paddie would do on a scorcher of a day in the desert).

As we arrived at our actual camping spot Sarah got the car stuck in sand, but with the help of nearby campers, a quick push had us sorted, and wiser! Although the Sesriem campsite was seriously basic (most of the Namibian tourist hotspots are either undergoing major renovations , or have already been renovated - Sesriem's work had only recently begun), it was definitely worth it, if even only to provide us with clear skies to see the amazing star scape's. In fact we ended up camping in the wilds quite a bit around Namibia, which is always cool - even Sarah has come around to enjoying it too. Before leaving for this trip she said she didn't mind having to rough it a bit (we are backpacking after all), but that she'd always need an ensuite bathroom. I always felt that deep down she didn't really mean it though (she's too cool a chick for that nonsense!) - I just reckoned it was one of those things people think when they've never actually tried something (jasus but the number of times I've heard people saying that they definitely, absolutely, certainly, without a doubt wouldn't be able to cycle 5 miles without collapsing in a heap - while at the same time I KNOW (through direct experience), that absolutely anybody who isn't seriously disabled could cycle 10 miles practically effortlessly, once they had a decent bike that is properly setup, went at their own pace and the terrain was relatively flat, ah but there I go again...).

Anyway, apart from seeing what looked very much like the outline of a jackal silhouetted right up against the tent during the night, the camping was easy-peasy (Sarah'd probably completely deny every saying the whole 'needing an ensuite' thing now!), and we were up at 4:30 the next morning to drive into the desert proper and catch the sun rise over the famously huge sand dunes. We were actually the first car to enter the park, but were overtaken as we drove to the most famous dune, dune 45 (45km from the park entrance). It meant a group of other people started the climb before us to the top of the dune to watch the sunrise, although I ended up overtaking them all on the way up - although once at the front I understood how I'd gotten there, it's bloody tough to plough your way through steeply sloping sand. Anyway once at the top you just sit there and watch the sun come up and watch the shadows cast by the dunes (and yourself). To be honest I thought it was all very nice and all, but nothing particularly spectacular. The run back down the dune was probably the highlight - most people (being epsilons, of course), walked cautiously back down, afraid of I-don't-know-what, but me and Sarah legged it down (me first of course), and Sarah even flung herself deliberately down into the sand for the laugh (sand is quite soft and yeilding by the way!). It was good, but not nearly as good as the scree run I did with Hanno, Keith and Bebhinn years ago in New Zealand (I'm writing this from New Zealand actually, and certainly hope to do that scree run again once I get to the North Island).

After the sunrise we went further into the park to see the other famous Namibian sight of the Dead Vlei (http://www.v-liz.com/namibia/d_vlei1.htm). It really is something alright - instantly recognisable once you crest the dune leading up to it, and amazing to walk around - no crappy security or anything, no fencing, just brilliantly pure nature at it's unspoilt best. After strolling around to the adjacent pan of Sossusvlei (http://www.v-liz.com/namibia/sossuss.htm), which wasn't as cool, we headed back to the car via a shuttle bus (which we could have just hopped onto, said nothing, and paid nothing, but Sarah asked him where he was going!!).

From there we just headed back to the campsite and spent the entire rest of the day lounging at the luxury lodge next door (as I mentioned earlier). Dinner that night was lovely sausages cooked by camp fire using utensils borrowed from the friendly adjacent overlander group.

The next morning we moved on to the big tourist town of Swakopmund, right on the coast. But before leaving we spent about an hour or so exploring the Sesriem canyon that was a couple of kilometers from the campsite, and very impressive it was too.