So cheap one-way flights from Melbourne had us arriving in Hobart, with lovely views of the island and the city as the plane approached. We got accommodation nice and central in the Central City Backpackers and spent the first night just strolling about. Behind the well-known Salamanca Place was a lovely wee village area with period houses in quaint squares and dinky little shops and restaurants - the whole area had a lovely feel to it (although we ate that night in the Ball and Chain, a deservedly famous steakhouse).
Next day we checked out the various car rental places and got lunch at the kinda-famous Mures Seafood restaurant in the harbour (which was very nice, but not amazing). Spent the whole afternoon checking out the state museum, which had fascinating information about Tasmania's notorious persecution of the aboriginals. After getting kicked out of the museum at closing time it was a quick pint in the Old Sydney Hotel bar (actually an Irish bar, but a really nice one - not obviously Irish at all (a bit like the Drunken Poet in Melbourne)).
The next morning we picked up the rental car (our fourth rental of the trip), and headed out towards Port Arthur. Stopping off at a few of the mad coastal formations (such as the Tessellated Pavement, the Devils Kitchen, the Tasman Arch and another blowhole), we arrived at Port Arthur in the late afternoon to discover that it isn't really a town at all, it's just a very large historic site (I never bought a guidebook for Australia, as I never envisioned staying so long). So after a bit of a panicky search for cheap accommodation we got a room in the lovely Fish Lips, run by a lovely Finnish couple (he was the most Finnish-looking dude I've ever seen, straight out of a viking movie or something). Apparently this place used to be a Sea-World-type place with exclusive cabins and seal shows and the like, but now that's all closed down and they just offer accommodation - but the view of the sea and the forests while we had dinner was pure five-star luxury. (For some photos of many of the places we saw in Tasmania from a cool American couple cycling around the world for the past 6 years see here.)
That night we did the Ghost Tour in Port Arthur itself. This was kinda interesting (and Sarah got a couple of good 'frights', i.e. when the guide deliberately kicks a door at the climax of a scary tale told in a pitch black basement). The guide was an out-an-out ghost believer, so it was interesting to hear her personal experiences, and it was good to see many of the historic buildings in Port Arthur (it was a notorious colonial prison back in the 1850's), although I thought the most interesting part of the whole tour was when one of the people on the tour asked about the famous massacre from 1996 (afterwards I read that the Lonely Planet specifically asks tourists not to ask the guides about the incident, probably as it doesn't really make for good P.R.).
36 people were killed and more injured when a local guy went right off the deep end (http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/bryant/index_1.html). Our guide knew him well, having grown up with him in the town, and 8 personal friends of hers were among the dead - so that personal story was genuinely intriguing.
Next morning we stopped at the local Tasmanian Devil Park to see Tassie's most famous resident critter. This was a great place (and we came back the next morning for breakfast), and we were lucky enough to catch the bird show that had just started. The falcon display was incredible, and the ethos of the place as a rescue center for animals was reflected in the fact that all their rehabilitated birds are actually free to leave the center whenever they want (which they often do, but mostly they return within a few days). They had lots of other animals there too, lots of kangaroos and wallabies, wombats, possums, etc.
But certainly the highlight was the Tasmanian Devils themselves. Again we had timed our arrival nicely for their daily feeding time, and it was amazing to watch the cute and cuddly little critters become extremely fierce and aggressive towards each other as they fought over their food. Apparently these guys have the strongest bite of any animal after the great white shark or something (nice short little video here).
Next was a quick stop at the Eagleneck museum which explained the interesting dog-line used as what must be a unique prison escapee barrier. Then it was off to the Freycinet National Park for a spot of hiking. The highlight here is the famous Wineglass Bay, which has a fantastic lookout as you approach. We arrived quite early and so continued on for a full 5 hour hike, heading across the isthmus for a lovely refreshing swim at Hazards Beach.
After a brief stopover in small Bicheno, and an interesting evening of redneck-spotting in the local bar it was on to Launceston. Here we stayed in a central caravan park (Treasure Island), in quite a cozy caravan. It was a drizzly weekend, and so the Boag's brewery was closed and the town's top restaurants (such as the impressive looking Me Wah Chinese restaurant), were fully booked out. So we had to settle for a nice Indian the first night, but did manage to have lunch at Stillwater River Cafe the next day (check out their ever-so-slightly poncy website here!).
From Launceston we headed to Tasmania's best National Park, Cradle Mountain. We only spent one full day there, but still managed to get some major hiking in, and it was definitely amongst the best hiking I've ever done. The weather was great, Cradle mountain itself was mighty impressive, with a smattering of lakes scattered about the place for good measure and gorgeous native forests to round it all off.
From Cradle Mountain we headed over to the East coast and the tiny, but picturesque town of Strahan (watching the seaplane take off). Then it was back to Hobart for a couple more days of fine dining (The Henry Jones Art Hotel, Da Angelo Ristorante), before moving on.
It turned out that all flights up to Sydney for the following week were all mad expensive due to it being Australia day (which I'd never heard of!), and in the end it actually worked out much cheaper to fly back to Melbourne with Tiger Airways, who thankfully had just opened a new route (which the travel agent never told me about - I just stumbled across it on the Internet). But going back via Melbourne also meant I'd get a chance to have a look at the software system for Sally. It also turned out that Enda was going to be away on business while Tracy was visiting her family in Brisbane, so we'd be able to crash in Enda's place again. So although it meant spending even longer again in Oz (the original one-year time limit on this trip now beginning to look seriously restrictive!), that's what we decided to do, and we heading back to Melbourne.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Melbourne
So a lot of our time in Melbourne seems a bit of a blur now (I'm writing this over three months later!). We got the airport bus into the city centre to find Enda waiting for us at the bus station, which was a very pleasant surprise. He had a long business lunch to go to that afternoon, but met us to give us detailed directions to his house, a spare set of keys and to set us on the right train. So we got to Enda's place no problem and kinda settled in straight away. Enda was off the next day up to Brisbane to spend the Christmas period with his wife Tracy and new babbie Flyn at Tracy's family home.
It was truly brilliant to have a place all to ourselves for a few days I have to say. I really loved the house itself, it was spotlessly modern and quite big really, and felt very homely to me after seven-and-a-half months on the road.
A couple of days later we moved across the city to Mikey and Steph's place, as we'd been very kindly invited to Christmas dinner. We actually went over to Sally and Baz's house on Christmas eve to watch the local street's production of the nativity, a tradition on the street for the past 49 years (and one in which Baz himself used to partake when he was only a wee nipper). Sally and Baz's two daughters, Maddie and Rachel, were both in the play and it was great to see the whole thing, with clearly quite a lot of work going into it. We spent the rest of the evening at Sally and Baz's, who have the most amazing back garden I've ever seen (giving even Mark Kane's back garden in Harare, and Ray O'Hagan's back garden in Wellington, a good run for their money!). It basically just bleeds into native forest, and has its very own creek running through the middle of it. We spotted a number of possums (my first ones after 3 visits to Oz), and a Powerful Owl chick - which is an endangered species.
The next day, Christmas Day, we had chrimbo dinner in Steph's with her family, and a fine feast it was too (beginning with a monster platter of huge, fresh prawns that Steph's mum had brought). We spent the whole day at the house, and had a great time getting to know Sally and Baz who were both fantastic to us throughout our stay in Melbourne.
We were back at Sally and Baz's again for New Years, were Baz put on a fine display of BBQ-brinkmanship, and included lots of great Greek food and more native fauna spotting.
Then it was back to meet up with Enda and Tracy for a weekend driving down the Great Ocean Road and staying in a gorgeous modern apartment in Apollo Bay (which we were blessed to get, as the town was jam packed and we'd left it very late to book anything, but Enda just persevered, kept ringing places and was eventually rewarded). On the drive down we passed a small group of wild koalas and obviously stopped to have a closer look - they really are as cute, and as spaced out, as they look on the telly. On the drive back to Melbourne we spotted another koala right beside the road, Tracy doing well not to run the poor guy over.
Our apartment was fantastic but we just couldn't get the baby cot for Flyn to open up properly, and after ages trying us guys finally relented and got the caretaker guy to have a look. But he couldn't fix it either, so we just had to make do with a semi-working cot, but Enda, being the cheeky chappie that he is, managed to wrangle a free nights accommodation out of the guy to compensate for the inconvenience - nice one!
After a lovely BBQ dinner on the rooftop terrace, the next day Enda took us for a drive further up the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles, the famous limestone sea stacks just off the coast, and to the gorgeous little seaside town of Port Campbell. I always had the impression that the whole road followed along the coast, but in fact it travels inland quite a bit, travelling through dense forest.
Over our time in Melbourne we also went driving in the nearby mountains (Mikey and I getting a tad lost at one stage), played squash (Baz beating us all), went indoor rock climbing
with Mikey, I cycled into the city a couple of times and generally just lazing around. I also had a mad long afternoon playing pool and meeting up with all of Enda's old drinking buddies - all English and Scottish guys who've settled in Oz.
We seemed to be bouncing quite a bit between Enda and Tracy's place and Mikey and Steph's, but luckily there was a pretty direct bus route between the two, although the fact that Melbourne sprawls quite a bit, the journey would still take well over an hour. But it really was a highlight of the trip so far to have caught up again with Enda, getting to know Tracy and Flyn (who is a model baby from what I can see, only one wee crying episode the whole time), catching up with Mikey and Steph again, who are getting along like they've been married for 30 years already (is that a good thing or a bad thing?!?), and meeting and getting to know Sally, Baz and their kids, and all the various cats and dogs.
Anyway, eventually it came time to move on from Melbourne, and hearing so many positive things about Tasmania, we decided we might as well check it out. On our last night in Melbourne, over dinner at Steph's place Sally casually mentions that she's had major problems with a software system she had commissioned years ago for her dog-care business. It seemed a bit unfortunate because if she'd mentioned it earlier in our stay I could easily have had a look at the problems, but as it was we flew out to Hobart the next day. Little did I know how it would all turn out though...
It was truly brilliant to have a place all to ourselves for a few days I have to say. I really loved the house itself, it was spotlessly modern and quite big really, and felt very homely to me after seven-and-a-half months on the road.
A couple of days later we moved across the city to Mikey and Steph's place, as we'd been very kindly invited to Christmas dinner. We actually went over to Sally and Baz's house on Christmas eve to watch the local street's production of the nativity, a tradition on the street for the past 49 years (and one in which Baz himself used to partake when he was only a wee nipper). Sally and Baz's two daughters, Maddie and Rachel, were both in the play and it was great to see the whole thing, with clearly quite a lot of work going into it. We spent the rest of the evening at Sally and Baz's, who have the most amazing back garden I've ever seen (giving even Mark Kane's back garden in Harare, and Ray O'Hagan's back garden in Wellington, a good run for their money!). It basically just bleeds into native forest, and has its very own creek running through the middle of it. We spotted a number of possums (my first ones after 3 visits to Oz), and a Powerful Owl chick - which is an endangered species.
The next day, Christmas Day, we had chrimbo dinner in Steph's with her family, and a fine feast it was too (beginning with a monster platter of huge, fresh prawns that Steph's mum had brought). We spent the whole day at the house, and had a great time getting to know Sally and Baz who were both fantastic to us throughout our stay in Melbourne.
We were back at Sally and Baz's again for New Years, were Baz put on a fine display of BBQ-brinkmanship, and included lots of great Greek food and more native fauna spotting.
Then it was back to meet up with Enda and Tracy for a weekend driving down the Great Ocean Road and staying in a gorgeous modern apartment in Apollo Bay (which we were blessed to get, as the town was jam packed and we'd left it very late to book anything, but Enda just persevered, kept ringing places and was eventually rewarded). On the drive down we passed a small group of wild koalas and obviously stopped to have a closer look - they really are as cute, and as spaced out, as they look on the telly. On the drive back to Melbourne we spotted another koala right beside the road, Tracy doing well not to run the poor guy over.
Our apartment was fantastic but we just couldn't get the baby cot for Flyn to open up properly, and after ages trying us guys finally relented and got the caretaker guy to have a look. But he couldn't fix it either, so we just had to make do with a semi-working cot, but Enda, being the cheeky chappie that he is, managed to wrangle a free nights accommodation out of the guy to compensate for the inconvenience - nice one!
After a lovely BBQ dinner on the rooftop terrace, the next day Enda took us for a drive further up the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles, the famous limestone sea stacks just off the coast, and to the gorgeous little seaside town of Port Campbell. I always had the impression that the whole road followed along the coast, but in fact it travels inland quite a bit, travelling through dense forest.
Over our time in Melbourne we also went driving in the nearby mountains (Mikey and I getting a tad lost at one stage), played squash (Baz beating us all), went indoor rock climbing
with Mikey, I cycled into the city a couple of times and generally just lazing around. I also had a mad long afternoon playing pool and meeting up with all of Enda's old drinking buddies - all English and Scottish guys who've settled in Oz.
We seemed to be bouncing quite a bit between Enda and Tracy's place and Mikey and Steph's, but luckily there was a pretty direct bus route between the two, although the fact that Melbourne sprawls quite a bit, the journey would still take well over an hour. But it really was a highlight of the trip so far to have caught up again with Enda, getting to know Tracy and Flyn (who is a model baby from what I can see, only one wee crying episode the whole time), catching up with Mikey and Steph again, who are getting along like they've been married for 30 years already (is that a good thing or a bad thing?!?), and meeting and getting to know Sally, Baz and their kids, and all the various cats and dogs.
Anyway, eventually it came time to move on from Melbourne, and hearing so many positive things about Tasmania, we decided we might as well check it out. On our last night in Melbourne, over dinner at Steph's place Sally casually mentions that she's had major problems with a software system she had commissioned years ago for her dog-care business. It seemed a bit unfortunate because if she'd mentioned it earlier in our stay I could easily have had a look at the problems, but as it was we flew out to Hobart the next day. Little did I know how it would all turn out though...
Perth and Western Australia
So my first time in Perth, and I really liked it. The weather was brilliant and we settled in pretty quickly. I met up with a friend of a friend back home, Keith Tiernan's mate Donncha, who I'd really only met a few times at home whilst out in Keith's place working on my motorbike. But Donncha was brilliant, meeting us at the train station early in the morning and lending us a couple of really good bicycles and dropping us off at the ferry to Rottnest Island.
We spent the whole day cycling around the beautiful island, basically covering the whole thing during the day. Donncha then picked us up when we got back off the ferry and then it was back to his lovely house to meet his wife Gillian and their new babbie, and have a lovely BBQ. It was a great night chatting and reminiscing about Malahide and just shooting the breeze really, before Donncha dropped us back into the city again. It seemed weirdly 'normal' to be just sitting around in a mate's gaff having dinner after the days cycling, but I really enjoyed the relaxed nature of the whole day.
After a couple of more days checking out Perth we rented a car to head down along the south coast of Western Austrialia. First stop was just down the road at Freemantle, which is a lovely buzzy place (and had one of the best bars of the trip so far I reckon, the Little Creatures Brewery).
Then is was down into the Margaret River region and exploring some of the vineyards thereabouts (and buying some wine for Mikey and Steph, and beers from a local brewery for Enda, who'd we'd be meeting up with in Melbourne).
Moving along we took the scenic train journey from Pemberton (that had a fantastically entertaining driver/guide), and climbed up the very impressive Gloucester tree. I was putting my hiking boots on and was surprised to see that Sarah had already vanished up the tree well ahead of me. It's a pretty scary experience to climb up along these exposed spikes just hammered into the side of the mighty Karri tree, but the view from the top at 60 meters was brilliant (they used to be used as fire lookouts by the forest rangers there). I was well impressed by Sarah's enthusiasm - I'd done a high-ropes experience years ago at the Killary Adventure Centre as part of a birthday present weekend Sarah had bought me, but Sarah had been far too scaried to give it a go - seems travelling is broadening her scope for adventure nicely!
We pretty much ended our Western Australian odyssey in the town of Albany, where I'd heard there was great scuba-diving. We stayed an extra night so that I could get on a scuba trip to a famous local ship wreck, but unfortunately on the morning of the dive it was cancelled due to poor weather.
Then it was back to Perth to catch our onward flight to Melbourne and meeting up with Mikey, Steph and Enda. Little did I know at the time that we'd end up spending nearly two months there!
We spent the whole day cycling around the beautiful island, basically covering the whole thing during the day. Donncha then picked us up when we got back off the ferry and then it was back to his lovely house to meet his wife Gillian and their new babbie, and have a lovely BBQ. It was a great night chatting and reminiscing about Malahide and just shooting the breeze really, before Donncha dropped us back into the city again. It seemed weirdly 'normal' to be just sitting around in a mate's gaff having dinner after the days cycling, but I really enjoyed the relaxed nature of the whole day.
After a couple of more days checking out Perth we rented a car to head down along the south coast of Western Austrialia. First stop was just down the road at Freemantle, which is a lovely buzzy place (and had one of the best bars of the trip so far I reckon, the Little Creatures Brewery).
Then is was down into the Margaret River region and exploring some of the vineyards thereabouts (and buying some wine for Mikey and Steph, and beers from a local brewery for Enda, who'd we'd be meeting up with in Melbourne).
Moving along we took the scenic train journey from Pemberton (that had a fantastically entertaining driver/guide), and climbed up the very impressive Gloucester tree. I was putting my hiking boots on and was surprised to see that Sarah had already vanished up the tree well ahead of me. It's a pretty scary experience to climb up along these exposed spikes just hammered into the side of the mighty Karri tree, but the view from the top at 60 meters was brilliant (they used to be used as fire lookouts by the forest rangers there). I was well impressed by Sarah's enthusiasm - I'd done a high-ropes experience years ago at the Killary Adventure Centre as part of a birthday present weekend Sarah had bought me, but Sarah had been far too scaried to give it a go - seems travelling is broadening her scope for adventure nicely!
We pretty much ended our Western Australian odyssey in the town of Albany, where I'd heard there was great scuba-diving. We stayed an extra night so that I could get on a scuba trip to a famous local ship wreck, but unfortunately on the morning of the dive it was cancelled due to poor weather.
Then it was back to Perth to catch our onward flight to Melbourne and meeting up with Mikey, Steph and Enda. Little did I know at the time that we'd end up spending nearly two months there!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Back in Cape Town
I always love getting back to a city I like and am familiar with, (as opposed to arriving in a city or town for the first time, and not having a clue where things are), and Cape Town was certainly no exception there. We settled into the now familiar Carnival Court hostel, getting the same room as before (it had a great view of Table Mountain from the corridor outside the room, but then the mountain is visible from nearly everywhere in Cape Town anyway).
But a day or so after we arrived we got the biggest scare of the whole trip so far. We rang Qantas to try and change the dates of our flight to Melbourne from Perth and were informed that all our remaining flights were probably void since we missed our last flight on Nov. 15th! We had rang them weeks ago to move that date to Dec 10th, but now the girl said we needed to endorse that date change by going to a Qantas office before Nov 15th (something the original girl had never mentioned). The system now showed us as a 'no-show', and so all the remaining flights on our tickets were now completely void and therefore useless. Needless to say I freaked out, thinking it was going to cost a small fortune to get new tickets, but we rang Trailfinders in Dublin (where we booked the original tickets) and the guy there calmly informed us that all our flights were still showing up on the computer, and that everything looked OK to him. But he still recommended that we get to the nearest Qantas office as soon as possible and get our tickets physically endorsed (they just put a wee sticker on your flight ticket with the changed dates). So a couple of days later (this happened on the weekend), we hired a car and headed out to the airport to get it all sorted out. I was a bit nervous that there would still be a problem, but everything was sorted out quite quickly and painlessly in the end. I tried a few times subsequently to get upgrades on our subsequent flights by way of compensation, as it caused serious stress and worry, and the expense of the hire car, and the problem hadn't been our fault at all, but each time I was fobbed off - ah well...
Since we now had the rental car for the rest of the day we headed down the coast to Muizenburg to have a nice lunch in a restaurant situated in the old railway station - Fogeys Railway House Restaurant. After lunch it was a lovely walk along the sea front to St James. We headed back to Cape Town via the famous Chapman's Peak scenic drive that was closed when we were last in Cape Town. It really is a spectacular drive along the coast, although not that long. At the major viewing point along the way we bumped into the motorcyclist guy, Frank, that we met in Windhoek. Also popped into the Rhodes Memorial that we'd missed last time in Cape Town before dropping the car back by 17:30.
The next day I hired a bicycle (while poor Sarah nursed a hangover), and I had a brilliant day riding all over the place. I started by heading up to the lower cable car station (along an extremely steep road), heading down the beautiful beach-strewn coast to the Twelve Apostles hotel and back via Camps Bay, Clifton and the V&A Waterfront. Again it really emphasised to me how a bike is the best way to see any city. It affords the opportunity to take loads of little exploratory detours and to stop anywhere you like along the road to soak up the views - things you don't get the chance to do properly when your in a car really. This way I got to explore many of the fabulous houses dotted around in little cul-de-sacs that clung to the mountain side, quite a few of which seemed to be getting major renovation work done.
That morning just before I headed off cycling I'd bumped into Luke - the young South African lad we met months ago back in Coffee Bay. He hung out with Sarah during the afternoon and met up with us both later that night (along with the motorcyclist Frank and a Dublin guy, Tony, that we met in the hostel). I was quite tried after all the cycling I'd done that day, so I went back to bed quite early, while Sarah stayed out with the guys. I got quite a fright when I woke up at 5:30 and Sarah still hadn't come home - as I knew the latest bar closed at 04:00. After quite a bit of panic and worry I got up to try and phone one of the guys I knew Sarah was with when I bumped into her coming nonchalantly up the stairs. It turned out that they'd met the owner of the Irish bar next door, and after the Jo'Burg bar closed at 4am he'd invited them all back there for a lock-in and a sing song. Needless to say I went back to bed quite relieved, and then had the whole next day all to myself as Sarah slept off her excesses!
The other days in Cape Town were spent just chilling out and strolling about the town. We had a fantastic meal with Frank at the Cabbage and Savoy, one of Cape Town's best restaurants and basically just soaked up the city. I was sorry to leave Cape Town again the second time, but after 7 months in Africa it was finally time to move on.
We flew to Johannesburg and spent a couple of days staying in Kuda's new house. Unfortunately Kuda herself was in Zimbabwe, but we had a great couple of days being entertained by her two great kids, Curtley and Vuyiso. On the day we were flying on to Oz we actually heard that Kuda had been in a car crash on her way back from Zimbabwe. We tried to get our flights changed so we could stay on and mind the kids, but it was impossible to change our dates due to the Christmas holidays. It turned out that the Kuda was actually fine - we spoke to her on the phone and she was just amazed to have survived what sounded like a very nasty crash with only minor leg injuries.
Anyway, it was all a bit of a mad rush to the airport in the end, but we got there with plenty of time and then it was off on the next leg of the journey to Perth.
I have to say that all in all I was massively impressed with Africa. The people throughout were just amazing - in fact, I think that's a common theme in all the places I've been to in the world that I really like - once you love the people, you love the place. I've always loved the people of the Asian Buddhist nations like Thailand, Nepal and Vietnam, mainly because they seem so superbly happy and serene. I'm not sure what the common link is across all the African people we met, it doesn't seem philosophical like the Buddhists, it just seems to be a fun-loving, life-loving happiness and friendliness - maybe it's just the pure simplicity of rural life, I don't know, but whatever it is, I like it!
But a day or so after we arrived we got the biggest scare of the whole trip so far. We rang Qantas to try and change the dates of our flight to Melbourne from Perth and were informed that all our remaining flights were probably void since we missed our last flight on Nov. 15th! We had rang them weeks ago to move that date to Dec 10th, but now the girl said we needed to endorse that date change by going to a Qantas office before Nov 15th (something the original girl had never mentioned). The system now showed us as a 'no-show', and so all the remaining flights on our tickets were now completely void and therefore useless. Needless to say I freaked out, thinking it was going to cost a small fortune to get new tickets, but we rang Trailfinders in Dublin (where we booked the original tickets) and the guy there calmly informed us that all our flights were still showing up on the computer, and that everything looked OK to him. But he still recommended that we get to the nearest Qantas office as soon as possible and get our tickets physically endorsed (they just put a wee sticker on your flight ticket with the changed dates). So a couple of days later (this happened on the weekend), we hired a car and headed out to the airport to get it all sorted out. I was a bit nervous that there would still be a problem, but everything was sorted out quite quickly and painlessly in the end. I tried a few times subsequently to get upgrades on our subsequent flights by way of compensation, as it caused serious stress and worry, and the expense of the hire car, and the problem hadn't been our fault at all, but each time I was fobbed off - ah well...
Since we now had the rental car for the rest of the day we headed down the coast to Muizenburg to have a nice lunch in a restaurant situated in the old railway station - Fogeys Railway House Restaurant. After lunch it was a lovely walk along the sea front to St James. We headed back to Cape Town via the famous Chapman's Peak scenic drive that was closed when we were last in Cape Town. It really is a spectacular drive along the coast, although not that long. At the major viewing point along the way we bumped into the motorcyclist guy, Frank, that we met in Windhoek. Also popped into the Rhodes Memorial that we'd missed last time in Cape Town before dropping the car back by 17:30.
The next day I hired a bicycle (while poor Sarah nursed a hangover), and I had a brilliant day riding all over the place. I started by heading up to the lower cable car station (along an extremely steep road), heading down the beautiful beach-strewn coast to the Twelve Apostles hotel and back via Camps Bay, Clifton and the V&A Waterfront. Again it really emphasised to me how a bike is the best way to see any city. It affords the opportunity to take loads of little exploratory detours and to stop anywhere you like along the road to soak up the views - things you don't get the chance to do properly when your in a car really. This way I got to explore many of the fabulous houses dotted around in little cul-de-sacs that clung to the mountain side, quite a few of which seemed to be getting major renovation work done.
That morning just before I headed off cycling I'd bumped into Luke - the young South African lad we met months ago back in Coffee Bay. He hung out with Sarah during the afternoon and met up with us both later that night (along with the motorcyclist Frank and a Dublin guy, Tony, that we met in the hostel). I was quite tried after all the cycling I'd done that day, so I went back to bed quite early, while Sarah stayed out with the guys. I got quite a fright when I woke up at 5:30 and Sarah still hadn't come home - as I knew the latest bar closed at 04:00. After quite a bit of panic and worry I got up to try and phone one of the guys I knew Sarah was with when I bumped into her coming nonchalantly up the stairs. It turned out that they'd met the owner of the Irish bar next door, and after the Jo'Burg bar closed at 4am he'd invited them all back there for a lock-in and a sing song. Needless to say I went back to bed quite relieved, and then had the whole next day all to myself as Sarah slept off her excesses!
The other days in Cape Town were spent just chilling out and strolling about the town. We had a fantastic meal with Frank at the Cabbage and Savoy, one of Cape Town's best restaurants and basically just soaked up the city. I was sorry to leave Cape Town again the second time, but after 7 months in Africa it was finally time to move on.
We flew to Johannesburg and spent a couple of days staying in Kuda's new house. Unfortunately Kuda herself was in Zimbabwe, but we had a great couple of days being entertained by her two great kids, Curtley and Vuyiso. On the day we were flying on to Oz we actually heard that Kuda had been in a car crash on her way back from Zimbabwe. We tried to get our flights changed so we could stay on and mind the kids, but it was impossible to change our dates due to the Christmas holidays. It turned out that the Kuda was actually fine - we spoke to her on the phone and she was just amazed to have survived what sounded like a very nasty crash with only minor leg injuries.
Anyway, it was all a bit of a mad rush to the airport in the end, but we got there with plenty of time and then it was off on the next leg of the journey to Perth.
I have to say that all in all I was massively impressed with Africa. The people throughout were just amazing - in fact, I think that's a common theme in all the places I've been to in the world that I really like - once you love the people, you love the place. I've always loved the people of the Asian Buddhist nations like Thailand, Nepal and Vietnam, mainly because they seem so superbly happy and serene. I'm not sure what the common link is across all the African people we met, it doesn't seem philosophical like the Buddhists, it just seems to be a fun-loving, life-loving happiness and friendliness - maybe it's just the pure simplicity of rural life, I don't know, but whatever it is, I like it!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Etosha
Etosha National Park is pretty huge, but unlike Kruger in South Africa it doesn't have much of a road network, basically just one major road through the park and a number of side roads off that (it's dominated by a massive salt pan, which you can drive out into, and is pretty impressive with it's endlessly desolate horizons. And at one stage driving along the edge of the pan we could see a distant herd of zebra strolling across the pan in single file, just shimmering on the heat-hazy horizon). It also only has three major centres that provide accommodation, all of which are pretty expensive, even just for camping. So we stayed just outside the park on our first day, getting up early the next morning to head into the park proper.
The camp we stayed at was actually gorgeous and we ended up staying two nights. The owner guy was a real outdoors-man and had a big collection of rescued animals, snakes, scorpions, etc. My favorite though of course were the meerkats, the first of which appeared in the car as Sarah was clearing it out. They were very friendly, hugely inquizitive and of course very cute. They also had a tame young antelope just wandering around.
The wildlife viewing in Etosha was pretty much the same as the other parks we've been in - that is to say lots of driving around with occasional sightings. But really the highlight, and the huge atttraction for me, of Etosha is the permanent waterholes they have set up just outside the three accommodation centres. These waterholes attract many of the animals throughout the day, so once you're prepared to just sit there for long enough you've got a really good chance of plenty of sightings. They are also floodlit all night, and so they provide a fantastic opportunity to view nocturnal animals if your prepared to wait up for them.
The first campsite we drove too had a huge number of antelope at their waterhole, a really impressive sight, especially as you get so close to all the animals and can just sit there and observe them at your leisure. The campsite was very recently renovated and so I took a peek around one of their new luxury lodges (basically I just spotted a cleaner cleaning one, and strolled up to her and asked if it was OK if I had a look around - and of course she didn't mind in the slightest) - very impressive it was too with a great view of the waterhole.
Afterwards we drove on to the Halali camp where we stayed for a few nights. It's a nice camp and had a lovely big pool, which came in very handy after our first day as we got a nasty puncture while out on the road (the tyre split and was not repairable). We didn't really know what the rules were for changing a wheel in the park, as they are very strict about not leaving your car (due to all the dangerous wildlife around). But having no choice really I started to change the wheel as Sarah kept a lookout. Luckily a Swiss guy came along and gave a very helpful hand, as I'd never changed a wheel in my life, and needless to say neither had Sarah.
When we got back to the camp I talked to the manager guy about getting a new tyre. He was very helpful but told me they'd have to get a new tyre delivered from one of the other camps. The next day it turned out the guys forgot the tyre and so we ended up having to stay all day lounging around the park (I didn't want to be driving around without a spare tyre). The next day they screwed up yet again, but the manager guy then sent one of his lads out in a jeep direct to the other camp to pick up the spare tyre. It ended up costing a relative fortune too, but it was an education to see the garage dude actually remove the split tyre and fit the new one. He had to use really basic equipment and it took him ages (the sweat was poring off the poor 'auld lad), and I thought for a while he wouldn't be able to do at all, but eventually he got it all sorted out.
So over our three days in the park itself we didn't get to drive around it too much. Instead I spent many hours sitting at the waterhole, including getting up before sunrise to watch the parade of various animals come to the water. Sarah got bored easily and never really hung around the waterhole for very long (something I noticed amoung a very large proportion of the couples that would come to the waterhole - the couple would arrive, sit around for an hour or so, then the girl would leave while the guy would sit there for a good while longer on his own). Indeed nothing much really happens most of the time, so you have to be comfortable just sitting there contemplating really - something I reckon I'm pretty good at really!
After dinner on the second night I went back up to the waterhole (Sarah didn't bother coming at all), but after about four hours or so I was richly rewarded. By this stage there was only about 8 people at the waterhole (all guys), and the first thing I noticed was a huge porcupine walking up to the water. He was really impressive and I moved up to the edge of the viewing area to get a better look. After he'd ambled off I remained where I was and about 5 minutes later heard ominiously loud, crunching footsteps. After a minute or so of wondering what it was approaching, two huge black rhinos appeared in the floodlights. We'd seen loads of white rhinos, but the black lads are much, much rarer, so this was a real treat.
Not much later an anteater appeared - a mental looking furry critter that zigzagged all over the place before disappearing again. I was thinking all this was great - seeing all these nocturnal animals so clearly, but it was now past midnight and I was getting a bit tired. I decided to hang around for a bit longer though, and about 15 minutes later nothing less than a leopard appeared. After all the safaris we'd been on, and all the months in Africa, the only major animal we hadn't seen was the elusive leopard. At first I thought it was probably just another boring lion, but it quickly became clear it was a leopard - acting very suspicious and nervous. He drank for a short while before running back into the bush. I'd borrowed a pair of binoculars from a German guy beside me to get a really good look at him, but I couldn't focus on him properly before he legged it.
I was really delighted at this stage, and there was nothing more I really wanted to see, so I went back to our tent. Poor Sarah was obviously quite miffed that she'd missed the leopard, but of course you can only get 'lucky' if you give yourself the opportunity to be 'lucky'.
After leaving Halali we popped into the third campsite, Namutoni. This is another lovely site, newly renovated, based on an old German fort, although it had a pretty dead atmosphere when we were there. We had a bit of lunch here and swam in their 'residents only' pool. And then we left Etosha, making our way to the Waterberg Plateau.
The plateau is an impressive goelogical sight, and we stayed a couple of days relaxing in the nearby pool (which at times was like dead-fly soup!), and hiking in the area (including hiking up to the top of the plateau itself, and having a tasty lunch sitting on the edge!). Then it was back to Windhoek for a few days R&R at the Chameleon Backpackers again, which I really loved, and eating in lovely restaurants like Am Weinberg and Nice, and lunch at the Heinitzburg Castle (with it's impressive views).
When it finally came to leave Namibia we decided to head back to Cape Town again for another week. We'd changed our flights to alow us 3 weeks in Namibia, but ended up doing it all in just over two. I'd loved Cape Town so much the first time around that I was actually quite keen to spend a bit more time there just relaxing and stuff, so back on the bus again, and the next day it was back to Long Street and the Carnival Court hostel right in the heart of the action.
The camp we stayed at was actually gorgeous and we ended up staying two nights. The owner guy was a real outdoors-man and had a big collection of rescued animals, snakes, scorpions, etc. My favorite though of course were the meerkats, the first of which appeared in the car as Sarah was clearing it out. They were very friendly, hugely inquizitive and of course very cute. They also had a tame young antelope just wandering around.
The wildlife viewing in Etosha was pretty much the same as the other parks we've been in - that is to say lots of driving around with occasional sightings. But really the highlight, and the huge atttraction for me, of Etosha is the permanent waterholes they have set up just outside the three accommodation centres. These waterholes attract many of the animals throughout the day, so once you're prepared to just sit there for long enough you've got a really good chance of plenty of sightings. They are also floodlit all night, and so they provide a fantastic opportunity to view nocturnal animals if your prepared to wait up for them.
The first campsite we drove too had a huge number of antelope at their waterhole, a really impressive sight, especially as you get so close to all the animals and can just sit there and observe them at your leisure. The campsite was very recently renovated and so I took a peek around one of their new luxury lodges (basically I just spotted a cleaner cleaning one, and strolled up to her and asked if it was OK if I had a look around - and of course she didn't mind in the slightest) - very impressive it was too with a great view of the waterhole.
Afterwards we drove on to the Halali camp where we stayed for a few nights. It's a nice camp and had a lovely big pool, which came in very handy after our first day as we got a nasty puncture while out on the road (the tyre split and was not repairable). We didn't really know what the rules were for changing a wheel in the park, as they are very strict about not leaving your car (due to all the dangerous wildlife around). But having no choice really I started to change the wheel as Sarah kept a lookout. Luckily a Swiss guy came along and gave a very helpful hand, as I'd never changed a wheel in my life, and needless to say neither had Sarah.
When we got back to the camp I talked to the manager guy about getting a new tyre. He was very helpful but told me they'd have to get a new tyre delivered from one of the other camps. The next day it turned out the guys forgot the tyre and so we ended up having to stay all day lounging around the park (I didn't want to be driving around without a spare tyre). The next day they screwed up yet again, but the manager guy then sent one of his lads out in a jeep direct to the other camp to pick up the spare tyre. It ended up costing a relative fortune too, but it was an education to see the garage dude actually remove the split tyre and fit the new one. He had to use really basic equipment and it took him ages (the sweat was poring off the poor 'auld lad), and I thought for a while he wouldn't be able to do at all, but eventually he got it all sorted out.
So over our three days in the park itself we didn't get to drive around it too much. Instead I spent many hours sitting at the waterhole, including getting up before sunrise to watch the parade of various animals come to the water. Sarah got bored easily and never really hung around the waterhole for very long (something I noticed amoung a very large proportion of the couples that would come to the waterhole - the couple would arrive, sit around for an hour or so, then the girl would leave while the guy would sit there for a good while longer on his own). Indeed nothing much really happens most of the time, so you have to be comfortable just sitting there contemplating really - something I reckon I'm pretty good at really!
After dinner on the second night I went back up to the waterhole (Sarah didn't bother coming at all), but after about four hours or so I was richly rewarded. By this stage there was only about 8 people at the waterhole (all guys), and the first thing I noticed was a huge porcupine walking up to the water. He was really impressive and I moved up to the edge of the viewing area to get a better look. After he'd ambled off I remained where I was and about 5 minutes later heard ominiously loud, crunching footsteps. After a minute or so of wondering what it was approaching, two huge black rhinos appeared in the floodlights. We'd seen loads of white rhinos, but the black lads are much, much rarer, so this was a real treat.
Not much later an anteater appeared - a mental looking furry critter that zigzagged all over the place before disappearing again. I was thinking all this was great - seeing all these nocturnal animals so clearly, but it was now past midnight and I was getting a bit tired. I decided to hang around for a bit longer though, and about 15 minutes later nothing less than a leopard appeared. After all the safaris we'd been on, and all the months in Africa, the only major animal we hadn't seen was the elusive leopard. At first I thought it was probably just another boring lion, but it quickly became clear it was a leopard - acting very suspicious and nervous. He drank for a short while before running back into the bush. I'd borrowed a pair of binoculars from a German guy beside me to get a really good look at him, but I couldn't focus on him properly before he legged it.
I was really delighted at this stage, and there was nothing more I really wanted to see, so I went back to our tent. Poor Sarah was obviously quite miffed that she'd missed the leopard, but of course you can only get 'lucky' if you give yourself the opportunity to be 'lucky'.
After leaving Halali we popped into the third campsite, Namutoni. This is another lovely site, newly renovated, based on an old German fort, although it had a pretty dead atmosphere when we were there. We had a bit of lunch here and swam in their 'residents only' pool. And then we left Etosha, making our way to the Waterberg Plateau.
The plateau is an impressive goelogical sight, and we stayed a couple of days relaxing in the nearby pool (which at times was like dead-fly soup!), and hiking in the area (including hiking up to the top of the plateau itself, and having a tasty lunch sitting on the edge!). Then it was back to Windhoek for a few days R&R at the Chameleon Backpackers again, which I really loved, and eating in lovely restaurants like Am Weinberg and Nice, and lunch at the Heinitzburg Castle (with it's impressive views).
When it finally came to leave Namibia we decided to head back to Cape Town again for another week. We'd changed our flights to alow us 3 weeks in Namibia, but ended up doing it all in just over two. I'd loved Cape Town so much the first time around that I was actually quite keen to spend a bit more time there just relaxing and stuff, so back on the bus again, and the next day it was back to Long Street and the Carnival Court hostel right in the heart of the action.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Swakopmund
So Swakopmund is a nice wee town - on our way there we cruised around the coast a bit (it's romantically called the 'Skeleton Coast' of course, but most of the coast is under restricted access due to large-scale diamond mining and we only ever saw one shipwreck). We drove through Walvis Bay seeing loads of flamingos and pelicans, and a salt mine with impressive mountains of salt, they use natural evaporation of the sea water I think.
Like most of Namibia that we visited it was almost totally dominated by German tourists (Namibia was a German colony years ago, and it still receives major development aid from there). It bills itself as an adventure capital, with all the usual stuff, but the only really new thing that appealed to me was the sandboarding, so we had to try that. It really is very similar to snowboarding, although they can't construct drag lifts, so you have to hike back up the dune after each run - it was good though. We also got to have a go at riding down the dunes on large sheets of cardboard, which is pretty basic obviously - you just lie down on the sheet, point down the dune and off you go - a good laugh really.
After the boarding we drove around the desert along a specific tourist route to find the oldest plants in the world, the freakish looking welwitschia. You get to see loads of them strewn around, but the one at the end of the drive is by far the most impressive - an absolute monster surrounded by fencing and having a viewing platform.
Other than that we visited a small and a bit dilapidated aquarium (and saw the turtles being feed), ate at a cool restaurant built from an old ship and located on the impressive pier, and watched the flamingos and pelicans.
It was here that we met a guy Frank who is driving a motorcycle around the world - he's been going for 5 years now I think, and reckons he has a couple more to go (http://www.mrbeem.net/). He hopes to make a movie or documentary from all the video footage he's collected. We met him in a cool local bar in Swakopmund (Fagins), where again we were the only white people - it had a great atmosphere with everyone being so friendly and relaxed, and again it made me feel I was back in Africa proper, hanging out with the locals. We actually bumped into Frank again later in Cape Town, and spent a few days hanging around, he was a cool guy.
On the recommendation of a Kiwi girl we decided to take a wee detour to visit Spitzkoppe, another one of Namibia's famous desert attractions. It really is very 'deserty' with lots of mad rock formations and mountains, and a few hard-to-make-out rock paintings. Lots of people camp rough out here, but we just weren't properly prepared that kind of thing unfortunately.
So after our few days chilling out in and around Swakopmund we moved on up to the Etosha National Park, another one of the famous African safari destinations.
Like most of Namibia that we visited it was almost totally dominated by German tourists (Namibia was a German colony years ago, and it still receives major development aid from there). It bills itself as an adventure capital, with all the usual stuff, but the only really new thing that appealed to me was the sandboarding, so we had to try that. It really is very similar to snowboarding, although they can't construct drag lifts, so you have to hike back up the dune after each run - it was good though. We also got to have a go at riding down the dunes on large sheets of cardboard, which is pretty basic obviously - you just lie down on the sheet, point down the dune and off you go - a good laugh really.
After the boarding we drove around the desert along a specific tourist route to find the oldest plants in the world, the freakish looking welwitschia. You get to see loads of them strewn around, but the one at the end of the drive is by far the most impressive - an absolute monster surrounded by fencing and having a viewing platform.
Other than that we visited a small and a bit dilapidated aquarium (and saw the turtles being feed), ate at a cool restaurant built from an old ship and located on the impressive pier, and watched the flamingos and pelicans.
It was here that we met a guy Frank who is driving a motorcycle around the world - he's been going for 5 years now I think, and reckons he has a couple more to go (http://www.mrbeem.net/). He hopes to make a movie or documentary from all the video footage he's collected. We met him in a cool local bar in Swakopmund (Fagins), where again we were the only white people - it had a great atmosphere with everyone being so friendly and relaxed, and again it made me feel I was back in Africa proper, hanging out with the locals. We actually bumped into Frank again later in Cape Town, and spent a few days hanging around, he was a cool guy.
On the recommendation of a Kiwi girl we decided to take a wee detour to visit Spitzkoppe, another one of Namibia's famous desert attractions. It really is very 'deserty' with lots of mad rock formations and mountains, and a few hard-to-make-out rock paintings. Lots of people camp rough out here, but we just weren't properly prepared that kind of thing unfortunately.
So after our few days chilling out in and around Swakopmund we moved on up to the Etosha National Park, another one of the famous African safari destinations.
Friday, March 14, 2008
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.
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.
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