How to kill time on a truck

So, with all of these longs days on a truck traveling in Africa, how you do pass the time? Well, there's lots of things to do; you can:

a) Sleep- which is tough when you are bouncing around on gravelly roads.
b) Read- there again, it takes a trained eye to keep steady while you bounce around.
c) Eat- which we all did with quite a bit of frequency, stopping off at every truck stop and filling up with chips (crisps for the Europeans), cookies (biscuits for the Euros), drinks, and other assortment of crap.
d) Listen to music- This all depended on if you had a MP3 player or not and if it was fully charged, as sometimes the charging fairy would visit the Ipod's while they were charging and mysteriously unplug them in favor of his/her own electronic device.
e) Stare aimlessly out into the African country side- which we all did on multiple occasions.

Barring all of those things, you could do something fun when you got your chance to sit with the tables..........play cards! Fortunately, Paula, my truck mate, and I had Michael and Krys with us to show us the wonderful game of Euchre. Things got quite heated, especially when things started to go sour on Michael, but a fun time was had by all involved.

More later......

Love, peace, and soul.

Fish River Canyon

So, after climbing up the Dune 45 and checking out the truly amazing sunset, we made our way further south to the Fish River Canyon. For those not in the know, Fish River Canyon is the world's second largest canyon, with the Grand Canyon being the largest. We arrived kind of late due to the long distance we had to cover (again, thanks Acacia), but we did get there before sunset. So, we hustled up and took some goofy photos just in time to get ready for the obligatory sunset photos.

At this point, you may be wondering exactly how many sunset photos I've taken.........a lot!

More updates later.....

Love, peace, and soul.

Sunset at Dune 45

So, after finally getting our 'new' truck Shashe, we headed on down the road to Sesriem to the Namib desert. On our arrival, we had an interesting guided desert walk in which we learned about desert life and the formation of the dunes. After the desert walk, we found out that we were sticking around so that the people who wanted to see the sunset at Dune 45 could check it out. I was really worn down and wasn't feeling so great, but decided that I'm here and that I would at least go check it out. I may not climb the dune, but I figured, I could at least go check out the sunset. Man! Was I glad I went! The images were just spectacular! As I've tried to attach some of them. The red sand dune at sunset was truly amazing.

More updates to follow......

Love, peace, and soul.

The final breakdown

So, after spending a few days in Swakopmund, we started to head down to Sesriem and out to the Namib desert. Well, after being assured that Kwando had been fixed and that she should be able to make it all the way to Cape Town, what happened? Yeah, you know what happened.....right in the middle of nowhere, Namibia! 150 Kms from Swakopmund and 200 Kms from the next 'town,' which we later saw was just a gas stop. So, there we were, in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the guy to drive 150 Kms from Swakopmund. We knew we were most likely going to spend a llllooooonnnnngggggg time waiting.

So, what did we do? Well, it's amazing what you can do when you are bored. We played hot toilet roll, which is amazing like hot potato. We played musical chairs. We tanned. We play basketball.....or sort of. We played cards......but the creme de la creme was the desert Olympics! We had the shot put, javelin, discus, 60 meter hurdles, 120 meter hurdles, the standing long jump, the running long jump, and the triple jump. Sadly to say, I came in fourth, but I was the overall winner of the discus competition!

After spending the night camping on the side of the road, we were woken up at 5am to find out that Acacia finally got off their asses and sent us a new truck. We actually 'borrowed' the truck of a group headed from Cape Town to Nairobi, but only for two days as we then found out that we were going to get yet another truck! Apparently, Acacia thought it wasn't fair for us to steal the other groups truck, but they felt it was totally fair to stick us with a crappy truck that broke down a total of 9 times on the way from Nairobi! Thanks Acacia!

Until later......

Love, peace, and soul.

For all you rib fans....

My guide Nel tired to scare me away from the challenge. She warned me that 2 Kgs of ribs were too much, but then again, she thought she was talking to an ordinary man. That's what she gets for thinking!

After a hard day of sand boaring the sand dunes outside Swakopmund, and a particularly light lunch for me, I decided to take on the Double Rack of Ribs challenge at Neopolitana, which was right next door to our hostel. The ribs came out and they were pretty big, but I was really hungry and hadn't really had a lot of beer so far in the evening. I was up for the challenge and couldn't be stopped, especially because my reputation as a Texan was on the line. I looked at the list and noticed that there were only Brits up on the board. Only Brits? As a true Texan, I had to step up to the challenge.........and down the first rack went.

The second rack started off slowly as the biggest rib was kind of tough. I thought to myself, if the whole rack is like this, I'm never going to make it! Thankfully, they all got juicier and juicier and down they went. Sure, I was experiencing the meat sweats and the 'after effects' of eating that many ribs, but it was all worth it to see my name go up on the board. Of course, the free shot of Jaggermeister helped it all digest that much faster.

More later.....

Love, peace, and soul.

Swakopmund......where desert meets ocean

So, after the breakdown in Etosha, we were finally able to make it to Swakopmund......granted the drive was really bumpy as Kwando had no rear suspension, so every bump was felt! We had to miss the Cape Cross seal colony, which I really wanted to check out, and we had to cut our time at Spitzkoppe short, but it was well worth it to pull into Swakopmund as the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean.......absolutely stunning. I must say, it was a personal first for me to see the sun set over the Atlantic and it was really beautiful.

Swakopmund is a truly unique place as just south of the city there are plenty of sand dunes that run literally right up to the beach. You can almost sand board to the beach and the grab a surfboard to start surfing the waves. While Swakopmund is on the coast, it didn't look like there was too much surfing going on as the waves were strong coming into the beach.

Swakopmund seemed like a pretty small town and judging by the number of bars, it's a really small town, but a town on the growth trend. I saw many new condos and beachfront places being built while I was walking through the town. It's got tiny bits of German influence, but they appear just a tad bit tacky. Still a small beach town is a welcome respite.....especially when that small beach town means no tents and hot showers in a hostel!

Until later......

Love, peace, and soul.

Etosha and the watering hole

What can I say about Etosha National Park? Well, for starters, I got a chance to see a lot of our campsite as we were stuck there thanks to Kwando's break down. But it wasn't that terrible of a place to get stuck in........if you like tons of sand and dust. Seriously, the two best things about the campsite we stayed in were the beers were relatively cheap and.....the watering hole. It truly was a unique experience to sit next to this watering hole and see Springbok, Kudu, Zebras, Giraffes, Elephants, Jackals, and Rhinos all come down to drink. Sometimes they came and drank together and other times they drank one at a time. It was truly neat to see the Rhinos drinking from the watering hole and look off in the distance and see the Giraffes waiting for the Rhinos to clear out. Then, once the Giraffes cleared out, the elephants came for a party around the watering hole. It was truly amazing!

Until later.

Love, peace, and soul.

Friday the 13th.......and 'a slight major problem'

So, after getting the gear box in our truck replaced in Windhoek, we thought the worst of our truck problems were all over. We were dead wrong. Dead being stuck in Etosha National Park for three nights. Now, don't get me wrong, I loved the waterhole and checking out all the animals coming down to drink. It's not often you can see elephants, rhinos, kudu, zebras, giraffes, jackals, and springboks chilling around the same waterhole. But really, after about two days of that.......do you really want to stick around for that much longer? Especially when the campsite is dry and dusty......yes, really dusty. I'm still wiping dust out of my bag three days later!

Anyway, so, our first full day in Etosha, we were taking our truck, Kwando, on a full day game drive through the park. Well, the roads were rough and bumpy and we blew our rear axle! Actually, the problem started when the truck was up in Uganda. The roads were really rough and Kwando had some rear axle problems. They did a bushman's fix and we were hoping to make it all the way to Cape Town to get a 'proper' fix. Well, after all the bumps and bruises....Kwando finally gave in. So, that left us stranded in Etosha National Park for couple of extra days. Fortunately, she got fixed and we've made our way to Swakopmund, Namibia.

More on Swakopmund later.......

Love, peace, and soul.

To all my adoring fans.......just chill

To: All my the adoring fans of my blog

From: The guy currently in Africa

Subject: Hey, it's freaking Africa!

I know you all love the blog updates.....and yes, I secretly love to think about moments that are "blogworthy," but you all must realize.....it's Africa and I'm on a truck tour. We're driving on a truck through South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Namibia.....and yes, I'm pitching a tent almost every night. Let me just tell you, I sometimes don't have the best internet in the world. Occasionally, I get to download pictures and even more rarely, I get to chat online with my wonderfully loving and understanding girlfriend. So, between all of those things, I just can't update it every day. Don't hate......appreciate!

And remember, every thing's slower in Africa!

Until later.......

Love, peace, and soul.

Zebra, Crocodolie, Ostrich.........and lots of Beer!

After our Okavango Delta experience we rushed to get to Windhoek, Namibia, which is the capital city. Windhoek was a neat town with a definite German feel to it, in fact, Olaf, my German tent mate, felt right at home. Unfortunately, we were only in Windhoek for an afternoon and an evening. I would have loved to spend another day checking out Windhoek, but we made it a productive trip by going to Joe Beer House for the game sampler. I had a sample of Ostrich, Crocodile, Zebra, Kudu and Chicken......I know, chicken is not game, but what are you going to do? All in all, the food was great! I really liked the Ostrich, which despite being a bird has red meat, and the Zebra and Kudu were solid. The crocodile......well, let's just say that it left a lot to be desired. It kind of tasted like fish, but was really oily and just didn't taste that good. So, in a battle between an Alligator and a Crocodile.....the alligator would get points for better tastes!

After the meal, well, we did what anyone would do at a beer house.....we drank beer! And let me just tell you, don't ever get into a drinking contest with a German. They'll kick your ass, it's true. I have a video of Olaf downing a pint of beer in 4 seconds! I would love to see him try his hand at a pitcher of beer!

Until later......

Love, peace, and soul.

The Okavango Delta.......it's wet!

So, after leaving the Victoria Falls area and having a disappointing game drive in Chobe National Park, we made our way south to Maun, Botswana, which is the unofficial gateway to the Okavango Delta. The delta is fed from Angolan rains and is the largest inland delta in the world. And let me just tell you, it's wet! We took some Makuro (dug-out canoes) rides in the delta to a place where we bush camped and went on a safari walk. Now, the Makuros are a pretty cool experience, but not when you and your tent mate are two big guys like Olaf and I. Our Makuro was 'ridin dirty' and every single wave that we experienced made us nice and wet! Yours truly got the bulk of the wetness there and back and I was pretty much soaked on my back side. Good thing we had lots of time to dry off in our bush camp.

The bush walk was definitely interesting and neat to be out in the wild with the animals, but unfortunately, we didn't see much except for Zebras and a bunch of elephant dung!

Until later.....

Love, peace, and soul.

Somewhere over the rainbow......

Before we left Zambia our trip was just not complete without an actual visit to Victoria Falls. You could see the cloud of mist from just about everywhere, but I hadn't officially gone to see the falls themselves. The second largest falls in the world, I believe, and my first actual visit to a large waterfall.......I must say that I was really impressed! There were rainbows everywhere and they were so vivid.......as the pictures show!

The falls were absolutely stunning from the Zambian side which is not supposed to be the stunning side of the falls. I had an opportunity to go check them out in prior days from the Zimbabwe side, which are supposedly even more spectacular, but no way am I giving Mugabe any of my money!

We're back down to the deserts of Botswana.....quick little fact here: DeBeers supplies the world with 80% of the world's diamonds and half of DeBeers supplies come from Botswana! It's got to be one of the few ways that the country is making money. Another interesting fact is that there currency is called the Pula, which also means rain......which is muy importante in a desert country.

Until later.

Love, peace, and soul.

Boozin & Bruisin!

A nice sunset cruise on the Zambezi river with 23 of your closest friends, what could make it any better than that? Uhhhhhh, booze?! And lots of it! So much so that some of us had a few unexplained bruises in the morning. Well, after getting all together we finally figured it all out. There was the stumble down the stairs by yours truly, the flying squirrel off of Matthew's back, and even our wonderful guide Amy and TRUCK DRIVER Zak got into the action with a knee twist on the dance floor for Amy and 1/2 reverse tummy tuck off the edge of the bar for Zak! Ah, what a night!

We're splitting up the old group as we part ways on separate tours, some to Cape Town and some to Nairobi. I'll truly miss all of the guys and gals heading up to Nairobi and back home. I hope we get a chance to hang out again some day in the future.

Until then,

Love, peace, and soul.

4 out of 5 ain't bad!

So, our first night in the Kruger National Park area we saw 4 of the Big 5! Amazing.....absolutely amazing. I was about 10 feet from a pride of lions.......12 feet from a big rhino......saw a HUGE elephant and got pretty close to a Cape Buffalo. Absolutely amazing!

We had quite the day in the Kruger National Park the next day and actually saw 4 of the Big 5. It's the darn leopard that's so hard to spot! Most of the animals were spotted in the morning and so we spent the afternoon drinking a few bottles of wine. Some of it was good and all of it was cheap!

We're going to try some game meat pretty soon. When we actually visited the Kruger National Park I must have driven our guide bonkers because I was constantly asking him about how the different animals tasted. He recommended kudu and giraffe. So, hopefully tomorrow night we're going to try some!

Until then,

Love, peace, and soul.

It's freakin freezin Mr. Bigglesworth!

So, I expected it to be cold, but I never expected SNOW in Joburg! I mean, really, in your mind you think of Africa as a warm place, but the morning after I arrived in Joburg a cold front blew in and there were small amounts of snow on the ground. So, I spent my free day before my overland tour buying a jacket, a long sleeve shirt and a proper sleeping bag for the camping trip. Not an exciting day to spend in Joburg, but a useful one.

Until later.

Love, peace, and soul.