Drive to Namibia; Swakopmund.

Despite the advice we'd heard, we made it from Cape Town to Swakopmund in 2 days. 2 full days of driving mind you, but it can be done...1,890km in 19hrs! "Highlights" from the drive: Namibia is flat and looks a lot like the middle of the US, we saw only 10 cars once we crossed the border on our first day (10 cars in ~150km!), it was so cold at night that there was ICE on our windshield!, and the birds in the Namib desert are stuuupid (2 ended their lives on our windshield). The first wildlife sighting happened as well, as a few babboons were crossing the street right in front of us (luckily we were going slow already!

Last night we arrived in Swakopmund, which is a tiny little beach town with massive German influence - last night we ate at an actual brauhaus, singing and all. We must admit it is strange to be in the middle of Africa and hear people speaking German!! There was even some type of German carnival today??:

Today we did our first actual activity which was a combined sandboarding/quadbiking experience. We ATV'ed for about an hour into the dunes, sandboarding (read: pushed down a huge dune on nothing but a teeny piece of greased up plywood), and then ATV'ed out with a stop to see the ocean. Apparently we are not the only ones to have enjoyed this activity - the Brangelinas have spent time here as well - 13 times to be exact (according to their displayed document). We can see why:

Here are some pics of what we did today:

One more day of admin stuff....

This is what our entire day consisted of basically:






























The picture of the nice lady at Avis that helped us for TWO HOURS trying to figure out all the crap for our rental car. Even though it's Cape Town, it's still Africa man!

En route to Namibia tomorrow, two lonnnnng days of driving ahead of us. Wish us luck and we'll report from Swakopmund!

Finally, we're doing stuff!

On Day 4(ish) in Cape Town we finally had the chance to do stuff.

On African time, of course.

The day began with a cabbie that was 20 min late, making us (what we thought was) late for our ferry to Robben Island. NB: Note that we've mentioned going to RI for 3 days now. We did get to go, but only after a 40 min delay. Anyways, the views of Cape Town were worth it:

The actual tour was o.k. We didn't get as much of the history behind the prisoners as we had hoped. After that, we grabbed a bite and met our man Grant, who drove us from the airport our first night. He was taking us to the townships (shanty towns) and showing us a different part of SA life. Well, after we picked up his daughter and her friend from school of course.

The government is going through a rebuilding program for the shanty towns...namely they want them gone by 2014, so they are slowly moving people into what we'd call projects in the states. Here's a view of what the old government housing looks like:

While we did learn about the townships, here's what else we learned about Grant:

-Grant used to be a gangster (kind of)

-Grant weighs 140kg (his daughter weighs 72kg)

-His baby's momma is a crystal meth addict

-His baby's momma's brother is the leader of 'The Americans' - yes folks, a gang in Cape Town.

Oh, and he wouldn't stop telling us about the township eats...namely, whole boiled chickens, animal testicles/hearts/etc. Only 10 Rand!! Here's what our meter came to after the nearly 2-hour tour (1 Rand = ~7.5USD):

Luckily we only paid about half of that!

After grinding through some rental car and travel planning stuff, we met Elaine's friend's friend Lyndon (sp?) for dinner, and he educated us on S.African history. After dinner he took us to a lovely view of the city:

Tomorrow we'll write again before we head for the hills on Thursday - Namibia!!

Slow Start

We've had a bit of a slow start to our trip. Yesterday was Sunday so not much going on then (everything closed) and today was a national holiday. We tried to go to the Robben Island tour but it was cancelled because it was soooooooo windy.

At least, we got to chat with the travel agent here at the hostel we're staying at, and she was helpful in helping us start to plan our route. We then sat for an hour or so and came up with our plan for the next month...a LOT of driving, but a lot of stuff we'll see and do. So here's the tentative plan...leaving on Thursday with the rental car.

1. Cape Town to Namibian border
2. Namibian border to Swakopmund
3. Swakopmund
4. Swakopmund/Walvis Bay
5. Swakopmund to Sesriem (Namib Desert/ dunes)
6. Soussevlei/Sesriem (climbing sand dunes)
7. to Fish River Canyon
8. Fish River Canyon
9. back into S.Africa, to Wine Country (Western Cape, past Cape Town)
10. Wine country
11. Wine country
12. Wine country to Oudtshoorn via the 'Garden Route' (really pretty drive)
13. Oudtshoorn (ostriches there)
14. to Wilderness (hostel resort type thing)
15. to Knysna
16. to Jeffries Bay - Happy 4th of July!
17. to Cintsa (to an awesome beach hostel we've heard a ton about)
18. Cintsa
19. to Coffee Bay (untouched coastline)
20. to Durban (big city, beaches, good food)
21. to Swaziland
22. Swaziland (hiking, etc)
23. to Maputo
24. Maputo
25. to Imhambane (awesome coast town in Mozambique)
26. Imhambane
27. Imhambane to Kruger National Park in S.Africa
28. Kruger
29. Kruger
30. Kruger to Johannesberg, drop car off, fly to Tanzania

So that's the plan...yeah. Will keep you updated on what *actually* happens! :)

Tomorrow we're going on the Robben Island thing (hopefully) and a city tour, with this guy Grant who drove us from the airport who is a really nice dude, grew up here, etc. Will report back on the inner workings of Cape Town...

We are in Cape Town

Hi Everyone,

We made it safely and uneventfully to Cape Town. The weather sucks. It's cold and really foggy. Last night we got in with just enough time to get situated, enjoy a drink and some food, and crash. After a good night of sleep we wandered around the V&A Waterfront area (basically a mall) which was the only thing open on a Sunday.

Tomorrow is another holiday so we'll see how much we get done - at the very least, we got tickets for the Robben Island tour which is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.

Here's our first picture in Africa (drinking our first beer) as well as a shot of Cape Town from the plane.