Sand in my Pockets

I knew almost immediately that I'd get along well with Willem. I could tell when he made a comment about not standing for racism and I was sure of it when he took us for drinks to a "township" (more inner city/diverse feeling part of town), then, I learned Willem shares my love for good conversation and a good read. Makayne and I couldn't be more excited to set out on a five day camping adventure into the desert with our new friend. Willem worked on a cruise ship with my friend Kristina last year and so Kristina helped to introduce us over Facebook.

Meanwhile, we had spent about three days at the Deon family home on top of a great hill, the view, and the family are amazing. Everyone we have stayed with have been complete strangers who have welcomed us into their homes and families. Deon is the father of Lindi, Lindi is the girl we hitchhiked with into Namibia, from Cape Town.

We set out bright and early on a sunny morning about a week ago for our camping trip. The night before, Deon and Willem poured over maps, making sure we would hit as many sights as possible over our trip from the capital city, Windhoek, to the 230 mile trek to the coast of Namibia, Swapkomund. We would camp in between the two destinations, stay on the coast in Willem's family cabin for three nights, then take a different route, going further south, home, where we would camp one last night.

Some highlights from the trip:

- camping beneath the stars with just a sleeping bag and cot - waking up to find jackal tracks an arms reach from where we slept - seeing the sunrise and sunset over dunes, mountains, and desert - driving among oryx, ostriches, springbok, flamingos, seals, pelicans, and fox - eating Willem's great cooking, even if we did have to patiently wait for the stick bread to bake, the soup to boil, or the sauce to finish - having to not worry about the time, being able to read a whole book in a matter of days, and reminding yourself that life is good and beautiful, as Willem said himself, every country is beautiful and when you are able to see that, and sit with a beer and watch the sunset on top of a mountain, you just have to remember that life is good - watching the sights roll by as I listen to hundreds of classic country songs, good music and good lyrics and think of the nice person who spent hours putting all those songs on my ipod the night before I left! - seeing the huge diversity Namibia has to offer, from desert to mountain to ocean - enjoying laughter and drinks with good company - running along the ocean while thousands upon thousands of seals make their way into the water as our paths just nearly touch - being in the presence of the world's largest dunes as I feel the sand in my hair, in between my toes, and nights later, in my pockets - climbing up those dunes and then whizzing down them on a piece of hard cardboard, screaming all the way down - enjoying life and breathing in the fresh air, happy to be a continent away and able to reflect and think

Tomorrow we leave for Etosha national park, something Makayne and I did not plan to do, we thought we would be buying a bus ticket and going overnight into Botswana but instead we are fortunate enough to ride along with Deon as he happens to head in that direction, we will take our time, a few days, and drive through one of the areas most known game parks to see hopefully the big five of game animals!

Deon, his wife Helene, and their two daughters have given us a home away from home, we spent our first night with them in Namibia and now will spend our last night in Namibia with their family.

Write more later, Peace, Chelsey