Hello my loved ones,
Me and Ela left Durban on Sunday morning, April 7th, hitching to
Namibia. It was rough the first day, ( we ended sleeping in the
churchyard ), but we compensated the next day, who got us almost to
the Namibian border, which we crossed on tuesday afternoon. The most
bored police there checked all our luggage, probably because they had
nothing better to do. On Wednesday morning we arrived in Windhoek -
Namibia's capital - after a night truck drive and an amazing sunset.

First good thing about namibia. Awsome sunsets.

We spent that day looking for hostel and understanding the town. It
is very small, but has everything you need - the supermarket is fine,
and the people are nice and no much hassle. The only problem was
finding a backparcker's place - the one we tried out of the coast-2-
coast, seemed as if they don't want guests at all. When we knocked on
the door, they didn't even open the gate! We got into the Card Board
Box Backpackers, which is a really cool place and recommended by us.

On friday evening my mother arrived. We went to Eros airport to pick
her up, and found that the plane is 1. late 2. will arrive at the
international airport which is 50km away ... When we arrived there,
it turned out my mother was held in immigration, because they
couldn't find her visa in the passport, AND her luggage was lost.
Cool, ha ?

But everything turned out OK in the morning. The luggage was found in
the other airport, and we started cruising in out rented
airconditioned new car.

Our first destination was Swakopmund, which is on the coast. On the
way there we stopped at Philips Cave - a cave that has rock
paintings, and involved an hour walk over hills. The painting were
cool, and the walk was nice, but what I loved most was a nest of
swallows which had chicks inside and we could see them being fed.

On the ride back we saw giraffs and found a dead owl on the road.
At night we reached a place called "The Space" in Swakop. It's a
rainbow backpackers - meaning, you don't have to pay, and they live
by donations. We didn't stay the night, though, since my mom wanted
better facilities.

The next morning we drove through the desert on gravel roads to
Sossusvley's dunes. The ride was amazing - the desert scenery is
awsome, especially with mirage views all over. We got to sossusvlei
quite late and had to sleep there. There's only one lodge, that costs
1700 N$ for double room. That's about US$150. So we camped.

Next day we went to the dunes. They're supposed to be the highest in
the world - maybe 300m of red sand. And Deadvlei in the middle is a
forest of dead trees, maybe 3000 years old, which were kept there
because of the dry weather. Later that day we drove to Luderitz.

Luderitz's attraction is the ghost city of kolmanskop nearby. It's a
diamonds miners town, which in now mostly covered by sand. As we were
told, a hundered years ago it was an amazingly rich town, with 300
Germans and 800 workers ( i.e. the Germans didn't work ) living
there, having the best of the world - dancing balls and shows and ice
factory and whatnot. All paid for with diamonds. The hospital
contained 250 beds. We wondered why so many beds, until we were told
that patients were given a glass of red wine or champaigne every
evening.

Then we drove to Fish River Canyon. On the way we ran over a poor
snake. The distance on the speedometer was showing 666km. It almost
freaked us out.

We arrived just before sunset, and saw this beautiful canyon, said to
be second biggest in the world. We wished to see it on sunrise, too,
but we were already on a mission up north, and it is so far away ...
so we drove on. The day after we slept in Outjo, in a backpackers
that we were the only guests, and the kids of the owner were so
sweet, and Ela told them bedtime stories.

Next day - Etosha park. It's a big and beautiful park with lots of
animals. We saw gemsbok and springbok and giraffe and zebra and kudu
and squirells and blackfaced impalas - a rare species, of which we
saw maybe 10% of all specimen alive. One day was certainly enough,
and the next day was spent on the long way back to Windhoek.

And on saturday morning, my mom finished her short visit, leaving me
and Ela without actually knowing what to do next. We have rumours
that the war in Angola is over, and Ela wants to go. I'm reluctant so
far. We also have plans about Botswana and about Capetown and taking
Ela's mail from Plett, and back to Durban and sailing to Brazil and
Madagaskar and going overland to Europe and whatnot and the world is
JUST TOO BIG.

Any other suggestions ?

Love, Moddy.

Today is a good day to make God lough by telling Him about your plans.