Spitzkoppe It was hard to believe but the 56 day coast to coast overland adventure I'd embarked on in Nairobi was coming to a close. We had three more days on the road after Swakopmund before we'd arrive in Cape Town and I'd start my independent travel in South Africa. I can't say I was sad that the trip was coming to an end. While there were numerous advantages to being on a truck with a planned route, and tour operators arranged for you in each destination; it was very c

Swakopmund just looks funny. It isn't congruent with any sort of mental image one has of a city in Africa. Granted, that initial image is often quite misdirected to start with, given the shamefully limited amount of exposure we Americans get to African news/culture/history. It's German influence was clearly visible; from its architecture and the manicured design of its streets to its cold meats at breakfast. The language of the predominantly white city population, howeve

View over the northern Namibian desert We were on the road staying in a different bush camp each night for several days following Etosha and preceding our stop in Swakopmund - a luxurious four days that we'd get to enjoy the luxury of a dorm bed. What was fast becoming apparent in Namibia was the difficulty of maintaining bodily comfort due to the excessive swings in ambient temperature each day. Mornings waking up huddled in my 15 degree F sleeping bag were cold, breath cr

Lions at Etosha Our first big stop in Namibia was the large game reserve of Etosha National Park. After a long drive in the morning, in blistering heat, our driver Pete told us that he was going to arrange for us to get private vehicle game drives as he was suffering with food poisoning. After setting up our tents, we piled into two 4 x 4 vehicles for our 3 hour game drive. We were informed that many of the animals had already moved to the western part of the park in searc