Nambia and beyond

If you look at the date, it certainly has been a little while since my last post. Mostly due to lack of internet access. Currently with my volunteer family and I am a few miles away from any internet action. I will now do the best I can to catch everyone up. Feeling a little under the weather right now, but am hoping it's just a little virus, instead of malaria. I will keep you posted. Boy, that's a crappy thing to write isn't it. Now I've got everybody a little worried. I'll be fine, and if all else fails, it will be an experience. Didn't realize how far behind I was on the posts. Hanging out with the bushman was an amazing experience. Essentially the people do actually live in more "modern" homes, though out here, that's not saying much, but for this cultural experience, they in fact dress in there traditional garb, which involves a leather loin cloth and that's about it. We were taken to the traditional village which involved straw huts and the medicine man took us around the area to show us how they once and occasionally still do, utilize the plants for medicinal reasons, water, food, and trapping small animals. The lead guy spoke only the local language of Xhosa, which is pronounced more like cosa, with various clicking sounds of the tongue and palate to form words. He was actually quite funny and entertaining and provided lots of information about the culture. After that, we headed to Etosha Safari park. Now as you can tell, I have seen quite a few animals already and it takes a lot to entertain my interests, but a few things stood out in this venture. One, we saw a lion quite close up that was either suffering from dehydration or had been hit, because it swayed back and forth for about 50 feet until it just plopped down and remained panting. Our leader called the headquarters to report this so hopefully it got some kind of help, but it was indeed strange to see such an incredibly strong animal in such a debilitated state. We also saw a black Rhino about 75feet away or so, which is always a treat since they are so rare. The park also had another feature which I hadn't seen which are watering holes that are adjacent to the park, but which shine lights at nighttime so you can sit there and watch animals that might show up. Although it was impossible for me to capture the animals, I did see some jackals, antelope, an owl and a few other things that I don't know what they were. Earlier on in the day, although I didn't witness it, there was an elephant. After Etosha, we proceeded into the heart of the desert to Spitzkoffe, which is essentially a series of large rock hills/mountains made out of reddish granite. It reminded me a bit of Joshua tree meets Arches National Park, because right next to our campsite which was along side some huge rocks (and I do mean huge), there was actually a rock arch. You will also begin to notice that with Namibia being a German colony, the names reflect this, as does the sense of order of many of the towns and cities. As far as Spitkoffe, there was no city, town or even running water for that matter. Most of our time there involved taking amazing sunset/sunrise photos and hiking up incredibly difficult mountains where I managed to acquire a variety of scrapes and cuts from rocks and cacti. It was challenging and felt good after one spends most of the time on the truck, your muscles feel like there is some atrophying going on, meanwhile, the gut is growing from all the food and beer. After a couple nights there, we then moved out to the coast, which still resembled a vast wasteland but was interspersed with desalinization plants, which I would guess provided a lion's share of their water supplies. Luckily for Namibia, one of their greatest resources are huge diamond mines in the southern part of the country which is strictly off limits to anyone (big surprise). Our first stop on the coast was Cape Cross where there is the largest seal colony I have ever seen and probably one of the most smelly things I have ever encountered. I think the fact that I am a nurse, that might lend a lot of credibility to that statement. It was an amazing sight, but one can only tolerate it for a short period of time, before survival becomes tenuous. I think it may have taken a half hour before the smell dissipated from my olfactory ducts. As we moved down the coast we began to see a series of small beach enclaves, which looked quite odd, because there would be nothing and then a string of brightly colored small stone homes which were of course very ordered. Our next stop would be the incredibly entertaining Swakopmund, known as the Livingstone of Nambia, referring to the amount of opportunities to risk your life (remember my bungee jump/ultralight, etc.). That afternoon, a handful of us decided to do some quadbiking which is an ATV over the sand dunes. This was an awesome and much scarier experience than I expected. First of all, it's quite different driving than a motorcycle, which I have a couple of years experience with, and secondly, you are driving on sand which is a challenge. I was certainly the grandpa of the group and was found usually at the back, sometimes going around in circles down some dunes (and not on purpose), but it still was incredible fun as we scaled the sides of dunes about 30 feet in the air and curved downward. It is quite a rush and being out on the dunes was just amazing. I managed to scrape my leg up nicely because at times because I was used to a motorcycle, I was putting my foot down for stability. A very bad idea. After that excitement, we all returned back and cleansed our self after not having access to a shower for a few days and headed out on the town to a nice restaurant right on the coast. I gorged myself on an incredibly large seafood platter to the amazement of all and then washed it down with 2- 1 liter mugs of beer. Got to love the Germans. Our next venue provided more excitement than many of the other adventures. Many of us proceeded to a bar and after many shots, beers and dancing, proceeded to have a small brawl with some rather large South African construction/engineer types. They were complete idiots and were trying to take advantage of a few of our beautiful travelers and then accusing us of stealing her camera. Next thing we knew, there were fists being thrown, even I got a fist to the nose which I had forgot about until I woke up with a rather sore nose and blowing blood out of my nose the next morning. Everything happened rather quickly and the bouncers temporarily held the offenders until one of them got through the ranks and sucker punched one of our friends who was just standing there. Our friend then hit his head either on the wall or the floor and essentially received a concussion. Another friend got headbutted on the forehead and had blood dripping from his forehead. To speed this up a bit, I essentially had to utilize a little of my nursing knowledge in a rather drunken state and at one point even gave my friend several sternal rubs to try to wake him up. He had some souvenir pain two days later. We got our now unresponsive friend into an ambulance, to a hospital, where he slowly woke up and then proceeded to regain full consciousness, though his memory of the event is completely absent. It was an interesting experience on so many levels, but one that doesn't need to be repeated. After a few hours of rest, I then headed out to do some sandboarding which is essentially "sandsledding" on a thin plywood board down some rather steep sand dunes, equipped with helmets and elbow pads. It certainly was scary, when you first went down the hill but soon it became comfortable as you got used to the speed. On the steepest one, I was clocked in at about 70km/hr which is 42 miles per hour, and then hit a little bump at the end that caused you to fly a few feet. It was good fun.