Life in the Namibian Desert, Africa

After Swakopmund, we packed up the truck and headed south towards one of the oldest deserts in the world, Namib-Naukluft Park.

As we drove, the presence of the desert became more obvious. It was getting dry and it was getting hot!

On our drive through the desert, we passed through the Tropic of Capricorn. How cool – this was the most south I had ever been in the world! We pulled over and stopped for a few pictures and, of course, to sign our names.

No wonder it took us all day to make it from one place to the next!

Now I had been giving Africa a hard time about all of its rain and cold, but as soon as we entered the desert, I immediately took everything back.

Now this was heat!… Where is the water? Shit..

We’re in a desert…

Luckily, the campsite that we were going to stay at for the next couple of nights had a pool that was a short walk away. Thank god! I knew where I would be spending all of my free time.

When we got to the site, we relaxed at the pool, got our tents set up and enjoyed dinner under the stars. The sky in the desert is incredible! It is so huge and the stars seem so close. It’s absolutely amazing.

On our first night, myself, Pam, Lindsay, Kevin and Dale worked on finishing off the boxes of wine we had on the truck.

We had opened them a day before… so …. they would probably be going bad soon if we didn’t…

After finishing off the boxes of wine, myself, Pam, Kevin and Dale pulled out our sleeping mats to lay under the stars. Laying down made it even more amazing! It was like the sky went forever.

How did my life lead me here, I thought? Camping in a desert in the middle of Africa? I mean, seriously? This was about the complete opposite of what my life was months earlier in Canada! And AFRICA of all places… In a TENT?

I had to admit, I was really starting to like this new Tori. She was really adventurous!

Better yet, I was next to this incredibly smart man who was getting more attractive by the second. Maybe it was Namibia, or maybe it was the wine (likely the wine), but something was starting to change in the way I looked at this guy….

What was this all about?

The next morning, Pam and I woke up in a panic and rushed to the truck. My head pounded and I was super dehydrated. Drinking in the African desert was a little harder on the body than drinking in the colder, rainier parts of Africa.

Man, do I hate hangovers.

When I am hungover, I want to do one thing. Nothing. I can’t handle anything else! Maybe I could handle it in my 20s.. but in my 30s.. I have nothing to prove. I feel like crap. I’m not going to try and pretend otherwise.

So the last thing that I wanted to do was hike up a 300 metre sand dune in the middle of the African desert. Yeah – you heard that correctly. To say it was rough, is an understatement… but I stayed focused on the task to get me through. You can not miss out on opportunities like this! Especially, because you are hung over!

So I put my head down, and started walking up this huge sand dune one foot in front of the other. Deep breaths. Drink water. Repeat.

Eventually, I made it to the top but did not stick around for any photo shoots. I thought about tucking myself into the fetal position and rolling back down. I was not sure whether or not I would create a sand avalanche, and did not want to find out. I definitely did not have the energy to crawl out of that mess if it happened.

Then there was Pam. I don’t know how Pam put on such a great game face! She even had me convinced she was not hungover. What WAS her secret? Anyway, at least she got some great shots at the top!

After that, we ate some breakfast at the truck and headed to Deadvlei. Name sounded fitting.. as I wanted to die. Here, we were going to further hike through the desert to explore around the dead marsh. Great.

Some how, I managed to make it out alive! I was even starting to feel a bit better as we left that day back to the campsite, or perhaps, I was just so excited about getting to the pool!

No wait.. not to the pool…..

We pulled over to view Sesriem Canyon. No wait.. we pulled over to explore Sesriem Canyon.

I started to worry the day would never end.

But on I went, hiking through the canyon with the others keeping focused on the shade that was in the canyon! Thank god for that …

Just when I thought my spirits were diminishing – a bird shit on Kevin.

Now that was something to laugh about! He was also quite hungover! Somehow, that made me feel so much better…

Finally, after the canyon we made it back to the pool! That night was an early one as we had an early start to drive to Fish River Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world, the next morning!

After a full day of driving, we made it just in time for the sunset.

Like everything in Africa, the canyon was beautiful! It was particularly incredible, sipping wine and eating some crackers and cheese while watching the sunset with our group.

It was our last night in Namibia! We could not believe we were wrapping up our third African country and the next day we would be heading to South Africa. So we did what only you can do in these circumstances. We celebrated, once again, with lots and lots of wine!