Making every moment count..

I'm exhausted. But happy.  Happily exhausted.  Is that a thing?

Reality is beginning to sink in that I will be back at home before I know it.  I'm trying to take complete advantage of the time I have left and do everything I possibly can and spend as much time with my ZA friends as possible.  Which means I've been go. go. go and have had  little sleep.

Friday, I think someone try to steal my ATM card.  The machine suddenly jammed when I tried to use and then there were all these people that suddenly wanted to "help" me.  I planted myself in front of the machine and called the bank.  Everything was sorted pretty painlessly.   My bank is at the mall, so now I have an excuse to go shopping next week when I have to pick up the new card :P   I have a second debit card so I was still able to get my drinkin' money.    Which was necessary, because it was off to Sandton for a coworkers birthday party at Taboo.   I think 30 people came out and I was able to meet and network with people in departments I usually don't interact with.   Phil and I were planning on going there in a couple of week to see Black Coffee (house DJ), so it was nice to check out the place before hand. Its pretty swanky.  There's an outdoor pool on the first floor, although I didn't see anyone actually use it.  Now I have people to drag with us in a couple of weeks.

Saturday, a co-worker invited me to her friend's party so that I could "get out of my flat and experience real African culture".    It was a potluck/pool party with families and plenty of little kids running around.  My friend's daughter proudly stated "I watch a lot of movies, so I can speak in American accent just like you".   She was pretty good.   The food was very traditional.   I think every part of the chicken was represented- feets, necks, giblets, liver.  Also chicken curry, ox liver and tripe.   I made caprese pasta salad.   It looked extremely funny perched in the middle of the table.   The kids liked it at least.    I was able to try some samp, a maize dish that is sort of like a thick porridge or a corn congee, with beans and mushrooms and a lentil/cabbage dish. Very yummy.   And there was plenty of amazing house music.   

Yummy food and dirnk!

Chicken feet!  Yummy!

Not my plate.

My plate

1,2,3 Jump!

Lunch really meant all day/ all night party, so I didn't get home until late and we were the first to leave.    I was so tired and really really did not want to get out of bed, which is unusual for me.  I almost bailed on the Earth Adventures Meetup rafting trip I had signed up for.    I'm glad I forced myself to go.    It gave me an opportunity to see another province and another part of the country.  The trip was down the Vaal River in Parys (pronounced Paris) a quirky little town in the Free State.  The weather was beautiful and about midway we were treated to rolling thunder, while the sky stay bright and sunny. The  river was running a little low, but  there were still some class 3 rapids, along with the added challenge of avoiding getting stuck on the rocks.  Yes, I got us stuck on a lot of rocks.  All the birds and flowers and thunder and mansions along the river were very distracting to my special ADD brain.  The rafts were two person, which required much more work and a lot more focus than the 5 person rafts I've done previously.   When there's 4 other people, no one really notices that I spend most of time paddling air.   When there's only one other person, they definitely notice- "PULL, GIRL, PULL!" "OTHER LEFT" "ROCK!!!!" "PADDLE IN THE WATER!!!"   My partner also suggested some strengthening exercises for the upper body at the end.  I guess I should get more serious about cross-training days.   The trip was about 4 hours long, with a little lunch break in the middle.   I am sore today!  Surprisingly, mostly my ass, from sitting on the little seat hammock and bumping along.  I don't think we got an action shot, because while we were waiting our turn to go down the last rapid, I lost control went flying down and landed on top of the raft in front of us that was stuck, running over the guide who was trying to unstick them in the process.  Ooops.   I do have one of us being launched in. And one of me sitting in my raft in the middle of the river looking confused or maybe I was just reflecting on how awesome the day was.  

Pre-trip group shot.  Yay! Meetup.  Another great activity!

Here we go!!!(I'm on the right in pink, with a yellow helmet)

Lunch break with new friends..

I'm in the back right... looking like I'm not exactly sure where I am or how I got there.

Pre-launch safety lecture.  Rule 1: Don't fall out.   This is a good rule.  We practiced falling out...I couldn't get back in.

After such an fantastic, action pack weekend, I can't tell you how great if felt to finally get home Sunday night and light the candles, pour the wine and jump in the bubble bath with a good book.  A perfect end to a perfect weekend.

That's it for me, have a fantastic week!

Namibia 3.0

One more on the Chameleon Safari in Namibia!

The fourth day was bittersweet.   I was excited for a final day in this beautiful country but sad to be leaving this fascinating place and some great people.

It began again for me before the sunrise.... I love wandering around in the darkness and silence. I really wished I had brought running clothes.   After breakfast we waved goodbye to Desert Camp and set off to Solitaire to meet the biologists who would take us Cheetah tracking.  Solitaire is a quirky little town that I'm pretty sure only has the 1 gas station/rest stop.   The Cheetah rescue is a 10km square plot of land that is home ot 6 rescue cheetahs.  The cheetahs are too tame to be released into the wild, so they are collared and used for research purposes and for tourism.  We were able to locate 4 on our tour... one charged us, but only because she though we had food.  She retreated once she realize we did not bare chopped meat.   Her teeth are messed up from abuse, so we are useless to her unless we are chopped up on a platter.  I heard she prefers zebra anyway.

Cheetah Tracking

Some rocks on our way back to Windhoek

Our last ride in the truck

Goodbye Namibia!

That's all for Namibia... I highly recommend a visit to this country and I highly recommend Chameleon Safaris! 

 

Namibia 2.0

Since I'm still Que-tipping sand out of my ears, I feel Namibia posts are still fair game.   And it is taking me FOREVER to go through my 1000+ snaps.

Days 3 of our Chameleon Tour

One benefit to waking up before the ass crack of dawn is that I got to see all thousands and thousands of stars that filled the sky with out the light from the full moon hindering my vision.... I was stupid and only brought an Iphone camera so no amazing pics, unfortunately.    Also a benefit to waking up early, I had the guide to myself, so I got a couple of private lessons in star gazing and am now able to identify the Southern Cross.  I wanted to help prepare breakfast, but by the time I was up at and out at 5:15 am he was already done.... all I had to do was put the water on the stove for coffee.

Day 3 consisted of a day at the Namib-Naukluft National Park... climbing and running down, 3 of the biggest dunes:  Big Daddy, Big Mama, and Dune 45.    The climbs weren't as challenging as they looked, except for maybe Dune 45, where it was already mid-day and the sun was blazing.  Also the path of the morning climbers had already blown away and Alison had to forge our trail.   The view was well worth it!   Absolutely amazing and we had a great view of  Oryx grazing and running below. Dune 45 is the star dune of Sossusvlei and is often featured on National Geographic and other sources.   It's going to be fun to have bragging rights now, every time I see it pictured somewhere.

  On the first dune, Big Daddy, I was getting a little dizzy looking down and see how high we were (Big Daddy is 325 meters high)... I didn't realize that there was no real way to fall off the dune.  The sand is so soft, if I did fall over the ridge, I would have just sunk.   This realization made the others that much easier and more enjoyable.  Running down the side was like skiing in the sand.  The view from the top of Big Daddy into  Deadvlei below was breath taking.   Deadvlei is a grave yard of trees on the dry river bed that have been dead for hundreds of years.

Dune 45

Hey Ostriches!

About to hike up Big Daddy

Sliding down into Deadvlei

Deadvlei

Big Mama

The team on Big Mama

Alison and I on Dune 45

In the evening, we hiked the Sesriem Canyon, one of the only places with water in the desert.

He swore there's fish in there... I didn't believe him

I

After returning to camp,  I said hi to Mr. Oryx that was sleeping under my window, spent some quality time with cocktails in the pool and then a sunset hike to see the sun set over the Naukluft mountain range.   

Hi Oryx

Hi fancy cocktail

Goodbye sun

Namibia 1.0

Great weekend of meeting new friends under the Namibian skies.  I must admit I was hesitant about going on this trip and almost canceled.  I didn't really want to take two days off work and everyone I told about the trip said it wasn't worth going to.  I'm glad I sucked it up and went.

Namibia is gorgeous.  The pictures don't do it justice.   Our tour was booked with Chameleon Safari Tours.  I highly recommend them.   The are professional, knowledgeable and do everything in their power to ensure safety and an amazing experience.  We began in Windhoek Wednesday night, meeting up with 3 members of our tour group Thursday morning at the head office and traveled to Swakopmund, stopping at Dune 7 for lunch, at a gem market where locals sell gem stones locally mined, to the coast to visit the hundreds of flamingos that feed there and finally settling in to Hotel a la mer for the night after a group dinner and sunset on the beach at Tug.

Do you like me- circle yes or no....

Gem Market-  I just had to buy a amethyst necklace... I'm supporting the community, yo.

selfie with the pier at Tug

flamingos everywhere

The next day started bright and early with  sand boarding or sliding down giant dunes on a piece of ply board aka magic carpet ride style.   The guides at the company, Alter Action, were very patient and helpful and had me going from face planting 2 inches into my first run to face planting due to speeding down the dune at 44 mph and stopping myself with my face on my last run.  Wheeeeee. I'm still finding sand in weird places.  The first trek up the dune was a little challenging... but once I went barefoot and made a game of it... you can't stop until you take 100 steps... now 150... now 300... it was easy and kinda fun.

The guides were obsessed with making us do Charlies Angels 

up, up, up we go

My job was to fly.

whoosh!

I totally slid down that at 44 mph.

Yaaassss... We did it!

The rest of our group scooped us up after 7 exhilarating runs down the dunes and we begun our 5 hour drive to Sossusvlei.   Traveling through Kuiseb Pass and Gaub Pass, stopping for pictures at the Tropic of Capricorn.

"long shot" desert potty

River bed... hasn't seen water in years

Long desert roads

We settled into our dessert camp for the night for a little luxury in the desert.

  

Goodnight Namibia