To Namibia!

Wednesday

Today started with another lion walk, this time taking Kali, who loves to swim, and Puncture, who loves people. That was at 8:00 am and now I have all day to myself in my delightful little cabin with a fridge full of delightful diet coke. I have some lovely photos, but I won’t clog this blog with photos of lions.

I worked on my script and swam through the afternoon. Plus, I did the walk with the baby lions with Jim and Lisa.

In the evening I went on a game drive and then to the bar and fell totally in love with Sally and Nicky, the lovely Scottish women I met yesterday. Honestly, I could spend forever with them and I bless them for reminding me of going to camp as a kid and making new wonderful friends, only to have to say goodbye.

Sally, like so many of the twenty volunteers (who earn about $500/month plus room and board) is a repeat volunteer. You get hooked on Ukutula  and there is the odd mature volunteer, but most are in their twenties.

Thursday

I met Dean at 5:30 for the drive to Tembo Airport, Johannesburg. He is a delightful and mature young man who moved me to tears with a story I don’t have his permission to tell—but what a fine young man.

(And speaking of fine young men… last night I sat by a family of four. The mother is Mexican, the father is German, the kids speak to their parents in English and over desert the ten-year old, who was fluent in German, Spanish and English, was telling his mother about the difference between Karachi and Delhi airports!)

Full flight to Windhoek (Vind-hoke), the capital of Namibia, and at 2:00 pm in the hottest part of the day, I met my driver, Peron, and we drove until 6:30 to Namib Naukluft Lodge, to the southwest of Windhoek and about 120  K from the major dune site I will see tomorrow morning.

Today, it was 36° in Windhoek, when I arrived.

Nyalas are new to me. They are a gorgeous member of the antilope family.

Jim and Lisa (above) and Sally (left) and Nicky.

No flashes in the bar at night. 

Thursday

I met Dean at 5:30 for the drive to Tembo Airport, Johannesburg. He is a delightful and mature young man who moved me to tears with a story I don’t have his permission to tell—but what a fine young man.

(And speaking of fine young men… last night I sat by a family of four. The mother is Mexican, the father is German, the kids speak to their parents in English and over desert the ten-year old, who was fluent in German, Spanish and English, was telling his mother about the difference between Karachi and Delhi airports!)

Full flight to Windhoek (Vind-hoke), the capital of Namibia, and at 2:00 pm in the hottest part of the day, I met my driver, Peron, and we drove until 6:30 to Namib Naukluft Lodge, to the southwest of Windhoek and about 120  K from the major dune site I will see tomorrow morning.

Today, it was 36° in Windhoek, when I arrived.

Desolation. There is truly nothing here. 

Our car—me and Peron. 

The view from my porch.