Interlude 2

Sadly, we saw no cheetah in etosha. I think they’re very hard to spot (get it, spot? Cheetahs have spots, and they’re hard to spot – I am hilarious), but I was hoping. I guess that just means I’ll have to plan another trip…
So, upon leaving etosha we headed south. After an hour and a bit, we came to a town where we could grab some goods for the road, and buy cake and coffee at an apparently well-known café. Maybe it was well-known, but its service left something to be desired. I gave up on getting my coffee after about 20 minutes of waiting. I also think pastries and sweets in general in southern Africa aren’t as good as they are in the states. Probably because they aren’t as sweet. Possibly because they aren’t as fatty. Ah, well. Onward we went.
Our next stop was the petrified forest. Actually, it was just a place with some random pieces of wood that had apparently floated down a river thousands of years ago and then petrified. I need to read up again on the chemistry behind this process. Another thing to do when I have the time and am near the internet for a while. So, when I return to the states in a year. This was my least favorite part of the trip. I didn’t think it was too impressive. From the petrified forest we headed to a place spelled twefylfontein, or something similar. To us it sounded like “trifle fountain” so we were hoping for some good treats. We got rock carvings. Some of them were cool, and there was some symbolism in them that was interesting, and it was pretty neat that they can last as long as they can, but all in all, I didn’t think this part of the trip was too great either. I’m much more of an animal and nature person than a rock carvings person, I guess.
We were going to see the organ pipes, which are a set of rocks that looked like organ pipes next. We never got there.
I guess I could digress here to describe the landscape. Thus far we had been in a reedy, watery delta, savannah-like grasslands, and now we were approaching large hills and mountains. The rock carvings were all on hills. And there were rocks all over the hills. For anyone who has read the hobbit, I think there was a description of the far side of the mountains that it looked as if giants had been having rock wars and throwing rocks at each other. Tolkein could’ve gotten his idea from the “trifle fountain” area. While the carvings weren’t too impressive, I loved the landscape.
So, we never made it to the organ pipes because a desert elephant had been spotted, so we went to check it out. We actually got pretty close, too, before it flared its ears out.
This is a sign that the elephant is unhappy. An unhappy elephant is one that you do not want to be around.
We retreated a little ways and watched it eat. My camera died.
Eventually we were told we had to leave because it was getting dark and we had to set up camp. As it turned out, Alfred and george had already been to the site and set it up for us. We just had to get out our mattresses and luggage. This turned into a mattress fight involving everyone but Stephen (who was feeling better, but not yet well) and mike (who just wasn’t there). I think kyla started the fight, and then there was an unspoken agreement to pounce on mike when he came to get his mattress. Plan: executed. Unfortunately he could run a bit faster with no mattress than we could run with our mattresses so the mission was not entirely successful.
While waiting for dinner we went down to the bar so that mike could quench his passion for a gin and tonic (and hey, who was I to say “no” to one as well?) and there was even a fire near the bar by which we could sit! Hooray! So we hung out for a while, then went back to camp and had dinner, then hung out some more. And then I decided that it was a lovely night, lovely enough in fact to sleep outside. I had never slept outside before, but figured there could be a first time for everything. And we were farther away from animals than we’d been on the entire trip. So I dragged my mattress and sleeping bag from my tent, set it by the fire, watched the stars for a bit, and fell asleep. I awoke early the next morning (I was usually one of the first up, along with kyla – maybe it’s a peace corps thing) to mike getting out of his tent. He said he’d heard noises and started getting worried, thinking about me outside, and thinking that the noises were hyenas. They were chickens. I figured one of the guides would have told me if it was completely unsafe to sleep outside.
After waking up and eating, we packed our bags and left for swakopmund, and for civilization.
That day, I’m pretty sure, was the day of the lick ‘n’ learns. It was also the day of stinkiness.
So first, the lick ‘n’ learns. We stopped in a small town to buy some more supplies, and in a shop mike came across lollipops called lick ‘n’ learns, with either street signs or letters from the alphabet on them. They came in strings of maybe five or so, and he bought a couple and would occasionally pass them around or hand a street sign to george (who was driving) when he thought it appropriate. This became a joke for the rest of the trip. Also, when he got back into the bus with them, Stephen mentioned “there must be some really smart kids out there with really bad teeth.” After laughing, I realized that he must be feeling better if he was able to make a joke. So the lollipops also marked stephen’s recovery, and return to the world.
Then, we went to visit the largest seal colony in the world. What you aren’t told is how completely wretched these animals smell. Sure they look cute, but you don’t want to be around them for more than five minutes. And the ocean around the colony was completely discolored by seal defecation. No wonder they smell. So I took a couple photos and returned to the less pungent bus. After a while, when everyone was back on, we drove down into swakopmund, which is a city on the ocean. This means fresh fish! We got there early afternoon, grabbed lunch, and then I and quite a few other people took a nap. Mike went sky diving. I was a little jealous. Some day I will have to do this, too. Johanna went on a plane ride over the desert. They both really enjoyed what they did, so that’s good.
We went to a proper restaurant for dinner. And yes, I finally had fish, fresh, and of an un-canned variety. And it was good. Stephen tried to eat, but ended up not being hungry. And so I watched as Alfred, who was sitting across the table from me, devoured an entire pizza, stephen’s dinner, and then desert. The man is amazing. Meanwhile george was completely exhausted by the drive, and the past week and a half of work, and he was falling asleep over his massive plate of meat. Eventually he got a to go bag and went and slept in the bus.
I ordered desert, to share with someone. I was actually excited about this because desert is something I don’t get much of in Lesotho, especially sundaes. You can find ice cream bars in maseru, but that’s not the same. So we ordered a banana split. It came – with no bananas. “sorry, we’re out” the waitress explained as she walked away. So really the banana well, … split. Only in Africa. It was nice to go out to a proper restaurant, though. I even put some make-up on and did the whole girl thing. I felt like myself again for the first time in a year. This feeling was even stronger a couple days later, when we as a group went out in Windhoek.
That night we slept in beds, which was nice, but I actually hadn’t minded the tents. The mattress on the floor of my tent was more comfortable than my bed at ha thaba bosiu. It has no springs to dig into my hips as I sleep. The next morning, we got up and left for the last part of the trip, sossuvlei, the dunes. We drove for a lot of the day, and saw some beautiful hill and mountain landscapes along the way. We stopped a couple times to take photos. We also stopped at the tropic of Capricorn for another photo-op. we made it to our last campsite, agama, late afternoon. It was a nice, quiet site. The showers and toilets were very close to use, and the ceiling only partially complete, so we actually could look through the poles of the ceiling at the stars as we showered and used the toilet. Can you add romanticism to using the bathroom?
There was a bar up at the lodge, as well as a pool table and…PUPPIES! Clare was very excited over the puppies. Actually, I think the male was an adult, and was an American Staffordshire terrier. He had an Afrikaans name I couldn’t pronounce. The female, sadie, was a puppy, and I think was an English Staffordshire terrier (is that right?). she was really cute. So, we sat at the bar, had a couple gin and tonics, and played with the puppies until dinner. After dinner, we sat at the bar, drank a couple beers, and played pool. There was a group of students from emory university in Georgia there, too. Southern accents abounded. After a while we headed back down to camp, and I lay out on the ground to watch the stars. I saw at least two, maybe three shooting stars. Perfect.
Then, to bed, and the next day on to…