Zambia, Bostwana, Namibia

Well.

I can' believe it's been 10 days since our last post. We've been flat out on tour. Today is a bit of a down day so I finally get a chance to catch my breath and type gibberish on the internet.

I can't possibly run through all the stuff we've done and quite frankly it would be a tad boring and mired in too many details. Instead i'll just talk about the odd thing here and there.

First of all Botswana - this country has all of 2 million people, a massive desert, a strong currency and fluent tourism. We loved it there and especially loved Chobe National Park. We also spent 3 days on the Okavango delta including 1 night bushcamping on an island in the delta. Interestingly enough, the island had lions, elephants, zebra, kudu and snakes on it. Thus our position seems a tad precarious - a restricted geography with carnivorous predators who have a dwindling source of food looking favourably on maybe a nice thigh of Jeff or arm of Kate, but it was fine... We even managed to find ourselves on a Cessna 206 (7 seater) on a scenic flight over the delta. Stunning view and semi-mad english pilot who delighted in terrorifying us with his tricks...

Botswana though has quite a lot of sadness too - mainly in the form of a mile high HIV rate and the slow eradication of the Kalahari bushmen. These people were awe inspiring and despite the highly touristy nature of our encounter with them it is safe to say they left a strong impression on all of us. Fences are also strangling the Kalahari which is terrible.

Namibia - amazingly german, clean and sausage ridden place. It's very western and treats us to Windhoek lager, Herero women and treats such as strudel. This country is very much first world and the areas we have been have been awesome. We camped a night at Spitzkoppe which is a rocky outcrop in the Namib desert. Very flintstones...

Right now we are in Swakopmund. It is again delightful. Anyways, the coolest thing here are the sanddunes. We went yesterday and jumped on quad bikes to explore them. Wel;l I thought it was an exploration trip. INstead though I was put on a 350cc quadbike and after 30 seconds of induction we were driving straight up 30 metre sanddunes at maybe 50-60 kmh. It was frankly terrifying and the only reason we kept going was a small touch of male ego! Twas like skiing on steroids! Very cool and luckily we weren't injured.

ANyways, onwards and downwards from here. We are off to see some dunes that are 100 m high which should be cool. Then through down to fish river and into capetown in only 6 days. Better leave now and google me up a place to stay.

Poor NZ cricket. I wonder if Dan Carter can swing a bat? Seems he can do most things.

Ciao.