Lamberts Bay, South Africa to Felix Unite, Namibia

Today we were on the road early, just after dawn, and Innocent warned us it will be a long day on the bus. 

So while we roll along I should tell you about our fellow travellers. Intrepid is an Australian company so it’s not surprising that there are mostly Australians; two couples, and a solo woman traveller. There is a couple and a single traveller from England (who is originally from Tanzania). The United States of America is represented by three single travellers, two retiring from jobs in Saudi Arabia and a young woman from Los Angeles. And two Canadians, Nanci and I. And of course our guide/drivers Innocent and Sandile. Both of them are from Zimbabwe and are half Zulu and half another tribe. 

The Oliphant River is the lifeblood of the farmers in the region that we drove through this morning. They use a system of canals to irrigate using river water. We saw mostly huge fields of grape vines but also orange groves and tomato plants. There are also lots of sheep grazing. We followed the river for some time crossing it at least once. 

While we were stopped for construction Innocent warned  us about the Pencil Bush. It is a short, round bush with little yellow flowers on it. We expect to have to use Mother Nature as camouflage for squatting later in the trip (referred to as “bushy bushy”) and he warned us not to go near those bushes as their milky sap in an open wound could kill us. The smoke from dry twigs of the plant added to a fire could also kill. He had our full attention. 

As we went further north, the land was not cultivated and it was less green. 

We stopped for provisions in a town of 120,000 people called Springbok just south of the border of South Africa and Namibia. It is a former copper mine town but the mine is now spent and it primarily acts as a service centre for the surrounding farms and housing farm workers. 

We will spend the next couple of days in the desert where there are few services so we stocked up on food for picnic lunches. And we had our first one today just after leaving Springbok. I sat there thinking how amazing it was that here I was enjoying a chicken sandwich at the side of the road in northern South Africa. Pretty darn amazing. 

Next up was the border crossing. All went well with a minimum of fuss and no wait on either exiting or entering. Although we did have to take all our bags out of the truck for inspection leaving South Africa. We crossed over the Orange River into Namibia and after a short process we were on our way. 

It was just a short 10 minute drive   home for tonight. We had been driving through arid, grey shale type rock for the last little while and what a pleasant surprise awaited us upon our arrival. We are in individual cabanas lined up overlooking the Orange River. They are beautifully appointed. 

We’ll meet up for dinner tonight and get briefed on our canoeing adventure on the Orange River tomorrow morning.  No hippos or crocs we’re told.