One place I've heard lots about and always wanted to visit is Namibia. A classmate in uni once did a project on the country and the scenery, wildlife etc all looked amazing. Well........it didn't disappoint!

Our first stop is Windhoek, the capital. It's a cool city actually - plenty to see and it's still full of German architecture and influence. Christuskirche, Tintenpalast and its gardens are the main highlights. We only have two days to spend here but I think it's a place you could spend a while. I see the Himba tribe for the first time. This tribe are all naked from the waist up and the women cover their whole bodies, including their hair in a reddish clay type mixture (apparently made from butter and ochre). Apart from all that, they are distinctive because it is customary for the tribe to knock out their bottom four teeth in reverence to the cow, the animal they worship. We have a night out planned for Windhoek which is the first I've had with the group. We head to this very cheesy place that serves every kind of game meat you could think of and German beer. I try a platter that has ostrich, oryx, crocodile, zebra and kudu - all are surprisingly tasty! The braver among us ordered a kudu leg which turns out to be the biggest hunk of meat I've ever seen.

Our driver Jaco ends up getting hospitalised with malaria in Windhoek - his first time. Our tour leader Chantelle gets struck down with it a couple of days later - fingers crossed the malarone is working! The only bad thing about traveling is that the mosquitoes seems to love love love me!

After Windhoek we are out in the sticks again so I give Chantelle a hand to shop for the gang - seriously, it's like feeding an army and there are less than 15 of us! Anyway, like absolute scumbags we end up chasing a taxi, trolley in tow, down one of Windhoek's main streets - what a sight!

We move on from Windhoek to Etosha National Park. We stay at the Okaukuejo camp site in the park which is right beside a watering hole that attracts a multitude of animals. We make a few trips to the watering hole early in the morning and late at night and are lucky enough to see rhino...and a nest of social weaver birds! Our game drives here are very successful despite the horrible weather (some serious storms on the way but they're so cool!) We see lots of male lions, one female lion stalking her prey and lots of rhino (very close up), springbok, kudu (with their cool curly antlers) oryx and steenbok. There is debate over whether we actually spotted the 'lilac breasted roller' bird, Ross, one of the gang, seems to think he sees it everywhere despite Chantelle's claims otherwise.....turns in to a really funny joke over the coming days but I guess you had to be there. There's a big storm at the camp site which sort of ruins our 'braai'/BBQ and soaks a few tents but it's not supposed to be luxury travel I suppose!

I'm getting told off regularly for calling our mode of transportation a 'bus', not a 'truck' as it should be called. Anyway, it's like the 'truck' that Jack built and between suspension problems and doors breaking, we're having a pretty rocky ride but it probably makes it all the more fun!

We also visit the Etosha salt flats which aren't quite as impressive as those in Bolivia but still pretty great - check out the photos!

We move on to Spitzkoppe, an amazing volcanic rock formation in the middle of the desert which is nicknamed the Materhorn of Namibia - again, you need to see the pictures! Apparently there are really interesting rock paintings here which were made by the San tribe, however, when our guide doesn't show up, we decide to scope them out ourselves. We get lost and end up finding a little cave with, what must have been, streaks of bird poo that we convince ourselves are the paintings - needless to say, I didn't upload the pictures! :-(

We all try our hand at rock climbing to get up to the best point from which to view the sunset. It really is beautiful! We cook on the campfire again tonight and sleep outside under the stars! Despite great attempts at covering up from the mosquitoes and other weird things buzzing about us, sleeping outside didn't last so long for everyone and the truck became the bed for the night.

We hit the road for Swakopmund via the Cape Cross Fur Seal Colony, a smelly experience -cute animals though!

Swakopmund, as Naomi, one of the gang describes it, looks like a 'derelict' town. There is nobody on the streets but the place is more German than Germany itself. I can speak 'Hochdeutsch' to people and they understand me - how cool - such a nerd!

From here we do sandboarding which is one of the coolest sports I've ever tried. It's exhausting climbing up the sand dunes after taking only a couple of seconds to come down them but you can really let go without the fear of getting hurt -hence my attempt at the ramp which was less than graceful! Also try boarding lying down (going head first down the dunes on a piece of chipboard) at which you can reach speeds of 80 km per hour. Only managed 68kmph myself but blaming it on Chantelle's cooking!

Moving on we head for Sesriem and Sossusvlei (meaning the 'marsh where things go to disappear' or 'dead end marsh') where we get a bushman tour through the scrublands. It's really beautiful and the guide give us some really good information on the San tribe which we could have done with for out visit in Botswana.

I'm liking Namibia more and more each day - there is so much beauty here!

We climb Dune 45 for sunrise. The dune is part of the Namib-Naukluft Park and the most photographed sand dune in the world, . Again, another tough climb - for every one step you take up, you go down another half step - but....it's worth it - the views and the sunrise are really stunning!

Next stop in Namibia is Fish River Canyon, not too far from the border with South Africa. The canyon is about 150km long, 29km wide and up to 550m deep in places. It is the second largest canyon in the world. There's a river of 82km running right through it and there are supposed to be some really cool hikes through the canyon - maybe next time! We camp at Ai-Ais/Richtersfeld Transfrontier Campsite tonight which is pretty nice. It also has hot springs which are pretty amazing but less than refreshing in temperatures of about 35 degrees! Jaco, our driver, shows us this really cool rock which when you thrown it in the fire, glows green, breaks into small pieces, sparks and jumps out of the flames with a crackling noise. Can't remember the name....fluro-something but it also referred to as 'Bushman's Fireworks'!

Really going to miss Namibia - its one of the nicest countries I've ever been to and the few people I spoke to seemed lovely! Put Namibia on your bucket list....it's so worth a trip........l