Hello from sunny Windhoek, Namibia! Man, people weren't joking when they designated Namibia as a desert! Not a whole lot of water or anything else here in this country, which is part of its draw. We left Cape Town, South Africa a little over a week ago. We drove nothr with Per and Lionel in their HUGE Landcruiser for about 200kms. We stopped at a random farmhouse and slept in their driveway. Lionel and Per were trying to find some guys they met on a 4x4 forum, but we couldn't find their exact location, even with GPS. Luckily, the farmers didn't mind finding us in ther driveway the next morning and they led us to the guys we had been trying to find. We explored the area (Cederberg) with them, found the most amazing rock paintings we've seen yet, and partook in some cool drinks. It was great! That night we sat around the fire and laughed and generally had a wonderful time. The next morning we were off to keep heading north towards Namibia. We saw the most beautiful fields of wildflowers. And how odd is it that every one of us in the truck was excited about the flowers? Even the manly man from Australia was talking about how "pretty" the colours were! We took a few more days to head to the border and stopped along the way to try and get their truck fixed. Darn thing kept overheating. We saw amazing stars and Lionel (the Aussie) taught us how to determine where south is from the Southern Cross. It's good to travel with someone from the southern hemisphere! Anyhow, we stopped in Springbok to get more stuff done on the truck. It didn't work either, but we were told that it could get fixed in Windhoek. This was close to the weekend though, so we decided to take our time driving up to Windhoek and stopped at the Fish River Canyon. We actually spent our anniversary at a hot springs "resort" (meaning: campground). We sleep in the back of the guys' truck; they have a rooftop tent that unfolds like a pop-up story book! It's pretty cool. The space we sleep in is tiny, but it works. Probably the coolest stop yet in Namibia, in my opinion, was Kolmanskop. It's a former diamond mining town that's deserted now. The sand is literally filling the buildings. You can walk around and crawl into the old houses, casino, etc. We wandered around there for a couple of hours, hoping to fnd a stray diamond! No such luck. Probably just as well, since you get huge jail time and fines for carrying uncut diamonds in Namibia! The town was deserted after bigger diamonds were found south, in Oranjemund. That town still mines, but it's not open to the public. They even x-ray employees coming in and out because of theft! It's a huge producer of diamonds and they're now searching off the coast for more. They think that by 2010 they'll be using off-shore mining for 80% of their production. It was a pretty fascinating tour. After that we headed to the Quiver Tree Forest. Interesting too, hopefully you'll get to see some photos. We poked aroudn there and stayed at a very secluded campsite, just the four of us. The sunset was especially gorgeous that night. Again, photos will hopefully follow sooner rather than later! Next it was on to WIndhoek, where we are now. The truck has gone in to the garage (again), but now they're saying it can't be fixed here! The guys may have to drive all the way back to Johannesburg (1500km!) to get it fixed. Yikes. That leaves Joel and I in a bit of a lurch, but we'll figure something out. We have our 20-hour bus trip booked to get us back to Cape Town on September 14th. We leave for Europe on the 16th. Potential itinerary right now is Milan-Venice-Salzburg-Munich (Oktoberfest!!)-Vienna-Luxembourg-Frankfurt. Not 100% guaranteed though :) We hope that you guys are enjoying the updates and photos! :) m & j