Hello from Windhoek!

Still in Namibia for one more night of shananigins - Joes Beerhouse and Grill tonight for a farewell dinner for everyone leaving the tour tomorrow - me thinks there might be some shots envolved...but anyway,

The last couple of days have been great, I think when I last left it I was looking forward to some local singing and dancing at the campsite in Damaraland - well, that was bloody fantastic! It started with them doing some of their own songs and getting us envolved as well - which inevitably led to me getting into a dance contest with one of the lcoasl..and winning i might add! After that we were asked to perform some of our own traditional tunes...well there posed a problem, not only were we all from different countries but we all lacked any form of culture! So in the end we ended up singing the only songh that the entire group knew - and this is the worrying part - not in your entire life would you ever guess what song it was, screw the beetles, screw classic nursury rhymes or anthems of your day...we sang to the local african community...BARBIE GIRL!! Kavan, one of the Canadian guys, took the honourable role of Ken whilst the rest of us in beautiful harmony sang the role of Barbie. Funnily enough they didnt seem that impressed...however upon realising the true disaster that was our performance, we then volunteered Kav to sing the Canadian national anthem, and he sang it very well indeed....taking the few beers into account anyway...

So, the next morning involved quite a short drive, which is always a good way to start the day, to Etosha, a nice little place with lots of game drive possibillities - yes my friends get ready, I might actually see some animals soon...aaaahhhhhhh

By this point in the trip i might add i was in a little discomfort, or should i say a lot because i had developed some sort of reaction on about 70% of my skin. Me being the incredibly pale person I am, i figured it was probably heat rash and proceeded to act accordingly. It was not. By this point I was not in a good mood and after going through things over and over in my head I finally discovered (and you are going to love this) I was allergic to my own sleeping bag!!! WTF!! Only in the history of backpacking and people in general, could it be possible that I would be allergic to such a nessesary item of my own eqipment! Sods law doesnt even begin to cover it! although after discovering this I felt happy enough that I was going to survive the next few days, to drag myself to the bar to drown my sorrows...very successfully i might add. Needless to say I did not use that stupid ass sleeping bag again and currently at this point in time, i feel great.

That night, it began. And by IT i mean the thing that I feel will follow us and haunt us for the next 80% of our trip. The thing that will cause us no end of hilarity and hinderence - RAIN!!! I know i went to africa in rainy season and i probably should have planned that slighty better but bloody hell when they say its going to rain they flippin well mean it! (see how well i have edited my language - thats for you mum and dad - appriciate it please!) It rained like a b**** that night, tents were ruined, blown over, flooded, i mean it was all good fun for me because mine and alex's tent was fine but for everyone else, bad times indeed!

The next morning (yes that previous day did consist completly of a short game drive and a trip to the bar and swimming pool!) we moved to another camp within Etosha national park so obviously another game drive or 2 were in order - and this time we saw springbok (a lot of bloody springbok), giraffe's and a couple of rhino - so a very good start to things! We stayed in a really nice camp with a little villiage attached which had shops and restaurants and bars and even a bookshop....i know! a bookshop in rural africa - who'd have thought! After a nice chilled afternoon by the pool (yes i might warn you now, EVERY campsite I have been to so far has had a bar and a pool, i am hoping this continues) me, Alex and Kav went off for a walk and discovered some wild warthogs roaming the camp, so obviously we tried to get closer and take pictures of the little babys...this was not a good idea. Apparently, warthogs are quite clever. This combined with their protective nature towards their young was not good for us. It turned out that while we congratulated ourselves for getting so close to them, they had surrounded us from behind and preceeded to follow us as we tried to escape. it got to the point where we were picking out which tree's we were going to jump up if they tried to attack - i might add that kav is over 6 feet tall and the sheer prospect of him trying to jump up a very small tree is hilarious! Needless to say we escaped, just, and ran very quickly back to our tents to regail people with our survival story...then in 20 mins we decided we needed a drink and went back towards them in order to get to the bar - apparently warthogs do not hold grudges because they really didnt care that we were back...either that or we dont seem very threatening, which as a warthog i could understand...

Yesterday was pretty chilled as well to be honest, we stopped in a small town and then got to camp. there was a hke on offer but funnily enough i declined and spent some time by the pool again reading 1984 - i will finish it eventually!

So today...it hasnt been a great day as I had some bad news from home, however everyone has been great and a certain canadian boy has promised me he will get absolutly ratted tonight so that i can take pictures of him in precarious situations...i very much look forward to this.

xxx