Luderitz is a small mining town on the Namibian coast that built its name on the diamond mining industry during the last century. Less than 75 years ago it was not unheard of for people to go walking in the nearest valley and come back with their pockets stuffed with raw diamonds. After spending his life savings on Camilla's engagement ring, Rich was determined to find a few freebee gems for the future...and if we couldn't find any, we'd have great fun driving around the dunes in the area. Unfortunately, and rather predictably, the area is now a strictly controlled mining area surrounded by signs threatening to confiscate vehicles. That, along with the continuing rain, meant that our idea of cresting sand dunes would more likely lea to us getting stuck in the mud. We decided to wait for the weather to improve and book a dune driving tour to get us into this exciting area. The local newspaper stated that over 140mm of rain fell in Luderitz in four days, the same amount that has collectively fallen in the past five years. Locals were even muttering that they had never seen this amount of rain in the desert in their lifetimes. Since the town isn't used to rain the infrastructure isn't set up for flooding - the football stadium collapsed due to its sand foundation, houses flooded and homes near the lighthouse were evacuated. We'd experienced this in Zambia and had come to Namibia to find drier weather!! To make matters worse, our friends John and Cathy phoned to say that they had managed to roll their car on the way to Luderitz. Their Toyota's back wheel got stuck in some sand and the momentum of the car continued into a slide which then tipped the Toyota onto it's side. Thankfully they were both OK and the damage done to the Toyota was fixable. This is the third roll of a car by overlanders we've met since we've been on the road - so we're being exceedingly cautious as we enter the final leg of our journey. Rich's condition of suspected malaria was also not improving so we decided to leave Luderitz and revist when the weather improved. We went to join John and Cathy at the magnificent 'Klein Aus Vista' lodge, a family run farm ranch with luxury rooms, log cabins, hiker's cabins and a decent campsite. As we drove back our back tyre had a blow out (our first of the trip so far) and Rich steered the car calmly to the curb. After a quick change of tyre in near darkness we were back on the road. When we arrived at 'Klein Aus Vista' we were soaked to the skin and needing a comfortable bed with a log fire to warm our toes. It was great to find out that John and Cathy, despite being a little shocked, were fine. Rich's condition wasn't improving and his back pain and fatigue symptoms continued. He had a blood test and malaria screening at the doctors and rested his boots for a while. We had great advice as John has had the disease several times before and was left in a coma once by a particularly serious attack in South Africa. Over the following days we slept in a bunkhouse, shared with Bill and Claire and Noel and Marica. It was a great place to rest our boots whilst the others walked and climbed in the beautiful grounds. The evenings were filled with red wine and good camaraderie. We had all traveled a long way through Africa and savored the opportunity to rest up and relax before completing our trip in Cape Town.