Boys and their toys, heh? They say the difference between men and boys, is the size of their toys. Well if that is the case, then I am a big man. Certainly judging by the size of our totally self-contained 4x4 double cab, with fridge, with rooftop tent and all the other necessary gear! it was so high off the ground, it sometimes felt that a ladder was necessary to get into it!

It also came with Bethyl. Free of charge. She was a little black box blip that reminded us when were were going too fast! Naturally, she was ignored. What did she REALLY know about driving in Namibia?!

After a long overnight bus journey from Cape Town, there was no hanging around. The deserts of Namibia were calling and we had the means to answer! A quick shop for supplies - beer, wine, braai wood and, oh yes, food - and we where on our way! The open road was being answered!

The Cape was extraordinary in its landscape beauty. But Namibia is breathtaking! The colours are so vivid, so intense, they sear your eyes. Their memories are not easily forgotten. The sky is a clean, pure blue. Your genes seem to remember a time, before pollution, before msnkind's cities when the sky was always this colour. And the air was so clean and pure. The landscape so vast, it is easy to become slightly unhinged by the enormity of it. For me that is not a problem, I am completely unhinged anyway! I was worried about Ing!

Tar roads quickly gave way to gravel at the town of Rehoboth. I might have missed it, if it didn't have the turning for Sesriem and Soususvlei that Ing pointed out! Blink and you miss it stuff! When tar gives way to gravel and the dust billows up from behind your vehicle, you know that your soul has finally been let free to soar! Add in some of the most ancient landscapes constantly changing colour as the sun lowers itself in the desert sky, and you have a recipe for adventures galore! Each turn in the road revealed desert mountains even more awesome than the last. Each sweep of the road laid open panoramas only from one's imagination!

Although we were were happy to get into camp, we were disappointed not to keep on "discovering" new and stunning landscapes! Arriving at sunset with a fire red mountain backdrop, we made camp out in the desert under our acacia tree. It was not hard to imagine the greats of past exploration doing the same at the end of a day moving through this giant landscape!

Cold beers, an awesome sunset painting, worthy of any maestro, itself against the mountains behind and a crackling fire, soon made us feel like we had always been here. Time seemed to have slowed down when we left that tar road 6 hours behind! We were on African time!