NAMIBIA Namibia was probably the most diverse country we had passed through, are you ready for this... Firstly we went to the Etosha National Park. Etosha is the major nature reserve of Namibia, covering over 20 000 square Kilometres with a large variety of animal and bird species. Etosha is famous for the night time watering holes based at the campsites within the park. Unfortunately it was rainy season so there were puddles of water everywhere so animals were spoilt for choice on where to drink. Although we did see an elephant and a giraffe drinking at one of the night time watering holes. The skies in Etosha were incredible, dark with the most amazing lightening we had seen. During the day we saw many Giraffe etc then at the end of the day we were lucky enough to see 8 lions coming out of a drainpipe that lies underneath the road, they had obviously been sleeping there and were now waking up to feed. It was an incredible sight. Further down the road we had just missed a lion kill, we saw a pair of lions devouring a Springbok. After the Etosha National Park we drove to a Cheetah Park, where we could get very close to a pair of Cheetahs that had been hand raised from birth. They are amazing animals, it felt very strange being so close to a Cheetah that it started licking the salt from our legs! Their tongues are like sand paper!!! Next we drove to Twyfelfontein to explore the rock engravings of the bushmen. It was strange how we had gone from rain to near desert. We were still in the same country, and it was HOT. They hadn't seen rain in this part of Namibia for months. The rock engravings were regarded as the richest collections of rock engravings in the African continent. We thought they were good, although there is still a lot of speculation to how and why they were there? After Twyfelfontein we drove to The Cape Seal Colony on the Skeleton coast. It is named the Skeleton coast after ships would wreck and the seamen so glad to have reached land would soon realise this place would be there fate as there is nothing but desert for miles and miles. The Seal Colony was not what we were expecting. When we arrived it stank. We could hear the seals on the other side of the dune, it was like approaching a football ground, the noise was deafening. When we walked over the sand dune we were all faced with a picture we will never forget. There was literally a sea of seals, in fact the Cape Seal Colony has anything between 100 000 and 200 000 seals!!! As we got closer we could see there were thousands of pups, they looked so cute until we got closer to see that thousands of them were dead! Apparently the seals get split from their mothers and perish, others are attacked by other fathers to give their offspring a better chance! It was the most horrible noise, smell etc. we have ever witnessed. Nature? We left the Seal Colony in a very sombre mood. Some of the girls were in tears at what they had witnessed. Still in Namibia we drove to Spitzkoppe, this is an amazing area that reminded the Aussie's of Ayers rock. It was the most amazing landscape, huge rocks with very smooth surfaces jumping out of the baron desert like landscape. Here we camped under the stars amongst the rocks. It was probably our favourite camp of the trip so far. Again the sunset was spectacular. From Spitzkoppe we drove to Swakopmund. Swakopmund was founded in 1892 during the German colonial rule, the distinct character has been well preserved. This was probably the most westernised place we had been so far. There were no beggars when the truck stopped, and the place was very clean and well maintained. The hostel was also one of the best we had stayed in. Unfortunately for me my tooth had started playing up and I was in so much pain. After a visit to the local dentist he told me I had an abcess and gave me a course of antibiotics! Lorna also had a throat infection so we were both in a pretty bad way. So unfortunately we had to miss out on the sand boarding, the quad biking and luckily enough the sky diving! We spent 3 days chilling on the beach. Hey it could have been worse. Leaving Swakopmund we drove South to Sossusvlei. An area surrounded by a sea of sand dunes, reputed to being the highest dunes in the world! We met a local bushman who took us for a walk through the dunes in 40 degree heat. Wow it was hot. He explained how the dunes were formed, showed us how things survived in the blistering heat, even showed us a spiders nest under the sand and found a desert lizard! He was very informative, interesting and MAD. After our desert lesson we headed for Dune 45. This is the best dune to watch the sunset. Man was it a mission to climb, 3 steps forward 2 back and it was HIGH. Once at the top it was worth it as the view/sunset was incredible. Next we drove for 10 hours to The Fish River Canyon. We had driven in the hottest conditions so far, by the time we arrived we were all dehydrated and exhausted so guess what I did? I ran 10K with James and Cassey to the Fish River Canyon uphill. By the time the truck and Lorna reached us they basically had to scoop us off the floor. Not a good idea considering the heat and we were already dehydrated. DOH. The Fish River Canyon is the 2nd largest after The Grand Canyon. The actual size is 161km long, up to 27kms wide and about 550m deep! It was quite amazing. Again, another spectacular sunset. Next we were to drive to Orange River, a natural border between Namibia and South Africa. Namibia has so many different sides it really is quite incredible!