After leaving the campsite we headed for Namibia!!! The tent was wet and everything was covered in sand but what else could you expect in the Kalahari.

I managed to get a good sleep on the truck in preparation for the evening :) It was a 7 hour transit day in total with a smooth border crossing in the middle! Yup my passport is filling up with some pretty cool stamps :)

Today was the last day for 6 people on the trip and there was a chance more people would be joining the trip when we got to Windhoek, therefore it was a changeover night and we weren't camping!!! We arrived at this really fancy hotel with shiney marble floors and got drinks on arrival. This was a complete shock to everyone as our trips comfort level was 'very basic' in the tour brochure but we weren't complaining. Even though we were scared to sit down on the sofas incase we made them a mess, we all stuck out like a sore thumb in our camping gear.

Windhoek is the capital of Namibia, with the country having the same population as Botswana - 2 million. When we drove all you could see was sandy bush and wilderness but the difference with Namibia compared to Botswana was that there were random hills in the planes. Driving into Windhoek was the first time I had seen a proper westernised city since leaving home. Nambia's poverty level was much lower than any of the other countries I had visited, and I expected this as we got closer to South Africa.

We arrived at the hotel about 3pm and had the afternoon to enjoy the hotel or go into the city before we would meet at 7pm for a group meal. Phoebe and I chose to chill and make the most of having so much space to ourselves. Our room was huge so we emptied out our rucksacks and made the biggest mess possible :) The hotel had free wifi so made the most of that too and sent emails about my flight changes that I wanted to make etc and had a viber call with Dad to update them on my plans of not coming home when I said I would hehe.

We were going to Joe's Beer House for a farewell meal for those that were leaving us. In 8 days we didn't really get to know the 6 very well at all, well except for my fellow young farmer Mel. Totally gutted that she's not coming all the way to Cape Town. Anyways it was an excuse for a big night out in a city which we were all excited about. I hadn't blown dry my hair or used my straighteners since the 11th November... yes I know it's been ages! We just pampered ourselves and felt like ladies again hehe nails were painted, hair was done and we got dressed up!!! My straighteners went on their travels to quiet a few hotel rooms after we had used them hehe. Everyone looked so different with make up on and hair properly curled or straight.

Joes Beer House was a famous themed bar/restaurant that specialised on there meat. The setting was fantastic and the menu was the biggest I had ever seen.

About 10 minutes after arriving I managed to make myself known to just about the whole restaurant...! Eak it wasn't very clever. 4 of us went to the bar and ordered two nice bottles of red South African Pinotage for our meal and ordered a few beers and ciders before the food arrived. So I would carry the two bottles of wine back to the table along with a smirnoff ice, it was raining and the restaurant was mostly outside so of course all the slabs were wet, I slipped and crashed to the floor, smashed a glass but saved the two bottles of wine and smirnoff! Well spilt about half a glass of wine out of one bottle but still the second was totally full. I didn't even get a clap as everyone was really worried that I had hurt myself, it was certainly an impressive entrance back to the table. Very lucky I only had shock, a scrapped elbow and avoided all the broken glass! And not even a red face..!

Anyways after all that palava, Mel and I decided to order two main courses and share, so we got a taste of everything. We opted with the Smoked Namibian Butterfish for starter. I ordered the 'Bushman Sosatie' which had Ostrich, Crocodile, Zebra, Kudu and Chicken with corn fritters and mango chilli sauce. Then Mel ordered the 'Namibian Bush Fire' which had Ostrich, Springbok and Oryx Fillets. It was amazing. If I had to pick a favourite, I'd say the Ostrich and Zebra but they were all delicious.

As it was a Sunday night there were no clubs open and the bar was quite quite but our group soon started the drinking games and we stayed until close. They had proper lemonade which Mel and I were super happy with of course there would have been some double vodkas in there too :)

The hotel bar had also closed when we returned, so it was room parties instead. Phoebe and I had the more civilised room party with girly chat, cups of tea and biscuits while the room next door were drinking straight gin to start with, until they decided to put berroca tablets into the gin! Crazy.com but a smart idea when they had no mixtures.

We got to sleep about 2.30am after putting the world right.

Namibia has started off with a bang now let it continue people ;) xxxxx