Unlike the other countries we have visited on this trip it is not really possible to just get on a bus or in a taxi and visit the places you want to in Namibia. The country is huge with practically nobody living here so public transport is very sparse to say the least as well as quite expensive. So to get around you need to either go on an overland tour or hire your own car. Having spent six month doing our own thing in Africa there was no chance we were going to sign up to a tour so we opted to hire a car. We spent the day walking around the small town of Upington looking for the best deal on hiring a car. To hire a car in Namibia was just too expensive so we got the best price we could find in Upington and drove over the boarder. We hired a gleaming white beauty of a Toyota Tazz which because of the gravel roads in Namibia and also general abuse from her drivers, would not be beautiful and definately not gleaming for very long.

Our first aim was to get to Etosha National Park in the north of Namibia. This meant covering some serious milage and took us about three days to drive. The boarder crossing was ok, if a bit tedious, but was brightened up by Marte's lack of English vocabulary when it comes to cars. Marte confidently got out the drivers seat and opened the boot of 'Tazzy' when the customs official asked her to open the bonet. After both of us laughing at her, I don't think she will be making that mistake again. We drove for as long as there was sunlight and got to the small town of Keetmanshoop which had a basic campsite where we pitched our tent in a little thatched shelter. Apart from the now obligatory freezing night time tempertures the campsite was most memorable for a litter of puppies which took pleasure in biting, gnawing and generally throwing themselves on our tent as well as making us think we were about to be murdered. The campsite was a bleak windswept place which was looked after by one bloke who slept in a very battered caravan with only one other set on campers. So in the middle of the night when we heard footstep directly outside our tent we both awoke thinking 'this is it'. As I prepared myself to fight off the intruder a little puppy let out a wimper and were both reassured that our assasin was in fact a three month old puppy.

Anyway, the next day we drove the 500km's to Windhoek which is the capital. Because of the good main roads we arrived shortly after midday and soon had our tent up and made our way in to town to the national parks office. We had unfortunately timed our stay in Namibia to coincide with both the Namibian and South African school holidays. This means two things, lots of big 4 by 4's on the road and the national park accomodation in generally all booked out. We were lucky enough to get two nights camping at Etosha but in meant speeding of a day early to Etosha and head north the next day. We set off early and arrived in Etosha by mid morning. Etosha is famed for its large amounts of wildlife and also the ease in which you can self navigate around the park. On both these counts it did not let us down. On the first afternoon which we spent driving around the park we saw loads of game including easily the best hunt of our trip. We pulled up at a small watering hole which turned out to be flanked by two prides of lions. As the sun started on to set one pride started to get restless and wander around. They walked right up to our car and we quickly put our cameras on our laps and wound up the windows; they were no more than a few feet away. We hoped they might show interest in some of the zebra's or alike around the watering hole but the lions in Etosha are apparently more ambitious than that. As a giraffe wondered carefully to the watering hole I boldly made the assertion to Marte's prediction of 'I bet they go for the giraffe', that ' I will eat my own pooh if they try and hunt the giraffe.' Any yes, before you know it, the lions are creeping stealthily through the long grass, creeping towards the the long legged, long necked animal. Given its advantageous anatomy, the giraffe saw the lions early and then used its gangly legs to gallop away from the hunting lions. Although it was yet another failed hunt, to see this outlandish attempt to kill an absolutly huge animal was fantastic and to hear the hooves of the giraffe on the salt pan, with out the circus of minibuses like at the Massai Mara, was really exilerating (Note: Marte kindly said I didn't have to eat my own excrement). We went back to the campsite and found our little twon man tent dwarfed by gargantuan tented villages of the holidaying South Africans. But it was a great introducation to Etosha and we made a braii (BBQ) with the help of some friendly South African's and spent the evening cooking and watching the flood-lit water hole. The next day and a half was spent driving around the vast open spaces of Etosha spotting more wildlife, the high light of which was proably a close encounter with a cheetah which was eventually attacked by as a small group of pointy horned oryx. We would have liked to have spent another night but the accomodation was simply all booked out. So we moved on to the near by town of Tsumeb to watch England progress to the semi finals of the World Cup.

We found a sports bar, which because the Namibians had just been paid, was filled with people wisely spending (noisily) their hard earnt money on fruit machines. I sat, nervously, and watched England take on Portugal and was relatively pleased with proceedings until the stupid bloody sending off. I got louder and louder as the game went on and some locals saw an easy target and started to cheer for Portugal. Football has a way of making normal people loose contact with their normal emotions and before I new it I was shouting across the bar like the idiots I normally shake my head at. As Jamie 'yeah he's a world class penalty taker, bring him on' Carragher missed the final penalty I called a few people 'dickheads' in a very enlightened manner and calmly walked out in to the cold Namibain night. Theres not much more to say about that really. Apart from that English people now have a somewhat tarnished reputation, because of a football supporting idiot, in a small northern Namibian town, as well as across most of Europe.

We moved on to the town of Outjo in the search of nothing more than internet and somewhere to restock our backseat which now doubled as a kitched. Because it was a Sunday everywhere was in lcok down so we camped at a nice campsite and bided our time. The following morning we did all our chores and then a lot more very hot dusty driving on gravel roads. We visited the acient rock paintings at Twyfelfontein which are estimated to be anything up to 80 000 yeard old. We then found a truely magnificent campsite. It was actually outside a luxury lodge but for mere peasants like ourselves they had three amazing secluded campsites. It was a really special place and we felt like we were truely out in the nature for the first time as we cooked over our wood fire under the beautiful African stars. A perfect place to reflect on our trip.

No more time....again.