10 Month African Trails Epic Adventure: Week 22

Namibia, South Africa

Week 22 - Apr. 7th - 13th

day 148 - bush-camp to Bethanie to Fish River Canyon to Noordoewer (near border)
day 149 - day in Noordoewer
day 150 - Noordoewer to SA border to Springbok to Citrusdal (Gecko's)
day 151 - day in Citrusdal
day 152 - Citrusdal to Stellenbosch
day 153 - day in Stellenbosch - winery tour!
day 154 - Stellenbosch to Cape Town

Runner up to the Grand Canyon

After leaving the wondrous dune sea of Sossusvlei we embarked on an afternoon of non stop driving. As usual I spent pretty much the whole day on the roof admiring the spectacular scenery. Eventually we reached Fish River Canyon, a sublimely beautiful and incredibly vast canyon that stands just behind the Grand Canyon with the title of 'second biggest canyon in the world'. Since I haven't seen the Grand Canyon (yet) it was certainly big enough for me. It was pretty much impossible to walk away without snapping a good photo of the place. It was over too soon though and though I would have preferred a walk down into the canyon itself we had to leave already to make our deadline. Later in the day we reached Noordoewer, a town right on the Orange River that formed the border between Namibia and South Africa. We stayed a couple of days in this tranquil little spot and I decided that it had been far too long since I spent a day doing literally nothing at all whatsoever so I did exactly that, or didn't do it or whatever. Lounging around on the grass in the shade of the truck I did at one point ask Gav to get in the truck and move it so that it was parked closer to me because the sun was starting to creep into my shade. But would you believe he refused! How lazy can you get?

After a couple of nights next to Orange River we crossed the border into South Africa and drove all day until we reached a town called Citrusdal where we stayed in a very pleasant little hostel called Gecko's where we had the task of doing yet another truck clean. Everyone pitched in, well almost everyone, Martin seemed content just to sit to the side and supervise, and the owner of the hostel even lent us his pressure hose to really blast the dirt off the truck. After a couple of nights there we drove further down the coast almost to Cape Town and turned off at the last minute to reach a place called Stellenbosch where we would also be spending a couple of nights in order to go on a tour of the local wineries, and to have my bag stolen by a complete and total bastard.

The African Trails Reunion: Part 1

It wasn't long after our arrival in Stellenbosch that we were reunited with three of our fellow travellers who had left us in Yaounde: Dan, Katey and Miyumi. They had been in South Africa for some time now and had rented a car to explore most of the entire country while we were plodding at an excruciatingly slow pace through countries with roads that time forgot. They had already gone bungee jumping, game driven at Kruger National Park, sampled much of the local wines and were just about to head off on a great white shark cage dive, something I fully intended to do later, and did do by the way.

The next day the majority of the group headed off for the much anticipated wine tasting tour, a trip around four wineries in the surrounding areas that would allow us to pretend to be sophisticated connoisseurs instead of the woefully drunken booze hounds that we really are. Even Greg, who doesn't drink, came along just for the sheer entertainment value. At first it was quite a restrained and leisurely affair, sipping small amounts and actually bothering to savour the aroma and taste. At the second of the four vineyards we even has some first rate cheeses to accompany the experience. But sooner or later it pretty much degenerate into a drunken party and at the fourth winery our guide suggested a piggy back race which is quite a sight to behold when everybody is already drunk. Eventually we returned to our hostel and continued the party there and that was the fateful night when my bag was stolen. Which isn't the most gratifying news to accompany you in the morning when you wake up tired and dehydrated.

After going through the motions of the police reports and trying not to punch Martin for not even bothering to raise the alarm when he saw an intruder trying to sneak into the room I was reluctantly forced to concede that it could easily have been much worse if I'd also lost my passport and my main camera. Later on that day we hopped back on board the truck and made the short journey to our final destination of the Western Trans: Cape Town.

The end of the West African Mustache Club

Our arrival in Cape Town was indeed a momentous occasion. It marked the end of the Western Trans which is a significant event in itself. It's also the point where we lose several of our passengers and gain some more, losing friends and hopefully making new ones. But most of all is marked the end of the great West African 'Tache Trails! This was the point in the trip that we had all agreed we would get rid of our ridiculous mustaches. Even Jeremy had, though briefly, fully joined the club in Stellenbosch by shaving off his enormous ginger pirate beard, leaving only a huge bushy 'tache which made him look a little bit like a retired army colonel. But now it was time to get rid of them and gladly. I couldn't wait to get rid of mine. Most of us couldn't wait. And so after an day of clogging up the drains with our facial hair we were all back to looking like...well maybe not normal people but certainly less absurd that we did before. And after some extremely long showers and changes of clothes you might not even have guessed that we had just scratched and crawled our way through West Africa in five months.

My only regret was getting rid of my double mohawk or 'skid marks' as I thought of them. Or 'badger stripes' according to my Dad. After shaving them off I checked facebook only to find loads of comments, most of them surprisingly complimentary, about my new look. Oh well I've still got five more months in Africa to do something even more stupid looking. Though Phil has obviously cornered the market on spiked up sideways mohawks that look like a lion's mane. At one point, before I'd even started the trip, I had wanted to not shave or cut my hair at all on the entire trip and see how crazy I looked at the end but then I figured I'd get fed up with it so I opted for the easier option of no hair at all.

So what next then? Maybe triple mohawks and a goatee hmmmm?

Phil making his moves after the wine tour!