Camping Trip to Southern Namibia--Installment One

We just returned from a six day whirlwind camping trip to Southern Namibia that was so filled with interesting, exciting and untoward events that it's going to take several installments to get it all down in writing. So stay tuned because it may take me several days.

Larkin Powell, the other Fulbrighter here from Nebraska, had been down this way with his department chair checking on students completing internships. Many are posted to farms for a semester where they conduct research on various forms of wildlife. So, the department chair brought Larkin along with him to accompany him thinking this would be a good way to get Larkin introduced to the farmers so that he can begin conducting his own research to complete that aspect of his Fulbright grant. Having visited many of these places and given that our kids were going to be on a two and a half week holiday from school due to Independence Day festivities, Larkin planned this ambitious itinerary going down to Luderitz, with various interesting stops along the way and taking in Soussevlei on our way back to Windhoek.

Larkin and his family, wife Kelly and son Tristan, rented a 4 X 4 bakkie (pick up) complete with camping equipment and two roof top tents. We, having purchased ole Bess and our own roof topper, simply rented camping equipment to the tune of about $8 Am. per day for all the kitchen equipment, 2 person ground tent, chairs, cooler, lanterns and bottle of propane we needed. We set out on our journey on Tues. 17th of March in our two car caravan for the adventure of a lifetime and boy did it ever turn out to be an adventure. This was our first really big outing and we got to test our limits and learn a lot about travel in Namibia. We'll be adjusting our expectations and rethinking itineraries (calculating for about double the time indicated in the guidebooks for distances over gravel roads). What's for certain is that we don't ever want to travel alone given the vastness of the empty expanses where no gas station, town, village or even farm house is to be found for many hundreds of miles.

Stay tuned for installment number 2--Reid needs the computer to prepare his classes.