Day Nineteen: (Part Two) - Road to Rundu - Guest Blogger - Sylvia
Faore
Well, another travel day!!! Up at 6:30 am, B/F at 7:00, leave
at 8:00! There is some discussion about the travel route. One way is paved and
longer and the other way is shorter but dusty, gravel road. We all let the
CHIEF decide. We are taking the dusty road. We first stop for gas, fill up
Number 2 for the car, Ash, Derry, Sylvia and Brian. The tank empty
can hold 140 liters! We fill up 121.87 litres. The cost is $1566.05
SA Rand or Namibian Dollars, approximately $156.61. (The first fill was 110.485
liters for a total cost of $1381.06 which is $138.11 Canadian). Not bad.
Michael has estimated the gas to be around $161.00 per person (4 per car) for the trip.
Will be interesting at the end of the trip to check the total.
Now off to the bank for some needed cash. Standard Bank of Namibia does the trick and the limit is $3000.00 Namibian Dollars which we cannot use anywhere else. On the way back to the car, 2 young boys beg for food. They say they are hungry. They look 6 and 9. I ask them their names, (Moses and Desmond), and their ages (they are 12 and 15). Very dirty and no shoes. We give them a bag of food from the truck. They keep smiling and waiving and thanking us. They have an extra plastic bag the cookies were in. They open every package of chips and crackers and divide them equally. They do this while busily chomping away on the chocolate shortbread cookies. The duplicate packages, they take one each. They wave, smile and thank us again each walking away with a bag of food.
Namibia has over 50% unemployment. Derry has an older gentleman asking her to purchase a Nut Keychain. He has a kind face and looks desperate. He lowers the price to $30 Rand. (Along this trip they have ranged from 50 -100 Rand). She just wants to give him the money but his pride insists on carving her name into the nut. We have paid it forward today. A good way to start the day. It has been just over an hour and Bill calls for a stretch and a pee break. He says "men on the left of the vehicles and women in the middle of the road"! Bill has it wrong, it is men on the right!! LOL!!!
Stopped for a very nice place for lunch. Guestfarm Ghaub. A former Missionary station from 1895. It is situated in the fertile northern region of Namibia. The land has been divided into two farms, dairy livestock and maize plantations. Lunch was Beef Steak, potatoes and warm beets, coleslaw on the side. Desert was vanilla ice-cream with chocolate sauce.
Off on the road again for the longest stretch now. Heading to Kaisosi River Lodge. It is a long drive as we head to Rundu. The area is definitely getting greener with more vegetation. As we get closer, we see the poorest of people living in shacks. Some made out of straw, sticks and mud, corrugated metal and stones. The kids are just getting out of school. They are everywhere. The school zone is 80 km, this would surprise the people at home. The kids are all happy and smiling as they wave to us. They are carrying large containers of water home. Little ones are rolling the drums with the older kids. Goats, cows, sheep and chickens are everywhere. We see a skinned goat hanging from a tree, probably tonight's dinner.
We reach the Lodge at 6:45 pm. We are stiff, tired and in need of a cool one! We all meet in the bar and everyone cheers! The lodge overlooks the Ovango River across from Angola. Wild birds everywhere, and 2 resident peacocks and an owl. Horses and sheep are put away for the night so that the tourists do not get scared in the morning thinking that there are wild animals roaming the property.
We lounge around the patio reminiscing about the last couple of lodges and the events of the previous nights. A cool drink, new friends, fire burning beside us and the sound of donkeys braying in the night! I went to bed and I dreamed of Africa.
Cheers.......SF
Now off to the bank for some needed cash. Standard Bank of Namibia does the trick and the limit is $3000.00 Namibian Dollars which we cannot use anywhere else. On the way back to the car, 2 young boys beg for food. They say they are hungry. They look 6 and 9. I ask them their names, (Moses and Desmond), and their ages (they are 12 and 15). Very dirty and no shoes. We give them a bag of food from the truck. They keep smiling and waiving and thanking us. They have an extra plastic bag the cookies were in. They open every package of chips and crackers and divide them equally. They do this while busily chomping away on the chocolate shortbread cookies. The duplicate packages, they take one each. They wave, smile and thank us again each walking away with a bag of food.
Namibia has over 50% unemployment. Derry has an older gentleman asking her to purchase a Nut Keychain. He has a kind face and looks desperate. He lowers the price to $30 Rand. (Along this trip they have ranged from 50 -100 Rand). She just wants to give him the money but his pride insists on carving her name into the nut. We have paid it forward today. A good way to start the day. It has been just over an hour and Bill calls for a stretch and a pee break. He says "men on the left of the vehicles and women in the middle of the road"! Bill has it wrong, it is men on the right!! LOL!!!
Stopped for a very nice place for lunch. Guestfarm Ghaub. A former Missionary station from 1895. It is situated in the fertile northern region of Namibia. The land has been divided into two farms, dairy livestock and maize plantations. Lunch was Beef Steak, potatoes and warm beets, coleslaw on the side. Desert was vanilla ice-cream with chocolate sauce.
Off on the road again for the longest stretch now. Heading to Kaisosi River Lodge. It is a long drive as we head to Rundu. The area is definitely getting greener with more vegetation. As we get closer, we see the poorest of people living in shacks. Some made out of straw, sticks and mud, corrugated metal and stones. The kids are just getting out of school. They are everywhere. The school zone is 80 km, this would surprise the people at home. The kids are all happy and smiling as they wave to us. They are carrying large containers of water home. Little ones are rolling the drums with the older kids. Goats, cows, sheep and chickens are everywhere. We see a skinned goat hanging from a tree, probably tonight's dinner.
We reach the Lodge at 6:45 pm. We are stiff, tired and in need of a cool one! We all meet in the bar and everyone cheers! The lodge overlooks the Ovango River across from Angola. Wild birds everywhere, and 2 resident peacocks and an owl. Horses and sheep are put away for the night so that the tourists do not get scared in the morning thinking that there are wild animals roaming the property.
We lounge around the patio reminiscing about the last couple of lodges and the events of the previous nights. A cool drink, new friends, fire burning beside us and the sound of donkeys braying in the night! I went to bed and I dreamed of Africa.
Cheers.......SF
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