Glamorous Only in Retrospect: November 2

November 2-6

Swakopmund

0 Miles

Erik:

On the night of the first, we got on the train to Swakopmund. The train left at around 9 p.m.

Swakop is a German beach town directly west of Windhoek, Surrounded by dunes, desert and ocean.

The night train wasn't terrible. We didn't get much sleep on the way there because we were a little uncomfortable. We arrived at the station in Swakopmund at about 5 a.m. At which point we realized we had no idea where the backpackers (hostel) was, or where we were (look at the map fail). We figured out how to look it up on our phone, and the train station was only 400 meters away from the backpackers lodge. When we went to check in there, they gave us a free breakfast. As soon as we were able to actually get to our rooms, we took a very long nap.

In general we just did some tourist stuff. We walked to the dunes and ran around there for a bit. It was amazing to see all these dunes, and know that they go on for thousands of miles into the Namib desert. We also laid on the beach a lot, and read, played chess, stretched and just let our bodies recover a little bit.

The people we met were amazing. The lodge hosts a group called EHRA (elephant human relations association) and we were able to meet the volunteers associated with that. EHRA basically teaches the locals about how to live with elephants and helps them repair fencing and whatnot. Then they do elephant tracking as well. The groups bond very closely during the event, and it was neat to see.

So there is:

Lexi – A woman from New York. She volunteered last year, and this year she got hired as an assistant. For the 6 weeks she is going to be working there, she'll get 500N$ every two weeks. So about $60 (USD).

Matt – 35, lawyer from San Francisco He was a small claims lawyer who quit his firm and wanted to do something far different than lawyering. So he chose to volunteer with EHRA for 2 weeks, travel through Africa for 2 weeks, and then 2 more weeks with EHRA.

Alex – She is a young woman from the U.K. She once drove from England to Mongolia just for the adventure. When we met her, she had just finished volunteering for a while and was about to find a ride to Cape Town before flying back to England. As we were parting ways she gave us "the Alchemist" to read. This particular book is passed from traveler to traveler along the way. So when steph and I finish it we will pass it on to someone else along the way.

Kenji – From Kyoto Japan, he started his overland trip in south east Asia in January 2010. He did all of Asia the middle east (including Iran, Iraq, the "stans", Syria (twice during the uprising)), a lot of Europe Then in January of this year he headed into Africa, via Morocco and has been going to west Africa ever since. He was in Mali during the coup. He told us "there weren't very many tourists at that time, and I couldn't see Timbuktu, but it was a very nice place". On his travels he learned Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Arabic and English. Amazing guy.

All of these people we've met were very inspirational to us. Whether for 2 weeks, or 3 years, they set the time aside to go and experience the world, in a way that gives a full personal perspective of place that most people have never even heard of.

So Swakopmund was a very nice place to meet travelers of all types. A bit touristy, but very nice.

On the night of the 5^th we headed back to Windhoek. In the morning (of the 6^th) we saw our first game of the "Big 5" (the "big 5" is Wilda-beast Elephants, Hippo, Giraffe and Lion). So we saw Loads of Wilda-beast and about 20 Giraffe just chillin' out by the train tracks. We were very excited.

For the rest of the day we just packed and got resupplied for our ride.