Oct 26th

October 26

Grunau – Mariental

244 Miles

Steph:

By 8am this morning, our bikes and bags were cramped into the back of the car and we were on the road.

Allan is 74 years old and was born in Wales, Britain. He moved to SA in the late 60's with his family to work in the mines near Durban. He has three children, his youngest daughter's name is Stephanie. He calls himself a South African and loves it there. Since his wife passed away from leukemia, he spends most of his time and fortune travelling around all south african countries in his car and camper. He likes to tell corny/dirty jokes. He loves talking in general, and he was absolutely delightful to drive with. When we arrived in Keetmanshoop, he offered to take us the remaining 260km (144miles) to Mariental. We gladly accepted the offer since there was literally NOTHING but desert between the two towns. He talked the whole time and we learned a lot about his perspective on South Africa and the current state of the government. It was very interesting to hear and compare to thoughts we'd heard from everyone else we'd met so far.

When we arrived in Mariental, Allan decided to stay the night there as well so we shared a camp site and braii'd. Very nice :)

Allan Hatch from Wales!! Lovely fellow :)

Erik:

Two very nice ladies from Holland (Hermien and her friend) have joined us in our camp site. We are all sharing the facilities nicely. Tomorrow we plan to continue and are hoping to bush camp to make up for how pricey it's been recovering from our death march.

We're gathering information about Zambia and Zimbabwe from everyone we can to help decide our next move. Everyone says that Zambia is amazing and Zimbabwe can be dicey. We shall see.

The landscape around here is bleh. If we don't start seeing some animals I'm sure we'll go crazy. At this point, cows are exciting.

It's been really nice meeting so many people though. These ladies are very cool. Two friends that come to Africa every year and just drive around everywhere. They clearly know a lot about the area. Hermien is a very well travelled person. Our neighbors at the next site are South Africans moving to Namibia abd have 2 dogs, 1 silly looking shaved cat and a monkey in a cage. Weirdos. There is this huge dog just chilling with us. Steph says I need more "feelings" in my journal. I feel hot and tired and I'm going to bed.