Oct 29th

October 29

Kalkrand – Rehoboth

65 Miles

Erik:

Today's ride was pleasant. Mostly flat. The scenery has changed into more of how I imagined most of Africa to be. We entered the Kalahari!! A lot more greens and trees. Very pretty. Not much wildlife though. We did cross the Tropic of Capricorn! That was exciting. It's the first time I do on land rather than at sea.

Rehoboth is alot bigger than Kalkrand. We ended up finding a B+B. The only camp site here is 7km down a dirt road (we're avoiding those) and costs N$600 per person!! ($70USD). Outrageous! So we got internet and got to dip into a little pool. We're a bit spoiled. Oh well.

The ride tomorrow is supposed to be tough. Up into Windhoek.

We also got invited to a braai!! Free food! I love it.

Steph:

I love this landscape!!!! It's so green and yet still desert-y and the trees! I keep expecting giraffes and rhinos to look up at us as we ride by. Haha! But no. Just goats and sheep. :)

The B+B we're staying in is lovely. It's called Aleen's B+B. The husband is german (and is clearly the one who decorated the place) and the wife is from here. They had a good bye braai planned for some dutch guests who have been here for a week. They are part of a volunteer group that comes to Rehoboth to help build an Orphanage and school. We met the guy who started this project. He is an ex-professional speed skater from Holland who came to visit Namibia in 2005. He fell in love with the place and noticed the bad part of town (like a township) and the state of the children. So he went home and started a huge fundraising campaign to help out. He's raised over 1 million USD to build this place and brings volunteers from Holland to help with construction. He said that it's been incredibly difficult to complete this task but it's all worth it when you see the kids playing in the new playgrounds. Hopefully they will finish by the end of next year.

It was very humbling to be among these people for a while. You can see how passionate they are about the country and the kids. Very refreshing and wonderful.