South west safri Africa day 21-25

Day 21 Up at 5am we drove for 45mins until we got to dune 45. There is a race with all the overland trucks and other campers to the dune to see who can get to the top first. Only a few us made it up to the top but it was truly beautiful watching the sunrise over the desert and a memory that will stay with me. Our guide and driver Sami and Tony cooked us a yummy breakfast at the bottom of the dune which we where very grateful for. We had a tour of the dunes in a jeep that afternoon learning about the area and wildlife. My team was on cooking and we cooked the best spaghetti bolognaise that night ever! even if it was 45 minutes late. That night had the coldest night yet. 5 layers of clothes, blankets, silk liners and a sleeping bags was not enough as Matt is sweating naked in his sleeping bag…if only I had paid the extra on a sleeping bag :). 

This was just the begining hill of the dune!

Sun rise

Day 22 Today we drove to the river canyon, the second largest canyon in the world. We had our lunch over looking the canyon, cheese and tomato rolls to make a change :). We walked along the side of canyon for about 40 minutes it was very peaceful. Camp that night was a treat, they had hot springs outside and a spa inside, we all took advantage of them. 

Fish river canyon

Day 23- Orange River was the scene for our camp today, the river separates Namibia from South Africa. After crossing the border we had an afternoon to ourselves. Everyone was very grateful for some down time, most people slept where they could in the shade, some just chilled by the bar. Steve and Matt found some fishing rods and hoped to catch some dinner with sweet corn….after some good efforts no fish for dinner that night. Everyone got a wee bit drunk that night not that’s its hard when the wine is so good and at £3 a bottle. The guy that works behind the bar decided to show us some of his fire ball on a rope swing it round your head thing, to be fair he was pretty good. A few other also got to try as I watched in horror behind the table…some still had the black marks on their skin the next day.

Day 24- Our last nights in the tent I cant help but feel a little sad but also jumping for joy at the same time. We camped in an actual vineyard called highlands it was stunning and the perfect setting for our last night on tour. We all opted for a wine tasting session for £6, which was extremely good value for money. As we drank into the sunset it was time for dinner that they also provided for us (chicken stew and Ice cream). Some crazy people stayed up until the sun was almost up, while most of us hit the tents at a more reasonable hour.

Vineyard Camp

Wine tasting 

 

Day 25- As we watched our last sunrise coming up over the vineyard, we packed up the tent for the very last time.  It was a long drive to Cape Town for our last activity, a township tour. We where meet by a local who took us into the slums in a mini van. We had lunch provided for us in a local place, which I can only describe as a large hot tin shed and there was some kind of rave going on. It was a place where young people go to on the weekend.

The townships were a big eye opener. Within the community you had three classes, we where lucky enough to be shown around the lower class which was as basic as you can imagine. We also got to try some local moonshine well I say we, only a few brave souls did. On the same estate were houses that compared to our house prices were expensive, this part was called the Beverly Hills of the slum. We were dropped off to our hostel, which was at hotel standards and looked forward to a few nights there. We arranged to meet everyone that night for our final meal together. We do hope to bump into a few as we travel around the world. 

Views of the township

Moonshine

Lady mixing the moonshine

Two days in Cape town- Our first day to organise ourselves which came at quite a shock as the last 25 days we petty much did what we were told. A few of us decided to do the city hop on hope off bus tour, which turned out to be a really fun day. We started at the harbour front looking around the cute shops and had a rather extravagant lunch. We sat at the top of the open bus, cameras at the poise, listening to our city guide through headphones, we could not of been more touristy if we tried. We planed to get the cable car up table mountain but the time we got to that stop it looked a bit cloudy so we thought it was best to wait, we still got amazing views over Cape town. We couldn’t even manage to drag our weary bodies out for dinner so we opted for a take away and enjoyed our comfy duvet, the days of the sleeping bag are far behind me :).

Beautiful lunch with beautiful views

Views over Cape Town

Us on Camps Bay with Table mountain

City tour bus :)

Views from the bus

Me and Nelson Mandela

Harbour views

Up early for our all day wine tasting tour. It was a little pricey at £54 each but was well worth the cost purely of the amount of wine we were given, I am even ashamed to say I could not drink all the wines there were that many! Through the day we went to four vineyards in the Stellenbosch area, the first being Villiera where they produce for marks and Spenser’s. The second Tokara, where we got to try their home grown olives and olive oil. The third Solms Delta, we had lunch in a beautiful garden while drinking more wine and then had the taster after lunch. The last was Fairview, where you could try as many of their cheeses as you could eat with your wines. By the end of the day we could have tried 30+ wines. In the evening we had our best meal yet and ended a perfect day. We can’t believe how quickly our month in Africa has come around and would recommend the trip to anyone. Singapore in the morning where new adventures await.