Africa – 25th Sept 2008 – Day 24

We woke up at 8am, had a quick breakfast, checked out and hit the road for our long drive to Dessert Homestead.

Initially the drive was just flat as we drive through the dessert. However, this route, the C14 followed by the C19, turned out to be the best drive so far. Every half an hour the scenery changed. We drove through stunning mountains, twisting gravel passes and long. , long sandy roads. We passed through the tropic of Capricorn and a host of animals on our way to our half way stop at a very small hamlet called Solitaire. We tried the world famous Apple Crumble, not bad but not as good as we have had at home. By now we were in amongst the cactus and hordes of white butterflies.

After a rest, we hit the road again. As we continued the spoil became orange and red and we began to see some dunes appearing on the horizon.

After 5 hours of driving we found the Dessert Homestead lodge. We settled into our new room which has a fantastic view down the valley. We sat around the pool, relaxing. The temperature here is not as hot as other parts of Namibia.

Later on Tim and Freda joined us for a beer. They had also travelled the same stunning route and were staying at Dessert Homestead for a couple of days. We all booked to visit the dunes at Sossusvlei early tomorrow as well as the evening horse sundowner ride.

Freda is a nurse back in the UK, so John showed here is burnt nipples which were now quite hard. Freda said they were not burnt but probably a reaction to a couple of insect bites, one on each nipple! They have begun to itch like mad, but John has resisted scratching them.

We had a very good meal and hit the sack in preparation for our early start.