Sossusvlei

We just had such a great weekend!! Jenica, Ellen, Michelle, Scott, Nigel, Bruce, Erin and I all headed about 6 hours out of Swakop to Sossusvlei which has the red sand dunes which are some of the tallest in the world! Even bigger than dune 7!
We left early on friday morning and hit the road....or should I say gravel? 400km on gravel roads SUCK! (especially in a little VW hatchback!) oh well...I'm a pro at driving on gravel now!
We arrived at our camp just in time to settle in and relax before dinner. It was a super nice little area where we were - complete with a mini watering hole!
We got up SUPER early the next day in order to make it to the main gates by sunrise. We were about an hour away so we left the camp at 5:30am! OUCH!
But that was the first African sunrise I've seen since I've been here! Very nice!
We finally got into the park at 6:45 and drove for about another hour to the dunes.
The first hike we did was about two hours and SO cool! I'm SO glad we came early in the morning because we finished by 10am and it was already SO hot!! The hike we did was called "hiddenvlei". Basically it's a trip over some dunes and suddenly when you reach the top of one of them you come to this 'hidden' salt pan. It's so neat...completely white and flat with these giant dead trees. Really creepy but very cool to look at! (if you've ever seen The Cell with Jennifer Lopez - that's where her crazy dreams are filmed!)
we finished that lovely hike and decided to head onto Sossusvlei then which was only 5km away. Unfortuantly you need a 4x4 to drive there because it's super soft sand. There where shuttles there to take you in if you didn't have a 4x4 so we told Scott's car to go ahead and we'll meet them in there. We went to a shuttle to ask to get driven in and he says "$90 per person". .....now, we've already paid $80 each at the gate to get into the park...so we figured these shuttles would be free!
We all decide that's highway robbery and screw it instead. Jenica and Ellen went back to the car to read but Michelle and I decided to be adventurous and try to walk instead. We're like "5km...that's not so bad! we can do it!". After about 20 minutes of walking in the heat and super soft sand we realized what a stupid decision we made! We met up with some people who were walking back and they said it's not that bad and we should be able to make it. We chatted with them for a little bit and found out they were Canadian too. Even more crazy is that when we said why we were in Africa they told us they were from just outside Nelson and saw Kokopelli there! What a small world!!
Anyhoo...Michelle and I trekked on a little more when the shuttle we had first tried to get on stopped by us. He said it's too far to walk and we should come with him...for only $50 together. I told him we had no money because we left it in our car when we decided to walk. We gave us a ride anyways after talking a bit more...he said to meet him at 12:15 and get a ride back with him so we can pay him.
We we finally arrived we found Scott's car right away and hooked up with them instead. We hiked around there a little more and all started to feel a little gross after being in the sun and heat for so long! We caught a ride back with them instead so we wouldn't have to wait around and pay this other dude!
We headed back to our lodge after to chill by the pool and read a bit.
Speaking of reading - I just finished Harry Potter. So, I thought it was a pretty good ending but what was up with the whole "19 Years Later" thing??? That was SSSSSSOOOO cheesy!!
lame lame lame

So...we headed back this morning and were making pretty good time! When we were about an hour and a half from Walvis Bay I heard a "BAM" and got a little freaked out. I pulled over hoping we didn't get a flat tire but low and behold...we did.
4 girls...in the middle of the desert with no cars anywhere to be seen. And the tire didn't just go flat - it pretty much got a big ass whole in it! I must have hit one huge sharp rock in order to do that!
We started taking the spare tire out and tried to figure out how to jack it up when a car came towards us. We kind of tried to flag it down but it didn't even slow down at all! But luckily another truck came by no more than 30 seconds later! A super nice guy came out and changed the tire for us! He even offered to drive the rest of the way behind us to make sure it would be okay! I told him we all had cells with coverage there so it would be fine! But it was so nice of him to offer though!

We made it back to Swakop with no further adventures! The weekend was super fun overall though! Scott and his gang went on to Waterberg to do some crazy horse back riding safari. Ellen, Jenica and I are just chilling at the internet cafe. It's very exciting too!

oh...and other random news - the big musical that Mascato was getting ready for (September 15 & 16) ...and the whole reason why my stay was extended...has been postponed! The choreographer who that had lined up found out she has cancer and has to go for emergency surgery! They don't want to do the play without her so they postponed it till whenever she's better!
I was looking really forward to see how it was going to turn out but I'm glad with lady caught it in time in order to do something about it! Mrs.Venter is thinking that they might even be able to fly me back for it (because the Bank of Windhoek is sponsoring the play) That would be so crazy!
Scott and Mrs.Venter were asking if I wanted to go home earlier now because it's not happening anymore but I said I still wanted to stay. The original exchange was supposed to be 3 months and I arrived on the 10th of May. So really I should have been going back on September 10th (the month Kokopelli was here didn't count as part of the exchange) so really I'm only staying like an extra 11 days! I said I definitaly want to stay!

I should run though... I'm almost out of time on the internet! I normally pre-write my posts on my laptop and then bring them to the internet cafe on my memory stick - but I'm just writing as fast as I can now instead! crazy!

Hope everyone in Kokopelli made it home okay with nothing broken!!
mwah