Vaccinations

Yesterday Milja and I took the puppies back to DARG for their vaccinations. They were also all dewormed just in case. They behaved very well and only started crying when they needed the loo, which they did on the lawn back at home - they waited for about 30 minutes before relieving themselves - very disciplined.

While we were at DARG they mentioned that they had taken in a lot of puppies in the last few days and that we could take more if we wanted to. Today we went and collected three more puppies, these ones the same age as the others when we got them, but so much smaller. They are all white and one has black splodges, two females, one male. They are the cutest dogs and far smaller than the other 5 who have grown tremendously in the last 2 weeks. We still have the original puppies, but we won't be able to have them for too much longer - they are starting to eat solid food a lot more and so are eligible to be adopted by families.

Puppy photos

Step out Hosted on Zooomr

Puppy love Hosted on Zooomr

One Tree Hill Hosted on Zooomr

Another one Hosted on Zooomr

Playful Hosted on Zooomr

Glory days Hosted on Zooomr

Rover Hosted on Zooomr

More photos here.

May the force

Well, it's not quite May yet. But we have definitely had some April showers.

May the force Hosted on Zooomr

Taken during a huge downpour in the middle of last week.

We even had a thunderstorm on Monday night, which was a first for us here in Cape Town. Today, though, the sun is shining and I just went for a run with Megan.

Puppies going strong

We have had the puppies now for 9 days, and they have definitely grown up. I am just going through some photos I took last week and they are much bigger nowadays. They don't get up as much in the night, and are eating food as well as drinking milk. I think they will leave us at the weekend, which will be sad, as we have got used to having them here. Hopefully we will get another 'batch' soon :) (We have a 5kg pot of milk powder arriving today, so I think we HAVE to have more someday soon!)

Namibia Road Trip: Day Seven

Monday 9th April - 552km

We had a late start today, leaving the motel mid-morning. We wrote postcards, packed and played with the Motel's dog.



Today was filled, again, with a lot of driving. We drove for about 6 hours down through South Africa to Cape Town, and home. We were all exhausted, but we had had an amazing week, definitely recommended. A thick band of cloud awaited us as we approached the city reminding us that we were once back in more usual Autumn temperatures.

Namibia Road Trip: Day Six

Sunday 8th April - 1044.6km

Today we had the earliest wake-up of all, leave before 4am. We had a whole lot of driving to do, and we were planning on reching the Namibi-South Africa border before we slept, and we were at the most Northerly place we had stayed. We drove back down the same road we had on Friday, this time South towards Aus. We were heading past Aus (literally past Klein Aus Vista) and Westwards towards the coastal town of Lüderitz.

About 10km before you reach Lüderitz, there is a tiny town called Kolmanskop. It was formed in the very early 1900s when a single diamond was discovered on the rail tracks, and since grew quickly into a small mining town. The town was deserted in the mid 1950s when the last families moved out. The miners had all moved further South as there were bigger diamonds and better opportunities there. Kolmanskop is now a ghost town.

I had been looking forward to visiting Kolmanskop the most out of anything we'd done on the trip. Ghost towns are really interesting - being able to walk around the place (nearly) as it was 50 years ago when everyone left. The place was great. There was a large town hall with a small bowling (or 'skittle') alley, a few dozen houses, the mine, an ice factory and a bakery. We walked around the hall and up to the bigger, two story houses which were on a rise behind the town. This is where the mine manger, the book keeper, and the more important residents lived. The houses were broken, full of sand and probably quite dangerous to be in! The 'Minenverwalter's (mine manager's) house had, we think, been recently renovated, as it was a lot less run down and had nice painted walls.



(See more in the set 'Kolmanskop Ghost Town')

We walked around for maybe an hour or so, and then got in the car and headed West to Lüderitz. It is a small, coastal town with a harbour and a population of near 13,000. We scouted round for a while trying to find somewhere to have lunch, but as it was Easter Sunday, we didn't have any luck. We got lunch from a supermarket instead.



On the drive back East towards Aus and beyond, we stopped and looked at wild horses. Their ancestors were once brought to the area by Germans when they rules the country, who had then escaped to the wild. The place we stopped at is the only source of water in the area for them, so we were guaranteed to see them. There were also oryx and ostriches there drinking.



Then started the long drive to the border. We drove for hours, this time taking a different route back. We drove along some dirt roads, through some towns, and then finally reached the Orange River, which runs along the border between the two countries before reaching the sea. We followed it East for what seemed like forever, and by dusk we reached the border crossing.

The officer there was called Heikki, can you believe. Finnish missionaries first came to Namibia in the 1870s, and the names, and even in some parts, the language, have been carried on to this day. He had given his daughters Finnish names.



We drove for another hours or so, back to the same motel we stayed at on the first night, but this time with freshly baked take-away pizza from town (Springbok). We slept well.

Namibia Road Trip: Day Five

Today we had a mega early start. We were heading to the dunes at Sesriem so we were left at 5am in order to have visited the place before the sun had risen high enough to make the temperature unbearable. We were told at dinner the previous night that the gate opened at 6am, so to avoid the queues that gather, we left a whole hour before. I banged my knee badly on a step in the dark on the way out, which jarred the joint. Not so fun to sit huddled in the back of a Landrover on a bumpy gravel track!

The early rise worked out well, as we were the first car to reach the gate. Soon a queue of about 9 cars and a bus we behind us. While we waited for the gate to open at sunrise, we ate our breakfast - a box of goodies that the lodge made for us. At 6am, we were finally let in after about a half-hour wait, and we passed through the office to get a pass, then through a second gate, and then we were in. We drove for something like 20-30 minutes through the large expanse between dunes either side of us, and eventually reached Dune 45.



This is the most visited dune in Namibia, and it is possible to walk up it. Of course, we did. I was struggling with my now stiff right knee, but we all made it to the top, including India, who was carried by Milja and Heikki some of the way. Walking uphill is hard enough, but on sand, it is a lot more challenging. The views from the top were amazing. If you look on a satellite image of the area we were in, you can see that the sand seems to be brushed aside leaving a massive gap in the middle. Matias and I made it to the top first, and we sat and watched the sun rise higher over the dunes in the distance. Once everyone had arrived and had taken in the surroundings, we decided to head down the dunes, but not along the path. We headed down. We all scaled the steep side of the dune (which was difficult for me without being able to bend my leg properly), and had a lot of fun in the process. We were down the bottom by 7:30am.



Once de-sanded and back in the car, we continued driving West towards Sossusvlei, the area right at the end of the 'gap'. From there to the West coast, there is nothing but sand. We stopped, Heikki walked for a bit, Milja and I crammed in some reading, and then Matias and India had their turns at driving :)



On our way back to the lodge, we had a quick trip to another canyon, the Sesriem Canyon, this one a lot smaller than the Fish River Canyon we saw a few days previous. We saw some baboons running past on the other side, and had a quick peek down into the gorge.



Back at the lodge, we relaxed for the afternoon. We had some lunch, played cards and swam. At 3:45pm it was time for horse riding. I was looking forward to it this time, after riding properly for the first time two days ago. We had an amazing time on the Sunset Ride, speeding around on the very open, and massive, plains (which was actually quite scary!). At sunset we reached a spot where there was a table set up with drinks and finger food. By the time we were back on our horses to head home, it was dark, and we couldn't see much further than a few metres ahead all the way back. Apart from upwards. We could see the stars so clearly, and it was so beautiful. India fell aslep on her horse and was quickly transfered to Milja's horse with her to stop her from sliding off silently without us knowing. And as per usual, we were treated to another thunderstorm over the mountains ahead. We got back, had dinner and fell asleep early, as we had an even earlier start ahead on Sunday - we were heading home.