Justins World

It has been a busy few days but we’ve finally arrived in Namibia, I’m sitting in the lounge in my lodge, looking out over the Namibian desert. We just wrapped up the remaining sights of Cape Town and then flew to Namibia. Its all been a bit of a blur really, I barely had my camera out at all, but luckily those fancy phone things have a camera on them. The downside was we didn’t get to Robben island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. The seas have been rough all week and there was even a naval accident this week where the lives of three sailors were lost duer to the rough seas. Its disappointing, but safety is important.

We filled one day getting wet walking around the botanical gardens. It was an adventure in the rain, but I now know how Proteas look on the plant. So far everyone has proteas in their restaurants and hotels in a vase, and not surprisingly they grow on a large bush. I’m not sure what I though they grew on. We’ve also been avid users of Uber in Cape Town. Most trips have been a few dollars and checking my bank account, even the most expensive trip to athe airport was only $16.

Friday was a day of frivolity, which I ensured I posted on facebook, because I’m caring like that and wanted everyone to enjoy the fun we were having. We only visited three wineries and all three were top notch. The first stop at Warwick wine farm I took part in the easy drinking wine tasting. Wine isn’t my favourite alcohol, but surprisingly enjoyed the sparkling rosé the most! Our second stop was my favourite of the three at Tokara wine farm. They make a rather good brandy here so i had that with the cheese platter with views of Table Mountain. yes we could actually see Table mountain, all we had to do was drink alcohol….. Our final winery was to the Bakery at La Motte for a delicious lunch. We skipped the tastings as unlike Australia where i still think wine tasting is mostly free, it appears the rest of the world charges for such privilege! I couldn’t see that going down well in Australia. We also fit in a trip to the Stellenbosch museum which walks through 4 of Stellenbosch’s oldest buildings and was a rather good little museum in a very picturesque unioversity town. Students and wine, what could go wrong?

That brings us to Namibia. I drove along gravel roads for most of the day and we spotted three giraffe pretty early on in the day. We didn’t stop, because we figured we’d see more wildlife on the way and all we saw were Babboons, goats and cows. Oh there was an ostrich in a farm also. My real highlight though was the trip to the stables at our desert lodge. There was a funny black and white striped horse in the stables, and despite being the smallest, this zebra was the boss of the stables.

Blog update: Despite the abrupt ending to the blog, due to dinner I have more to add. Firstly, we got to be part of the Namibian census, as its census night here. Other than my age, I wrote Australia down a lot and also said not married rather than “don’t know” for marriage status. It was short and brief, nothing like the behemoth census we fill in back in Australia. Then just as i was looking forward to what i assume were chocolate truffles for dessert, we were served a small trifle. Lemon curd, cream and mixed berries were the layers and it was delicious as was the entire dinner. Tomorrow, we are off sand dune “climbing” or whatever my body will allow me to do. I’ll finish up with a ultra rare photo of Table mountain in all its glory!