We apologize for the length of time between the last post and this. We have driven north through the RSA, Namibia, and west to east in Botswana between May 11 and today, and have had very limited access to the Internet. We have only managed to quickly check and respond to e-mail during the past couple of weeks. Also, we have discovered the problem with our photos--they are much too large, and we now know how to reduce them--but that task will have to wait until next week, when we actually "settle down" and begin living in Shakawe, the village where we will live and Jeff will work.
On May 12 we left Cape Town, stopping in the agricultural town of Malmesbury for lunch. While there we were able to pick up a couple of disk blades from a New Holland farm store, which will be turned into woks for one of our typical cookouts sometime in the next few months. Our drive continued up the N7 (a highway) through farm and orchard country, with another stop at the town of Citrusdel to buy a bag of naartjies (I am guessing at the spelling). They are similar in appearance to tangerines, but don't taste the same. They are sweeter and have very little pulp. We have driven past many, many sheep in the RSA.
Our overnight accommodations were found in the town of Garies in the Northern Cape district. The dominant language there was Afrikaans, although we had no problems being understood. As we arrived early on a Friday night, we had a beer in the hotel bar with some of the local young people, who were playing pool, talking, listening to eighties American pop music, and watching a rugby match on television.
We arrived in the town of Springbok on Saturday morning. Business was quite brisk; many of the people from the outlying rural areas come to town for grocery shopping, social activities, and, that morning, a netball tournament. Netball is a game similar to basketball played by girls here. After some necessary restocking of supplies and purchases of items needed for camping, we succeeded in crossing the border from the RSA into Namibia.
At 4:30 p. m. we arrived at the camp of Ai-Ais at Fish River Canyon in Namibia, our home for the night. Life became slightly confusing when we found that Namibia had just begun a form of daylight savings time, and the time was an hour earlier than South Africa. We were entertained on the way to Namibia by a German language folk music station, a native dialect station that seemed to be conducting a cattle auction, and hymns in yet another dialect. The dialects sounded like click languages. Fish River Canyon was the beginning of our tour through the spectacular terrain of Namibia, which we will describe in detail in future posts.
An excellent website to view photos of some of the places described here is Flickr. Type Flickr.com for access, and the site will provide instructions.
On May 12 we left Cape Town, stopping in the agricultural town of Malmesbury for lunch. While there we were able to pick up a couple of disk blades from a New Holland farm store, which will be turned into woks for one of our typical cookouts sometime in the next few months. Our drive continued up the N7 (a highway) through farm and orchard country, with another stop at the town of Citrusdel to buy a bag of naartjies (I am guessing at the spelling). They are similar in appearance to tangerines, but don't taste the same. They are sweeter and have very little pulp. We have driven past many, many sheep in the RSA.
Our overnight accommodations were found in the town of Garies in the Northern Cape district. The dominant language there was Afrikaans, although we had no problems being understood. As we arrived early on a Friday night, we had a beer in the hotel bar with some of the local young people, who were playing pool, talking, listening to eighties American pop music, and watching a rugby match on television.
We arrived in the town of Springbok on Saturday morning. Business was quite brisk; many of the people from the outlying rural areas come to town for grocery shopping, social activities, and, that morning, a netball tournament. Netball is a game similar to basketball played by girls here. After some necessary restocking of supplies and purchases of items needed for camping, we succeeded in crossing the border from the RSA into Namibia.
At 4:30 p. m. we arrived at the camp of Ai-Ais at Fish River Canyon in Namibia, our home for the night. Life became slightly confusing when we found that Namibia had just begun a form of daylight savings time, and the time was an hour earlier than South Africa. We were entertained on the way to Namibia by a German language folk music station, a native dialect station that seemed to be conducting a cattle auction, and hymns in yet another dialect. The dialects sounded like click languages. Fish River Canyon was the beginning of our tour through the spectacular terrain of Namibia, which we will describe in detail in future posts.
An excellent website to view photos of some of the places described here is Flickr. Type Flickr.com for access, and the site will provide instructions.
posted by Jeff & Gina Smith at 8:07 AM
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