RELAXATION IN RUNDU

WEATHER: Not as hot 30C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Short travel day and more free time

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of anything

BUYS OF THE DAY: Soap for 1AUD from Shoprite

WORD OF THE DAY: Make hay while the sun shines

CAMP SITE RANKING: Pretty amazing, awesome ;site, heaps of flushing toilets and showers, washing basins and lines, 2 bars, a pool and carpet.  Only thing missing is Wi-Fi but still gets a 5 out of 5 stars

Well we only have 220km to travel today and another spare afternoon to chill.  Wakeup 6.45am, breakfast at 7.30am and we left Rainbow Lodge at 8am.  We were warned for all of Namibia now that we have to be careful of scorpions and move our tents from where they have been all night before rolling them, as the scorpions like the warmth, and they could be found right under where we had been sleeping. Ughhhhhh.  Needless to say Lisa and I forgot to check this morning, but we will be all over it tomorrow.  If you get bitten by a scorpion you wont die, but you will be in excruciating pain for 8 hours, yeah I think we can do without that.

So back in the truck we now call home.  Ben loves his truck and I cannot think of a single thing that he cannot fix or that has gone seriously wrong with the truck for the 30+ days we have been travelling.  My window got stuck yesterday but he was in there first thing this morning and it was fixed in 5 minutes flat.  Thanks buddy. 

We only have 10 more nights in tents and 14 more nights on tour.  I don’t want to think about our good-byes just yet, as this will be the hardest one to date I think.  Not to take away from any of my other farewells, as they have all been hard with the people that I do make good friends with (you all know who you are) but I think the longer the tours, the better you get to know people and hence the harder it is to say good-bye.  I guess I am lucky as I know I will definitely see all my posse again as I am yet to travel to their countries, so they are my farewell’s and not good-byes and are certainly genuine and I am in a position to be able to ‘actually’ see them all again.  With the way I’m going after all my tours finish in April 2012 (so far) I could possibly get a good few months staying with my new ‘friends’ and only having to pay for some food, a thank-you gift and my flights.  Not to make a pest of myself, 4 maybe 5 days max at each stop I don’t think would be overkill!  What do you think?  Maybe I won’t be home in July next year the rate that I am going, but besides my god-daughters and Shelly what else do I have to go home to?  Anyway, it is a long way off so stay tuned.  I just may meet my African Prince yet, or a South American drug lord and then who knows where I will end up.  Live, Love and Grow each day is all I can hope for at this stage.

So after 2.5 hours driving we rolled into Rundu and our camp for the night.  It is pretty awesome here, big shady trees, carpet, 2 bars, one overlooking the Angolan border and the other beside the pool, plenty of showers and toilets, washing facilities and a washing line.  I hate to say after being so busy after 45 days it is hard to unwind and after we had unpacked and launched the tents, we were all looking a little lost and to each other wondering what to do with ‘free’ time.  We really had no idea on what to do.  It was quite funny, but it is always nice to have a ‘nothing’ day and recharge the batteries.  An early lunch was served and then we were given a ride into Rundu to get whatever had to be done.  We jumped onto the internet for an hour.  I have found out that I have not printed all the documents I need to be completed for the divorce (thanks Dave for pointing that out), but it looks like I may be able to lodge it online now, and then send the other stuff back.  I just need some time and a good internet connection, but I am going to get it done while I still have Sean and Dave, so maybe Cape Town will be best for this?  I’ll see how I go, but I knew it looked a little too easy!  So after purchasing some more phone credit and a supermarket stop, we were lucky enough that the truck was still around and we hitched a ride back to camp.  I do need to mention the supermarkets are awesome in this nick of the woods.  They are certainly more western than what we have been used to the last 4 weeks, and it seems a little bit of a crime not making the most of them by not buying anything when we see them.  Shoprite in Rundu was the best by far I have seen since Eldoret in Kenya.

The afternoon was spent by the pool, taking a dip in the cool water, reading and blogging.  I am now up to date, I just need some internet connection to be upload the last 4 days, but we will get that in the next few days.  It was good place to unwind and after dinner we headed to the bar that had a flat screen TV (its been awhile since we have seen one of those) and a pool table.  I don’t play pool, but I don’t mind watching people play over a few beers.  Rundu was great to relax.