Going

We landed in Namibia early and waited for our driver to come pic us up – there was another lady with us who was on her way back to the UK, back to her boyfriend. She had been trying to get a visa for over 6 months and was finally allowed back in. The driver arrived – not so much English but the combi was comfortable and air-conditioned. We got to the lodge and headed straight outside. It was nice, the staff were friendly and helpful – we lay in the sun with the cool breeze blowing, drinking cooldrinks and reading on the edge between the pool and the waterhole. BAD IDEA. We went inside for our lunch, I had half a chicken and Bug had a game schnitzel, realising only then how much sun we had actually had. We turned from white to pink, pink to red and red to crimson as we eat. During the meal a crazy German tour guide introduced himself and said that he was taking us at about 3. After lunch we escaped to the shaded terrace and napped / read / relaxed the midday away. At 3 we went looking for zi crazy German and found him at the reception. He had a very interesting method or tracking game – instead of driving slowly when he spotted something to try and get close – he would try and catch up with it when it started running, so we spend about 2 hours bouncing along jeep-track in the Namibian semi-desert. He did miss one or two things at the start but it was great fun and I got some pics. Hard to believe that the dry landscape can support life, but sure enough – there was life and plenty of it. We did however see a Wilderbees calf that had died recently, either from lack of water or food or too much heat. He told us that they had to get rain in the next 4 – 8 weeks or there would be trouble. We then headed back to the airport and on to England. Very interesting terminal at Windhoek – there is no transit – you have to go out of arrivals, through customs and then back through customs and into departures. Relaxed and cat-napped in departures lounge. The flight on was comfortable and the service was nice but I couldn’t get a wink of sleep for some reason – so I was devastated when I got to Gatwick – in survival mode. After landing and getting our bags Bug picked up some cash from Forex – from one of her sponsors – and headed straight to the closest coffee shop and ordered a large (HUGE) cappuccino. While I watched our bags I felt warm hands grip my shoulders – Cath.