Colonels Abroad - Grinner and Liz
Having bloody great time, I won't bore u with too many details - here's a few things we've done. I'm trying to sort out some piccies to send over, just need to find a place with the technology!
Namibia was absolutely out of this world, we both loved it so much - probably my favourite place ever. The open spaces, lack of tourists, stunning scenery, smiley locals, proper African culture, animals, fantastic drives etc etc were just wonderful. Sometimes we'd stop the car, get out to a wall of heat and just listen to the silence, not a dickie bird around - it was unbelievably quiet.
We decided against the balloon ride as the cost was much higher than we expected, and it was a cloudy morning when we were there. Instead the next day we decided to do a flight in a 5 seater Cessna plane, it was a 2 hour flight down the coast of Namibia, across the desert then back again. I'll never forget the look on Liz's face when the pilot decided to go lower and lower, it felt like we'd almost touch the ground then he'd turn sharply back up into the sky. It was amazing, we saw shipwrecks, seals, thousands of flamingoes all taking to the sky as we flew low over them. Went over the dunes and desert, followed rivers etc. We landed half way and the other 3 people in the plane got off as they were staying in the desert. We took off again, just me, Liz and the pilot - our own private jet!!!
We've also spent 3 days in Etosha, it's a national park about 150 miles wide - full of animals in their natural environments. We were a bit spoilt on the first night, we sat by a watering hole - binoculars at the ready - and a herd of 10 giraffes popped along for a drink. They stayed for ages then moved off when a family of 4 Rhinos mooched up and decided it was their turn! Next morning we got up early and drove out to see 2 lions by the side of the road, a couple of elephants and hundreds of Zebras, Springboks, Wilderbeasts etc etc. It was very safe driving around by ourselves, apparently it's only elephants who give humans any grief - and that's when they're protecting their younger ones.
We managed 4000kms in the fortnight we were there, the drives may have seemed long at times, but there's so much to look at that it wasn't a problem at all.
Now we've got 2 weeks before heading off to Australia, time is flying.
Managing to see a fair bit of footy too which is nice, the saaturday games are on live here, so a few beers and footy goes down very nicely on hot sunny days.
