track our trek

we met up bright and early at the nomad office in downtown capetown for day 1 of our overland adventure. we met our zambian guide, mcnell (mac) and his lovely assistant puleng from bloemfontein, sa. we made introductions - there were 13 of us, including 5 folks from germany, one from from denmark, one from france, one from australia, one canadian, and two from england. then we loaded up the truck - not a bus - and were off! (anyone who slipped and called it a bus must buy a round of drinks for everyone.) we stopped outside capetown to pick up groceries and to try to stock up on sa rand and us dollars... rand and usd are accepted in all of the countries we'll be visiting, and some of the optional activities can only be paid for in usd...the first day took us to the cederburg mountain region in northern sa, famous for rooibos tea and citrus farming. we got to campsite, learned how to pitch our tents and promptly ran off to float in the olifants river on inner tubes for hours...the lodge at the campsite had a bar, a pool table, and quite decent toilets (called ablutions). we thought...wow if we're camping like this the whole way, it's gonna be a piece of cake! we even got comfy-ish foam mattresses to sleep on! dinner was a delicious poitjie (beef stew) that mac and puleng whipped up over the camp fire.
our next stop was along the banks of the orange river, the border between south africa and namibia. we went on a half day canoe trip down the orange river...it started out as a really wonderful scenic trip downstream, but soon we ran into upstream winds that were stronger than the current! the trip took us more than an extra hour of battling the winds to get back to camp! by the end we were exhausted, & we decided that rowing sports are not a strength for the dd/dp team! i think we'll skip white water rafting on the great zambezi in zimbabwe! jokes!