Most of the places we have stayed along the journey have been either real bush camping or very basic, in the car park of a hotel, hostel or religious mission. However, here in Namibia the camp sites are set up for travellers. They are a little more expensive but all have electricity (brilliant for having the air conditioning on), usually their own water tap and dish washing area, tables and seating and braai (barbecue). Sometimes there's also a fire pit to sit round in the evening but we don't make use of these as we go to bed so early! Some even have their own private shower with a view. The camp site here at Solitaire is a sand surface, not so good for some people in tents who prefer to sleep on grass but ideal for us. It is so lovely to be out in the morning sunshine doing the washing up. Here we have a communal block with hot showers, clean toilets and an undercover washing up area with double sinks. It may be undercover but it is open on one side to the elements. This morning before starting I had to chase away the birds perched on the taps and clear the sinks of grasshoppers with the aid of a spoon as they were too weak to make the jump.
We have had this camp almost to ourselves. At the moment Solitaire is a bit of a transit place with people stopping to refuel their vehicles and themselves at Moose McGregor's Desert Bakery. Sadly Moose himself died in 2014. It will be better when the new American owners get the Activity Centre up and running, hopefully for John's balloon flights as well. Yesterday morning we had been sharing with a group of 12 campers from the night before because all the other camps were full for Easter. I got talking to some of them: South Africans and their English relatives and friends from Henley-on-Thames, including Lord John, who gave me a small Easter egg and chocolate rabbit 'all the way from England'!
We will be leaving Solitaire today to go to Sesriem and Sossusvlei. We were going to fly our balloon from "Solitaire International" airstrip with John this morning as the easterly wind of the last 2 days had dropped but John unexpectedly had 4 paying passengers from Tsondab which we were extremely pleased about. As we had made such a lovely flight on Friday we didn't feel it was worth the effort to make a short hop on our own.
Postscript: you may have noticed from the map at the top of the page that our journey stops close to the Cameroon/Gabon border. This will be rectified when we get back to the UK. Also I have many many photos to add along with links to Simon Fenton's second blog about flying in Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry; Chloe's video and other mention of our flight in Abengourou, Cote d'Ivoire and perhaps the Facebook page for Carpe Diem in Angola which was to have information about our balloon flight there. When we have had good internet I have usually not had the time to do more than send emails and do the blog post. Life is just so busy! It's not quite like being on holiday where we sit around lazing or sunbathing. In fact I probably spend more time inside than I do out in the sun because we are doing so much driving. I wouldn't change a thing and we are really going to miss Africa when we return at the end of the month. Pleased to be going home but looking forward to more adventures in September onwards.
We have had this camp almost to ourselves. At the moment Solitaire is a bit of a transit place with people stopping to refuel their vehicles and themselves at Moose McGregor's Desert Bakery. Sadly Moose himself died in 2014. It will be better when the new American owners get the Activity Centre up and running, hopefully for John's balloon flights as well. Yesterday morning we had been sharing with a group of 12 campers from the night before because all the other camps were full for Easter. I got talking to some of them: South Africans and their English relatives and friends from Henley-on-Thames, including Lord John, who gave me a small Easter egg and chocolate rabbit 'all the way from England'!
We will be leaving Solitaire today to go to Sesriem and Sossusvlei. We were going to fly our balloon from "Solitaire International" airstrip with John this morning as the easterly wind of the last 2 days had dropped but John unexpectedly had 4 paying passengers from Tsondab which we were extremely pleased about. As we had made such a lovely flight on Friday we didn't feel it was worth the effort to make a short hop on our own.
Postscript: you may have noticed from the map at the top of the page that our journey stops close to the Cameroon/Gabon border. This will be rectified when we get back to the UK. Also I have many many photos to add along with links to Simon Fenton's second blog about flying in Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry; Chloe's video and other mention of our flight in Abengourou, Cote d'Ivoire and perhaps the Facebook page for Carpe Diem in Angola which was to have information about our balloon flight there. When we have had good internet I have usually not had the time to do more than send emails and do the blog post. Life is just so busy! It's not quite like being on holiday where we sit around lazing or sunbathing. In fact I probably spend more time inside than I do out in the sun because we are doing so much driving. I wouldn't change a thing and we are really going to miss Africa when we return at the end of the month. Pleased to be going home but looking forward to more adventures in September onwards.
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