February 16th, 2009

Today was our last day in Namibia. After another breakfast we all checked out of the hotel and were ready to go ATVing. The woman at the reception desk was nice enough to let us all leave our bags in the front office while we went out for the day. Before we left most people bought postcards, and I bought a little trinket that kind of looks like a wind chime. By the time I realized there were post cards everyone took the ones of the sand dunes and things we had seen. So sorry Rane and parentals but this is one country you guys wont be getting a postcard from, I didn’t even buy one for myself. I just didn’t want one of things I hadn’t seen in the country. The reason we were buying stuff at the hotel is we weren’t sure we would have time to buy any other souvenirs before getting back on the ship.

 

Well anyways at 8:30 our hotel shuttle took us to meet Fani and head off into the dunes for some ATVing. I had never driven a quad before and was kind of nervous, especially after the first minute one of the girls in the group ran straight into a fence. Not funny at the time but Anna and I couldn’t help but to look at each other and laugh a little. With still some nervous feelings in my stomach we were off and I was getting the hang of it. Fani took us to a place where we could drive down the dunes like we had done yesterday in the off road vehicles. The first one made me still a little nervous but as soon as that was over I was ready for anything!

 

Just like yesterday we stopped along the way to learn about the landscape and its history. We first stopped at an area where Fani showed us all kinds of animal fossil prints that were 10,000 years old I believe. We got to see buffalo and even elephant tracks. We kept on driving going up and down the dunes. At our next stop Fani showed us areas that people used to live in. He explained to us that every place around us we could see if white rocks that people had once lived there. We stopped at a site and he told us that we might even seen human bones because people would bury each other and then just keep building the towns up. As we were looking around we first noticed a femur and few others bones. Then as Fani was showing us a fruit I heard Anna say “Oh MY GOD!!!”and gasp I turned to look and there was a full human skull teeth and all. We then tried the fruit Fani was showing us and it tasted similar to a banana popsicle.  Only a few short feet away we found another human skull and a set of ribs. It was an incredible and creepy feeling to think about the past and history behind the land and area I was standing on. I was confused why nobody had excavated the area and I am still not sure why.

 

We continued on throughout the day riding up and down the huge downs and stopping to learn about beetles and fruit. We tried one other fruit along our way although this one I didn’t like that much and spit it out. When I spit out the seed we noticed a beetle take it we then followed it to see how it would bury it in the sand to start a new fruit plant. Also along our ride we came across to tribe men. They were from a local tribe but were dressed like anyone else not like what you might think a tribe men might look like. We talked to them and they told they were walking 20 miles that day to collect a certain type of fruit they sell to people to use as medicine. They even counted for us to 20 in their tribal language. This language used the click sounds you may have heard some African people use. It was really interesting and I think Kelly may even have some it on video. 

 

Lastly on our tour we stopped at a small hut in the middle of the dunes. Fani explained to us that there were three couples living in the hut and that one of the mails makes painting of desert scenes and sells them for a living. He had some paintings out for sale, I was very excited since this is what I am collecting for myself from every country and was worrying I may not have the chance to get on in a Namibia. Although the man wasn’t there to talk to us about his because he was off fishing a few of us bought some and paid his wife. 

 

That was our last stop of the day and we were back to Walvis Bay around 1:45. Just enough time to head to The Raft for one last meal before going home to ship in time to not get dock time. We went directly to The Raft and it was packed with SAS kids. We sat down with our waiter from last time Sampson and took our orders. I ordered Surf and Turf and beer for 12 dollars. Some of the most amazing seafood I have ever had. I needed to enjoy it one last time at such a great price. Many of the other girls ordered pizzas and it was a big ordeal and we ended up spending 2 hours waiting for food and it was a very frustrating process. After lunch I still had 100 Namibian dollars and it is not used in South Africa so I went to some people with trinkets right outside the restaurant and bought a small wooden giraffe. I assume I will find more things like this in South Africa but am also not sure I will have much time to shop. After lunch we made it back to our hotel to take the shuttle to the port and made it on the ship by 5 an hour early! Once I was on the ship I took a shower because I was covered in sand from quading it may have looked like a tan but it was really just dirt. After showering and dinner I uploaded my pictures and went straight to sleep.