Welcome back to my Namibia Adventure posts! It has been a while since I last posted one of these! This post is part of My Adventures in Namibia which took place in 2021. I'm sharing them since it was a wonderful experience. They are about two adventures left, so be on the lookout for the final one in the coming month. If you have missed the previous adventures you are more than welcome to catch up, I have listed them at the end of the post.
We were lucky enough to get a family visit from some of my friends' cousins and their kids. This wasn't planned at all but they were taking the kids back to South Africa for school and decided to pop in for three days. It gave us an opportunity to make a giant fire and drive around the farm aimlessly. Her family is outgoing, funny and always up to something, so while we didn't "explore" much it was still an adventure!
As always day started with a nice hot cup of coffee and breakfast. We decided to skip the usual cereal or braai pap and cut up some fresh fruit with very thick homemade yoghurt.
I picked a sunny spot outside on the wall to enjoy the morning fresh air and a yummy breakfast. Even though it was winter, the cold fresh fruit made me feel so refreshed and ready for the day ahead. We had gone into town a day prior, so the fruits were still crispy. I would start every day with a bowl of fruit if I could.
We met up with everyone after breakfast about 20km away from home. Yes, we were the random group of people standing next to a farm road in Namibia for around an hour 馃槀. See the thing is we had to plan our day. We were close to one of the farm gates that gives access to the river and we really wanted to drive through it. However, two of the cars would not make it so we had to come up with a different plan.
Myself, Tobia, her cousin and her kids, decided to take on the adventures of the day from the top of the world.
We had to do a bit of target practice, just in case we saw some springbucks. I'm not a great shot but I'll shoot down a cloud if it's in the way.
This was our view from the camp furthest away from home. If you go back to the first port you'll see that we climbed the mountain to your left. The house is located a field or so away from the mountain.
If you look to the far left on the horizon you'll see a black/dark green dot. That is the palm trees around the house. Keep in mind these trees are huge and grow very tall. The drive to this spot took us some time.
For everyone putting so much trust into their tyres (especially South Africans with all these potholes), we ended up with a flat because of a stick... We have no idea how this happened but it did, and hell it was a struggle trying to change it. How do people with giant jeeps cope?
After we had successfully changed the tyre we continued our drive. But from this photo, you can see that we had to make a stop since the bakkie was overheating. How? you may ask... We also didn't have an answer to this question. It was winter in Namibia, winter there is not as cold during the day, but it was also not hot enough to have added to the heat of the bakkie. And it only happened once throughout the day. Perhaps we climbed one hill too many for the bakkie.
This was our view while we wanted the bakkie to cool down. We enjoyed a cold beer and the Namibian winter sun while waiting patiently for the vehicle.
After getting back home we changed into clean clothes, started prepping dinner and decided to have a bit of fun! We had a few outdoor game options and everyone had an opportunity to vote on one. In the end, Jukskei won. For those who don't know, jukskei is around 270 years old and originated in South Africa. It's simple You have 2 (or more players), a pin on each side of the players, each have a juk, and you make a turn to see who can get their juk close to the pin of their opponent.
And clearly I don't have the perfect form, but I was still able to get the juk a few cm from the pin. We ended up playing in teams since there were a few of us. We made a score sheet and the two winning teams went up against each other.
My friend played jukskei in school as a sport and had way better form and skill than me, so we made a perfect team. One player with skill and the other with luck! 馃槀
Here is a short video of the little one playing with her mother.
The sun moved along with the day and we went inside to get things ready for dinner, enjoyed our meal, laughed a lot and made our way outside for a nice evening. You can see the moon on the horizon starting to size with the sun saying goodbye.
We made a big fire to keep everyone warm and spend hours outside under the night sky, telling stories about the olden days, laughing about the crazy sheep, trying to keep the kids busy with drawings or games until they fell asleep, and made midnight smores.
