Namibia

And then we moved on to Namibia ... When we first entered Windhoek we could have been mistaken for thinking that we were somewhere in Europe with its modern looking apartments, office blocks, shopping malls and restaurants. As a capital city it felt very organised, clean and developed in contrast to the chaos of Lusaka. However, on the other side of the city, sweeping along the hills were the shanty areas filled with tiny houses made of wood, tin, iron or any other available materials. The gap between the richest and the poorest is reportedly the greatest in Namibia compared to anywhere else in the world.

We left the city for the sand dunes of the south, something that I had been looking forward and I was not disappointed. In Sesriem we climbed up and up some huge dunes but the hard work was worth it for the views and the fun of running, almost falling, down the sand. It got even better when we went sandboarding. Lying flat on a thin piece of board – smooth underneath to improve the speed – we threw ourselves down various different runs – long, curvy, steep and even had even went tandem. In the process I got covered in far too much sand, and ate some, when things went slightly wrong but still managed to clock up speeds of over 70kph. The trip ended as it started with more animals. Along the coast we visited a colony of seals (thousands of them) who ignoring us tourists were quite happy to fight with and yelp at each other, whilst giving off a pretty disgusting smell. The last national park was Etosha in northern Namibia where around a number of natural and man-made waterholes it was transfixing to watch elephants and particularly rhinos coming into drink as the sun went down.