There are few more rewarding things than the opportunity and the ability to spend a week in the great outdoors. Communing with nature, making new friends, enjoying the fresh air and acquiring a taste for drink-o-pop.

In the first week of July, 19 happy travelers had the great experience of absorbing all of these awesome and inspiring things. (Although, and not for lack of trying, it turns out that drink-o-pop is most certainly not inspiring.)

We left Cape Town early on Saturday morning. The George gang had driven through the day before and had a fabulous evening of food and an impromptu acoustic set from Byron. The Cape Town crew left a little later hot on their tail albeit via the R27 thank’s to Rachel’s brilliant navigational skills. At which point Jean and Kate shared a sigh of relief that Rachel would in no way be leading this hike.

We rendezvoused in Clanwilliam for a spritely chilly breakfast and assessed the damage to Gary’s bakkie’s windshield. A stone had lifted from a truck and it looked decidedly expensive. Tummies full we were back on the road admiring the beautiful morning and expansive dams in the area.

The trip to Springbok went quickly for those in the red car. We made it in good time to explore, well, the Pep store. There’s not a whole lot else going on in Springbok. The combie was having trouble in Garries and we thought it best and polite and curteous to wait before bulleting along. Plus, they had our lunch.

Three hours later, after really bonding with Springbok, meeting up with the others and finding said lunch, we moved on towards the border post. The border crossing was fast and there was much dissapointment that no-one wanted to see our hard earned Polio vaccination certificates, but at least we were now in Namibia. And yes, Namibia is beautiful this time of year. The ground has green cover and we even spotted a small lake before the fruit punch sunset. The lake was a very encouraging site for the water situation in the Canyon.