Today we started our overland tour. After weeks of travelling on our own, we've been looking forward to a slightly more low-key form of travel. We'll be seeing many of the sights of South Africa and Namibia, but we won't have to worry about transportation or accomodation.
(This is a pretty long entry because it includes some introductory stuff about how the overland is going to work, etc)
"What's an overland tour?" you ask? Here's the short answer: its a tour on some sort of bus or truck, that drives literally over the land to visit different sights along the way. In our case, the tour is run by Nomad/Which Way Adventures and focuses on providing a quality budget tour - one where you save a little money by camping and helping with some of the "chores" on the trip. The tour company provides the tents, and does the cooking. We have to set up the tents, and will help by packing the truck and doing the dishes. Each day, we will be packing up the truck, driving a few hours to our next destination, and then seeing some sights.
We began the day by waking up early and making some breakfast at our backpacker's. (In South Africa, youth hostels are referred to as "Backpacker's", and tend to provide more services than your typical European hostel) After checking out, we headed down Long Street to the Nomad office in the rain to meet up with the other folks we'll be doing the trip with. Inside the office we discovered that we are the only Americans on the trip, and that the group is fairly diverse, at least among the various Western/European countries: there is a couple from Belgium and the Netherlands, another girl from the Netherlands, a French girl, a mother and daughter from Germany, an Australian girl, and a girl from Jamaica. The guides are named Riaan and Joscelyn - she seems very friendly and spunky while he is a bit more reserved. It also turns out our guides are the youngest of all of us - 20 and 21! Heather and I had a bit of a laugh about this - we're putting our lives into the hands of two folks 10 years younger than us! After some chit chat in the Nomad office, it seems that this group will be good travelling companions - important when you're spending 2-6 hours on the bus with them.
After meeting everyone we went out to see "The Truck" (the guides were very insistent that it is a truck, and not a bus) The truck is really cool. I don't know what kind of truck it was originally, but it has been completely customized and rebuilt for overland tours. Inside there are seats for about 20 people, which is especially nice given that there are only 11 of us. We seem to have lots of room left over even after claiming our (somewhat uncomfortable) seats and spreading out a bit. The back of the truck has a "kitchen" - basically a food storage area, and huge storage freezer which, as the guides explained, will stay cold in any conditions we may encounter. There must be some huge batteries on this thing!
At 8am sharp we all piled into the truck and headed off for our first destination: Gecko Backpackers in the Cederberg mountains. Along the way, we stopped at a big grocery store and the guides bought food for the next few days - two very full shopping carts. The rest of us each bought water - at 2-3 liters per day per person, we're going to be buying a lot of water for this trip! Heather and I started with 2 5 liter bottles.. hopefully that lasts us a while.
We drove for another 3 hours or so and started to meet our fellow travellers on the way up. Tom, from Belgium, told us how he can understand bits and pieces of the guides when they speak Africaans, because the language is based on Dutch. He says it sounds very funny and the spelling is equally strange. From what he described, it seems like it might be like an American trying to understand someone with a thick scottish accent: difficult to understand quickly, but still the same language at a very base level.
Upon arrival at Gecko's, the guides made Heather and I stay on the truck while they gathered everyone else for some sort of meeting. We wondered if this was going to be some sort of hazing ritual. When they finally motioned for us to get off the truck, everyone was blowing little soap bubbles at us as they ushered us down a sort of wedding processional. Apparently word has gotten around that this is our honeymoon!
After pitching our tents in Gecko's front yard, we met the manager of the backpackers: a crazy German guy named Peter. Right off the bat he started pitching a hike into the Cederberg mountains. We could all tell he was a little nuts, even before the 9th time he claimed the hike would "take us into another world" but we joined him anyway. After crossing the 1m deep Oliphants river (we had to take off our shoes and pants) we headed into the mountains. The land consists mostly of extremely rough, rocky, sharp terrain and so the hike became fairly technical as we reached the peak. As we started scrambling on all fours up the steep sides of the last boulders before the top, it was unclear if we were really in "another world" but the scenery was pretty spectacular nonetheless.
Tom and I started a game of darts over some Black Label beer ("America's Lusty, Lively Beer" - though apparently only available in South Africa) but were interrupted by the dinner bell. Joscelyn had cooked up our first meal - hearty macaroni - and we ate while she and Riaan gave us more details about the whole trip. We learned how chores were going to work, and about some of the activities we'd be able to do over the next few days. Charolette, our requisite French member, was outraged to learn that we had eaten at 6:30. Apparently anything before 10pm is just plebeian.
After dinner the crazy German gathered everyone around a table where he had a statue called a Tokolosh, and 13 shot glasses. The drinks were "Springboks" - a combination of peppermint liquore and Amaretto. After a strange monologue and frequent adjustment to his crazy hat, Peter cajoled all of us to chant to the Tokolosh, asking for a good journey, and then drink. Heather managed to drink the whole shot in one gulp, in the traditional fashion: hands behind the back, holding the drink with her mouth.
Heather and I retired to bed. Those of you who know Heather know that even a small shot is enough to knock her out! Besides, Riaan would be waking us all bright and early, for the long drive to Orange River.