During breakfast I got myself talked into doing a canoe trip over the orange river, so I left breakfast at 0800 to do some cleaning on my bike and wash my clothes. Yes that’s right, I cleaned my bike (hadn’t done that since I don’t remember when, might be as long back as Mbeya) and did my own laundry (which I havn’t sone since Abu Simble). I’m just a naturally lazy person... The staff had a good laught while watching me do laundry though...
Anywayz, I got those choirs done before 0900 and then joined Elaine, Melissa and Lenore for the canoe trip, which was really nice. The river actually originates all the way in Lesotho and flows all the way to the Atlantic. The contrast between all the green surrounding the river and the bare rocky mountains is just amazing and reminded us of our days along the Nile in Egypt and Sudan. And the river is actually called after the Dutch house of Orange by the early Dutch explorers that first came accross the river :-)
So we had a nice morning and spend quite some time on a little beach on the South African shore of the river, where we looked for diamonds (didn’t find any) and had a nice refreshing swim. After spending more than a week in the desert you really learn to appreciate something as precious as water and a river :-)
We got back from the canoe trip just in time to join the TDA-lympics, organized by Loraine. Basically it were a number of games, among which the slow bike race, the bike-egg-spoon challenge, bike shoe throwing and some other stuff, but to be honest I was just to tired to actively participate and ended up sleeping on a poolbed next to the pool for most of the afternoon. However I think many riders had a lot of fun with the games, so the first TDA-lympics were a big succes!
It was a good last restday at a nice camp! Tomorrow morning we cross into South Africa! I still can’t believe we’re here! We’ve really come a long way!
Canoeing on the Orange river. On the left South Africa, on the right Namibia...
Beautifull, christal clear water full of fish and birds!
Our camp on the Namibian side of the river...
Back in time to watch the bike egg spoon challenge...
But I just ended up sleeping next to the pool all afternoon...
Entering South Africa tomorrow. We already came a long way...
