Well ... I've been away some time. I flew to Namibia at the last minute, as I seem to do every time, on the 21st of December, and spent two weeks there. Very nearly didn't come back!! We spent a couple of days in Windhoek, drove to Omaruru and spent three days there, then hit the long road North - all 1000 odd km's of it! What a trip, my ass was so sore. But how amazing! Its been many years since I last drove that road, and it was honestly amazing. The road just goes on and on, you can see for miles ahead of you and it ust never seems to end.
The heat was so intense. We left at 6:30am from Omaruru and hit the road in a crappy old Golf that completely amazed me by actually making it there and back! We hit Rundu at around lunch, bought some new windscreen wipers, and carried on into the Caprivi. As we drove North, it just got greener all the way, and by the time we were in the Caprivi it was just beautiful. When we hit the first rain the stifling heat just turned to a cool breeze that was so refreshing after driving so far in such heat. We wouldn't have guessed it as going to rain non stop for the next week that we spent there (its apparently still raining!!)
Arriving at the lodge after sitting down for 10 hours was such a relief, and the first thing we did was sit out on the deck and have a much needed drink! I got to meet my angel's Mum, which was not half as bad as I expected. It is funny how we make so much out of these things when they really are not scary at all! Anyway, this is the view we had as we sat out on the deck:
Hippo Lodge is a very beautiful place, and we spent just over a week there. Unfortunately it rained for most of this time, so getting a tan was out of the question, but I did really relax and spend some time with P and his family, which was actually very nice. As we will one day be moving to the lodge, it was good to see the place again and learn a bit more abouthow its managed and start getting ideas together for how it can be improved. The last time I was on the lodge was nine years ago, so my memory wasn't all up to scratch!!We had a fabulous New Year - it wasn't big or expensive, we just had a lot of people from the town, arrive through out the night, we danced and drank and had a good laugh. I met some really lovely people and thoroughly enjoyed myself. We drank an awful lot, and after only just recovering the following day, we had some more friends arrive, and the drinking started again ... I have to add they didn't stay long as I really would have died if I caried on drinking!
We left a couple of days later, returning to Windhoek via Omaruru again. It just got sadder and sadder as I said goodbyes to more and more people - I absolutely hated leaving. The last two days spent in Windhoek we stayed with friends and worked on the house (for those that don't know I bought a house in Windhoek) as that really needed to be rented and tried to spend as much time as we could together. It was just a nightmare, the day I left I started crying that morning already, such a hopeless case!
Afer sitting with that awful dread on my shoulders all day, leaving was just murder. I cried again, but again just turned around and walked off, I couldn't look back. And then, the bloody government is so considerate, they really don't take this kind of scenario into account - you have to stand there and fill out forms before you can go through to departures!! I hated every second of it, kind of like forcing yourself to go through the motions when everything in you just wants to go the other way.
I got on the plane, and I still wish I hadn't. I sat on the plane and cried - people around me must have thought I was a complete nutter! It wa so hard getting on that plane and leaving him, it really was so hard. I could so easily have turned around and walked away from it and never looked back on England and life here.
