That's a lot of seals!

When Milton said ''a lot of seals'' we didn't realize he meant ''A LOT of seals'' unil we got to Cape Cross, on our way north from Swakopmund to our next campground at Spitskop, Namibia.

We've never seen so many seals. And they were all talking at the same time. We were lucky, says Milton, that there was a stiff breeze to blow the worst of the stink away.

D&E

Beer is the Answer

African heat and beer go together like ... um ... houses and big mortages, or something like that. So Doug saw the chance to do some missionary work for BASTURDS (the Beer Appreciation Society for Totally UnRestricted Discussion) during the trip.

The BASTURDS motto is clear and indisuptable: ''Beer is the Answer.''

So Doug pointed this out repeatedly to his fellow trekkers, until they saw the light.

By the end of the trek, at the end of each day, they were all saying 'Let's have an answer or two..''

And our official trek T-shirts? You can see for yourself.

D&E

Hot and cold ... or make that cool

It seems like the Namibian desert never ends until ... bam ... it does precisely that just shy of the Atlantic Ocean. The change from the sweltering heat of the sands to the lush green and cool of Swakopmund (a coastal town of German origin) was staggering. After four nights in our tents, we spent two at an inn. With beds. Nice change.

Ruben from Germany complains about the cold. OK it's cool (like 22C (70F)) compared to the heat of the desert, but let's not forget the weather back home in the far north. Freezing. Sub-freezing. Sub DEEP freezing.

No one is interested in the activities on offer (for pay) like skydiving, or quad biking, a week into our trek. We all just want a day off, hang out, shop and have beers.

Doug especially likes the quotes from the menu at the Village Cafe, like ''I do not have a problem with caffeine. I have a problem without caffeine.''

Eva has an upset stomach and tries the German cure:. (See video)
D&E

Oh, and let us introduce us

By the way, this who we are. (from left to right)

Man Truck, age 5 1/2, South Africa

Morris, 65, Australia

Ruben, 27, Germany,

Eva, 45, Norway

Doug, 55, Norway/USA

Pia, 58, Denmark.

Milton, 20-something, Zimbabwe

The doctor is in

Eva's medical training amounts to a first aid course. Just the same, she was quickly designated ''Trek Doctor''

It started with Morris needing the stitches removed from his knee. He'd fallen over a wall in the dark in an earlier stage of his Africa trip, and it was time to remove them. Doug said he had ''a really big knife'' and that he would be happy to remove the stitches as long as Ruben could spare some of his whiskey (For Doug, not for Morris).

Prudently, Morris selected Eva for the procedure, and Dr. Eva removed the stitches with no hitches.

From there, it was a short way to massages and physiotherapy for Pia's hurt back, ministering to Milton's cold, and dispensing malaria medication to Doug.

Ruben, a young whippersnapper, has proved too healthy to need treatment, although we can always hope.

D&E

Living it up a Desert Camp

Oh, man. This is the life. What a campsite!

In the middle of nowhere, in southern Namibia, is a place called Drifters Desert Camp. It is on an about 120,000 hectare (300,000 acre) private wildlife resevere. The camp is just about all there is there, apart from Pete, the Pervuvian-English guide, his Nambian-German wife Francesca and their remarkably peppy 13-year-old dog Francine.

Even though you sleep in your own tent, this hardly seems like roughing it (OK. The sparkling white at the pool could have been a little more chilled.) The tents are under nice shelters, and the bathrooms use local materials with such a flare that they are unforgetable.

What is also unforgetable are Pete's outbursts of laughter _ he sounds a bit like a mad scientist and has the rest of us of laughing with him. And who could forget watching a sunset over the desert, or riding in the back of an open Toyota Land Cruiser at night to spot wildlife. (Doug kept remembering that the wildlife included puff aders and Cape Cobras and scorpions).

Or musical mountain? Who could forget a mountain with rocks so hard that they ring when you toss pebbles at them.

But ..... ahh ... back to the pool.

D&E

The road that never ends

We ''survive'' Zimbabwe (Doug is about set to buy a house there) with a side trip to Zambia. Woke up this morning in our tents at a remote campsite where getting trampled by the resident elephants was our main concern. Now in Joburg, in city shock. No net access for many days, so we will do a massive update when our toughts and pictures are organized.

D&E