Leaving Namibia

July 20, 2007, 8:26 a.m.

We’re leaving Namibia! We said goodbye to most of the Mascato members this morning as we headed off to the airport and they headed for Swakop, though Marcelino is still with us. We will see everyone again in about a week and a half for our concert in Windhoek, but it’s still the end of our time together so it was a bit sad. We also said goodbye to the Chuck Norris of Namibia, Carlos the bus driver, who Chuck Norris’ed us across the Zambia-Botswana border against all odds.

Shortly after the last blog entry, a number of us came down with food poisoning and spent our last night in Zambia getting to know the hostel bathrooms a little too well. It was spectacularly bad timing as it struck right before our two days of 12-hour drives, but everyone struggled through and there was only one minor on-bus incident of sickness. The sick few (most of whom seem to have stayed together at Popa Falls our last night in Namibia last week) are slowly getting back to normal, though we’re still a bit leery of food in general. It’s that point in the tour when everyone seems to be coming down with something, but everyone’s been very brave and cheerful in spite of the unpleasantness of being sick while away from home.

If we thought getting into Zambia was a circus, it was nothing compared to the fiasco of getting back out! The border crossing from Zambia into Botswana was crazy -- huge numbers of trucks and people and cars, just a big mess of confusion with no apparent way of knowing how to get onto the ferry which would take us to Botswana. Thanks to Carlos, we got through somehow, got onto the ferry ahead of the dozens and dozens of trucks -- only to have to go through it all again on the Botswanan side! Botswana is trying to control the spread of hoof and mouth disease so there was this surreal procedure of having to walk across a slightly sticky sopping mat which disinfected our shoes, getting back on the bus, then being told that our shoes in our luggage needed to go through the same thing. We did the same dance (this time only for the shoes on our feet, thankfully) at another checkpoint partway through Botswana.

Botswana was beautiful -- much like Namibia in terms of the landscape, full of friendly people. We wished we could have had more time there, though we did enjoy our one night. Our morning concert in Maun was cancelled due to some mix-ups but it was just as well given the amount of driving we needed to do yesterday. We crossed back into Namibia uneventfully -- encountering a wandering Canadian at the border who accepted our offer of a lift back to Windhoek -- and arrived late yesterday evening back at our favorite Windhoek hostel, the Roof of Africa Inn.

Now we’re sitting in the Windhoek airport as we wait for our 9:30 flight out to Cape Town. It’s always exciting to be embarking on a new phase of the tour and great to be heading off to meet our other twin choir, Siyacula.

No pics still as I’m stealing time from Scott’s wifi voucher and I don’t want to use it all uploading pictures!