Girls Road Trip - Part 1 - arriving, relaxing and canoeing on the lake

"Old friends are best." - John Selden 

I head to the airport very excited, as I pull into the grounds I get waved over by a policeman, always makes you a bit nervous, he opens the door and explains he is late for meeting important guests for the UN, can I give him a lift?! Sure, so I drove this (slightly intoxicated) copper to the front doors of the airport and park the car, wonderfully strange start!

As I am waiting at the airport one of the taxi drivers tells me that due to the UN conference not everyone got on the Jo'berg flight out, perhaps if my friend was not going to be on the plane we could go on holiday together instead?! Sure, I am that fickle, happy to not wait for the flight she will come in, and go on holiday with a stranger instead :0) No need to answer that dilema though as K was through the gates in no time and off we set. 

Not that there was ever any doubt, but it quickly became obvious that in the past 19 months I have been away- plus a few throughout hellish 2011 that nothing had changed. We got straight into catching up

"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself."- Jim Morrison 

We got to the lodge...

...and I watched in amazement as a rather light suitcase of slightly disorganised items was unpacked - owing to a slight hangover. On the upside she did not forget a jar of peanut butter for me and a couple of other gifts :0) And we went shopping to pick up anything that had been forgotten in any case.

After a night to get her bearings, and a relaxing day and night to unwind, we set off into town to pick up the car and head off. 

Girls road trip- yay!

"We can’t know what’s going to happen. We can just try to figure it out as we go along." - Morgan Matson

“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” – JRR Tolkien

We did a bit of shopping and grabbed a sushi lunch

 (yay for holidays!) 

and arrived at Oanob Lake Resort mid afternoon. 

In the afternoon and in the morning before we left we went out for a canoe on the lake, I was in the back of the kayak and getting in and out involved sitting in a puddle :0( 

But it was so lovely to be out on a massive expanse of water and be the only ones there.Its not so often in Namibia you see so much water in one place and to be the only ones on the lake viewing the beautiful shoreline was great, really nice end to the day and start to the next one.

"The lake and the mountains have become my landscape, my real world." - Georges Simenon 

That afternoon we also went for a walk into the reserve they have there. As there is no grass anywhere at the moment due to poor rains they are supplementing the feeding, so we got to see antelope (oryx, nyala, kudu, hartebeest and others I don't know), zebbies and giraffe all very close. 

spot the baby

We drove on.... 

...heading south towards the winery

where we lounged by the fountains and I even braved a little swim in the silty water - too 'squishy' under foot for K, even I tried not to touch the bottom! After my dip I lounged with my legs in the water and ended up with the silt settling on the (small, lady like) fine hairs on my feet - I looked like a flippin hobbit! Which was of great amusement to us both!

Quick shower and then dinner with a lovely bottle of vino before bed and a very early start!

For part II - the dunes, the coast and the cheetah!