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Up and Over

Posted August 11, 2013

PART 15 (DAYS 33-35): “How’s everything here?” I asked Chris, the manager at Southern Laughter Lodge, when I arrived back in Queenstown for a day in order to catch a homeward bound flight early the following morning.

“Oh, it’s quiet. It’s finally slowing down,” he answered.

“Oh, is the ski season over?”

“No, the season can go all the way until October,” he told me. “But all the Aussie kids have gone back to university.”

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A River Runs Through It

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 13, 2004

DAY 167: Water is precious in Namibia; most areas only get enough water in the rainy season to last the rest of the year. In fact, there were “Save Water” signs all over the backpackers in Windhoek — draught is a pretty common thing. However, with an unusually long and wet rainy season in 2004, water flowed more than the country had seen in years. While this was good news for farmers, it wasn’t necessarily good news for tourists unless they have a 4x4.

South With Samora

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 13, 2004

DAY 166: I woke up in the wrong side of the bed that morning. I was cranky that I didn’t have an extra bag to keep things in storage, plus I realized that my fleece jacket was missing. Whether it was taken by accident, intention or just my own fault I didn’t know, but I didn’t have time to look or replace it; I was to leave on safari by eight in the morning.

Making Tracks

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 12, 2004

DAY 165: There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when I woke up that morning in Windhoek, so I called up Simon at Outside Adventures to organize a ride to the nearby Daan Viljoen Game Park. With all the free eggs I’d been eating, I really needed the exercise — it was better than another day of vegging out in front of the television watching movies yet another day. Simon told me he’d send Ephram the driver by mid-morning.

Jackie, manager of Chameleon Backpackers, came over to reception. She said the clouds were coming in and it might rain.

“Is there really going to be rain?” I asked. “I’ve already booked a day trip to the reserve.”

“Well the reserve is on higher ground,” she answered. “Maybe you’ll be lucky.”

The Universal Language Of Beer

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted April 01, 2004

DAY 164: I’ve discovered that waiting around for my safari to start in Windhoek during the rainy season for a couple of days isn’t so bad — there’s always beer.

The New Lost American Generation

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 30, 2004

DAY 163: “So what brings you here?” my American dormmate Hunter asked me at the outdoor table as we were eating the breakfasts we prepared ourselves. I started telling him the usual spiel about may lay off the summer before.

“Let me guess,” he continued. “You got laid off from a dot com which allows you to take an indeterminable amount of time off, and you figure it’s cheaper to be in Namibia than look for work back home. And you’ve managed to save enough money to be here for a while.”

I smiled. Hunter had it right on the money. “Yeah.”

“Just like the last Americans I met.”

“Yeah, there are a lot of us out here.”

Influencing Windhoek

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 29, 2004

DAY 162: Windhoek, capital city of Namibia, like Cape Town, South Africa, is a modern city which reflects its historical past. During the late nineteenth century, when all the European nations were scrambling for colonial territories in Africa the way last-minute shoppers scramble for gifts on Christmas Eve, the territory which was later known as Namibia became a German colony. Despite the rebellions from the indigenous Herero and Nama tribes, the Germans conquered with their big guns — that is, until after WWI when they were conquered by the South African army. (They probably had bigger guns.)

Escape From The Cape

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 28, 2004

DAY 161: “Erik, you’re still here?” Joan from housekeeping asked me. She had bid me farewell four days before during her last shift at The Backpack since she expected me to be gone by next shift.

“Yeah, I’m still here. But I’m leaving right now.”

David from Manchester walked in on me in the kitchen with a smug stare which said, “Ha ha, you’re still here.”

“I’m finally leaving this time,” I told him.

“Ready to go?” Eve the Frenchie at the tour desk asked me.

“No, I think I’m going to hang out another week,” I joked with her before having her call me a taxi.

The Biggest Let Down in Cape Town

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 28, 2004

DAY 160: Originally I was only supposed to be in Cape Town for a week; my mental capacity for any one place while traveling can only handle so much with my overstimulated, MTV-generation short attention span. It was supposed to be my “final day” in Cape Town before I hitched a ride with the two German girls in my room, but hanging out with alumni kept me in town another half a week longer. It was my next “final day” in Cape Town before I did my Garden Route Tour, but it really wasn’t because I came back six days later. The following day was to be my real “final day” in Cape Town, but then I was mugged at knifepoint half a block from my hostel, which caused a corporate and bureaucratic chain reaction that kept me another week.

After multiple “final impressions” of Cape Town and all my issues finally settled, it was finally time for my final “final day” (at least that’s what I hoped that morning). However, my “final day” in Cape Town had the biggest let down of all.

Mugged Again

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 27, 2004

DAY 159: When I started the day, I felt confident that everything would go according to plan and I’d be on my way out of South Africa already. Little did I know at the time that I’d be mugged again and stuck in Cape Town yet another day.

A Day At The Office

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 27, 2004

DAY 158: If there was one thing worse than being mugged at knifepoint, it was the long arduous task of getting back on track after the fact. With plenty of telephone calls to make (picture below), e-mails to send and forms to fill out, the whole ordeal was more work than at a corporate office job. I swear at some point I had to submit a T.P.S. report somewhere. If I had known beforehand that I was going to be mugged, I would have tried to pencil in the assailant two weeks prior when the office wasn’t so busy and there was a bit of downtime.

The Changing Of The Group

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 24, 2004

DAY 157: I always wondered about Eve, Ingmar, Joanne, Dave and Karen, the young twenty-something employees of The Backpack. They’d make good friends with travelers — only to have them leave 2-3 days later. How tiring it must be for the regular employees to go through transient friends so rapidly I thought — that is, until I became a regular myself (waiting for my bank card) and realized that it’s just something you get used to.

Back On The Streets

From the trip blog: "The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World"
Posted March 23, 2004

DAY 156: I hadn’t left the confines of the hostel since the mugging at knifepoint two days prior, and it was about time I got over my fear and ventured out on the streets of Cape Town again. However, my fear was merely replaced by paranoia.

The Positive Poster Child