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Overlanding in Namibia Part III

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Namib-Naukluft, Namibia to Cape Town, South Africa (April 3-8) Originally our ACACIA bus was due to depart from Swakopmund in the early morning so that we could reach our next night's campsite just outside the Namib-Naukluft National Park in the early afternoon. However, our seemingly invincible (and yet sadly not) bus driver Patrick had been diagnosed with cerebral malaria while in Swakopmund and was too ill to continue on as our driver. Therefore, ACACIA had lickedy split found us a replacement driver and flew him out from Jo'burg to meet us at the nearest international airport on our route, that being in Walvis Bay. Our new driver, TJ, a colossal ginger-haired South African fellow sporting dreadlocks who had apparently dropped close to 25 kilos on the Atkins Diet, once through customs, hopped behind the wheel of our truck as if Patrick had simply been keeping his seat warm and......OFF WE SPED! We arrived at our campsite, which was in the southern end of the Namib Desert
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Overlanding in Namibia Part II

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Spitzkoppe to Swakopmund, Namibia (March 31-April 3) Spitzkoppe (March 31-April 1) Our third day overlanding brought us to Spitzkop, i.e. "the Matterhorn of Namibia." It is an area of great natural beauty consisting of a group of red rocky granite peaks rising spectacularly above the surrounding flat plains. We camped near the largest peak (1787m) and went on a short guided walk of the area in the late afternoon. During our exploratory walk, we were shown some Bushmen rock paintings that depicted different animals. The red color used in some of these paintings was achieved, so we were told, using a mixture of iron and sacrificial animal blood. Umm...lovely? Our guide kept checking his watch and trying to hurry us along for he had planned for us to reach the "rock bridge" in time to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, time was not on our side due to our dawdling so the guide suddenly urged us to " Run! (Forest) Run!! " And off we all went, sprinting towa
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In the footsteps of the Incas - Part I

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Coming to Cusco and the Sacred Valley, I was determined to do some trekking. Being a solo traveller though meant I had to find some group with which to walk. I had purchased the South American Explorers´Handbook on Alternative Inca Trails and a number of them sounded promising and incredibly challenging to my weary bones/joints, but it was a matter of finding a group departing within both my time frame and price range. I emailed a number of the more reputable trekking companies and also visited the office of Q'Ente. Based on all of the info I gathered, I opted to go with Q'Ente even though they´re one of the more expensive companies as they have a sound history when it comes to treating their porters/guides/cooks fairly and they also believe in sustainable tourism which respects the environment. I joined a group of 5 hikers (that`s including me!) on the Salkantay Trek which lasts 5 days with the last day being a visit to the stupendous Inca site, Machu Picchu. I attended a
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