Day 12: Rocks from Space...ace...ace...ace!

The resort that we were staying at was incredibly fancy, at least compared to our tents on the side of the road.  There was a regulation-sized swimming pool where we swam and did some laps before showering and getting back on the road.  Although we had done a fair amount of activities, we had still done a ton of driving and it felt nice to get a little exercise in.  After repacking our car we headed off towards the Hoba meteorite.

The Hoba meteorite is located in northern Namibia, kind of near the middle of the country.  It fell around 80,000 years ago, weighs about 60 tons and is the largest known single piece that has fallen.  It is made up mostly of iron. The chunk has been turned into a tourist destination and visitors can climb around on the meteorite, test out the different metallic sounds made when it is struck, and experience the strange echo that can be heard when standing at a specific point on top of the meteor.  A kind of amphitheater has been built up around it which, I'm pretty sure, made this possible.

It was neat to be able to be so close to space rocks!  And it also provided a lovely setting for our picnic lunch.  We befriended some local dogs, climbed around, and made fools of ourselves testing out the echo.  As we continued on our way towards Waterberg, our trusty bird-spotter, Thomas, spotted a secretary bird and a scarlet breasted roller, both of which are beautiful birds, and are pretty difficult to see.

Although our gas tank was uncomfortably low, we were able to make it to outside of Waterberg Plateau National Park which is situated between Etosha and Windhoek.  We found a spot on the side of the road to pitch our tents and hung out for a little while before getting ready to make dinner.  Thomas swore that he heard rustling noises near his tent and we had some very noisy neighbors not too far up the road.  We made dinner rather quickly and kept our headlamps dimmed.  I have to admit, that out of all the things that we had done on this trip and I had done over the course of the semester, this night was probably the only time I felt a little bit uncomfortable.  But I was a little comforted after I figured that if a lion (or other large animal) came they probably would want to eat Neil or Thomas first because they were so much bigger than me!!!!

**We weren't allowed to bring our cameras into the meteor sight.  But I found a picture on Google images to give you an idea of what it looked like.

The meteor.  (Thanks Google!)

I can't remember the name of the town that this is.  But most of the towns we drove through had this kind of feeling.  All the buildings were low and there was really on one main street.