Day 8: How do you feel Mr. Bones?

We continued our drive up the coast for a little while, but ended up not going up very far because we had been advised by various people that the sandy roads along the coast were quite soft.  We decided that we didn’t want to push our luck with our baby car.  On our way up the Skeleton Coast, which is named the Skeleton Coast because of all the shipwrecks that have been caused by the currents as well as rocks and fog the coast is famous for, we drive through Hentis Bay and followed the straightest road I have ever been on.  It was straight for miles and miles.  To break up the monotony and to keep Neil from going crazy, we stopped for a while along the side of the road to stretch our legs and chuck rocks at some bottles that Neil and Thomas found.

We got slightly lost in a town called Uis and then headed towards some of the most famous cave paintings in Namibia.  Known as the White Lady, the San Bushman painting dates back 2000 years.  Although it is commonly called the "White Lady," the painting may not actually be depicting a white person or even a lady.  We got to the park in the late afternoon, and in addition to having to pay a lot, it would have been dark by the time we had walked to the painting, saw it and then walked back to our car.  We decided to not see the White Lady, but talked to one of the park rangers for a while and gave her an apple for her daughter.

We drove through the Brandberg Mountains, saw a beautiful sunset and found a place to stay on the side of the road.  After cooking dinner, we stuck our heads out of our tents and watched the stars come out.

The road.

The side of the road.  This is all I had to look at out of my window.  It didn't make for a very exciting drive, scenery-wise, but it was interesting just how much nothingness there was.

Our drive through the mountains.  Slightly more entertaining than our drive earlier in the day.

Home.

Here’s a little more information:

Food:  We had a small camping stove and a pot from my kitchen that we repaired slightly by super glueing a rock to a small hole in the side.  We had essentially the same thing every dinner.  We cooked some starch, either rice, cous cous or pasta and then added vegetables.  We almost always added canned corn and some kind of beans but then also added some fresh tomatoes and red pepper and occasionally some cabbage, avocado and cheese.  For breakfast we had oatmeal, granola, hardboiled eggs (we even hardboiled them in a can over a fire!), and fruit.  For lunch we ate peanut butter and made sandwiches out of various other food we had.

Home Sweet Home:  I already had a tent from when we went camping in Jonkershoek and I was under the impression that we would all be sharing my tent.  As it turns out, Thomas had his own baby tent so Sam, Neil and I shared my tent and Thomas had his own tent.  For the entire trip, we stayed in tents.  Even at the hostels when we could have payed only a little more rand for a bed, we decided to use our tents.  This trip was the longest time I had ever gone without sleeping in a bed.  Although the temperature during the day time was great, it got really cold at night - to the point where I was sleeping in long underwear, sweatpants, liner socks and Smart Wool socks, a t-shirt, one or two long sleeve t-shirt and a flannel shirt.  Once or twice a hat and mittens and my fleece were necessary.

** The last two pictures are Neil's.