As some of you knowwe went on another one of our trips around Namibia last weekend and this time it was to Zebra River Lodge and the sand dunes! Zebra River Lodge is actually Peter and Elke's second hotel/lodge besides Casa Blanca (my home right now), so we got a great discount for the whole weekend, including a trip to the sand dunes!
Group photo on the side of the mountain,, overlooking Zebra River!
Me on the mountain side getting ready for a beautiful sunset!
We headed out Friday early in the morning (of course skipping another Friday of school..lol). It was about a seven to eight hour drive, part of it even on dirt roads, which was quite the experience, but let me tell you, IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!! Zebra River Lodge wasBEAUTIFUL!!! It is a very secluded lodge surrounded by beautiful green mountains and rocks. We arrived to a small lunch and a huge pool all ready for us to enjoy! That night weheaded to the top of one of the surrounding mountains to watch the sunset, MY FAVORITE! I can not say it enough, IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL! I could have easily stayed there for longer!
Panoramic of Zebra River Lodge
It's places like Zebra River Lodge and thesand dunes that makes you rememberand think about just how BIG our God is! I can not say how many times I thanked the Lord for bringing me here. This place...it made me speechless...it still makes me think...how is it that I EVER forget how big God is?
My room
The rooms we very nice. Although it was very hot at night and I was paranoid about spiders and other bugs all night so the first night was a little rough. I didn't sleep much, waking up thinking there were bugs crawling on my. If only we would have had a lizard/gecko in ourroom...lol...they told us they eat the bugs and spiders and don't hurt you to if you see one keep it. One of the other rooms had one but not ours...dang it. I know, I know it sounds funny for me to WANT a lizard/gecko in my room, but I would take that over spiders and bugs any day...haha.
Anyways, the second day (Saturday) we headed out in 4 wheel drive vehicles to the sand dunes...what a drive! It was a dirt road all the way there with various steep hills, dried up rivers, and other "obstacles" that made the drive fun and engaging! Paula, my professor drove and she was a champ! As we drove, the view was breathtaking!
View while driving to the dunes
Dune 45
A couple hours later, we finally arrived at the sand dunes,TALK ABOUT A VIEW! There were giant piles of sand all around! We stopped for breakfast/lunch at one of the first dunes, dune 45 (picture above), which we thought was the coolest ever...little did we know, there were much BIGGER dunes to come. One bummer was I was still sick, so I didn't climb to the tippy top because I got tired much faster and coughed way more! Half way up I decided to save my energy for the biggerones that our professor told us we were going to and I head back down. Even half way though was just gorgeous!
Bri and I on Big Mama
We then made our way further into the dunes and found Sossusvlei (the name of the part of dunes we were headed to). This was where we meet big mama (picture above) and big papa! They are two of the biggest dunes! We hiked half way up big mama..I wish we could have gone all the way, but time was short, so we hiked up and ran down the side...FUNNEST THING EVER! :)
Deadvlei
Then we headed to Deadvlei at the base of big papa. This was a dried up lake area that was full of dead trees. It seriously looked like a desert for sure!
OH and I almost forgot...DRIVING IN THE SAND!! It was seriously sooooo fun! I thought a couple times we were going to hit the trees! Paula said driving in the sand was similar to driving on a sheet of ice with very little control, but it was SOOO FUN RIDING!!
The river we forged!
It was even more fun riding home Sunday though...WE FORGED A RIVER!!! Yes, we drove straight through a muddy running river. We thought we were taking the short way when all of a sudden we came up on a full blown river running across the dirt road, so we all got out and Jan (my other professor) headed out to cross the river and find the best path to drivethrough.Nothing was promised but we went for it and it was BOMB! BUT, our luck ran short when just down the road from that river we hit another and this time the river had taken out part of the road making it impossible for us to even try crossing without ruining our cars. So, we headed back through the first river and down to a different dirt road which successfully took us back "home". AND it also successfully found us baboons...
Yes those are baboons on the side of the road! :)
Needless to say it was one of the best weekends so far here in Namibia!!
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