Sossusvlei/Fourth of July Continued

Our fourth of July was spent mostly getting ourselves back to civilization from the end of the earth, otherwise known as Sossusvlei. On the way there, in our rented Toyota Quantum, we passed through an incredible, arid landscape, on dirt roads that started just 15 minutes outside of Windhoek (the hub in our hub and spoke approach to seeing Namibia) and continued for the next 7 hours of driving. Brent was an incredible driver, one that I would trust to drive me basically anywhere under any circumstances (and he proved his worth multiple times throughout the driving portion of our trip). He was even calm and cool when we realized that we had made the rookie mistake of not filling up our gas tank before heading to the middle of nowhere and then came much closer than any of us would have liked to not making it to the next BP. With some creative use of our map and by taking some roads that you had to open a gate to enter (i guess to keep the cows in check?), we made it out of that mess. But I think more than one of us was considering the headline "7 GSB Students Lost in Namibia...Probable Cause, Stupidity"

Anyway, we recovered from that misstep quickly and settled into our Little Sossus Lodge in Sossusvlei, where we were greeted by the best food we'd had so far on our trip. Simple food and a meat, starch, veggie all on one plate like my mom always made sure we had at home. Incredible how hard that threeway combo is to come by when you're on the road! (Mom - I'm having an "I appreciate you" moment). Next morning, we rose early (we've had ALOT of pre-6am mornings) and headed out to the dunes. Just like the guidebooks said, it was some of the most incredible landscape i've ever seen - in person or in photos. Huge red dunes contrasted against the blue sky contrasted against the white deadvlei or dead lake. We hiked to the top of the tallest of them all, Big Tittie, and then ran, rolled, slid, fell (take your pick) back down a 45 degree slope to where we started (and where an Indian film company from Collywood, Calcutta's version of Bollywood, were filming a new movie). Exhausted and all very satisfied with our trip to Sossusvlei, we headed back to our lodge to relax by the pool and observe the enormous bugs that call Sossus Lodge home (thank god for mosquito nets!). Another fantastic dinner, another late night talking, a rare morning of sleeping in, and we were off to head back to Windhoek and send Megan off to her next adventure in Austria. Our drive back was thankfully much less eventful (and much shorter due to tips from our host), other than the first 10 minutes when Brent was reminded that in Namibia they drive on the left side of the road and we then had an Oregon Trail style river crossing where we successfully forded the river. =)

To celebrate Fourth of July and commemorate Megan's last night, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner out in Windhoek and formed the Midnight Club, egging everyone on to stay up late enough to become a member. Questions were posed - how old was JFK when he became prez? Does a liger really exist? What about a tigon? Can we play spoons without spoons? How about tea bags? - and we had fun in our hotel room until the wee hours. Much better than wandering the sketchy streets of Windhoek searching (and not likely finding) a good time. The next morning we got up, packed our bags and headed off to the airport to drop off megan and say our goodbyes. The trip won't be the same without you Megan - hope you're having a great time in Austria!

And then we were off to Swakopmund...