Friday morning at 4am we were picked up and we started our Journey to Namibia, which was an 8-hour drive. After getting through customs we arrived at out first campsite where we learned about the trip, boats, and safety. Friday night we had a wonderful traditional meal cooked by the staff at the campsite and began our nights sleeping on the ground outside. When the sun rose on Saturday we woke up, went over safety, packed up our boats – 2 people per boat – and were on our way. Each day we paddled for about 6 hours, stopped for lunch around noon, and continued to paddle to our over night sites, which did not have bathrooms or any facilities. We slept outside under the stars on the grass or sand every night, and all our food was cooked over a fire by our guides. Every morning started with sunrise and we were all in bed by 9:30pm. I fell out of the boat once on a rapid- oops! But it was tons of fun and my boating partner, Jessa, didn’t even realize I fell out haha. It was pretty hot every day – Id say up in the 90s, but I didn’t burn at all YAY! The water varied between flat water, which was more difficult to paddle through and rapids. Our first day we had to fight the wind which was difficult, but day 2 and day 3 we had a nice tail wind which was helpful. On day 3 during our lunch break we got to swim down a set of rapids, which was really fun, but very exhausting.
Our guide joked he would never do this with his wife because it would lead to divorce and I’m not surprised! It requires a lot of teamwork and the back passenger depends on the front for directions and the front depends on the back to actually turn the raft. Communication is key, and luckily Jessa and I handled it very well!
We returned late afternoon on Tuesday- Overall the trip was a blast, our guide was phenomenal, and the food was fantastic… But I’m a city girl through and through J
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