First off, our apologies to those of you have been patiently waiting for an update; we've kept you hanging far too long.
Our final night in South Africa was spent right near the border, just outside the Kgalgadi Transfrontier Park, where we planned to stay a few days. Unfortunately, we learned upon arriving that it was completely booked up because the Afrikaaners were on holiday (yet again, it seemed like they were on holiday most of the time we were there). Furthermore, since we weren't staying in the park, they wouldn't let us drive through it to the Namibia border (thru traffic not permitted), so we had to drive a couple hours out of our way to get into the country. Grrrr.
After we crossed the border without incident, we immediately experienced the desolation for which this country is known for. The country is pretty big, slightly more than half the size of Alaska, yet the population is only two million people, and the majority of them live in the far north near the Angolan border. Over the course of our seven hour drive to the capital city, Windhoek, we saw about ten other cars. We spent a couple days in the city, which, like most of the country, had a very large German influence. About ninety percent of the other travellers we met were German. We explored their craft market and had dinner at one of the local game restaurants. Jason tried the game medley, including zebra, which was a bit like beef, but tougher and sweeter.
Our first stop in Namibia was Etosha National Park. We decided to camp outside of the park the first night because camping inside the park was ridiculously expensive ($60 per night). Yes, camping! The park is in the middle of the desert, from the park website:
Etosha, meaning "Great White Place", is dominated by a massive mineral pan. The pan is part of the Kalahari Basin, the floor of which was formed around 1000 million years ago. The Etosha Pan covers around 25% of the National Park.
The pan was originally a lake fed by the Kunene River. However the course of the river changed thousands of years ago and the lake dried up. The pan now is a large dusty depression of salt and dusty clay which fills only if the rains are heavy and even then only holds water for a short time.Within Etosha there are three campsites, all of which have floodlit watering holes that attract animals throughout the day and night. The extreme harshness of the environment, and the resulting stress on the animals, provides for excellent wildlife viewing. Some of the highlights include:
--A field of majestic baobab trees.
--An elephant and rhinoceroussquaring off at the Halali watering hole (the elephant won that showdown).
--Seeing processions of zebras and kudus hundreds long trekking to a watering hole and filling in.
--A pair of male zebras fighting/playing. We weren't sure which one the kudu was rooting for.
--Kudus doing the same.
--Three different species sharing the land.
--A pair of coupling lions sitting near a watering hole. Although they were amazing, we felt for the processions of other animals that had trudged all day only to have to turn back around when the realized the hole was occupied.
--And on our final day in the park, we were driving along the main road in the park. There was no one else around of course and as we approached one of themarkers, we saw a pair of cheetahs! We hoped and pleaded with him to jump on top of the marker to get a better lookout, but before we realized, poof, they were gone. The grace and speed with which these animals move can not really be described, but simply amazing!
We'd have loved to stay longer at Etosha but we finally headed west to the less-developed Kunene region of the country. Our plan was to see the rock art at Twyfelfontein. When we arrived at 4:15, the female ticket collector informed us we would have to wait for a guide so to have a look around. After about 15 minutes, she then tells us there will be no more tours today, even though they take 1/2 hour and the place doesn't close until 5. We then saw a sign saying guests were allowed to take the tour on their own, without a guide! So we told her we don't need a guide but she refused to let us in. Since this was our only chance to see the rock art (our campsite was an hour away), Jason persisted. The woman then became extremely rude, at one point accusing people 'like Jason' of defacing the site! It was frustrating to say the least, but there was little we could do except move on. (Jason later contacted them to report the staff unnamed staff person, who refused to give her name because she knew she was over the line). This aggression will not stand, man!
We continued west to the so-called Skeleton Coast, which is a vast stretch of deserted coast that we thought was going to be lined with shipwrecks. We did see a couple, but would not recommend going out of your way to see it.
Our next stop was Swakopmund, which is a popular destination for the adventure seekers. We had planned on going skydiving again, but due to budget concerns we held off. Instead we went sandboarding on the massive sand dunes. The woman who owns the company is from Colorado, and we both were taken aback by the condition of her skin from way too much sun exposure. We decided to skip the standing board option because we'd been informed that it's akin to snowboarding, but much slower. As we watched the stand-up boarders in our group slog up the dunes in skiboots and suffer repeated faceplants, we felt good with our decision. The workers had a speed gun and Jason was able to log the fastest time, 75 km/hr (~47 mph), just shy of the record (81 kph).
On one of the hills, they had us go down on the same board, sitting up. We started out ok, but after about fifteen meters we started getting off center and eventually got turned around completely so we were heading down backwards. But not for long as we wiped out, hard. Jason felt like he'd dislocated his shoulder (thankfully not) and Priti suffered some scrapes as well. Only after we came back up did they tell us their nickname for the ride, "the marriage breaker." All in all it was good fun, and they even through in a DVD. But cleaning the sand out of our ears for weeks was the true bonus.We continued south to see the famous red sand dunes of Sossusvlei. Seeing the sun rise over the dunes was spectacular and the patterns created were unique for each dune. Due to the stark contrast with the dunes, the sky was a very intense shade of blue.
Jason decided to hike up dune 45 and got some good shots on his way to the top.
Once he got to the top, he decided to keep going and forge his own trail. 
Perhaps the highlight was deadvlei, which housed dozens of petrified trees that lent to some amazing photographs. 
These dunes could make anyone feel like a professional photographer.
We continued down the coast to Luderitz, another quaint German influenced town. But the main reason people visit is to see the nearby ghost town of Kolmannskuppe, which sprung up in the desert in 1908 after the discovery of diamonds and just as quickly was abandoned in 1956 after more lucrative diamonds were found further south.
The shear volume of diamonds mined in the area is impossible to comprehend, and to this day a large section of the country is privatized diamond mining territory. We were explicitly and repeatedly warned that to cross into these areas was at our own risk and very foolish. 
But the ghost town itself was a marvel to behold, as most of the buildings were half-submerged under sand dunes. Plus we got to go inside the buildings and explore them on our own.Our final stop in Namibia was the Fish River Canyon, which bills itself as the second largest canyon in the world after Arizona's Grand Canyon.
The canyon itself was spectacular, but once again the authorities did their best to ruin it, as they forbade hikers from descending into the canyon on their own, meaning no day trips down and also expensive guides had to be hired. 
A completely ridiculous policy and we ended up going about halfway down in just a couple hours. Imagine the outcry if they enacted such a policy in the US.There are many cool things to see in Namibia, but they are spread on the periphery of the country so there is a LOT of travel time involved. Also, we didn't feel the people were nearly as nice as the Afrikaaners, which was surprising to us because the countries are linked in so many other ways.
South Africa Redux
Thus, we were excited to get back to South Africa. We wished we had more time because the Cedarberg Mountains are lekker!
The rocks have eroded to create these amazing formations, and there is also plenty of wildlife, such as the pack of babboons we saw atop these rocks. This area is also well off the beaten track so we pretty much had the hostel to ourselves. We had a great time hanging out with the guy working there, who'd been almost everywhere (including all fifty states), since he had previous worked for an overland tour company. 
He told us of some the tours offered, including a three-year round-the-world trip! The next day we got to see some really cool rock art, and we didn't have any meanies standing in our way! 
We also saw this rock that reminded us of an optical illusion. Tell us, what do you see, a face or a duck? 
South Africa is world famous for its great wine, and our next destination was the wine region. There are three towns in the area and we decided to stay in Stellenbosch, a university town. 
The shear number of wineries in the area is overwhelming and true wine lovers could spend literally years exploring them. With only two days, we set out early and hit about five wineries. 
At the second winery, we ended up befriending an older foursome, two Canadians and two Afrikaaners. They were incredibly nice and we ended up having lunch with them in Franschoek, another winery town nearby. After lunch, we hit another winery and befriended yet another group of locals, this time university students who were celebrating their upcoming graduation. One of the guys demonstrated a neat party trick where he took a sword and slashed off the top of a champagne bottle. Apparently it's pretty easy due to the pressure within the bottle. After hanging out for awhile, the college kids invited us back to their place for a full-on brai (Afrikaaner for BBQ). 
Now, I know some folks in the US know about BBQ-ing, but it pales in comparison to the immense pride Afrikaaners take in their brai skills, as this picture attests. The brai pit is actually built right into the wall. The food (ostrich and beef) was superb, and the only flaw of the night was one girl getting so intoxicated she passed out in her own vomit. Oh, those crazy college kids!Our final stop on our southern Africa tour was Capetown, which is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We decided to couchsurf again and so we stayed with Martin, a wonderful host who we hope to see again.
We would walk out his front door and see mountain climbers heading up a nearby slope...lekker!
We drove out to Cape Point, which was spectacular. Along the drive we marvelled at the huge nets that had been erected to catch falling rocks. 
We took a short hike around the cliffs and saw whales down below. Another day we hiked up table mountain, which was pretty steep. 
Due to a late start, we actually ended up coming down after dark, and it was also a bit slick from some showers. 
Luckily, Martin had headlamps for us to use and we made it down without incident. When it was finally time to leave ZA, we were pretty sad, and we definitely plan to return. It has a bit of everything for everyone and the people are some of the nicest in the world. Given their tumultuous history, we can only hope things improve by the time we go back.
