North Cape - South Africa 🇿🇦

Early in the morning, we set off in Cape Town. First, we had breakfast for all of us, and then our Lando (that’s what we call our bus) was packed. All the backpacks inside, a last “Goodbye” to Cape Town, and off we go on the adventure. Our first stop was a final view of Table Mountain from the beach in Cape Town. It was quite windy, but the view was incredibly beautiful. Since this wasn't our last stop for the day, we had to move on after a first group photo. I could have spent hours here. The next stop was a supermarket, where we bought snacks one last time before heading into the wilderness. However, for me, the snacks weren't the priority; it was finding a sleeping bag. As I am, I naturally didn't read the tour description when booking and wasn't aware that this would be a camping trip 🫣. But anyway, it didn’t work out with my sleeping bag, so I simply bought 2 cozy blankets in the hope that they would be enough. The next stop of the day was an information center more or less about the African tribes and their language. They have a very specific language that can also be translated as a click language. Click language because they use different tongue clicks in their words. Furthermore, we learned about the local herbs and their medicine, which was really interesting for me. There is even a school to train people from an indigenous tribe for tourist purposes. After we got to try their homemade tea, we moved on. The next and final stop was our campsite for the night. There, we first learned how to set up our tents and prepare our camp. This place in the middle of nowhere was simply breathtaking, so beautiful and lovingly designed. Once everything was set up and dinner was prepared, we had a wine tasting. This region is very famous for its wine cultivation. What could be better than a wine tasting as an icebreaker for a group of 21 people who had never met before? We tasted 6 different wines, had a great time, and got to know each other a little better. We could also admire a gorgeous sunset during this time. After we were all in high spirits, dinner was served, which our guides prepared for us. Totally surprised by the amazing food, with even a special vegetarian menu for us 2 veggies, we enjoyed the evening by the campfire. But we couldn't hold out too long and quickly crawled into the tent. With a bit of an uneasy feeling about whether the night would be long and cold, I lay down and fell asleep immediately. Well, that’s not really new for me, haha. At 5:30 in the morning, I was awakened by our alarm clock and woke up wrapped in my 2 blankets, super warm. This fact immediately put a real smile on my face. First, everything was packed up again, and the tent was taken down under the starry sky. Then, the sun slowly rose, and we enjoyed our breakfast in the meantime. Again, we were not disappointed by our guides. All packed in our Lando, we continued north. The whole way to the Namibian border. But we didn’t cross it yet. We made a stop in the capital of North Cape called Springbok. There, we had a lunch break. We got something from the supermarket and ate it all together in the parking lot in front of Lando. Oh, that really gave me the true road trip feeling and just made me happy in that moment. Our destination for today was the Orange River, which runs right at the border between South Africa and Namibia. After our tents were set up again, some of us went kayaking along the river. But I decided to take the afternoon for myself and simply enjoy the moment. I lounged a bit by the water, looked at our camp, and chatted a little with our guides. When everyone was back, we watched the sunset together, of course with a beer. The evening was spent again with dinner and a campfire. Early on, we moved on again and this time truly to the border to Namibia, making it land number 16 on my journey! 🫶🏼