Goodmorning Namibia!

4:15am Wake-Up 6/3/2011

And the gang is off to Etosha National Park bright and early! We stopped twice along the 5 hour drive to get snacks and use the restrooms. Our 5 hour trip actually turned into a 7 hour adventure when our tour guide had to stop to buy groceries and camping equipment for the weekend. We all got to enjoy the goods of a local German bakery that had a pretty garden and sitting area in the back and we all thought it felt nice to finally sit somewhere outside of a bus or plane for a few minutes. While we were at the bakery, Becca and I sat in front and people watched as if we were still in NYC. It's so much more exciting here!

As Dr. Nicholson stated at our first reflection tonight, everyone did a outstanding job with practicing patience despite our exhaustion from traveling so much in the past week.

Once we arrived at our first campsite at Etosha, we took a walk over to a big watering hole where we observed the delicate silence of nature, the beauty of my observations in this moment left me speechless. A heard of zebras waded into the water. This was NOT the Bronx Zoo! After lunch around 2:30pm we were off on our safari bus into the wild! No more than 30 seconds into the drive we spotted a giraffe about 20-30ft to the right of our bus. We saw birds of all kinds, zebras, Spring Bok, zebras, an ostrich, and more zebras!

The sky was a beautiful blue and clear all day long until the early sunset at around 5:30pm. We got to walk to the top of a tall stone tower in the middle of our campsite to watch the sun set. Once the sun went down it was very cold and everyone was bundled up sitting around the campfire. George prepared a great dinner with his cousin; slow roasted lamb, garlic bread, potatoes, and veggies. Mmmm Mmmm I have a feeling that will be the BNM(Best Namibian Meal) we eat while we're here.

Christina and I are sharing a tent and are crossing our fingers and praying that we do not get eaten by any wild animals tonight. Namibia is such a beautiful place that realized I didn't mind the long drive today at all, it was nothing like driving down the parkway-trust me, I have pictures to prove it!