Sept 20 Stargazing

Today went on an SAS trip to go camping/stargazing in the desert. I didn’t have high expectations for this trip but knew that it was going to be very low key. It took us about an hour and half to get to the site. I rode w/ Devyn and she wasn’t feeling well and I didn’t think she was going to make it. The drive was in “4X4”s, which were  6 passenger vans that had four-wheel drive. The whole way there was just desert, sand, dunes, and more sand dunes. The road was paved at times but mostly it was dirt, sand, rocks, and bumpy! Passed Dune 7 on the way, it is one of the biggest dunes in the area and has an oasis at its base. At one point the van turned off the main road and we basically went off roading in the desert. We ended up in the major mountain ranges that run along the edges of Namibia. The rock is some of the oldest rock in the world. There were so many different colors and formations. After weaving through the ranges for a while we got to the campgrounds and drove even on more intense BUMBY off roading. After some major whiplash we finally got to the site. There were about 30 tents that held two people with beds, towels, and outdoor showers. The beds are comfier than on the ship!! No joke. There was a huge tent where we ate our meals. Surprisingly they had portable flushing toilets. Never seen that before. We got assigned to our tents and were told we had about three hours to kill. We were surrounded by rock formations so everyone started to climb. Climbing was very challenging and nerve racking. The rocks were not very stable and crumbled beneath your feet. There were so many different rock elements and colors (crystals, black, red, brown, and so much more). Devyn is afraid of heights so I had to keep pushing her to keep on climbing and she did great. The view was too amazing that pictures could not do it justice. We were up sooo high we could see the mountain range in all directions. It was the nice afternoon sun so once we reached the top of the rocks we laid out and rested for another hour or so. Dreading the climb down we took out time. Jen was on the too so we hung out with her and her group of friends and played the college name game to see if anyone knew common friends. Eventually we all gathered up enough courage and confidence to make the treck down. I had on my new Merrills and they were perfect for the terrain. I didn’t have any trouble getting down and I booked it ahead of everyone and made it without a scratch. The temperature was dropping fast so we changed into sweats for dinner. After dinner the stargazing groups started to go off. I was in group 5 and wasn’t going for a while. Around 8pm we heard singing and a large group was walking into the site in a straight line singing a song. Found out they were an a capella school group from the capital city Windhoek. Not only were they singing they were playing some drums. They were so good! I was so impressed that for such a young looking group they sounded like they had been together forever. They looked like the age range was from middle school to high school . The older guys took turns conducting songs. For some songs they had certain dances and moves. Throughout their performances they picked people out from the crowd to join them. I got up and danced with them twice. One was a couple dance and the head guy took me around and taught we the 3-count step.  The dance was like any two person dance but the guy followed the girl and dance behind or on the side of her holding her waist. The second dance was a line step. When they were done their last song they got us all to do a train dance. They got everyone to go around the campsite. When that was accomplished we made a big dance circle and they free danced and fooled around showing off. We mimicked their moves and they showed us that they knew some American moves as well. Then they wanted US to sing them a song. Well now this was a dilemma. Funny enough we started singing “ Low by Flo Rida and they knew the song! Lol Next we showed them Soulja boy, walk it out, YMCA, Macarena, Electric slide, and other “American style” moves (basically rap music moves, salt shaker, shimmy). Mind you we sang/hummed most of these songs. It was hilarious to say the least. We then sang Amazing Grace with them and they taught us a song. It was a solid 2-hour affair of just dancing with the locals. They were so sweet and although they struggled with their English they could talk with us. Sadly they had to go and they sang good-bye and left us all very touched. At this point everyone was ready to star gaze because the sky was packed with stars. Found out the people left which was really frustrating but the groups that did go said it wasn’t a good presentations and we could do better looking at a chart. So a bunch of us got chairs and sat out in the desert and just looked up for a couple of hours. The Milky Way was so vivid and we could see Jupiter and Mercury. There were more stars in the sky than I have ever seen before. The sky was just exploding with them. After a while it got to the point of freezing so we joined a group around the campfire. People were telling ghost stories or personal scary stories. We play the “add on” story line game, which got ridiculous in its context with teachers on the boat, ecstasy, and giant scorpions. Two guys made up some pretty good stories thought. Little by little people let and slept but I was determined to stay up for a while. Some people pulled their beds out of the tents and literally slept in the bed outside. I couldn’t get my bed out of the tent because I had a pole in the doorway but I stayed up until 4am, which basically was the same thing as sleeping out side. It was so cold though I was in sweats, my sleeping bag, and the two fleece comforters they gave us. Had a solid 2 hours of sleep and then got up at 6 am to watch the sunrise. It was so peaceful and quiet. Quite the moment. I watched the sun rise and then went back to bed for a couple more hours. Got up had breakfast then did a little more climbing. Left at 11 am with Devyn, Amber, Jen, Sara, and Maddie. Out driver Willy (“Villy”) drove us through the brush again and we saw ostrich (they run so funny)! He took us home via the coast road and took us past where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have a beach house. Haha Definitely was a great trip.