flipflop hitch hiking

change of plans. rather than kicking around zambia - which turns out, id on't like nearly as much as i thought i would - i'm in namibia. i've been hitch hiking from north to south, which turns out, is not easy. botswana hitching was way easier than we thought, and it probably built up too much confidence in our ability to get around. however, thanks to pickup trucks and tour busses, we're alive and out of one of the 'most remote places in africa'.

what i love about hitching is the giant highs and lows you get... and they probably best sum up what we've been up to.

high: you can drive close to the kalahari if you beg someone to let you sit on the top of their truck for 2 hours while he drives to the gate.

low: without your own car, and the money to back it up, you can't actually get into the kalahari.

high: a kenyan that lives in botswana who drives to the DRC via zambia every 2 weeks and picks us up from (another) gas station and not only doesn't want money for petrol but buys us lunch!

low: 15 hour minibus rides (overnight) through northern namibia that stop at every gas station en route and play the same 5 songs over and over again.

high: being picked up at 530 am from a gas station in a northern namibian town that nobody ever goes to, and being driven exactly where you want to go.

low: finding out that the guy who picks you up is a bad singer who loves singing and honking at small birds on the road that are kilometers away.

high: the kaokoveld. one of the most remote places in africa...

low: realizing 100 km into the kaokoveld that nobody drives there, that you have no water, and that your cracker diet really dries up your waterless mouth.

bigger low: realizing that you're not 2km away from the nearest town, but 50km. and that there is no water for the next 50 km and you have 3 gulps each.

bigger low: thinking that while you're sleeping on a bed of rocks on the side of a road, that the car that drove by has stopped and is planning to rob you blind.

high: realizing, after you burried your valuables under rocks away from your tent, that the car drove away and never came back.

low: waking up with the sorest body in the world and a gigantic hill to hike up in front of you... and with no water. and food that only dries your mouth further. and flipflops on your feet that make sure you feel every rock you step on.

bigger high: having a german tour bus pass you and give you 6 bottles of water.

biggest high of my week: hearing the reverse sounds of the german bus as it decides that it will rescue you from the kaokoveld afterall and drive you really far... saving your life.

low: saying goodbye to the german tour bus and being left in a very unforgiving desert.

low: making horrible instant coffee in a water bottle on the side of the road to lift spirits and curb hunger, while realizing that you hate the game 20 questions.

high: being picked up by a colorado school trip from the middle of the desert after every other tourist drives by pretending they can't see you.

bigger high: hurtling down desert roads on the top of a 4x4 as some of hte most incredible landscapes pass you by.

even bigger high: after selling your sister for a horse to luckyboy in uis, namibia (sorry poops-), the school group invites you to tag along with them to camp at some really cool mountain, and feeds you a meal that isn't pb on strange bread,

low: getting really fucking lost at night in those mountains as you try to navigate home from the town's local bar.

low: the smell of probably millions of seals that are not very cute.

low: a weird desert town that is supposed to be more german than germany but feels more like a ghost town with funny architecture and a permanent seal smell.

high: making spaghetti in the ghost town and having a full stomach after a week and a half of really terrible food and being hungry.

its been a really strange week. it gets stranger as i sit in this german town trying to mesh this hitch hiking life with my actual life and put this all together. feels a bit confusing, and just plain weird. tonight we get back on the move across botswana to finally get to zimbabwe (the original point of this whole trip). then south africa. then GHAANNNAA!!!!