We had driven over a thousand miles in our 2-wheel drive Toyota Yaris for three reasons: Sossusvlei, the Skeleton Coast, and Etosha. Our first destination was Sossusvlei and upon leaving Cape Town, I had the excitement and anticipation of the sand dunes pumping through my veins. The drive is not exactly convenient or easy from Cape Town to Sesriem (the town just outside of Sossusvlei), and towards the end of the drive I was begining to question whether the dodgy dirt roads and dents in the car would be worth the satisfaction of feeling the orange sand between my toes. It had been several days by the time we reached Sosssusvlei and by the time we had made it to Sesriem, we were all most excited about the cheap rental car having made it with no issues. There was not enough time to check out Sossusvlei that day so we stayed at a campsite 40km away.

The next morning, we were up and in the car by 5am to get in the line (aka the queue) for enterence into Sossusvlei. We waited for the gates to open until 6am and when they finally did, we went to turn on the car realizing to our horror that the car was dead. Nooooooo! Car after car passed by us as we sat there trying to wave someone down. What were we thinking… no one was going to stop and help us. They had waken up just as early as we had to try to make it to see the sunrise over the dunes. Luckily, Chris had come up with an alternative. He sat in the car as the three of us got behind the car and began pushing towards the gate. Slowly, we built up speed and just when we thought that it wouldn’t work, Chris stepped on the gas, and popped the clutch out with enough speed to start the car!!! YES! Having only lost 20 minutes, we hurridly purchased our permit inside the gate and was on our drive through Sossusvlei. Sixty kilometers later, the road had ended and we decided to park and walk towards the largest dunes 5km ahead. The sun was rising as we began our climb onto the largest dune. The African sun hit the dunes perfectly creating a god-like orange hue on the sand. The shadows exaggerated the perfectly edged lines of the dunes creating unique shadows to each mound of sand. The hike upward drew on as the sun baked the earth. Not yet all the way up, we stopped to strip down to our bottom most appropriate layer. It was then that I recognized that the sun burns so hot during the days that it scorched the sand. The sunny side of the dunes showed a black hue on the surface from the heat of the sun’s rays. ‘Did I bring enough water with me?’ I thought as I wiped sweat off my forehead. This hike had better be worth it.

Reaching the top turned out to be more than worth it. It was breath taking! More so, it was one of the most amazing things that I’ve ever seen in my life. The orange hued sand contrasted dramatically against the bright tourquoise blue sky. There were few green shrubs that managed to survive the heat of the sun below. In certain areas where water would collect at the base of the dunes were white sand floors. From above the white sand pools looked like a winter’s lake frosted over with snow. The sand dunes extended in all directions for as long as we could see. It was brilliant, beautiful, breathtaking, energizing, and peaceful. Enjoying the scene, the four of us took off our shoes, put our toes in the sand and enjoyed this once in lifetime view.

As you might know, Amy and I, along with 2 guys from Sweden, rented a car in South Africa to drive through Namibia and Botswana. After replacing two tires (or tyres as they say here…), denting the frame and knocking some plastic parts off the undercarriage, we’ve learned a few lessons we wanted to pass on to you:

All Foreign Driving

1. If you’re driving on the opposite side of road for the first time in a few months, it REALLY helps to have a second person in the car to help remind you when you’re driving on the wrong side of the road (something all four of us have done at one point or another).
2. Carry a bag of zipties, they’ve been a lifesaver at keeping dangling car parts from falling off the car.
3. Depending on the country you’re in, fill up your gas tank as frequently as possible. We found in Namibia that its quite normal that you could drive 250 miles without ever seeing a gas station.

That's Our Toyota Yaris!

Foreign Car Rentals

1. In addition to checking the car for dents and scratches, ALWAYS check the inner and outer tread on ALL the tires. Our need to replace two tires in Namibia could have been completely avoiding had we looked carefully at our back tires before leaving and realized what poor condition they were in. Also, don’t forget to double check your spare tire.
2. If you will be driving ANYWHERE that doesn’t have well-kept tarred roads, get the best insurance coverage possible. It didn’t cost us more than US$2-3/day to have a $0 deductible and I assure you it was worth it…
3. Make sure you read the insurance coverage very thoroughly AND make a copy of it for your records. I’m currently writing this from the middle of Namibia where we know that we’ve banged up our Toyota Yaris quite a bit, but don’t have the paperwork to know if it’s going to actually cost us anything when we return the car.

We’re lucky to have found that the international image of America has changed drastically in the past year. Almost everywhere we go in Africa, upon saying we’re from the States, we here “Obama People!”. So instead of tips relating to hiding your “American-ness”, these are a few special tips specifically relevant to our way of life.

1. Learn to drive a standard (manual) transmission. Unless you’re always around expensive luxury cars, you’ll find that almost every car in the rest of the world has a manual transmission, and on the rare occasions that we’ve seen an automatic transmission car for rent, there’s been a very hefty “fee” for that luxury
2. Learn the metric system. Not only does the metric system make far more sense than our antiquated imperial system of measurement, but also it is the way EVERYONE else in the world measures just about EVERYTHING. No need to know absolutely everything, but having a sense of some ranges of temperatures in Celsius and knowing how to convert lbs<>kg, mi<>km and ft<>m will make all the difference in the world.
3. Understand that almost everywhere you go the power outlets will be 220 volts instead of the 110 volts we have in the states. While many modern electronics (iPhones, most laptops, etc) will all accept 220v power, some will not. Look at your device/charger and if you see 110-240v, you’re in the clear. If not, then you’ll either need to get a new device or buy a power convertor (which will definitely add some weight to your bag)

My process for choosing a camera for this trip was probably more in depth than anyone you’ll ever meet, so I’ll put a little summary up front, and if you’re still interested in more, you can click through to read the full story.

Summary:

Wanted a DSLR for the quality, but thought they were too big. Looked at high-end point and shoots and decided to get the Panasonic Lumix LX3. Two weeks later realized that if I can’t fit my camera in my pocket I won’t shoot any photos. So I sold the LX3 and bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1. It’s a great 12MP camera with a 28-129mm lens that is waterproof, shockproof, dustproof AND shoots 720p HD video. For me, size meant everything!

Read the rest of this entry »

So we love our current health insurance plan with Anthem BlueCross. However, it provides ZERO coverage when we’re outside of the US. Therefore, I started looking for a travel insurance policy. Everywhere I looked I kept hearing fantastic things about World Nomads and if I didn’t have a ridiculous tendancy to over-research things, I probably would have signed up with them on the spot. However, not only did I want to be comprehensive, but also my grandfather has an affiliate deal with Travel Guard, so I thought I should at least give them a chance too.

Anyways, I took all the providers I could find and put all the plans relevant to someone taking a >6 month international trip in one spreadsheet here. Travel Guard was instantly out due to their $5/day surcharge for trips longer than 30 days. Most of the other providers were either too expensive or were only providing medical coverage and none of the extras (e.g. flight cancellation or delays, lost luggage) that a complete travel insurance policy would include.

Not surprising, I ended up deciding that World Nomads was the best policy. I made this decision for the following reasons:

• Everywhere I turned (blogs, books, travel websites) there was another person saying that World Nomads is THE BEST travel insurance company out there.
• Despite that their policies are for a maximum of 6-months, they can be easily extended online.
• You can file any claims with them from their website instead of having to use fax or mail.
• They cover quite a few adventure activities (see full list here).
• They have a beautiful website… Hey, I’m a geek, and when a company gets web design / web 2.0, it makes them that much more attractive to me.

So if you need a travel insurance policy, I would highly recommend you checking out World Nomads.

I tend to go a little overboard when I start to research just about anything. This trip was not an exception. I have probably checked out over 75 books from the San Francisco Public Library and visited over 100 different travel related websites. As of right now, if I could only have five of them, they would be:

• Travel Independent . Info – This has to be the most valuable website to any traveler… I think I’ve actually read every single page on the site.
• Vagabonding by Rolf Potts – This book might be my favorite book of all time, I’m considering buying a PDF version for the trip.
• Lonely Planet PDFs by the chapter – Buy only the chapters you want without  the weight of a book.
• East and Southern Africa: The Backpacker’s Manual – Despite that it was published in 2001, this book is a must have for anyone planning to travel through the region.
• The Man in Seat 61 – The MOST comprehensive source of train, ship and bus schedules for the entire world.

Runners-up:

• Thorn Tree and BootsnAll Forums – Two fantastic travel forums. Anytime I had a question, my first stop was always to search these two sites.
• Wikitravel.org – a free, open-source travel guide for the entire world. Also checkout Oxygen Guide, which is a downloadable version of the Wikitravel.org content that you can take with you.