Namibia

Folks, Internet in Namibia is supplied from a number of sources, but king of the hill is Internet Africa - an offshoot of UUnet based out of Virginia. They are based in South Africa, and run one, maybe two, 128K lines from Capetown to Windhoek. I had a barbeque with Dr Lisse - a German at the Swapokmund medical center who administers name services for the country. Performance sucks for interactive work - telnet to RMI was painfully slow.

Folks, Swakopmund is a resort town on the Swakop river - with a heavy german influence. Where else could you buy German memorabilia from the last war ? The landscape is remarkable for the desert sands that come fsright down to the sea. I rode down on the minibuses that all the black folk use - 15 people squashed in for $10US to take you 200Km. there was an 18 year old University student on the bus, who could answer all my questions on Namibia.

Folks, A group of us at the hostel banded together and rented a car to go down to see an Oasis in the middle of the Namibian desert. There has been an uncommon amount of rain in Namibia this year - so much so that the usual sandy color of the landscape has been replaced by green. Rain in the desert is an event that is waited for by an entire ecosystem - eggs that lie dormant in the hot, dry sand for decades before exploding in a frenzy of growth, reproduction, and quiescence again.

Folks, Got into the Capital of Namibia Friday AM, and located a ‘Backpackers Lodge’ through someone else on the plane. It is $8 / night, for a shared dorm room, Lounge, TV, kitchen - and excellent company of other people that have travelled through the continent - mostly Australians, New Zealanders (Kiwis) and Brits here, many of whom are on extended trips of six months or more. I organised a trip down to some huge natural sand dunes, that have had an uncommonly large amount of rain this year.