2: Up, Up And Away...... Almost!

Our younger daughter Katie, drops us off at Gatwick and the whole process of checking in and going through security which is usually so miserable turns out to be very quick and smooth, so far so good. The first leg is on Norse Airways - a new airline which we liken to the Easy Jet of long haul!

We fly to Cape Town and from there change planes to fly back north to Namibia's capital city, Windhoek. It's a 13 hour journey in total, made better because the long haul section is through the night - and we've managed to book a couple of seats with extra leg room.

Mark is there to meet us and takes us to his lovely home to meet his family - his wife Mel and their son Oliver. The warmth of the welcome we receive is really humbling particularly since we have never met these people before.

Oliver, who is a computer wizard even tries to teach Janette how to do some computer coding - she's not going to give up the day job!

What a home the family has! They have built a modern home that is totally off-grid and fully in keeping with the surrounding landscape, which is truly spectacular.

We feel as if we could spend this whole trip sitting on Mark and Mel's veranda sipping cool beer, looking at the beautiful scenery and watching the wildlife in front of their house.

That evening Mark takes us on a game drive in a local private reserve where Mel's stepfather lives. The beauty of this type of drive is that it is entirely free of other tourists, we have the place to ourselves and can sit and watch the animals and soak up the atmosphere in our own time.

The tracks through the reserve are all off-road, some more so than others.......

Heavy rainfall has washed away the tracks, leaving large boulders to negotiate. We have to turn back at one point but decide to stop for a beer first!

Mel and Mark's advice is invaluable; they take time to look at our proposed route in detail and give us many tips about places to go and things to see along the way as well as practical advice from these seasoned bush campers.

Nick continues (endlessly!) to monitor the progress of the ship carrying Rocky and eventually it arrives in Walvis Bay only a day behind schedule, things are going well.

We bid farewell to Mel, Mark and Oliver and head off on one of the shuttle mini buses that ply their trade between Windhoek, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.

The mountains gradually fall away to be replaced by grassland and then rocky desert, stark but with its own severe beauty.

The journey is much longer than we had anticipated (6.5 hours rather than 4) and the road stretches interminably on into the distance, straight as a die.

Darkness has well and truly fallen by the time we reach our guest house, called Shifting, Whispering Sands. This is a great stop off point, the rooms are spacious and clean and the welcome is friendly.

We venture out the next morning to meet with our shipping agent, Dunes. We had expected an office building but discover them through a small wooden door and up a back alley - not what we had in mind!

We set up the bank transfer to pay Dunes' fee and are told that the ship is still being offloaded and to return the next day.

We have the rest of the day to kill. We know that Walvis Bay is a port town and not a holiday destination so we have realistic expectations of its attractions but Mel and Mark have advised us of the places to visit and off we go to the Waterfront which proves to be lovely.

Like everywhere else that we have seen in Namibia so far it is very clean with literally no litter or graffiti and it feels very safe. People are friendly and there's very little hassle from traders.

There are a few market stalls in this area and we get chatting to a man who is carving palm nuts. The idea is that you use them as key rings or to dangle off the rear view mirror in your car.

The next day dawns and we are fobbed off again by Dunes and told that Rocky will be disembarked the day after and we should arrive at Dunes' office at 9 a.m. This is then shifted to 11 a.m. and then 2 p.m. It becomes apparent that Rocky won't be getting off the ship today, things aren't going so well any more.

We spend the evening by Walvis Bay Lagoon. This is a massive lagoon that is home to a host of bird life. It's famous for its flamingos but this is not the right time of year for them - they left a few weeks ago - typical!

The Esplanade is however a lovely place to watch the sun go down and we wander round to The Raft, a restaurant on a jetty sticking out into the lagoon and which does cocktails for £2.50! We have a couple each, it'd be rude not to!

Today's the day! We turn up once again at Dunes' insalubrious offices but this time there's action. We are driven to the port and see Rocky taken out of the shipping container. The guys at the unloading bay are really helpful and set to getting the tent back onto Rocky's roof. We are starting to get a bit demob happy at this point, which is a mistake.

We are told that we need to go back to Dunes' offices once again - we thought we'd seen the last of them - where we are informed that our funds have not arrived in the Dunes account due to a banking delay.

We are able to prove that the funds have been sent and that we are not able to recall them, in other words they are definitely on their way but that isn't good enough and there is a clear insinuation that we are trying to get away without paying.

We are told rather rudely that Rocky won't be released unless we get the whole of the money to pay Dunes' invoice in cash and we'll just have to trust that they will return the bank transfer funds to us when they're finally received.

Getting that much cash from ATMs in a foreign country isn't an easy matter but we reluctantly manage it somehow and back we go to the port to collect Rocky.

We get as far as the exit gate when the guy from Dunes discovers he has failed to get the necessary release form and we have yet another delay - were Dunes the right people for the job we hear you ask? The answer to that question is a resounding 'no' and we will be shipping Rocky back with another more professional outfit.

As soon as we get out of the port we head straight for a beer on the Waterfront and things soon start to feel better.

We then head off for a drive out round the lagoon and past the nearby salt processing plant.

Beyond the plant, the water glistens with salt crystals and there's a lake where the water is pink! This is apparently because of the extra high salt content and also the presence of microorganisms that produce red pigments.

The road - made of compressed salty sand juts out into the water and connects the mainland to a 53 km long sand spit. It's quite something to drive along with the water lapping at both sides.

We drive out until the road gives way to sand. Janette takes the opportunity to put a Great Escape sticker on the sign to Sandwich Harbour - somewhere we'll be visiting in a couple of days' time.

We can't resist stopping off to watch the sun go down before heading back to the guest house with Rocky, exhausted but feeling as if the adventure can really begin now.

The port delays have meant that we've spent much longer in Walvis Bay than we'd planned and of course that has unfortunately had a knock-on effect on us heading off in Rocky.

The delays and the unprofessional way that they've been handled by Dunes have been really frustrating but we have to bear in mind that on a trip like this, hitches and unexpected issues are part and parcel of what we've signed up for and in a funny sort of way, make the experience more rich in the end - more of an adventure really. By the evening, we've already put those frustrations behind us and we're looking forward to the next stage of our journey.