"Must Love Dogs" - Wherever you are!

I had never left Radders for such a long time before. So I had mixed feelings about leaving him for our 19 day trip to Namibia. As wonderful and amazing as I believed and indeed it was, you will not be surprised to learn that my babe was never far from my mind the whole time.

In my head I imagined him, pining like this, when is she coming back?

I knew I was being  irrational of course as 2 and a bit weeks at Aunty Ruth's with all his doggy mates would be nothing but pure bliss for the young teenager!

So in reality it was this, home from home.

So we left for Namibia, back on the road again with Safari Drive, on our gargantuan 5000km trip, exploring one of the most vast and arid countries Mother Africa has to offer.

Now when I say vast; 

I mean ..............V....................A....................S.............T!!

No amount of visualisation or playful imagination can prepare you for it.

To put this into perspective we engaged in conversation with a cattle farmer at one of the outback desert fuel stations and he had travelled 100km, yes that's right, ALL that way to fill up his truck.

The Desert Monitor Lizard is more common sight than another car
or a Fuel Station in Namibia

This distance for our Farmer, is like me driving from where I live here in Rutland to London to do the same thing! It takes him a whole day too as the corrugated gravel roads/tracks are cruel and unforgiving. That we know.

The only fuel for 100km and more! (Gouchas, Namibia)

Whilst there, our farmer also seizes the opportunity to connect to the "Kalahari Gossip Telegraph", "who is prospering, who is not, who has died, who is marrying and who is facing imprisonment", that kind of thing! OfI course, a couple in a British Landy are the best diversion ever, who are you, where are you from, where have you travelled from, where are you going to, what else have you to tell me. These exchanges are common and we realise we are probably like the equivalent of a travelling tabloid newspaper!

However, as a tourist if you get behind such a character, you can prepare to wait to fill up for a long, long, long  time, patience really is a virtue, as it is all over Africa. Embrace it or burst a blood vessel.

On sentry duty at every petrol station is a dog (s), always friendly if not as well presented as our own pampered pooches back home.

Namibians love their dogs too, now there is a great reason to visit a country, and as you will see plenty of them are subject to my affectionate outpourings!

Bucks, the "I have the cutest begging face in the world" Jack Russell

How the heck Dolly the Greyhound survives in the heat here, but she does and is a true Doll. Loved her.

Joyous Jess and her lovely kisses

Echo, an affectionate girl, who couldnt cuddle me enough

Remy the Golden lab, proud and loyal

Thank you my Namibian doggy friends, you gave a stupid dog lover, therapy for her inevitable pangs  and turned them into to twinges instead.

That is until we are close to home and I am nearly peeing my pants with excitement to be reunited with my little one.

Of course, he had the most wonderful time and he found it hard to decide whether the huge knuckle bone he was chewing on my arrival was worth trading in for a welcome monumentous cuddle from the Momma!

BUT it was xxx

MUST LOVE DOGS, WHEREVER YOU ARE IN THE WORLD.