It's a lifestyle. I don't own anything, but I travel-Kari, from Finland

Tuesday morning of our trip, we woke up and walked to pick up our Toyota Rav 4 for the next 10 days. We drove back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and as Kiah as co-pilot we made it. We kept reminding ourselves to drive on the left, turn to the left lane, stay on the left.

After a light breakfast, we were out and on the road. We drove for about 4 hours from Windhoek to Sossusvlei. When we picked up the rental car, we had to watch a safety video and I'm really glad we did. Leaving the city, the road is paved, but after a turn a third of the way, you turn on to a dirt, gravel road for the rest of the trip. The dirt road is bumpy and most of the way held the tires in place. However, there was a section of the road that I seriously thought we were going to spin out. It was about half way and the car started to veer to the left and into the side of the road. I overcompensated to the right and then the car started to loose it's traction and spin, but I remembered my high school car training and stepped off the brake and had the car slow it's self down to get ourselves situated again. It was a little scary being my first time skidding, but we were able to make it out ok. 

During the last third of the trip, there was a sign warning drivers about a steep gradient. Before the steep hill, the road turns from dirt to brick and is paved in a small brick pattern and thank goodness. There were portions of the road that when you got to the top and went over the hill, you couldn't see the rest of the road ahead and just hoped it was there. The anticipation of the road being there was the scariest part of the drive. The majority of the roads in Namibia are not paved so overall driving is a little scary and a little difficult. 

We arrived at Namib Naukflat safe and sound. We checked in and headed out for a sunset drive. We saw a few animals-geckos, springbok, oreck and warthog. I was trying to explain warthog to someone in the car we were in, and someone helped us out by saying "Pumba, from the Lion King" and Kiah thanked him for speaking Kiah. 

This gentleman ended up joining us for dinner. His name was Kari, from Finland who I got the title of this post from. Very nice guy, traveled all over and we were able to talk to him about his many adventures. After a delicious dinner of chicken stew and oreck ribs, we headed to our hotel room to get ready to get up at 6 the next morning. Our first day of driving was completed and our 10 day trip around the country was beginning.