Walvis Bay, Namibia

We arrived in Namibia with no plans. Marty, Jess, Matthew, and I left Namibia with a movie-worthy road trip together. Sometimes I prefer plans, as our time in port is often short with only three or four nights and it's good to use the time wisely. The road trip in Namibia is a perfect example of the benefits of spontaneity and not having plans. Of course this comes along with risks, like almost leaving town without a map, or driving later at night than planned, with no street lights, in fact no street, just a dirt road and only the moonlight to guide us, or arriving in a small town with three places stay, and the first two had no vacancy. Of course this also comes along with benefits, like randomly running into Erik and Colleen at breakfast, at the one place to stay that still had room for us, or the family of elephants we saw on the side of the road, or the laughter from Marty being disappointed after one of our stops where we only saw some small pieces of petrified wood, when he thought we stopped our car to see Sossusvlei, the desert in the southern part of Namibia worthy of a National Geographic cover. A road trip always brings along unexpected experiences, but this road trip also brought along unexpected lessons. I learned more explicitly how the people, our connections, and our moments together, are what matter the most, not necessarily what we are doing or where we are going. Our time in Namibia was mostly on the road, sitting in a car together, much different that eating ramen in Japan, or the hot air balloon ride in Myanmar, or the stunning beaches in South Africa, but Namibia was as memorable as any other country on our Semester at Sea voyage, as exciting as any other experience, and as fun as any other adventure, because we were sitting in that car together, sharing something together, growing closer to each other. Of course the beauty of Namibia was a major contributing reason, with the huge skies out the window, the adventurousness of the dirt roads, the unknown of what would happen next, the vast landscapes we came across, but all of that became memorable and exciting because we had friends to share it with, friends to reflect with and talk about that crazy moment in time when we went on a road trip in Namibia.  

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