Delays, tears and sheep(s)

After months of preparations I was finally ready to leave. But Cape Town was not ready to let me go just yet.

First my visa was delayed, then my Dutch friend whom I was to travel with unexpectedly needed an emergency passport which took another week to be issued. When that was finally done, we had to wait two more days for the next available bus.

So I found myself having more time remaining in Cape Town than I had originally planned, but somehow I lost track of time. The more time in Cape Town I had, the more things piled up on my to-do list and when the day of my departure came, I just couldn't believe I had ever planned to leave even earlier.

Between doing a freelance story and meeting with some friends I still had to say bye to, I suddenly realised I had not even finished packing. Now I only had a few hours left in CPT (how time had flown) I was not so sure if I was ready to leave just yet, but the next morning at 10:00 I was on a Intercape bus, waving goodbye to my dearest best friend Shingi. With tears in my eyes I was departing.

But soon the tears were replaced by excitement, joy and much laughter. After so much drama, stress and postponing, I couldn't believe I was on that bus :).

The trip to Windhoek from CPT felt short and sweet, every scene made me more curious about what was to come next. The weather was lovely, not very hot or very cold, it was just perfect.

The scenery soon got a bit boring, with the same landscape for hours and hours and hours, but I had a book by Ellen G White that kept me busy in between the nice deep cool chats I was having with Jorrit (coolest traveling buddy :)) about our hopes and dreams, who and what we would miss the most back home, and about real and imaginary sheep(s).

All of a sudden we were in Springbok, getting close to the border. As the sun started setting, and the dusty hills were covered in a golden glow, I spent my last South African airtime on my last goodbye-messages.

No matter how beautiful and calming the surreal landscape was, as the border came closer, I got more and more nervous. My childhood border-experiences came back in my mind. Would I finally be able to cross a border smoothly, in a legal manner? With the pre-arranged visa stamp already in my passport, I thought nothing could go wrong anymore, but how wrong I was...