Namibia is like Arizona until you hit an Ostrich …. The geological forces that created Namibia are not that different from those that formed the southwest USA. Sedimentation, retreating oceans, huge forces of tectonic plate movements followed by the relentless erosion by wind, heat, and water. Run this playbook for a few billion years at similar latitudes and you get similar results. Dry rocky deserts, craggy plateaus and mesas, dunes, boulders, and grand canyons.

But Namibia is not New Mexico. The animals, plants, and bugs have co-evolved very differently. The human story has been driven by different effects of tribes, food, conflict, colonisation, and different societies and values have emerged. This is why we travel – to see and learn about the world.

Before I finally close the diary on this trip here are some other views of Namibia.

First the roads. The huge majority of roads in Namibia are not paved. This is a typical C road heading south out of Fort Sesfontein; theoretically flat and well graded dirt but the reality can often be very different with deep sand, invisible dips into rocky creek beds, and strange cambers. An environment, trust me on this one, that is unforgiving of lapses in concentration.

We saw road signs warning of all sorts of animals but we saw ostrich all over the place from the beach at the Cape of Good Hope to the deserts in northern Namibia. These are huge, ugly, and dangerous birds. When you see them poop, you are glad they cannot fly. If you were unfortunate to get close to them, they do not attack with their beak but with their strong legs and lethal claws. Come across a group of them and it could be a bad scene from Jurassic Park.

Public transport in rural Namibia is non-existent. The people we saw hanging about seeking the shade of a road sign, were waiting for a ride in whatever vehicle they could. This ubiquitous Toyota Hilux pickup at Khorixas had six guys hitching in the truck bed.

Finally meet Calvin who looked after us impeccably at the Mowani Mountain Camp. Calvin works for one month straight with no days off then he has six days to head home to his village to see his family. His village is a hundred miles away and he hitches a ride. If a ride doesn’t come along, he told us that he would sleep at the side of the road and try again the following day so his six day leave might only give him one day with his family.

Different lives.