Before leaving Grootfontein on Monday morning we decided on a short trip to see the world's largest meteorite which fell to earth close by some 80,000 years ago.  it weighs about 60 tonnes and is made almost entirely of iron.  Pretty dense bit of stuff [the brown bit I'm talking about!]

 Over the years people have tried to get souvenirs and so the Government has made it a National Monument in order to protect it.  Well worth the trip.

Some people say that it is a mistake to go back to a place you have enjoyed. That has seldom been our experience and our visit to Etosha National Park was certainly the equal [plus] of our first visit 11 months ago.

This time we had the most fabulous viewing of a lion with 2 females and 2 cubs. They were so helpful in that they decided to flop down under a tree about 10 feet from the roadside and just “lollop”! We spent an age just watching sleeping lions – not sure what that says about us??

 There is no doubt that there has been a shortage of rain in Namibia during the last year. This could be seen in the waterholes which had much less water than last year and also that the whole place looked, well, just dry! These 2 photos were taken from roughly the same position 11 months apart!

Because it was so dry the majority of the animals were to be found at the waterholes, which makes it quite easy to see them. There seemed to be few birds around, although this Martial Eagle did look rather grand just sitting by the water.

After the excitement of Etosha we retired to a campsite we had visited last year at Grootfontein. [we spent a few days here then with our American friends, Frank and Annie] Here we were able to have a really nice steak in the restaurant and watch some more Super 15 Rugby! At home we watch very little TV, here we seem to travel from one place to another looking for a TV set so that we can watch some sporting event or another!

So, the problems are now over! Almost. Fuel problem turned out to be a broken joint in the fuel line, not a faulty pump. Took the mechanic 2 hours to find the problem and 30 minutes to fix it. (Most of the time taken with running into town to get a new fitting!) So now we have a truck with an electric fuel pump, rather than the original mechanical one. No big deal but no great advantage either, just £100 poorer! Tomorrow we shall be off to Etosha once we have tidied up the wiring for the electric fuel pump and done something about the lock on Liz's door. When we came back from the supermarket this afternoon the barrel of the lock fell out when Liz put the key in. We don't know if this was because someone had tried to break in or if it is just "wear and tear". Whatever it is we shall have to get it sorted so that we can lock the cab when we leave the truck. Normal service has been resumed!

Having done what we had to do we set off nortwards to visit Etosha National Park. Found a very nice campsite with a pleasant bar and good facilities. Accacia Campground, Otjiwarongo. The following morning the truck decided that 3 minutes was all it was going to do today. Since then [Thursday morning] I have tried various things to get it going but to little avail. Tomorrow [Monday] a mechanic is comming to try his hand. Actually, it hasn't been that bad an experience. There must be far worse places to break down. We are parked under the shade of some lovely trees and have an electricity supply to run the fridge. Freddy, the owner of the place has been very helpful and taken me into town to get the bits that (I thought) I needed. His bar has a TV set and we spent a plesent couple of hours yesterday watching the Sharks against the Cheetahs. Rugby down here is a different game to our club rugby. Anyway, hopefully, we shall get things sorted in the morning and will be able to move on.

Sorry we haven't written anything of late but we haven't been doing much traveling! Since writing last we have spent most of our time in the UK getting some medical running repairs and maintenance done. Luckily, that has all been successfully completed with the only aftermath being daily tablets and some stretching exercises. So, it's back to our travels. After a good, although rather long flight via Zurich and Johannesburg, we arrived in Windhoek to be met by the folks who had been storing our truck at a campsite/hotel and long term vehicle storage place just outside Windhoek. Temperature on arrival was 25 degrees, and it has stayed like that since. It's taken us a few days to get sorted, have an oil change done and stock up the fridge and "wine cellar", but now we are ready to move on. All we have left to do is to pick up our insurance papers and a few little bits of shopping and we shall be driving north to visit Etoshia again. Our overall plan is to travel from here to Nairobi, on a route yet to be decided, arriving there in plenty of time to fly home at the end of September for a family wedding. We will keep you posted on our adventures.