The best holiday that I ever went on was in the summer of 2006. Namibia is a beautiful and rather remote country in South-West Africa. For me Namibia was an amazing and breathtaking experience. I will never forget the wonders i saw and the magnificent times that I spent there, both with family and with friends.
During our stay in Namibia I went to many astonishing places, words could never describe the fantastic times I had there. I have countless memories of Namibia, but some memories stand out more than others and these are the ones I wish to share to show people the things I saw through the words that I write.
One of my most outstanding memories of the holiday was when we went to Etosha national park. It was around 5am when we arrived at Etosha so everybody was tired but from the moment that we got in the gate that all changed. If anything was ever perfect it was that moment. The sun began to rise, casting beautiful dancing shadows off the high standing trees. To our right a lion stood majestically, he really was the king of the jungle. He had a mane like a field of wheat ready to be harvested and in his eyes you could see deep knowledge, knowledge of hunting, of fighting and most of all of protecting his family.
As we journeyed on through Etosha we saw many other exceptional sites. We saw a baby elephant holding it's mothers tail, a herd of zebra grazing quietly in the long grass and, the most spectacular of all, a fully grown leopard lying lazily in a tree just above our heads. The leopard was stunning, it had fiercely long teeth and claws ready to tear anything apart in an instant, as we drove past a strange look played across its face. It was not a look of fear or annoyance but of freedom.
After leaving Etosha at around 8pm we set up camp near a dried out riverbed. That night our guide told us stories of how wild desert elephants sometimes came through the very same riverbed that we were camped by, after the stories my ten-year-old mind was racing over the thought of seeing a huge elephant walk straight past my tent. But of course nothing happened that night and I doubted that our guide was telling the truth. It was around 10pm the next night, we had eaten our dinner and began to play in the riverbed using torches to see the stars.
When I turned my torch on I accidentally shone it in front of me and there standing ten meters away was an almighty desert elephant with feet the size of cars and tusks like huge swords. Of course at this point I was lost for words but eventually managed to scream the word elephant at the top of my voice. Immediately there was panic. Everybody who was playing in the riverbed looked in awe and horror as the huge and very dangerous elephant walked past. I felt like a hero. In my eyes I had just saved dozens of people from dying and that gave me the most amazing feeling.
Although having talked about all these brilliant memories I have one memory which for me is one of the most spectacular memories that I will ever have. It was the last night of our holiday. We were roasting marshmallows under a starlit sky, each star brighter than the next lighting up the clear sky. It was almost as if at that moment the world had seen past all the hate, and had instead seen all the good that is still in the world.
A veil of silence had fallen over everyone and for that one brief moment I felt complete. Nobody said a word their actions spoke for themselves, some people were watching the flames in the fire dance, others were greedily eating marshmallows, but I was in my own little world, a world which I never wanted to leave. Even now three years on if I smell logs burning or if I see stars in the sky it reminds me of that night, those places and all the memories I had personally and shared with others whilst I was there. I will never forget these memories and will treasure them always.