Apr 25, 2000 | Namibia

Was browsing the travel section at Stacey's Bookstore one afternoon and saw a photo of the Namib Desert. Couldn't get it out of my mind, so I decided to go there for my birthday. Namibia was the first country I traveled to without a plan or a friend already in place. Got off to a wobbly start in Cape Town, then met a few people at a hostel and good luck followed from there. The turning point was meeting Sakkie while I was stuck in Luderitz, a surreal-looking town on the South Atlantic coast that has desert dunes, German architecture, and women wearing enormous hoop skirts topped off with head scarves shaped like bull's horns. Sakkie and his wife Anri let me use their home in Windhoek as a base camp for over a month, and for as long as I live, I'll never forget their generosity and friendship.