Cooking in Namibia

2008-03-18

Summary

- Swakopmund

- Italian restaurant; ate springbok, oryx & ostrich

- Clubbing at ‘Cool Bananas’

Tuesday morning we were up before 6am to get our tents down and gear packed before we had breakfast. We set off on another day of long driving. We stopped off at Solitaire in the morning for a toilet stop and snacks/drinks. Back on the road, the scenery changed from red sand dunes to lush greenery, then onto white sand dunes. We stopped off by the coast for lunch, where there were heaps of sand flies along the waterside. We’d been told by the tour guide that there’d be flamingos there, however not a flamingo in site. After hot dogs for lunch we hit the road again to Swakopmund, where we stopped at the activity centre to decide on our optional activities for the following day. 15 of the group, including us, chose to do quad biking in the morning, with another 2 doing sandboarding in the morning, and there was also 8 people interested in going sky diving in the afternoon. From the activity centre, we walked to our accommodation; hooray no tent to setup! We stayed in 2 bedroom bungalows, so we shared with Harley and Cathy. There was a Laundromat just down the road, but it was 4:50 when we were ready to go there and figured it closed at 5, so didn’t know if we’d make it in time. We also figured it’d be expensive like previous laundry we’d had done; not the case it turned out to be 15 Namibian dollars per kg (around $2). We washed our stuff by hand instead, nevermind.

After doing the laundry and having a shower, it was time to go out for dinner. We (the tour group) went to an Italian restaurant, though I forget the name, I just know it started with an N… maybe Napolitana? Anyway, I ordered ostrich strips and convinced Skye to order springbok medallions instead of something more conservative. The sweet chilli sauce that I poured all over the ostrich strips turned out to be much hotter than the usual sweet chilli sauce, next time I should check it before covering my food with it. Skye didn’t finish her Springbok (but she did like it) so I had that as well, and Cathy didn’t finish her Oryx so I had some of that too. The Oryx had a different texture to the other two, being a denser meat. I preferred ostrich best I think, followed by Springbok, then Oryx.

From the restaurant we went clubbing/pubbing. Glen and I hussled a couple of Zimbabwe guys there, Washington and David, on the pool table. They both had local market stalls selling their artwork. Washington was named so because he was born in Britain as his mother was a nanny/maid there. Mark and I decided to start going through the shot list to try to polish them all off; Sour Monkey, Bob Marley, Chuck Norris, Springbok, B-52, Kahlua, 4×4, and Icecream are a bunch of the shots I remember having. We realised that the shot list continued on the back of the page, so gave up on attempting to try them all. Washington came and talked to me again later, but his accent combined with the fact that he was pretty wasted made it hard to understand most of what he was saying. Our tour guide copped a beer bottle punch in the face after trying to get in between a drunk guy and a few of the girls on our tour. A few of us hit the dancefloor occasionally when some decent music came on, which was usually quickly followed by a song that cleared the dancefloor… good work DJ! Skye and I walked back to our bungalows at about 1:30-2, but I think a bunch of others were out for another hour and a half.

2008-03-19

Summary

- Quad biking on the dunes

- Tug Restaurant

On Wednesday morning, we were up for breakfast at 8:30am, needless to say I was feeling pretty seedy. I skipped the dairy products and just had an apple and some bread, then popped a barocca to give me back my b-b-bounce Off to quad biking at 9:30; there were four bikes to choose from: auto, semi-auto, manual or the 350ccs. You had to weigh at least 80kg to go on the 350cc bikes. Everyone got an auto except for the two of the girls who went semi-autos as they were experienced with motorbikes. I ended up in the fast group who left first; there were 4 groups of quadders so I was in a different group from Skye. It was accidental ending up in the fast experienced group, but I’m glad I did. Most of the time I was going flat chat and still wanting more speed. The 2 semi-autos were in the same group as me and their bikes had more power, often leaving the rest of us (5 of us) in the group behind, then having to slow down so we could catch up, and like I said I was pedal to the metal (ok well thumb to the… full throttle) 95% of the time. The ‘rollercoaster’ part of the dunes involved going up and down the slopes of the dunes, similar to a skateboard ramp/tunnel. Harley and I were trying to get as high as possible up the dunes, raher than following the beaten tire tracks through the dunes; great fun. I wouldn’t want to be doing it without a guide though as there were some steep drop offs that you wouldn’t realise until it was too late. Luckily we stopped off on two of the dunes for a break and a drink, as both times I was butsing for a pee after drinking so much water throughout the morning. Just had to walk over the dunes away from the group before writing my initials in the sand I enjoyed the quad biking despite my hangover, as did Skye although I don’t think she was as much of a lead-foot as I was on them.

We’d been planning on watching the sky-divers who were leaving at 1:30pm, but when we found out the airport was 30 mins drive away and that it’d be a long process as all jumpers could not fit in the plane at once (i.e. several trips up in the plane for the 8 ppl), we decided not to go and to check out the town of Swakopmund. Skye had to buy some shorts so she could stop wearing my boardies (she hadn’t brought any shorts with her… bad move!) and some sunglasses as she’d stepped on hers and broken them. So I went with her to find these things then we checked out some curio shops. Went to Berley’s take away for lunch and we had a tropical pizza, which had banana on it; it was really nice. We found an Internet cafe which we used for 15 mins to check emails and update the blog, then we went back to the bungalow as we were feeling pretty knackered. Skye had a nap while I blogged away, then caught up with my photo backups which I’d been a bit slack on for a while. Then we went to the bar in town to check out the sky diving videos. We waited around for a while before they played the video and it turns out they only had the sandboarding video there, no skydiving. We went back to the bungalows, having lost an hour (we thought it would be a quick sky diving video viewing, but didn’t even get that). We had a quick shower and got ready to go out for dinner. There was no tour group booking anywhere, but most of us had agreed to eat at the Tug Restaurant. Most of it was seafood, but I avoided the seafood again not wanting to risk ending up sick from tropical toxins in the fish as our travel doctor had told us, so I went with a steak, but Skye had salmon with pasta. One beer was enough for me tonight, after last night’s effort.

Skye and I headed back to the buingalow, but Harley and Cathy had taken the key when we left the rooms and weren’t back yet. So I climbed in through the window, and then Skye followed. When Harley and Cathy came back it turns out they’d left the key at the desk after all, oh well. We packed up all our stuff before going to bed.

2008-03-20

Summary

- Seal colony at Cape Cross

- Spitzkoppe

- Cultural dance

Thursday morning I discovered it had rained overnight, so the stuff I’d left out to dry overnight (which still hadn’t dried from washing it on Tuesday) was now wetter than it was the night before. We packed our gear on the truck and had breakfast and were ready to leave at 8am, which is when we were told we were leaving. However 4 of the group hadn’t even woken up until after 8am, so the other 14 of us had to wait around until they were ready at 8:30. Then we made two stops to buy supplies from the shops. All up a very slow start to the morning, we didn’t actually leave Swakopmund until 9:30. The truck took us out to a seal colony at Cape Cross. There were hundreds of seals scattered across the rocks and in the water. They sound like sheep, with the noises they make. The smell was nothing to be fond of though!

We hit the road towards Spitzkoppe, stopping along the way in the middle of nowhere for a lunch break. I have somehow gotten myself the reputation as an exhibitionist, peeing where people can see me. The first occasion was purely not m fault; Tara walked in on me in the MEN’s toilet… and it was a urinal in the cubicle anyway! The second occasion was when we were pulled over for lunch on a previous day and rather than going behind the bush, I went in front of the bush since David was behind the bush. The third occasion was when we just about to leave the campsite and I jumped off the truck to take a leak, and the nearest toilet was a couple of hundred metres away; so I settled for the bush just next to the bus. Anyway, that last occasion was about a week ago, but I think the rep’s gonna stick now. Anyway, back to the lunch; we saw a small bird on a tree branch on the ground, but there was no sign of the nest or the mother.

Back on the road, we arrived in Spitzkoffe mid-afternoon. It was damn hot! Spitzkoffe was a bush camp, so had no facilities. The landscape there was amazing though, massive orangey red kopjes (massive rock mounds/formations hundreds of metres high). Most of the group decided to sleep out under the stars, but Skye and I went with the tent. Skye was having a lay down as she had a stomach ache, so I went for a walk to check out the flora and insects in the area, as well as the colourful agama lizards on the kopjes. I joined a few others walking down to the natural ‘bridge’ rock formation. As we got there, the weather took a swift turn and it started raining. It’s amazing how volatile the weather is here. The rocks were extremely slippery when wet, so we waited it out until the rain stopped. We went back to camp and I checked on Skye who was reading her girly magazine. So I went off for a walk again (as the weather had already started to clear again), taking pano snaps of the stunning landscape. I came across all sorts of insects and animals as well. Some of them I couldn’t see, but could hear them (it was very quiet out there by myself). I saw some stone-hoppers (as opposed to grasshoppers), tiny praying mantises, corn crickets, a bunch of different butterflies, some weird ass robber or horse flies, rock hyraxes and a field mouse. As I was out walking around a rainbow formed due to the rain and the setting sun.

I’d assumed dinner would be 7 or 7:30, so I got back to camp at around 7 to find everyone already eating. After dinner it started raining again. At 8:30pm we walked down the road to watch a cultural dance. The local indigenous youth choir sang and danced for us, and had us join in. We also played a game there called ‘1 to 7′; I’ll have to teach you how to play it when we get home We didn’t get back to camp until 11pm, so everyone hurried to bed ready for the early morning start.

2008-03-21

Summary
-

Friday morning was an early rise, getting up before 6am. We headed off in the truck and had a look at some bushmen paintings on a rock overhang. We then stopped off at a gem market where I bought a ring made from a large seed, with a rhino carved into it. On the road again we headed to Etosha; back to malaria zone… we only had 1 day of taking no malaria tablet, after our fortnight’s countdown after leaving Zululand, before having to start taking them again! Apparently it rained for most of the day in Etosha, so hoping that clears up! Hoping the rainy safari curse isn’t still following Skye and I!

We stopped off in a town to pick up supplies, and shortly after we had a lunch stop. Quite a few stores in the town were closed both due to Good Friday and due to Namibia’s Independence Day. After eating, back on the road for an hour or so until we reached Etosha. On the way in we only saw springbok and giraffe and a few zebra I think. Etosha is not as I’d imagined it. In photos I’ve seen the area was pretty arid; the photos must have been during the dry season. Outside of the dry season there is plenty of vegetation, hence the dry season is the peak period for tourism as it is much easier to view game with less vegetation. Etosha means ‘large white place’; getting its name due to all of the white sand that can be seen during dry season.

We arrived at our campsite and put up our tents. At this point I wasn’t feeling too well, with a stomach ache, so I laid down in the tent for a few hours, skipping dinner. I think the rest of the group (including Skye) spent that time down by the waterhole watching for animals. Four out of our group stayed in a lodge room at the campsite, which is adjacent to the waterhole. The rooms are stunning; a sizable two story hut with 2 bedrooms & bathrooms, all very modern and fancy… but all that comes at a price of 1500 Namibian dollars per person (over $200 per person), although they managed to get away with paying for 2 ppl, even though 4 stayed there. Everyone went to bed around 10ish; I think it rained a bit throughout the night.

2008-03-22

Summary

- Morning game drive in Etosha

- Lunch at Halali; black-faced impala at waterhole

- Afternoon game drive

- Waterhole sunset

An early start on Saturday, we were on the truck waiting at the gate by 6:45am; the gates open at sunrise and close at sunset. My stomach had settled a little by now. We spent the morning on game drive, and the typical overcast weather had rolled in for safari time again. On the plus side it wasn’t raining though. The day’s game drives included sightings of springbok, oryx, zebra, blue wildebeest, steenbok and giraffe (so the new ones for us were the oryx and steenbok). We also saw a few different birds; the more memorable being the pale chanting goshawk and the kori bustard(the largest flying bird in Africa).

At lunch time we stopped at Halali campsite to have brunch. While we were waiting for lunch to be prepared we walked down to the waterhole for a look. There were 3 male black-faced impala drinking at the waterhole. We watched those for a while before going back to the truck for brunch. After eating we went back to the waterhole, with the last impala trotting off into the bushes just as we arrived. No more game came to the waterhole for the next 2 hours we were there, so I spent the time bug spotting instead. There were a heap of different butterflies there, as well as dragonflies, large flies of sorts, big ass buzzing bugs and blister beetles. I love the way the blister beetles fly, they look as though they are parachuting through the air, gliding very smoothly and slowly (much unlike most of the other beetles here which fly very erratically, bumping into things all the time). Upon returning back at the truck, we saw some ground squirrels scurrying around by a tree.

Back on the road at 2pm, we had an afternoon game drive. The game drive was pretty quiet, only spotting a couple of animals before going back to our campsite at about 5pm-ish. I had a much needed shower, after not showering for 2 days, and then went down to the waterhole to catch the sunset. No animals at the waterhole as usual, but it was nice to watch the sunset as it reflected on the water’s surface; with lightning firing through the sky off to the left. I think with all the rain and the cooler weather, the animals don’t have so much need to come to the waterhole. We went back for dinner before returning to the waterhole. Still no animals and the 2 out of the 3 floodlights turned off at about 9pm (I think something went wrong with them), so Skye and I took that as our cue to go to bed. I think most people retired shortly afterwards as well.

2008-03-23

Summary

- Morning game drive (good weather)

- Lunch at Halali – kudu

- Afternoon game drive 1pm

- Etosha salt pans

- Namutoni

- Night drive

On Sunday morning we had to pack up our tents and have breakfast before leaving for a game drive at 7am, so it was another early start getting up at 6am. I was glad to see the sun beaming down from the more-or-less cloudless horizon; finally a safari drive where the weather is not overcast! We saw a bunch of jackals just outside the gate of the campsite, but not much else in the early morning light apart from springbok and a few zebra. I snapped away through the window of the moving truck anyway, trying to make the most of the (rare) morning light; good practice for panning nevertheless We stopped off by some mopane trees which were inhabited by mopane worms/larvae. Caryn (from Florida) and John-Lee (tour guide) seized the moment to get their photograph with a mopane worm in their mouth. Onwards through the morning it seemed we were only destined to see springbok, even they were hard to come by in the last couple of hours of game driving. I did spot a buffalo weaver flying from its nest on a stobie pole (another one of the ’small 5′) and several lilac-breasted rollers (Namibia’s national bird).

We arrived at Halali for lunch again. Down at the waterhole there was a few kudu off in the distance, which was the first we’d seen on this tour. We had to head back for lunch at 12 and apparently while we were gone the kudu hard (of 5 or 6) came right up to the waterhole. We went back to the waterhole after lunch and saw a single black-faced impala. A guy at then waterhole had showed us his photos of 10 lions he’d seen the day before and 2 cheetahs he’d seen that morning; we’d seen no big cats yet.

Back on the road at 1pm, we headed to the Etosha salt pans. Given the right light, the salt pans would make a great shot as they consist of vast flat shallow water all the way to the horizon; reflecting the sky on its surface. There was still some reflection, but as the sun was directly above (rather than at an angle) the amount of reflection on the water was limited. We saw some flamingos way out on the horizon; not visible with the naked eye… unless you have Sophie’s eyes. I’d seen a film clip done on Etosha with a guy walking out onto the salt pans; his image reflecting on the surface. It looked spectacular so had wanted to try a similar thing, but the mud here was like cement. Even while not in the water, my thongs kept getting stuck in the sludgey mud.

Back on our way, we continued game driving, spotting wildebeest, red hartebeest and oryx alongside the salt pans. As we drove onward the large vegetation seemed to die down, giving reasonably flat terrain. There was wildlife scattered all over the place; it reminded me quite a bit of Ngorongoro crater. Quite frankly I don’t understand why we hadn’t spent the whole time game driving in this area (near tonight’s Namutoni campsite) rather than around our previous campsite… we should have been staying in Namutoni for the 3 nights! Giraffe, zebra, oryx, wildebeest, and springbok scattered the plains. We also came across a group of warthogs wallowing in the mud. Then finally, we saw our lions; 3 males sleeping in the shade of the trees. We must have stayed there for a good hal hour or so, with a lion popping its head up occasionally to look around. I’d been waiting for a lion yawn the whole time with no luck; of course the instant we took off the lion yawned, and then yawned again 10 seconds later… always the way.

We headed to Namutoni campsite and put up our tents. Skye and I had a shower; meanwhile there was a whole bunch of zebra at the waterhole. I went down to the waterhole after showering, but by then there were no zebra anymore, only a few giraffes poking their heads up occasionally off in the distance. Skye (the other Skye) mentioned that the campsite runs night drives, but John-Lee had said that dinner would probably not be ready in time to do a night drive. Regardless, I decided I could eat any time, but I can’t go on a night drive any time; so 7 of us booked a night drive at reception. By the time we booked it was 7:20; with the 10 minute walk back to our campsite it was already 7:30 and the game drive started at 8:00. Some of the 7 still hadn’t paid (hadn’t had their money with them) so went up there and asked if we could get picked up from our campsite rather than meeting at reception. This worked much better as dinner was ready just after 7:45pm; had we needed to be at reception by 8 we’d have had to leave camp at 7:50pm… barely enough time to eat much. So we had to time to eat dinner, then the safari vehicle came and picked us up just after 8pm.

We headed off on the night drive; the driver using a red spotlight to look for game. We saw plenty of jackals to start out with. The game is quite easy to spot as night as their eyes glow in the light. We stopped right next to a black-faced impala, within 2 metres. The driver stopped the engine and turned off the lights. The impala did not run away, we could have just about reached out and touched it it was so close to us. We saw a spotted hyena walking through the bushes a distance from the truck, as well as a genet. We saw plenty of birdlife along the way, including a white-faced owl, a spotted eagle owl, northern black korhaan (noisy bastards!), a heap of plovers, a few freckled nightjars and a couple of kori bustards; one taking flight which was cool to see (recall that the bustards are the largest flying African birds). We saw a lot of spring hare along the way, springing through the bushes.

When we crossed over fisher’s pan we came up behind a white rhino. The pathway crossed the pan, so has water either side meaning the only way to go was forward. This meant we followed along behind the rhino for about 20 minutes. He stopped once and turned around to face us before continuing on his way. When we made it to the other side of the pan, the rhino trotted off into the bushes. We continued on our way, spotting plenty of birds and spring hare. By this time it was 11:00 and we’d been told it was a 3 hour game drive, so figured it was about over… no big cats which was a bit disappointing. A few of the others on the vehicle had drifted off to sleep, but were quickly wide awake when we came up behind 2 male lions walking along the side of the road. They looked pretty thin, so were no doubt looking for something to eat. I got one shot away before the batteries on my flash unit died. Fumbling around in the dark while trying to watch the lions, it took me a while to get out my spare batteries… got em in just in time as we drove up alongside one of the lions who was now laying on the road… nup… spare batteries are dead too… bloody Energiser batteries.. they don’t seem to charge up on the charger I’m using with them! Last resort, I opened up my head torch and took the 3 batteries out of that, combined them with one of my ‘dead’ batteries. This gave me enough power to get a shot away, but took about a minute to recharge for another flash. The lions had walked off again by now, but had stopped on the road looking away from us. We waited for around a minute with no movement whatsoever from us or the cats. Then they both sat down; one on the road, the other just off the road. We drove up beside them, within a metre of the lion laying on the road. It was a surreal experience. They just watched us, blinking often as they were dazzled by everyone’s camera flashes going off. Given the large recharge time I only took about 4 photos because I wanted to make each one count… as it was half of the shots had the lion blinking. We sat there for a few minutes before heading off to let the lions be. We were very satisfied with the night drive, feeling like it was worth the money we’d paid for it (500 Namibian dollars per person). We passed some giraffe just nearby the camp on our way back.

We didn’t get back to the campsite until after 11:30pm. We got ready for bed as quietly as we could and went to sleep to the sounds of lions roaring and hyenas calling. Tomorrow I definitely need to charge up my AAs! I have barely used the flash the whole trip until tonight… when I really needed full batteries. Next time I see some I’m gonna buy more spares! All in all, the night drive was a great experience, it made our day!

2008-03-24

Summary

- Rundu campsite

- Photo HDD froze up

Up at 6am again Monday morning; not much sleep after getting to bed late from the night drive. On the road, as we were leaving Etosha we saw an elephant; first we’d seen this tour. Also a whole bunch of giraffe… like I said… I think Namutoni should have been our base camp the whole time! We drove and drove… stopping off to get supplies, where I bought a bunch of coloured pencils and textas for the kids at the school. Well that’s what’s on our itinerary… but apparently it’s school holidays, so we’re not actually going to the school. Oh well, now I’ve got a bunch of pencils and textas to give away.

Back on the road until we reached our campsite at Rundu in the early afternoon. I wanted to upgrade to a room for a break from tenting as it was only US$42, but Skye was happy tenting again so we didn’t upgrade. We just chilled for the day really. I spent most of the time catching up on backups on dvds etc, as I’ve been pretty slack lately. The past week’s images I had only put on my multimedia storage HDD (plug a CF card into it and it downloads the images onto the drive), so they needed to be backed up somewhere. When I plugged the HDD into the laptop, the HDD locked up. It would not turn off, it wouldn’t do anything. I left it for a while, still no luck… the thing just kept getting hotter and hotter to the point where I decided I had to open it up or it was just going to end up burning itself out. In the process of taking the screws out and popping off the cover it turned itself off. I have no idea what the problem was, but after that it worked fine again; a close call as I could’ve lost a week’s worth of photos… which doesn’t sound like much but with the amount of activities that get packed into each day (including all our Etosha safaris) it’s a lot of pics. All the more reason to get back on top of the backups. The backups, combined with the blog update (offline) kept me occupied most of the day/night. A few people from our group went on a sunset cruise along Kavango River, which forms the border between Namibia and Angola. Apparently not a lot of wildlife, just a lot of Angola residents bathing in the river. A bunch of people went to the bar for a bit of a piss up, but I passed on the bar this time.

2008-03-25

Summary

- Chunderstruck

- Crossed border to Botswana

- Sepupa campsite

We left Rundu after breakfast on Tuesday morning. Skye #2(the other one) mentioned she was feeling pretty seedy, so she put a new bin liner in the bin next to her just in case. I had a bit of a doze; resting my head on the open window’s top edge (the windows open downwards). At one point I felt all this liquid hit my face; waking up from my partial unconscious state… I couldn’t figure out what the hell it was. My first thought was that the truck had gone through a massive puddle, but as my eyes first flicked open I saw the road was dry… I also saw David leaning out of the window in front of me. My next thought was that he was trying to wash something (pouring water onto something outside the window… like an apple or something). Then I realised what was actually happening… David was spewing out of the window! Due to the high speed of the truck at this point, David’s yak was being blown up the side of the truck and coming inside my window… with my head leaning on the window…half in half out the window. Other people in the bus caught a few spots of it; at high speeds the wind just swirls through the bus, carrying spew spray throughout. Everyone was yelling out to the truck driver to stop. After a minute or so, he had pulled over and opened the door; I dived out of the truck and went straight to the tap on the side of the truck and shoved my face and hair under it. All I could smell was spew; I think some of it had blown up my nostrils given the angle of my head against the window. Like I said everyone had had a spot or two land on them, but I had worn the main blow. I towelled off and then got a tshirt out of my bag under the truck and changed. Harley handed me a bar of soap so I had a second scrubbing of my face before getting back on the bus. When I got back on the bus I put my window up straight away before we took off again! Everyone up front was a little edgy about a reoccurrence. Skye #2 was sitting opposite David on the other side of the bus, while Skye #1 (my Skye) and I were sitting behind him; when Skye #1 sneezed, Skye #2 flinched and spun around thinking David was about to ralf again… her expression /reaction was priceless! After a few minutes I moving to another seat further back in the bus as David was still looking a little queezy and I was feeling a little unsettled (as was my stomache) after my encounter; the lingering smell around the front of the bus was not helping either.

The rest of the trip to the border crossing was without incidence. We crossed over to the Botswana side and had lunch. My foot got stabbed by a huge thorn that went right through my thong (flip-flop) and into my foot. At least this got me out of helping with lunch as it was decided I was far too accident prone today to be near knives and graters. After lunch we headed onto our campsite at Sepupa alongside the Okavango River. When we arrived and had setup our tents, I did my laundry so I could clean my spewy towel before showering. I hung my laundry on a bamboo fence at the campsite… turns out the bamboo fence was covered in soot from the campfires, so my clean clothes now had black all over them! It was pretty warm so Skye and I went for a swim in the pool. After getting out of the pool I showered before sitting out on the deck by the river as the sun set.

We had dinner around the campfire as usual, with a freshly baked bread the crew had just made; it was beautiful. It did have small pieces of olives throughout and of course, being my bad day, I got the piece of bread that a sneaky olive stone had sneaked its way into and just about broke my teeth biting down on it. Anyway, after a bit of a chat around the campfire, everyone headed to their tents for an early night. I packed my day pack for the following day (we are going by boat into the Okavango Delta so are leaving our big backpacks behind) before going to sleep.