Somehow the flight feels long. During the last hour the flight attendant calls for a doctor or someone with medical expertise. Why, we never found out. Just before 7:00 we get the 'fasten your seatbelts' command and feel the pressure changing in our ears. But then we are informed that we shall not be landing just yet but have to fly another few minutes since everyone on board had not been seated and buckled up in time! Welcome to Africa! Where tomorrow is another day. And if 'it' (or whatever) only sort of half-works, it's totally okay! It works, doesn't it? No problem then.
We are met by slightly overcast blue skies and lots of friendly faces. And heat. Nobody seems to be in much of a hurry, really.
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| Windhoek. The Namibian Capital. About as interesting as it gets.... |
The wat is to become a very long day continues after our 40km + 1 police checkpoint taxi journey to town. We check in at Vondelhof, our Dutch managed B&B - big swimming pool, spacious and really nice rooms and left over breakfast for us to enjoy. This is now us and half our luggage, still.
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| Spacious rooms at Vondelhof Guesthouse |
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| Toilet paper detail at Vondelhof. And yes, there are people who notice and get totally excited about little things like this! |
Later during the day we take a walk to view a view landmarks as pointed out in the Lonely Planet and Bradt guides. In the scorching heat we walk the 'hill' to the little German Lutheran church and visit the New Memorial museum where we get a view of the city from the 3rd floor.
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| Christus Kirche. German Lutheran Church and Windhoek's most recognized landmark. |
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| The new Independence Memorial Museum with statue of the first president Sam Nujoma |
In the afternoon we visit the nearby Bushlore offices to get our 4x4 Toyota Hilux. Very competent staff explains everything we need to know and more. About the 120 liter fuel tank, 60 liter drinking water tank, 2 spare wheels and changing a rear wheel with a rather huge jack! And about setting up the tent and what to hide from baboons!
Since the well known Joe's Beer House requires a taxi ride, we opt for diner at Nice, about 100 meters from Vondelhof. I indulge in slow cooked lamb shank while Maarten enjoyed salmon.
On saturday morning we checked again at the airport, but the other half of our luggage has not arrived with the morning flight. We decide to stay another night in Windhoek to wait on the bag in stead of taking the risk of having the bag sent to Waterberg and end up traveling one day ahead of the bag for the next 4 weeks! We are in Africa after all. At the local Pick 'n Pay Supermarket we hunt for a trolley and quickly got the hang of how things work. Whenever you see a trolley unattended, you grab and hold onto it and guard it with your life! Under no circumstances leave it unattended while for instance choosing jam! You may just end up finding someone unpacking your stuff when by the time you get back!
We made a reservation for a camping site at the Trans Kalahari Inn which is on the way to the airport. May just as well try out this tent-on-top-of-truck experience while we're still in the vicinity of the Buschlore offices.
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| First night camping at the Trans Kalahari Inn outside Windhoek. |
Camping went well and the first stop on Sunday is the Airport. And yes! The lost luggage has arrived!!! The morning before already!!! Good thing we're on a no-stress holiday in a no-stress country!!
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