Left Walvis Bay shortly after lunch, stopped in Swakopmund briefly knowing we’d be back to the coastal area after our tour through the north, did the 400kms to Windhoek (pronounced “Vindhook”), Namibia’s capital city, arriving shortly after dark. Windhoek is likely the nicest, cleanest, safest capital city we’ve been to, possibly on the trip. Surrounded by mountainous, scrubby desert, only around 250,000 people, plenty of good shopping and restaurants… all very much like home, really. Jen and I tend to be pretty bad at planning ahead and therefore booking ahead (we haven’t really needed to on the trip, and is almost impossible to do on a trip like this anyway), and so ended up having to stay in 3 different rooms at 2 different places because we kept getting booted out!
First night found some sushi, next day shopping, followed by dinner at the legendary Joe’s Beerhouse (recommended to us by about a dozen different people). The use of the title “Beerhouse” was a little arrogant considering all they had was a selection of about 5 lagers; that said the decor of the place was ridiculous and wonderful and well worth the visit (plus I got to try a zebra steak!).
Following morning we headed out to the Daan Viljoen Game Park just outside of town for a 9km/3hr, self-guided walk. Told us there weren’t any dangerous animals to be concerned about in the park, but then about an hour or so in, this rather large wildebeest stood on our path and as we approached it, it turned to face us and started snorting a little… so we decided to find an alternate route. Saw Mountain Zebra, Oryx, Springbok, Wildebeest, Baboons, etc, etc. Landscape is all very dry, deserty and fairly uniform so got a little boring towards the end, but nonetheless quite enjoyable (and good to get some exercise for a change!). Had an absolutely freezing swimming pool at the beginning/end of the trail so had a 5 second swim afterwards to cool off.
Phoned up a Canadian couple living in Windhoek that Judy knows (perhaps hoping a little that they might offer us a place to stay); told us they WOULD offer us a place but already had people staying… bugger! Anyway decided to meet up for drinks at the “Wine Bar” and out for Italian afterwards… names were Rick and Kim and turned out to be really great people (and rather well off… owned a nearby Uranium mine and ended up paying for the entire evening!)
Made our way to the airport the next morning to pick up Jen’s mom (Shirley) and her boyfriend Ray! Great to see a couple familiar faces from home (except now I’m the only one that nobody came to visit in Africa. Poor me.) Couple more days spent wandering/shopping around the city (the guesthouse was nicely situated a short walk to downtown), and pondering how the hell we’d fit everything in our tiny little car for the next 3 weeks. Out for proper African food the first night then a second go at Joe’s on our last night. Up early(ish) to make a beeline north to Etosha National Park!
Winebar
Flowers at parliament
Statue
Gamepark wildebeests
Town center church
Joe’s beerhouse