Windhoek - Namibia's Capital City

We reached Windhoek, Namibia's capital city in late afternoon. Windhoek,  German for “wind corner”, is located in the center of the country. It's Namibia's largest city, but a pretty small city with a population of ~325,000 people. Our accommodation for the night was the Pension Cori (that's penz-ee-ohn, not pen-shun) , a funky kind of place, all painted in bright purple with two slobbering, but friendly bulldogs roaming the grounds. The place was clean and comfortable enough, but a bit over-the-top in its décor. Doris and Ian had stayed here several times since it was close to the city center and had easy access to the airport road.

We left the car and walked the back streets to a city mall, Windhall Center, a typical mall found most anywhere … retail stores galore and lots of glitz. We were most interested in what was outside the mall. In the middle of a plaza there was a display of the Gibeon meteorites. The largest known meteor shower to hit Earth was discovered near Gibeon, Namibia and documented in 1838 by explorer, J. E. Alexander ... although the locals were known to have been hammering pieces of it into implements for generations. Several chunks of the meteor are mounted on pedestals in the middle of the plaza. Based on a few empty pedestals, we assume some of them developed feet.

Since we arrived so late in the day, we had only a short time to explore before the dark settled in. We had a quick dinner and headed back to the pension. Doris' flight wasn't leaving until after noon, so we returned to the downtown area for a couple of hours in the morning. Around the meteor display, several local vendors had set up shop with all sorts of souvenirs to tempt passing tourists. I did not, could not, resist. We bought earrings and elephant hair bracelets and necklaces, bargaining amicably for the best price. My favorite vendor was Jane. Her Ovambo name means “happy” in English, but I'll be darned if I can remember it, though I asked her to repeat it three or four times. She was a happy woman and her Ovambo name suited her. I bought several pairs of earrings and she graciously posed for a photo.

I also saw a Herero woman dressed in all her finery including the big, traditional Herero hat. I asked politely if I could take her picture. She really looked beautiful and I told her so. The first thing out of her mouth was “How much you pay me?” “Er … I wasn't planning to pay you anything. I just thought you looked beautiful.” Her answer was a patent and rather vehement “NO!” Question asked … question answered. In actuality, I would have been happy to give her a few dollars, but the mood was broken. So... the best I got for Herero traditional dress was this mannequin in front of a souvenir shop.

We passed a Bushman art store and noticed a sign for a Bushman's museum. No time unfortunately, although we enjoyed the sidewalk sculpture.

According to Wiki, “present-day Windhoek was founded in 1890, when Curt Von François,  fixed the foundation stone of the fort, which is now known as the Alte Feste (Old Fortress).” There are several relics of the old architecture mixed with the city's new highrises.

On the way back to the hotel, we happened to spot mousebirds that were feasting on a garbage heap in a vacant lot. That certainly didn't stop me from photographing them.

Lo and behold, out of the grass scampered a striped mouse … to accompany the mousebirds, I guess.

Enough sightseeing. We headed back to the pension, packed up the Jeep and set out for the airport. The only regret we have is that we didn't plan a whole other day to explore the city. Another time, perhaps?

On the Road to Windhoek

We were up very early, well before daylight, in order to get an early start on our 9-hour drive to Windhoek, Namibia's capital city. We had a cuppa and some toast, then grabbed our gear and headed into shore to the dinghy dock. Ian was waiting for us in the Jeep.  It was all gassed up and ready to go. We stowed our stuff, picked up Doris and said goodbye to Ian. David took the wheel and we were off! Doris was excited and ready to go and so were we! ROAD TRIP!

The sights for the first hour or so on the road were familiar to us … the Kolmanskoppe ghost town, blowing sand across the road, wild horses on the roadside near Aus. Then just beyond Aus, we turned off the paved B1 highway and headed onto C13, a well-used gravel road, heading north and we were in new territory.

Doris had made the trip many, many times and so was a good trip narrator. She pointed out interesting landmarks and was quick to notice springboks and gemboks, steenboks and kudu.

The landscape changed as we moved inland from the coastal areas. From coastal dunes, we drove through areas of barren, flat plains, then flat-topped escarpments came into view and the Tiras Mountains. The barren lands turned to bush and then to shrubs and trees. Farms were few and far between. Cattle, sheep and goats grazed on sparse pasturage. Windmills dotted the countryside,  pumping water to the livestock.

Despite the arid climate, we saw lots of animals en route. Beyond the “boks”, we spotted lots of birds, especially goshawks that perched atop the telephone poles. Mongooses ran across the road in front of us. Ground squirrels poked their heads out of their hills and looked like our western prairie dogs until we saw their bushy little tails.

Our first stop was at Helmeringhausen, about three hours from Lüderitz, which appeared to be a sizable town on the map, but was really no more than a tiny winkel (general store) with a bottle shop (liquor store), a gas station and the Helmeringhausen Hotel and Beer Garden. It was good to stretch our legs. Doris knew the proprietor, Katja, and had a good chat. The cafe/restaurant was an enchanting place with a lovely garden, terrace-seating and “the best apple cake in Namibia”. We'd never had apple cake in Namibia, but, quite honestly, I can't imagine anything could have been better.  Mookie, the resident springbok, roamed around freely nibbling most of the blooming plants and fearlessly allowing visitors to pet him. Birds flitted from tree to tree. Flowers bloomed midst interesting garden sculptures. A wonderful oasis in the middle of nowhere.

The Nama people inhabit this area. Their principle method of conveyance, other than walking, is via donkey carts and we passed several of them in our travel.

Children collected wood in the fields and by the roadside and carried the stacks back to their homes

We stopped in Maltahöhe for gas, another leg stretch, a pee break and a cold drink.  The little shop there displayed an eclectic and somewhat bizarre collection of antiques and oddities … from old Singer sewing machines to baby buggies … from paper hearts to old gas cans. We continued on, intent on reaching Windhoek before dark.

The going was slow and dusty over the gravel roads, but we finally made it to the paved main road leading into Windhoek with only 200 km (120 miles) to go. This main artery was only a two-lane road which made passing slow-moving vehicles not only difficult, but pretty dangerous. We waited what seemed an eternity to pass one slow moving semi, then we spotted the sign for the Tropic of Capricorn and stopped for pictures. Back on the highway, we were once again behind the same slow semi until the he was forced to exit at a weigh station. There was a communal sigh of relief when he finally turned off.

At last, we spotted Windhoek in the distance. We stopped briefly at a traffic checkpoint, but were waved past without an ID check. We  finally left the highway and headed to the Pension Cori for the evening … a long day and glad to be in Windhoek at last

Once Again...the 90-Day Rule

If you've been reading our blog for awhile, you know about our 90-Day Rule. If you haven't been reading for very long, no, it's not Steve Harvey's Steve Harvey's 90-Day Sex Rule. For us it's a special circumstance or event that presents itself totally out of the blue. Something quite out of the ordinary happens and it happens about every 90 days or so. Well, it was about due and, son of a gun, here it is. Our friend, Doris, is heading back to Germany for a visit and her husband, Ian, usually drives her to Windhoek, Namibia's capital city, about an 8-hour drive away, to catch her plane. Well, Ian works with the local ships and he's scheduled to have several arrive during the time he would need to be taking Doris to the airport. They asked us if we'd like to take their car and drive Doris to the airport … and keep the car for a few extra days to see the sights. They'd even pay for the fuel. Oh, my! They said “Think about it!” and we said “No thinking required … YES!” There has been quite a bit of excitement aboard and a flurry of travel research activity for the past few days. Road Trip! Since they know the area well, Doris and Ian have given us some ideas as to what route we might like to take and sights we might like to see. We were here, as you'll remember, back in 2007, but that seems centuries ago and, with our memories, much has been forgotten.

We've only got a few days and we want to make the most of them. We're trying to narrow down our choices and figure out possible accommodations. Sossuvlei in the Namib Naukluft Park, home of the world's largest sand dunes, tops the list.

You've probably noticed that we have several new affiliate ads on the right side of the JALF blogsite page. Affiliates are a way for us to add a few cents to the cruising kitty, but we're pretty picky. We only choose affiliates that we use ourselves. Lonely Planet has been our travel bible forever. We used to pick up a new one for every place we visited. I still have several of them aboard.

With the advent of internet and e-books, we now just download them. I use Lonely Planet for initial travel planning … to get the lay of the land. It's easy to highlight the top sights in an area and make a general plan of where we want to go and what we want to see. Actually, I love just browsing LP's website. Their Top 10 lists are great … from the world's greatest bathrooms to the top 10 best free things to do. Namibia, by the way, is their #2 choice in 2015 for best countries to visit!! Woohoo and we're here! Click image to download for a dollar!

So … after deciding what we'd like to see and where we might like to go, I head to Trip Advisor. I've been a contributor to Trip Advisor as NineofCups since 2008, providing reviews of places we've visited, hotels we've stayed at and restaurants at which we've eaten. I like contributing mostly because I like reading other people's experiences when we're contemplating how to spend our travel dollars and I feel I should pay back. Once I know what sights we'd like to see or where we plan to stay, I read current reviews and hopefully get the inside scoop on best times to visit, rates, and sometimes, we change our plans if the reviews are dicey. If I'm doing a hotel search, I can search on TA and they “shop” other sites for the best pricing. We've done quite well and are usually pleased with the outcome.

So, no bookings have been made yet and a firm itinerary (what's that?) has not been set.  I do know that after dropping Doris and her luggage off at the airport, we'll have extra room in the Jeep and you know you're always welcome to come along with us on our desert adventure.

And, by the way, if you click on any of our Affiliates like Lonely Planet, Trip Advisor, Amazon, or Vegas.com (because that's our legal address, believe it or not) and actually make a booking or place an order, you'd be doing us a favor because they send a few shekels our way.