Sunday 16 December 2018

Namibia

Today we farewelled South Africa and said hello to Namibia. We were picked up promptly early by our &Beyond representative and taken to Capetown Airport for our flight to Windhoek, the capital. The airport was VERY quiet. There was no one waiting at check-in. There was no one waiting at security and there was no one at immigration! We breezed straight through and found the Bidvest Lounge located conveniently just pass immigration. We ate our fill of the breakfast offerings while we waited for our boarding call.

Breakfast area in the Bidvest lounge. The children did not need further instructions

The children were super excited to discover that the plane we were going on was a “small” one. So small that we could board straight on just with the stairs attached to the plane itself. The interior had 1 seat on side of the aisle and 2 on the other. There were only about 14 rows. We were pleasantly surprised that the flight included a meal service! It was a simple meal of cold chicken or beef salad with dessert, but it was a bonus! The single flight attendant onboard was also one of the most friendly and sweet we had ever met. She even retrieved Jonah’s ball from down the aisle. Apparently, he and Elliot thought they’d have to make their own in flight entertainment with a game of “hand squash”. Hopefully they didn’t invent that while we were in business class on the way here.
"Small plane" Mum!

2 seats on 1 side and only 1 on the other 

Lunch onboard

Flying into Windhoek, we were surprised to see very little. The land seemed vast and sparse with almost no buildings visible from the air. With the reddish dirt, it almost felt like flying to rural Australia. To be honest, we knew almost nothing about Namibia prior to our arrival. The reading material provided by the travel agent proved to be handy last and informative! On arrival, the 35 degree heat seemed intense after acclimatising to the pleasant mid 20s whilst in South Africa. The walk across the tarmac probably didn’t help!

We were surprised again at the small size of the airport considering this was the airport of the capital. There were not that many people, but the lines moved slowly. As Australians, we did not need a visa to enter Namibia. However, each person still needed an arrival form filled in. The immigration officer commented on how terrible Elliot’s handwriting was, suggesting that he was on his way to be a doctor perhaps. Oh dear…

So far, our “DIY” section of the itinerary has been pretty shielded. This continued in Namibia. We were met just outside the arrivals gate by Anton, and walked through the car rental pick up process. He made sure our GPS worked, helped us load our luggage, and checked we knew which side of the road to drive on. He then gave us a welcome bottle of champagne, as well as our travel documents, which included written out driving instructions for each leg complete with recommended sightseeing stops, as well as an old fashioned map with our route marked out, and our accommodation labelled. Who needed google maps!!!

A serious safari car

Instructions on how to get from one stop to the next

An old fashioned map very thoughtfully labeled!

An extra gift :)

We needed to stay overnight at Windhoek as our drive to the next destination would require a 5-hour drive and it was not recommended to drive in the dark. Nicci had organised for us to stay at Galton House, another gorgeous guesthouse. We arrived just in time for the complimentary afternoon of delicious chocolate brownies. The staff were so accommodating and brought our tea to the pool area so the children could enjoy their swim. We must’ve been in a good mood because somehow their ball was not confiscated, but was used again for pool hacky-sack. We got to 11 – the failure at number 12 was not me! Oh, and apparently, they “found” the ball somewhere in the apartment in Cape Town. Good grief. We also later found out that Jonah returned to the kitchen and was given a third helping of brownies…
The very comfortable lounge area

Children's room interconnecting to ours

Interesting storage area. No dust!

Modern and v clean bathroom

Afternoon tea time!

Very happy pool people

The last didn't want to swim and chose to do holiday readying instead

Someone caught having thirds!

Dinner was at Joe’s Beerhouse, a popular tourist restaurant serving game. The children braved oryx, zebra, springbok, kudu and…. chicken! Springbok was declared the tastiest. Malcolm meanwhile stuck to ribs. The bill for all that meat and drinks came to only AUD81…

Finally, we filled the car with survival essentials in case we have a flat tyre tomorrow on our 4.5 hour drive through the dunes… 15L of water, biltong, dried fruit, cheese puffs, deodorant and nachos flavoured pringles. You can never be too prepared.

Joe's

The children's sosatie of springbok, oryx, kudu, zebra and chicken

Oryx schnitzel 


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