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.
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| 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.
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| "Small plane" Mum! |
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| 2 seats on 1 side and only 1 on the other |
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| 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!!!
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| A serious safari car |
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| Instructions on how to get from one stop to the next |
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| An old fashioned map very thoughtfully labeled! |
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| 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…
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| The very comfortable lounge area |
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| Children's room interconnecting to ours |
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| Interesting storage area. No dust! |
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| Modern and v clean bathroom |
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| Afternoon tea time! |
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| Very happy pool people |
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| The last didn't want to swim and chose to do holiday readying instead |
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| 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…
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