We started half an hour later than planned at 6.45am as needed to phone Capetown to confirm our pickup from the airport. We had tried the previous night but forgot about the time difference so the Capetown office was closed. The road to Windhoek is sealed and straight. I mean 600km almost straight. As Wilfred says, infrastructure is one thing the Germans did well. Apart from one mountain pass, that looked remarkably similar to the road from Hikuai to Kopu on the Coromandel Peninsular, it was straight. We saw lots of warthogs along the road and plenty of goats and cattle in the farms (which looked just like bush) but not much else. We stopped occasionally for petrol and once for coffee and once for lunch but otherwise just drove. At the morning tea place they had a tv going with the Crusaders playing the Highlanders. Not sure when the game actually happened but it looked like an easy win for the Crusaders. Wilfred had stopped at a supermarket which was very similar to a fancy New World but also had a coffee shop. It was a great choice as you can just grab either hot or cold deli stuff and then eat it with your cappuccino while watching the rugby. There were nice clean restrooms also (as per most of Africa). It could catch on at home. Lunch was a can of coke and toilet stop so that only took 20 minutes.
We got to Windhoek airport just before 2 pm and it turned out that check in didn’t open until 3 pm so we had plenty of time to fill out the forms and get organised. Wilfred was staying in Windhoek the night and then driving home to Swakopmund tomorrow and was really excited to see his kids. He was happy to tell us about his early life in a village as the youngest of ten kids and how he and his family live now. He loves gardening but his 2 dogs wrecked the back yard and now he is away from home too often to keep it up. His wife works at the supermarket but they have just laid off staff. She is also training to be a teacher. They have a sixteen year old daughter who sounds exactly like most other teens of her age and 14 and 5 year old sons. He is looking at doing more tours on his own behalf rather than as a contractor for tour companies and he would do a great job.
We have enjoyed Namibia but could never manage the heat and dust to live here. It was nearly 40C each day and this is mid winter. Our next adventure is Capetown South Africa.
Our flight to Capetown was uneventful and arrived early. I don’t think we have ever got through immigration quicker. Between being on the bus from the plane (you always seem to unload at the furthest extremity of the airport and then bus to the terminal) it was less than 10 minutes to being outside. Our driver was waiting for us and took us to the Avis rental car that would deliver us to our hotel. The entire trip took about 20 minutes, but being dark we didn’t get a view of the city.
We are staying at the Harbour Bridge Hotel which is next door to the Westin and the Convention Centre.
The staff at reception have to be the most helpful I have ever come across. They organised a restaurant for the next night and a day tour of the city with personal driver that includes time at the Botanical Gardens and a visit to the Cape of Good Hope. We had thought about a helicopter trip but at $US400 each for a one hour trip, the $US300 for a driver for the day was extremely appealing.
Our room is on the first floor and very nice. It is designed very like the Intercontinental in Wellington with a bathroom that overlooks the bedroom and which can be separated with a blind. There is plenty of room and the balcony overlooks a waterway that looks just like the outlook from the Sofitel (formerly the Westin) at the Viaduct Basin in Auckland. There were Jellybeans on the pillow together with tomorrow’s weather forecast.
A great start to our brief stay in South Africa – the weather tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 22C. They have a water crisis because it hasn’t rained enough during this winter or last.