Johannesburg to Windhoek

10/28/17 Johannesburg to Windhoek

Our Namibian Adventure Begins...

The first thing I needed to do when I reached my room was turn off the A/C and open the window. It was absolutely freezing in the room and it was so cold outside that I only needed to crack the window for a slight breeze. Unfortunately the room next door must have been a smoking room because at that point it smelled like they were smoking in my room - which I cannot tolerate - so I had to close the window.

The next morning, during breakfast, the fire alarm went off - a first in all my years of travel - and of course I thought the fire was in the room next to mine, but thankfully it was not. Apparently someone's hair dryer started smoking, so we had to evacuate to the parking lot until we received the all-clear signal a few minutes later.

We were all anxious and excited to begin our trek to Windhoek, capital city of Namibia. We left the hotel for the airport at 10 AM for our noon flight. I absolutely love these smaller international flights because alcohol is free and sometimes you even get a meal (we need to learn how to emulate these fantastic ideas instead of pretzels and cookies. And don't even get me started on the extinction of peanuts...)

After the disappointing meals we were served on our international Delta flight, during this short 2-hour flight we were served an absolutely delicious penne pasta with a creamy mushroom/bacon sauce that was out of this world! It was so delicious I would have loved to have a copy of the recipe. Had my first local Namibian beer -Castle - very nice.

Namibia in a nutshell:

Located in SW Africa
Bordered by Angola and Zambia to the north, and Botswana and South Africa to the east
Home to 4 different landscapes: coastal Namib Desert (oldest and driest desert in the world); the Kalahari Desert; the Kavango and Caprivi tropical forests, rivers and savannahs
Home to diverse wildlife including a significant cheetah population
One of the most sparsely populated countries in the world with just over 2 million people in a country larger than France and Great Britain combined.
Namibia was the first country in the world to incorporate the protection of the environment into its constitution.
The capital city is Windhoek (vin took)

Windhoek in a nutshell:

Capital and largest city in Namibia
Located in the geographic center of Namibia, upon a plateau 5600 ft. above sea level
Approximate population 350,000+
Settled by Jonker Afrikaner in 1840
Founded a second time in 1890 by German Curt von Francois
Achieved independence from colonial rule in 1990

Our first stopover once we arrived in Windhoek was the beautiful Hotel Thule, where we were greeted by the office staff with champagne. I was last to receive my room key, and when the manager handed it to me she said I was getting the best room (in her opinion). I thought she was just feeling sorry for me, but when I opened the door to my MASSIVE room, I thought I died and went to heaven! Now this was a room built for entertaining! I had a spacious counter; plenty of wine glasses (but sadly no wine); 2 very cushy chairs; a king-size bed (actually 2 twins pushed together - very common in Africa); and an oversized bathroom with a double sink, shower and deep tub. Just outside the windows was a small mountain covered in scrub grass, small acacia trees and rock - a perfect place for the native birds and their tweeting.

Stunning bougainvillea!

Some views of Windhoek below.

My wonderful room!

For the first time during our welcome meeting we discover that all 11 of us are Sir Edmund Hillary Club members - 3 or more OAT trips (I have traveled with OAT 11 times with 2 more trips in the hopper for next year). Also, we had no one with dietary restrictions - not even a single vegetarian - not bad for a bunch of old folks (haha).

Once we finished our meeting we traveled into town for our welcome dinner at Nice restaurant. Interestingly enough, we had 2 choices of entree - game or fish - with the game being grilled oryx (the large antelope and national animal depicted on the Namibian coat of arms), and the fish being kingklip. More interestingly, was that only 2 out of our group of 12 ordered the fish. Now I'm pretty sure that, other than our guide Lloyd, none of us have ever enjoyed grilled oryx, but we were "game to try the game" (haha - hey, don't forget I'm still attempting to overcome jet lag here). If you, like most Americans, have no idea of what the heck an oryx is, I have supplied a before and after photo for your pleasure.