Heading inland from Swakopmund, we took the B2 road through the Namib-Naukluft National Park, which looks very un-parklike, having limited to no vegetation. But special views of the desert, nonetheless. Passing though Karibib and Okahandja, we reached the hustle and bustle (well, sort of) of Windhoek by approximately mid-day, then headed out towards Gobabis on the B6.
Stopping to buy a cooldrink at Witvlei, was essential. If not from actual thirst, after so many kilometres of driving, you just need to get out and walk a bit. And to have a pee. This latter was more challenging than expected. The toilet at the filling station looked … basic, and so we tried the shop. There we heard that they did indeed have a toilet, but they had to look for the key. Various staff members were instructed to find this key, but after a few minutes, took up their usual routine of shuffling stuff on the shelves, without having found it. Once we’d gone through this routine 3 times, we realised that there must be other issues with the toilet, perhaps not limited to the key being elsewhere. So we retreated to the filling station facilities again, which were functional and almost acceptable.
And so, on to Gobabis. Here we decided to send some picture postcards from Namibia to the kids and various others. Walked into a little shopping centre and had a surreal experience in a giftshop of trying to explain the concept of a picture postcard to the employees there. Unsuccessfully. I think they were a bit stunned by this old dude who wanted to not use email for some reason… Eventually, I bought some blank gift cards and then stamps from the very old-school post office (though, no post cards there, either…) and wrote a link to a website with Namibian images into the cards, which we mailed from there. The recipients would have to go online to see some Namibian pictures. We heard afterwards that they thought it a novel idea. Necessity is the mother of invention.
We overnighted at an Airbnb on a cattle farm along the C22 to the North of town, where we had a very friendly reception and I even had a dip in their pool. Quite a few other animals in evidence too, including some rather enthusiastic dung beetles. Problems with the water supply for our bathroom were resolved quickly and we had a comfortable night before continuing towards Botswana the next morning.
Passing through the border post at Buitepos was a doddle and then we were on the good and very straight roads towards Kang and eventually, South Africa. More about the last legs of this journey in my next post.
Ron's Rambling 