After hearing horror stories about how difficult it was to travel around Namibia without your own transportation, we decided that we would rent a car for that portion of the trip. So when we headed off from Maun we were thrilled that it would be our last bus of the trip. The bus itself sounded a bit tricky, though, and the proprietor of Old Bridge recommended that we try to hitch instead. This was a very strange process. First you catch a cab at 6:30 a.m. and ask it to take you to the hitching spot. The cab driver then drops you off at a totally random place on the side of the road where a group of people are already gathered. Then all of the crowd stands by the road at one time beckoning passing cars by waving down and inward (rather than by sticking up a thumb). Eventually, one car stops and then everyone rushes towards the car saying the name of the place they are headed. The driver indicates how many people he can take, that many people climb in the car, and everyone else goes back to waving over cars.
Eventually, we were picked up by a guy in an SUV. He was nice enough, but it was a bit awkward after he told us that he wanted to marry a white woman and started asking us for tips. He dropped us off about three hours later an hour shy of the Namibia border. While we were waiting for our next ride, we watched a car accident take place right in front of the hitching/bus stop. It was caused by a confused driver responding to the waving crowd and turning into an oncoming vehicle. No one was hurt. We ended up getting a hitch in another SUV with two really fun guys, Promise and Fungi, who (this is the best part) took us all the way to Windhoek (pronounced Vin-hook).
The transformation from Botswana and Namibia was dramatic. In Botswana, there was a constant danger of cows, goats, and other livestock running out in front of your car. In Namibia, fences parallel the highway, keeping out most of the animals (except the warthogs). Strangely, the warthogs, which had been very shy and difficult to see in the rest of Africa, were everywhere.
Windhoek itself, and most of the rest of Namibia, looks much more German/European than the rest of Africa. We stayed at the Cardboard Box the first night. It was better than an actual cardboard box, but still just okay. Due to a communication problem with the car rental agency, our car was not ready that day and Cardboard Box was fully booked so we had to move. We stayed at the Chameleon, which was one of our favorite hostels on the trip. It had a bathroom in the dorm room and under the bed lockers. It was a bit of a cursed move, though. I had a slo' mo' fall at the gate of the dorm while carrying my daypack and Regina's lap top. My flip flop got stuck in a hole in the sidewalk and I knew I was going down so I tried to fall sideways and hold our stuff up to protect it.
Later that night, Kaitlin got stuck trying to climb into bed. The dorm beds were two back-to-back bunkbeds. So that she didn't wake up the hot guy sleeping in the bed below hers, she stepped up on my bed, which was kitty corner to hers, and attempted to climb diagonally over onto her bed. I was reading in bed and looked up to see her legs dangling over the side of the bed. Then she whispered, "Help me." I got up to push her over the bed at about the same time as Regina walked out of the bathroom. The hot guy woke up and started laughing and Regina and I fell to the floor laughing until we cried.
While in Windhoek, we killed time by eating at chain restaurants, shopping, and hanging out at the mall. Sadly, we spend enough time at the mall to make friends with a taxi driver that was stationed there. We probably rode with him at least five times.
Once we got the car (a very cool truck with an enclosed bed and two tents that are located on TOP of the truck), we headed to Swapokmund to pick up Alex, the very nice French guy that agreed to rent the truck with us to share costs.
While in Swapokmund, I went sandboarding. It was surprisingly similar to snowboarding. It was really a lot of fun, but I was finding sand everywhere for a week. Also, I hurt my back by jumping off a ramp at high speeds and not even coming close to landing. I was once again reminded that just because the guide lets you do it, you should not assume that it is safe. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment