Windhoek

The second massive travel stretch of this trip was from Cape Town almost directly north to the oasis capital of Namibia, Windhoek. Describing it as an oasis is perhaps a trifle glamorous but this surprisingly well off city is surrounded by nothin but desert and arid, Rocky Mountains for hundreds of miles. 300 miles to the west you have the Atlantic coast lined by the Namib Desert, South is over a thousand kilometres of scrub and bush then there's the kalahari to the east. Windhoek has to be one if the most remote capital cities in the world, up with Ulaanbatar, Almaty or Brazila. Namibia as a nation has only been in existence for a little over 100years having since been a colony of Germany and that European influence is pretty evident. It's also, proportionally, pretty expensive.

The ride up from Cape Town took almost exactly 24hrs with almost 3 of that spent getting everyone across the border. The SA border guards were pretty thorough but for whatever reason decided to search all bags except perhaps 10 which they couldn't be bothered to unload, mine included. They were all pretty friendly, we had a joke and a laugh and you got the impression they were just grateful for someone to come through at night to chat with. We did have to hand over our passports in the police booth before our bags were searched, getting them back about an hour later, a little disconcerting to say the least, my passport usually never leaves my side.

I was sat next to 3 university girls from Norway who were travelling for a few weeks after studying for a semester near Cape Town. They were staying at the same accommodation as me so we joked and laughed. Meeting all these foreigners really makes me ashamed of my foreign language skills, despite some reasonable French and a smattering of a few others there's no way I can converse fluently, play games and have a laugh in Norwegian, Dutch, French, Afrikaans, Portuguese etc like the others I've encountered. Well done you lot.

So on arrival were met by Sarah from Chameleon Backpackers ready to give us a lift to the accommodation (definite bonus!). I haven't really any plans for my time here, indeed it's just a lay over between transport; my overnight bus to Livingstone leaves on Friday.

The city centre is pretty compact and walkable, usual precautions of not walking around at night aside, it feels like any other African city where common sense will keep you safe 99% of the time. I buy some grub, a paracord bracelet (which I then spend much of the afternoon working out how turn back into a bracelet) and a skin tight compression top ideal for winter mountaineering and running for about £10. They go for 3 times that in the UK. There the first things I've brought for myself all trip, I'm pretty useless at buying stuff. Money usually goes on experiences and the actual travelling. All being well ill have a decent amount of money to spend in Dar Es Salaam or Nairobi before I fly home. Got to do Christmas shopping sometime haven't we.

So I write this on Thursday and tomorrow I'm off again up to Livingstone. 3 nights there to see the falls and take in one of the great natural wonders of the world. I'm starting to think ahead to Kilimanjaro and things seem pretty on schedule. I have a few companies in mind and should start the trek early-mid December, around the 8th or 9th all being well. Ill need to let the company know soon so will need to decide on a date. Looking ahead some, it seems ill have about 5-6 days after Kili to do as I wish. Perhaps I spend that time in Nairobi or maybe I can get from Moshi to Uganda for a few days. Lets see how things go. Another option actually is Zanzibar. hmmm. Keep reading to see where I end up.