The rest of Namibia

We found out that there was an overnight train from Swakopmund to Windhoek and it sounded like a fun way to travel. The only problem was that no-one seemed to know when the train would come, but apparently there definitely was one. (On hindsight, at this point we should have questioned why no locals ever used that train...) The ticket office at the railway station was closed all day Sunday, but the security guard assured us that if we waited long enough, the train would come.

Before that we wanted to say goodbye to our new friends, and got a customised tour around the slums. As we were dropped off at the train station, our guide wanted to have a serious talk with us. Apparently we're way too friendly and trusting, and that we should not under any circumstances befriend any more strangers especially in Windhoek as we wouldn't last very long.

Then we waited for the train. And waited. And waited. At about nine o'clock (after more than two hours' wait) we saw something moving towards us very slowly. It looked like a train, but it moved at a pace of a donkey cart. But in we hopped, and ten and a half hours later we reached Windhoek (a bus takes three hours for the same journey). It wasn't one of the greatest train journeys I've ever been on to be honest, and we didn't feel exactly refreshed when we got to our hostel in Windhoek in the morning.

Windhoek was cold, chaotic and stressful, so we wanted to get out as quickly as possible. We spent the whole day planning our escape, and managed to organise a get-away vehicle for the following day: a one-way car hire. By the following afternoon we were on our way to the desert with our camping equipment (=tent and plastic wine glasses) and some newly bought blankets, socks and fleece pyjamas so we wouldn't freeze to death in the desert.

After the stunning three-hour drive over the mountains we got to a guest farm in Solitaire, which was yes you guessed it, in the middle of nowhere. We pitched our tent, made friends with the farm's pet springbok and prepared a gourmet meal on the fire (tinned rice and vegetables). The night was very windy, but to our amazement the tent didn't blow away. In the morning the pet springbok turned out to be less friendly than in the previous evening and kept attacking us. I had to get help in the end from the farm owners while Kaisa and Minna were hiding in the toilet.

That day we saw the red dunes of Sossusvlei and climbed a few of them. Dunes are cool, but after a while they all look like big piles of sand (which they, let's face it, are) so we didn't stay too long.

Our next destination was Fish River Canyon (approximately a 8-hour drive away - Namibia is a big country!), which is the second biggest canyon in the world after Grand Canyon (I bet you'd never even heard of it before). It was rather big, and very canyon-like. We'd seriously considered doing the five-day, 85-km hike through the canoyn, but in the end chose the 45-minute, 5-km hike instead. It was probably a very wise decision.

After three nights of camping and 1500km later we made it to Luderitz, a small and pretty seaside town near where we had to return the car. On the way we stopped to check out the wild horses of the Namib desert. They only have one waterhole from where to drink, so if you park the car next to it, you’re guaranteed to see some. We saw lots, quite an amazing sight!

We stayed for two nights in the Luderitz backpackers – our last two nights in Namibia.
Luderitz is located next to a top-security diamond mining area, which pretty much consists of the whole southwest corner of Namibia. Close to Luderitz there is a ghost town called Kolmanskop, which was the Namibian diamond centre until the 50s. It’s a strangely beautiful place, looks like a film set with all the empty buildings now taken over by sand dunes, but the "ghost town" aspect was slightly lost in the herds of tourists around.

On Sunday we had to say goodbye to our little VW Golf and hop on Anna’s minibus towards Keetmanshoop, where we were going to catch Intercape bus to Cape Town. It was a slightly different minibus experience to the previous one, where gangsta rap was played on full volume and the driver offered us sips of his beer. This time we hadn’t even left Luderitz, when Anna pulled the bus to the side of the road, and we all had to pray together for a safe journey. In Afrikaas. Sure enough, God delivered us safely to our destination, where we had to wait for another seven hours for the Intercape in a Wimpy.

How does one pass seven hours in a Wimpy, you may wonder. In case anyone else ever finds themselves in a similar situation, I shall share my tips with you. There’s coffee. There’s painting toenails green. Plucking eyebrows. Filing nails. Eating a burger. Painting fingernails green. There’s more coffee. Reading a book. Watching South African teenagers on school trip praying together with Wimpy’s kitchen staff. Calling parents. Finally, once everything else is done, try arranging all your coins from your purse in the order of the year they were made. I was fascinated to find clear patterns in coin production: 1993 was a great year for printing 10 cents and 2002 for 50 cents.

At about midnight, just when I was about to be sent off with the men in white jackets, Intercape came to the rescue and whisked us off to Cape Town. Well, it didn’t happen quite so quickly: The journey took about 16 hours. They have the best bus seats ever, but there’s a price to pay: you’re forced to watch – how could I put it nicely – Christian-themed dramas with a lot of praying onboard.

So there we were, all of a sudden in the big city. Almost three weeks in Namibia had flown by. Wide-eyed, we got off the bus and hopped on a taxi.