Club World Over The Kalahari Desert
By Lothar. Filed in Namibia |
We are in Windhoek, capital of Namibia.
This used to be the German colony of “Deutsch Süd-West” for 30 years until WWI, when the British defeated German troops here. Many streetsigns and restaurant names are still in German and about 8% of the population are German. This morning we visited the German private High School and Gabi set up a meeting with the school principal. Lunch was in Cafe Schneider and the proprietess gave us lots of useful information about people and customs. Naturally we spoke with her in German !
80 % of the population is unemployed and our ” Roof of Africa” lodge has a high wall with electric fence surrounding it, like all the hotels or private homes. The people downtown though are dressed very well and everybody has a cellphone hooked to the belt.
This morning we tried to drive to a nearby game park, but we only got as far as a police roadblock. The policeman asked for our passports and my drivers license, which are locked in the hotel safe. He said I could get arrested for driving without papers, but he was nice enough to let us turn around to drive the 10 miles back to the hotel. We will try again this afternoon !
We arrived here yesterday after 3 flights from Germany on British Airways. We lived the jetsetters’ life visiting all the airline Business Lounges along the way in Frankfurt, London and Johannesburg. The longest haul was for 10.5 hours flying time from London to Johannesburg. We were in ” Club World” ( British Airways class system) and had a 180 degree flat bed for the overnight trip. I was flying with the seat (bed) facing the rear of the plane, Gabi facing forward. She does not like to fly ” backwards “. The lady next to me was returning home to Johannesburg and gave me some useful safety tips ( e.g. how to decrease our chances of being robbed or carjacked ).
The last flight was for 90 minutes from South Africa to Windhoek, Namibia. We were crossing the Kalahari Desert and had three dinner choices, a good Chenin Blanc wine and dessert while gazing at the desert, 35000 feet below us. That was a tough travel day!