Lonely Planet dubs Namibia as “Africa for Beginners,” and adds that “it is a wonderful place to start.”
For me, Namibia is indeed bursting with an aura of “newfangledness.” I knew almost nothing about it before, except that it was formerly called Southwest Africa (west of the more popular South Africa), that is was once a German colony, and that is was the country where celebrity and UN refugee ambassador Angelina Jolie chose to give birth to her daughter Shiloh in 2006.
That time, the country was in the news almost everyday, as journalists and paparazzi awaited the birth and anticipated to take the first photograph of the baby. Afterwards, Ms. Jolie stayed there for a couple of months with her family. It was said that she decided to make Namibia a temporary home after being mesmerized by the beauty of this desert country while filming Beyond Borders, the romantic-drama movie she made with Clive Owen in 2003.
I had never imagined that I would be visiting this beautiful country, for the simple reason that it was not among the “Top Ten” on my bucket list. I had my eyes set on Europe first, and Africa was far from my mind.
However, an opportunity arose on the first year of our move to Ottawa. My husband’s new job involved membership in an international committee and the position required him to travel and attend international conferences held at different member countries every year. That year, the host country was Namibia. That year, too, I was still waiting for the outcome of my Federal Government exams.
Since I was technically unemployed and had nothing much to do aside from the final stages of unpacking, setting up our new place, and waiting for job application results, my husband proposed that I join him in Africa right after his conference for a week or so of safari adventure. Who was I to say “no” to this?
Things happened fast. As soon as his conference schedule was confirmed, I began planning our holiday. I booked my flight and chose a tour company that specialized in African tours. We signed up for a “Desert, Canyon, and Safari Tour of Namibia” that would commence two days after my husband’s conference was over.
This ten-day tour would take us south from Windhoek to Rehoboth down to Mariental through the vast Kalahari Desert and all the way to Keetmanshoop and Fish River Canyon (the second largest canyon in the world), then west to Aus, then north through the Namib Dessert and the Sossusvlei Sand Dunes, passing through Hammerstein, Sesriem, the Naukluft Park, and Solitaire. From there, we would travel further west to the Atlantic Coast and visit Walvis Bay and Swakopmund (Namibia's "playground") before taking the desert train back to Windhoek. In short, we would be doing a complete loop south of Namibia's capital city. My husband moved his original flight back to Canada to until after the tour.
We arranged for him to meet me at the airport. It had been an extremely long flight that began in Ottawa and involved a long layover in Frankfurt and another layover in Johannesburg. It had also been an extremely long day of continuous travel for me with hardly any sleep in between.
I got out of the airport in Frankfurt in the early morning of the previous day to do a city tour (for details, please see the story on Frankfurt) before my connecting flight to South Africa in the evening. Aboard that flight, I couldn’t sleep, so I chatted with the nice South African lady sitting beside me. She was an avid traveler and a wine enthusiast like me. And she possessed such a magnetic personality that she managed to charm the flight attendants who gave both of us a second and a third round of fine South African reds, accompanied by a complimentary cheese and charcuterie plate. I napped for about three hours after that and before I knew it, we were on another continent again.
In Johannesburg, I didn’t venture out. I stayed in the airport and just browsed around the shops. After my outing in Frankfurt, I didn’t feel like going out again. Besides, when I checked the temperature outside, I realized I wasn’t dressed for the Southern Hemisphere weather. It was summer in Ottawa when I left, and it was the same in Europe. But in Africa, it was winter. And though the winters there are much drier and less cold than that of Canada, I was wearing only a pair of jeans and a thin quarter-sleeved top. I had forgotten about this and didn’t pack a sweater in my backpack.
On my flight from South Africa to Namibia, I got bumped up to Business Class for the last leg of my trip and I found myself sitting amidst the highly-energetic members of the Ivory Coast National Football Team. I knew it right away because as we were settling into our seats, the flight attendants called the young men’s attention for goofing around and switching places multiple times, just like kids playing "musical chairs." The most senior attendant reprimanded them in a friendly way, just like a kind kindergarten teacher would reprimand a pack of mischievous, but cute school children. I guess they were in high spirits because they were travelling back home after a victorious game. Their coach pacified his boys but not after allowing them to chant some “rah-rah” piece for the triumphant “Elephants,” as their team is called.
The two athletes sitting closest to me became my instant friends. Although they looked like formidable giants, they were just like gentle, little puppies. They told me about their most recent game and asked about my safari trip. I even practiced my French with them (they speak French in Ivory Coast because it used to be a French colony) and shared some of my take-along munchies with these ever-hungry guys. Just like most “growing boys” their age, they seemed to never have their appetites satiated even after the huge airline meal we had and the “seconds” and “thirds” given to them by the flight attendants who spoiled them rotten despite (or maybe because of) their flirty jestings. You can imagine that I was not able to sleep on this flight either. I felt like a young mom to these boys until we finally arrived in Namibia. I said goodbye to them when we landed and they headed to the next gate for their connecting flight back to Ivory Coast.
The Hosea Kutako Airport in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital city, is small and appeared as if it’s in the middle of nowhere. We touched down at mid-morning. There was only one terminal and to me, it looked more like a domestic airport than an international hub. There were only a few amenities available, but all I really needed was a washroom after my flight.
As soon as I cleared Customs, I spotted my husband right away. He was standing in a corner with a tall, lean African guy. My husband introduced him as our shuttle driver. He was going to take us back to my husband’s conference hotel. It didn’t take long for me to pick-up my luggage from the carousel. My husband and his new friend helped me and we drove through a desert landscape before we reached the city centre.
Our shuttle driver explained that it is the time of the year when there is no rainfall, thus everywhere we looked, it’s all dry land. He was friendly and chatty and I felt at home right away. He even obliged my rock-loving husband on making a couple of pit stops in the middle of nowhere so that he could pick some geological samples. (Wonderful! We were only on Day 1 and he was already collecting rocks!)
When we arrived at the hotel, my husband said we could eat lunch there and asked me if I wanted to do anything that afternoon. Our official tour wouldn’t start until the morning of the next day. Before I could say I just wanted a nap, our enthusiastic shuttle driver offered to take us to a safari ranch not far from the hotel. He said that we could see wildlife and feed the cheetahs and leopards. My husband got excited and because in that short time, we already developed a rapport with our new friend, we said, “yes.” He was fun to be with, and we supposed, this was an extra source of income for him as well.
We agreed to meet at the lobby at 2:30 pm. That gave me enough time to freshen up and eat. The hotel was nice and had an elegant restaurant that offered a carvery buffet at lunch. The staff already knew my husband, as he’d been staying there for more than a week for his conference. He ordered his usual, while I took a little bit of everything from the buffet table. I downed my food with lots of coffee, for I was already starting to feel drowsy. Then we waited for our shuttle driver. I was excited to start our African adventure and get acquainted with Namibia.
Photo Credits:
frontera.net, bluelatitudesgroup.rezdy.com, Alexander Johmann (Wikimedia), safarihotelsnamibia.com, airports.com.na
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