Sunday 2019/12/15

Arrival day in Windhoek

Arrival in Windhoek shortly after 7 a.m. The Safari Car Rental shuttle service is on site with a name tag for us. We all want to draw some cash, but we have problems with an ATM. In a first attempt, Brigitte only gets 200 Namibian dollars, which are actually South African dollars, and are about 14 euros. Astrid also draws money, but does not get more than the equivalent of around 100 euros. Brigitte does exchange 300 Euros in cash at an exchange office, which corresponds to about one centimeter of notes and no longer fits in the wallet. The airport is about 50 kilometers from Windhoek and Safari Car Rental is about halfway. The driver points out the first giraffe next to the road and gives us a lecture on the way to the rental station about driving in Namibia: to-dos and not-to-dos. You should read the rental contracts very carefully, because driving at night is prohibited and you sign, you will not drive faster than 80 km/h on gravel roads, even though 100 km/h are allowed.

Rike does the paperwork with us (quite a bit) and sells us SIM cards. Rudolf instructs us to the cars and the construction of the roof tent. Taliban cars, a lot to memorize, a few things you will forget immediately, but there are four of us for that. It all takes quite a long time and we are totally groggy after the humble night. We get an urgently needed coffee and then we make our way to Windhoek, where we first head to a supermarket to buy the basics, e.g. 7x 5l water canisters.

The "Urban Camp" is our overnight place for tonight. Quite nice for a start and we decide not to move away from there anymore, because the restaurant and everything necessary is on site. We are reorganizing our cars and luggage and then we are exhausted. The first tent setup works great. We have dinner in the restaurant and climb up to our rooftents quite early.