16 June Daan Viljoen - Getting Lost in Windhoek
Windhoek is not the biggest city in the world. No it is not even 'big' by any average standard. Yet we managed to get lost. How do we manage this? Well it's all to do with not following your instincts. Its paying too much attention to robotic machines who will possibly take over the world one day!
The day starts well enough. We have a delicious breakfast at our fancy B&B - smoked salmon and a variety of cold meats and cheeses are on offer with the usual yogurts and cereals. OH and who can resist fig preserve with Camembert - so in spite of my Banting Diet I indulge in the tiniest little piece. My total carb allowance for the day.
This is followed by eggs, bacon tomato and mushrooms. Erich has an appointment with the dentist at 3 and we want to do our shopping for Kgalagadi --- so we set off at 10:30 fill up with fuel and find all the places we need with ease. Armed with a new torch, flask, taser and meat - the latter from a stunning butchery called Trans Kalahari Meat - we make our way to the Dentist where we plan to have coffee at a nearby supermarket coffee shop. As we near I say -"I really would prefer a better place with nicer coffee,"
So we do a search on the "Car Wife" and find a mall 2km away - The coffee is somewhat better and Erich indulge in a slice of cake.
Then a miracle happens - Earlybird agrees to leave Wends and me to shop while he takes Erich to the Dentist! Bliss - but I am warned to have my cell phone at the ready so that my guardian and protector can find me on his return. I discover that I have run out of Namibian air time so find a cell shop and quickly top up. I leave Wendy to browse while I do this and some Chemist shopping. Then the two of us go to Checkers to do our grocery shopping. This is almost complete when The Boys return - tooth successfully repaired by a charming dentist who Erich thinks undercharged him = It would have cost twice as much in OZ.
The boys help complete the shopping - mainly by adding beers and wine to the trolley and then we try to make our way home.
Earlybird enters the destination and for some strange reason the thing gets us lost! You're mad he tells his car wife - that's not the way to go - but still he slavishly obeys her instructions. After meandering around WIndhoek for an hour while he and "Greta Garmin" argue. I finally intervene and say let me speak to her. Well she'd lost satellite reception hadn't she!
"Go back to town and find Sam Mojoma Street," says Wendy. So we do and then we manage to re-establisht satellite contact and head into the blinding sunset.
We have pre-dinner drinks and then go to the lovely but chilly restaurant again. We are the only guests in the vast, high ceilinged room. We are the only chalet dwellers but there are some campers who brave the cold and have outdoor braais.
Earliebird has game steak but the rest of us order two starters - delicious tomato soup and then calamari with a wonderful aioli sauce.
For dessert we decide on the cheese platter to share - R80 - well - it is enough for 10 people so we take the leftovers in a doggy bag - well worth the money.
When I booked at this venue I saw the rate as over R1000 per person and didn't want to take it but Earlybird told me to go for it as we'd visited Daan Viljoen as day visitors 20 years ago - it was stunning then as the dams were full of water and the bird life was prolific. This time it was dry and so I felt a bit cheated after paying a fortune to stay there. Everything was lovely, though, so I didn't fret too much. But on checking what I actually paid I had a pleasant surprise - There are 2 rates - one for rich overseas tourists and one for Africans - Hooray - I paid the African rate - only R795 per person per night. That made me feel much better! Also the food was excellent and cheaper than the buffets in Etosha!
We could have braaied at our chalet but we opted for the restaurant as we will be self-catering fro the next 9 nights.
Another tip for potential travellers NWR resorts - get an NWR card for about N$700 and all accommodation will be 25% less.
This ends the Namibian part of the Travel Tale. I will continue this report on the KTP thread.
