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Published: November 20th 2018
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Sunrise over Horn of AfricaDecided to use this format because it's easier to put together on a phone.
Day 1: A f*cking long flight. A constant stream of food. Good movies. A cheeky 4 hour nap. Doha airport is huge.
Day 2: Still flying. This time over the Horn of Africa for a sunrise and no one on my row of seats. Arrived in Namibia to a rather nonchalant international airport. Got off the plane thinking "it's too hot" - a stance I hold passionately by between the hours of 10am to 6pm.
A hairy shuttle to the Windhoek, weaving between cars and trucks at an average of 120km/hr and briefly thinking, 'maybe it's over before it's begun'.
Got to the quaint backpackers at midday, and started browsing the options for the days ahead. Went for a stroll to the mall to utilise the ATM and food, and proceeded to mitigate handing over money for a variety of causes.
Grabbed a couple of $2 beers from the bar and started to make generic small talk with a number of patrons of the backpackers. Body clock seamlessly synchronised with the 10 hour change, and I was asleep in 22 degree heat
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View of terrains from above by 10pm.
Day 3: Woke at the crack of dawn unintentionally and went to read a few chapters of the book in the cool air. The offered breakfast was of a pleasant quality. Chinese cyclist persistently strums guitar strings irregularly.
Joined the free walking tour of the city. Stand out fact to add to the collection - Namibia and North Korea loved a bit of infrastructure/construction back in the day. Intinery now sorted in principle.
Spontaneously a group of us decided to stick our necks out and go to the Namibia Vs Guinea Bissau AFCoN qualifier. Me, 4 young professional Germans, an old German male nurse and a young French chef. Standard.
Grabbed a $1.20 taxi and quickly realised we were the only foreigners. The national stadium was in one of the townships. If Namibia win, they qualify for the competition. Passion is high. We buy our suspicious tickets and proceed to network our way through the various queue's, fences and slow entry flow. Heavy rain is intermittent as we stand in our t-shirts.
Eventually get into the stadium - for only 30 seconds I thought I was going to get crushed. Pretending to support
the teams of people's shorts it a healthy networking tactic. No seats inside, just communist-like concrete. Worm our way to the top tier. Germans go grab the first round of luke-warm beers. Start to make friends, bets are placed on the final score.
Sidenote: For the first half there was a heavily drunk gentleman giving ourselves and those around us a bit of hassle. Numerous attempts were made to communicate he should 'piss off' but the locals. Long story short, the start of the second half saw a little scuffle on the pitch with a few big lunches landed on said gentlemen around 3m infront of us. Grateful the group of girls pulled one lad flicking a knife blade from joining. Long story short, heart rates returned to normal, seats retained, and the game continues. Won't be forgetting the proximity to said event however
Sitting turns the standing as the superb Namibia continue to test the Guinea Bissau goal. We join in with the English chants. Simply clap and cheer for the other ones. Probably the most electric atmosphere I've witnessed, with very friendly people all around. Sadly a 0-0 draw was the final result.
Couple of
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Windhoek - courtesy of North Korea construction beers at the nearby pub after a 20 minutes taxi journey with a dead fuel gauge, 2 tyre squelling-corners and only 4 stalls of a manual car. Tough to see All Blacks lose. Grateful the snoring Brazilians from the night before has been replaced.
Day 4: Mellow day. Bit of admin early on, with a 6.30am ATM visit seeing me be acutely aware of my surroundings. Chinese cyclist/guitarist is still at it...
Further city sight-seeing and bit of afternoon sun relaxation. Also a chance to hydrate the body, because 5 litres isn't cutting it...
Day 5: Witnessed the most delirious drunk ever, with a German pissing into the bin and on the floor, smacking his bed repeatedly. Good night's sleep...
The day improved. Went to visit a nomadic tribe and gained insight into their skills and way of life. Beautiful beautiful people. Could only make smoke and not fire sadly. The Namibian plains are stunning. Have decided I am already set to return to grab a 4x4 Ute and do a self-drive tour.
Tomorrow I start my tour of Soussouvlei. Get in.
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