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Published: September 20th 2006
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Bloemfontein was a major disappointment. There was nothing to do and the place I stayed in was appalling. I arrived at the Naval Hill Backpackers and was given a room only to have it taken away from me again because it had already been allocated to someone else. They then put is in a shed type building, which I had to share with 2 other people. It was the coldest and smelliest room I have ever stayed in in my life. In addition it rained all day. I was extremely glad to get away from the place. After my night from hell in Bloemfontein I travelled on the Intercape Mainliner to Upington from where I caught another Intercape coach to Keetmanshoop in Namibia. The Intercape was pretty expensive but they did give me free tea and coffee at regular intervals and I was priveleged enough to be able to watch awful movies the whole way to Keetmanshoop. Unfortunately I arrived in Keetmanshoop at 1 o'clock in the morning and I had nowhere to stay. I ended up staying a freezing cold night at the petrol station with a Zimbabwean who was going to Windhoek and a Namibian whose car had broken
down. I spent the night discussing things like what to do about Robert Mugabe and at 6am I finally managed to get a lift in a lorry that was going to Luderitz. Despite the fact that the Luderitz tourist information will try and tell you otherwise, Luderitz is a ghost town. I spent my whole time there wondering where all the people were. It was freezing cold and foggy so I wasn't exactly in the mood for sightseeing. Instead I sat in a German cafe and I tucked into a huge slice of Blackforest Gateau. I had originally planned to spend two nights in Luderitz as I was exhausted after my petrol station ordeal. I couldn't face it though so I jumped on a minibus to Windhoek the next morning. It was an 800km journey so I didn't get to Windhoek until the evening. I stopped at several service stations on the way and I was amazed at how good they were. They were the best I'd seen in Africa and they were significantly cleaner than any service station I have been to in the UK. There is virtually no public transport in Namibia and I hated the idea of
having to go on a tour so I decided that I would try and hire a car instead. I spent my first night in Windhoek at a place called the Cardboard Box, which was unfortunately a classic backpackers. On the plus side they had a travel agency and they said that they would arrange the car hire for me. I spent my day in Windhoek enjoying the delicious German food and visiting the museums and the art gallery in the city. Windhoek is just like a European city. It is amazingly clean and it really doesn't feel like Africa at all. The next morning I was due to pick up our car, so I took a taxi to the rental agency. Unfortunately I had never hired a car before and I hadn't realised that I needed a credit card. It looked like the car thing was off until the very helpful guy who I was dealing with told me that he would see if the Cardboard Box would let me pay them by debit card and then pay the agency on my behalf. The Cardboard Box refused but the guy told me not to despair as he knew someone else
who'd be able to help. So everything was fine. He told me to go and get a coffee and come back in half an hour. When I returned he told me that the Cardboard Box had called him and said that they would be able to help after all. I would have to go to their office in the city and sort it all out. His cousin kindly dropped me off, but I got a shock when I got to the office. I was told that my tour was about to leave and that it would cost 6000 Rand each. I couldn't believe the cheek of it. I just told them that I wasn't interested and walked out, at which point I heard myself being described as time wasters - incredible! I thought I'd take a risk and go back to the car rental agency to see if there was still any chance of sorting things out with the other guy. Everyone was outraged by the way the staff at the Cardboard Box had behaved. When they had rung the car hire people they had implied that they were helping out with the car not a tour. Anyway it all
turned out well in the end. A really helpful guy let me pay him with a debit card and he didn't even take a deposit. When I finally went to pick up the car I was told that I had been upgraded from a Toyota Corolla to a VW Caddy. It was almost the size of a minibus and I was a bit apprehensive. Apart from 2 days in South Africa I hadn't driven since obtaining my license a year and a half ago. All the same I was delighted to have avoided going on a tour and I was in a pretty good mood when I finally left Windhoek.
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walter
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Bloemfontein's Naval Hill Backpackers is a hell-hole of note. It is decidedly the worst backpackers in South Africa. The owner, Terry, is a psychopath who threatened me with physical violence when I wanted to change my mind and not stay there for two weeks as originally intended. Rather pay a bit more for decent accommodation. You WILL regret staying there. It is disgusting and scary. It is like something from a horror movie.