Nearly finished - Namibia to Cape Town

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Blog last updated on May 18th!?! Well, apologies for the lack of an update, but to be honest I haven't really had my writing head on and I've had other stuff to do, but today is designated as a computer day, so that means blog, photos, and all the other online stuff I've neglected over the past few weeks! So bear with me, because this could turn into a monster entry...

So the last update was from Swakopmund in Namibia, and that really feels like an age ago. So, I'll pick it up from there...

Namibia
As I mentioned in my last blog, I went out to the dunes for a bit of an adrenalin kick, and had a go at sandboarding and quad-biking. The actual sandboarding was good fun, but the climb up the hot sand-dunes was a killer, and not being the fittest person in the world it was a struggle. Being an absolute beginner to boarding (sand or snow) I think I (and some of the other novices with me) would have preferred mastering the basics on a lower slope first, rather than straight from the top of the big dune, but then again you need the height / steepness of the dune to learn on, so it's a bit swings & roundabouts. The good thing is I only really wiped out once, so sand didn't quite get into every nook & cranny!

In the afternoon, it was quad-biking time. There were about two dozen riders, and we split into two groups - the experienced (fully manual quads) and the beginners (semi-automatic quads), which included me (I thought I'd be confident on the quad, but having never used a bike gearbox (left foot gear shift / right hand clutch) it was the sensible thing to do. This was where the brilliant location of Swakopmund came into it's own - we were driven five minutes down the road from the hostel to the quad centre, got our bikes & briefing and road straight into the dunes! They were that close to the town centre & sea front. After half an hour we were ploughing along the dunes, swooping this way & that, and trying to avoid the really big drops! One swoop round nearly caught me out with a sharper drop than I was expecting, which got the adrenalin racing, and then I got bogged down when I couldn't drop down the gears fast enough to give me enough revs to pull up the climb. Naturally, like all drivers / riders do in these situations, I blamed the machinery 😊 All in all though it was a very good afternoon out, finished off with a view of the sunset from the dunes looking out over the Atlantic.

From then on, I was solo from the truck - as I mentioned previously, the truck was going down the west coast to Cape Town via the dunes and canyons and wineries, and I was going independently via central Namibia and the capital Windhoek. I used the InterCape Mainliner bus service from Swakopmund to Windhoek, which was economical and comfortable, but arrived almost an hour later than expected, so it was dark on arrival, and I couldn't get a view of the place. I stayed at a hostel called the Cardboard Box, which despite the name was quite nice, and was fine for the weekend. And that was the next problem - I wandered into town on Saturday morning, and noticed that all the shops were due to close at 1 or 2pm, and stay closed until Monday, and that went for most things in the centre too, so I had a quick look around, found that there wasn't much to do, and retired to the hostel. To be fair, I had intended to do a blog entry then and there, but had to spend a lot of time faffing with my UK>SA plug adaptor which was trying to fry my plugs thanks to a dodgy terminal - once I'd conquered that I'd lost my creative flow!

On the Sunday, I met up with Laura who had been with us on the truck from Nairobi to Vic Falls, then with another company to Swakop, and was rejoining the truck at Cape Town. She was getting the same bus that I had got from Swakop, then connecting to the overnight Sleepliner bus to Cape Town. After I had been delayed I was expecting her bus to be late as well (a long section of road works was our problem), but she arrived early, meaning our Cape Town bus left on time. The Sleepliner was a lot more comfortable than the Mainliner, with more leg room, almost fully reclining seats, and less people travelling which meant that we could have a pair of seats each so we could spread out even more. The bus journey was 20hrs (about 800miles / 1300km), and included crossing the Namibia-South Africa border at about 4am. Going on previous border crossings with the truck I wasn't looking forward to queues and paperwork and questions at that time, but it was a straightforward in-and-out process, except for having to unload all the bags to be searched (a new security requirement for all the SA borders introduced pre-World Cup apparently, but not in evidence when I flew to/from SA later on!). Once we were in daylight we were pushing on through South Africa heading to Cape Town.

South Africa (Part 1)
To some extent, this was the bit of the trip that I had any expectations about and was really looking forward to - a total of 16 nights in Cape Town (in two separate sections and two different hostels), and slap bang in the middle of World Cup build-up, and being in town when two of the group games were taking place (Uruguay v France and Italy v Paraguay).

First thoughts about Cape Town - stunning. The backdrop of Table Mountain looming over the bowl of the city centre, leading down to the redeveloped Victoria & Alfred Waterfront (and that is correct), and the new crown jewel of the city, the Green Point stadium built for the World Cup.

The first stop was the Backpack & Africa Travel Centre, where I was reunited with the truck to catch up with the tales of the past few days, and unsurprisingly the antics in Stellenbosch. The whole group was together for a few more days before the Oasis Overland truck left on the 'Southern Explorer' section of the trip to Johannesburg, with about a dozen of the guys & girls who've been with us from Nairobi. The rest of the group gradually went their own ways, some staying around Cape Town, others heading to other parts of SA or heading home. After nearly two months together it was a shame to split up as we'd got on really well as a group and made some good friendships, but thanks to social networking we'll all probably stay in touch. The main plan for this first stay in Cape Town was to learn my way round & get accustomed to the place, and then if there was something I really wanted to do that I couldn't fit in the first I could do it when I returned later in the month.

As it turned out, we managed to hit a lot of the must-do's in this first trip. The city sightseeing bus tour was very useful and gave a great trip around the city, up to the mountain, out to the beaches and resorts, and around the Waterfront. A group of us also hired a couple of cars to drive out to Cape Point, and we spent a great day out visiting the Cape of Good Hope NP, and calling in at various towns and resorts, including visiting the penguins at Simons Town, which were funny and very photogenic!

The city centre is based around Long Street, which runs from one end of the city bowl to another and contains all sorts of shops, bars, restaurants, hostels, hotels, and tourist traps. There are lots of museums and attractions around the city, and everything is well signposted. It also feels secure during the day with lots of security guards and police around to watch the streets - there is still an edginess around at night, but sticking to the Long Street bars & restaurants is safe enough as long as the usual safety rules are followed.

Anyway, after a week here it was back up north to Gaborone.

Botswana
After an earlier, unscheduled flying visit to Gaborone I flew for my scheduled visit. As I'd already travelled around a lot of the country I had a good idea what to expect and where to go this time, and where the massive potholes were that I needed to avoid in the hire car this time (incidentally, I used Holiday Autos to arrange a hire car from the airport at quite late notice, and they got me a very good deal, almost half the price of the same from the hire car company directly! - bizarre booking a car hire from South Africa, for use in Botswana via a UK agency!).

At Jo'burg airport (after the flight from Cape Town) I was shocked at how few passengers there were to fly - less than 30 for a 120-seat plane (admittedly given the expense for a 40min flight there were probably cheaper ways to get between Jo'burg and Gabs).
I met up with Siân for the week and travelled around Gabs a bit, managed to successfully avoid most of the things we set out to find, but had an enjoyable week all the same. Except for the rugby result. And the lack of road signs. And the lack of street markings and lines. And the potholes.... 😊
So nothing earth-shattering to report from Bots, just a nice week spent with a good friend.

Then it was the short flight back to Jo'burg (a lot busier this time, 60-70 passengers I'd reckon!), for something else I'd really been looking forward to - the train ride back to Cape Town.

South Africa (Part 2)
Getting to the station it was straight into the Premier Classe lounge and a warm welcome, with juice, coffee, and snacks on offer while we waited for the train to be ready to board. There were about 30 people travelling (which is pretty normal numbers apparently, although it's increased and fully booked on the Jo'burg-Cape Town route during the World Cup).

We were then greeted by the train manager and invited to board and settle into our cabins before meeting up for an introductory briefing and complementary drinks. Onboard, I'd booked a twin cabin to myself and it was fantastic, very comfortable, plenty of storage for bags, lockers, power points, and two opening windows to allow great photo shots.

The introductory drinks set the tone for the service we were going to receive during the trip - very personalised (not difficult with 30 passengers and about 10 crew), and very luxurious. We got our meal schedule and it was feeling more like a cruise than a train ride.

The meals were fantastic - a five course evening dinner, full breakfast and a three-course lunch plus morning and afternoon teas, all freshly prepared and silver-served, with only the alcoholic drinks being chargeable extras (and even they were reasonably priced rather than captive-audience prices).

Travelling across South Africa gave me a great chance to see some stunning scenery, especially the area around the Paarl Mountains Nature Reserve, with huge peaks and valleys lined with vineyards. It was an amazing journey, well worth doing and reasonably priced compared to what you get for your money compared to a 2hr flight between the cities!

So, after a 25hr journey we arrived at Cape Town exactly on time, and I moved into the hostel for my second stay, this time Penthouse on Long, which, unsurprisingly given the name, is on the 6th (top) floor of a building on Long Street!

It's a strange place - the building doesn't look much from the outside, and other than the floor below, which has another hostel, it's filled with office blocks, government departments and all sorts of small enterprises. However, the hostel here is lovely, very well decorated, nice rooms, and a good lounge / social area and rooftop bar & bbq area (sampled for the first time last night and very nice it was too!). The place (the hostel and Cape Town generally) is now noticeably filled with people of all nationalities ahead of the World Cup - interestingly it's the USA that have the highest number of people travelling to SA during the tournament, although there are a fair number from Australia and the UK here in the hostel too (and not as many French / Italians as I was expecting given that they are playing here first).

So I'm settled here now, with a few bits and pieces planned for the next few days to finish off my trip. I now need to go and upload some photos while it's between Le Mans practice sessions and I can concentrate properly!

I'll leave it at that for now, and follow up with an update before I leave next week (or maybe from the lounge at Doha on the way back) with thoughts on the World Cup - vuvuzelas and all 😊

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Comments

[Mum]

Nearly done
Well that was a marathon update. Good to hear of all the various trips, falls and travels around South Africa. I only thought to check FB just before going to bed because we're off for the weekend and there was all that reading to do!! No need for a book at bedtime tonight. We will await the final instalment before hearing of everything first hand next week. What do you fancy for your first meal back home? - Just don't expect five course silver service!!!