Namibia - Days 9-11, Windhoek and the adventure back home!

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We left around 9 the next morning to head back towards Windhoek. I was a bit relieved to go home and sad to leave this beautiful place. The scenery was nice, though noticeably less nice than the previous days...

Day 9

Our first order of business was to take the Covid test. Again, I was nervous. Was like the 5th in line in our group at the local clinic - ready to get it over but afraid to go first. It was a long process. We had to sit on little chairs in a line, fill out lots of paperwork, pay our bill, and wait our turn. There were two guys performing the tests outside, so you could see the people in front of you. The girl in front of me... I know she had been traveling these last few months and so had many tests... The technician blocked my overall view of her, but when I heard her moan and saw her leg shoot out, yeah, I was dreading it. It was my turn next, I told the guy to be gentle, and he just laughed. Unlike my other test, I am pretty sure he shoved it up there another inch - I idly wondered if I would lose actual brain cells. As I walked past the line, a couple people who knew I was nervous, asked how it was - I was still rubbing my nose at this point and said "ouch!" I could still feel it 30 minutes later.

We were all to meet up at this Portuguese restaurant next door after the test, and we had a big table reserved upstairs in what seemed like a conference room. People who had come in and had gone through many tests concurred it was one of the worst they had had (Kenya apparently was the worst according to multiple people - I noted that for planning my next trip). It was a very nice restaurant however. One of the girls in my car (Colombian) saw that they had paella and wanted it and I love paella too, so she, another guy and I all shared the paella and an order of clams, and later a dessert. I also got a big beer, which helped take my mind off that god awful test.

By the end of the meal, it was around 4pm and the guides were ready to take us to the same guest house. Then, we apparently had a dinner reservation at a famous steakhouse at 6:30. Say whaaaaat? They failed to mention that. We had all got decent meals and were stuffed. And we were supposed to eat steak in like 2 hours??? We convinced them to move the reservation to 8pm, so they did. Thankfully! We went back to the Uzuri Guesthouse to our same rooms and rested a bit before our dinner. I think we took nice showers too.

We then went to Joe's Steakhouse for dinner - which is a fun, busy place. Plenty big enough to ensure social distancing. It was set in multiple little alcoves, each with their own decor. George was so excited to eat here I think - he was looking forward to this meal. The drivers were split at either end of the table. At this point... I had kind of had enough meat for the week. I really don't eat that much meat in general and it seemed like that is all I had all week, so I was not planning to get steak. Instead, I got a nice healthy salad.... with a side of steak. Oryx steak medallions. Lol. It was actually very good - the dressing with the salad was good and there were lots of vegetables, and the steak was actually the best oryx I had of the trip - well done and tender. At that time, the guides started giving out Herero tribe names for each of us. Mine was Uerisuvera (Uerii), which in English means "she love herself" - I was like.... how exactly should I take that...? They assured me it was positive, but I have my doubts.

Day 10 - Windhoek

Mid-morning, our guides took us on a little tour of Windhoek while waiting for our test results. We parked at the beautiful Christuskirche (Christ Church) in the center of town - gorgeous church. However, it was closed due to Covid, so we could only take exterior shots. The church was built following the wars between the Germans and the local tribes (such as our Herero). It was consecrated in about 1910. The Germans first came to Windhoek in about 1890, so they weren't here for very long, but apparently the buildings with the red roofs were German architecture, and there were many. Namibia gained its independence in 1990, following the abolishment of apartheid in South Africa, so it is one of the youngest countries in the world. The Independence Museum (also closed) was a tall building right next to us and built by Koreans - looking at it, I was not surprised. Then we walked a little further to the "Old Fort" (also closed), from where we had a good view of the city below as well as the Freedom Memorial which was a beautiful testament to what the native people had gone through. It was a sobering discussion George had with us, and looking at the base of the memorial with the malnourished, enslaved people versus the triumphant couple at the top, it was a memorable moment.

We walked past the Botanical Gardens to the Parliament House and Garden, also closed, where we had more great views of the city. In the past, the native people's homes were razed to make room for more long term accommodation, larger than anything they had previously had. On the surface, it seemed the right thing to do, but George explained to us how the many tribes were separated in the city based on their tribes. They were put in different parts of the city, buildings identified by blocks and numbers. This kept them from really gathering with each other and from forming a collective group of resistance. In time, however, things seem to have worked out.

He did not go much into it, but one thing I really liked about Namibians was that they seemed to be genuinely happy people. In fact, that is how George described his people many times - happy. Despite their unfortunate history, there did not seem to be any underlying animosity. However, soon, after I came to this realization, the guides drove us to the other part of the city, the far end, where people lived in their blocks of 'silver houses' - essentially corrugated metal homes. It was pretty impressive though, (we did not get out of the cars), as it each home or unit was clearly labelled either by number or by what it was; I saw a few 'fast food' restaurants, a 'barber', a garage, etc. It was kind of neat. More on that later.

We then went back to town through crazy traffic, and went to a nice outdoor restaurant. Sigh, again, another two hours for food; actually at this point the guides started to get annoyed. I just got a spinach peanut satay and as I was almost the last to eat, the waiter told me they ran out of couscous and would I be ok with rice. Yeah, whatever. The guides had brought out Mopane worms for everyone to try (George loved them); I did not partake as I had had them in Zimbabwe. They are not bad by any means, much better than I though, very earthy and definitely worth trying, but I was ok on that particular day not to eat them.

We then went to a local craft market. I got a few souvenirs but nothing really screamed at me, which was very disappointing. Usually I like to get a piece of art or something. Then we went back to the hotel. At this point our guides were officially done. So, we were on our own for the next 24 hours. However, it was our guide Elvis's birthday, so many of us decided to take him out for drinks later. I fully intended to, but I decided to stay in.*. At various times, everyone met at a wine bar where they had the guides come meet them, then they went to a club where George's friend was performing, only they had just missed it (so sad!). That club closed at midnight and the police came to enforce people leaving. However, they wound up going to the home of one of the guides brothers, in silver town! This I was actually a bit jealous about. Apparently, there was a dj in the garage and like 11 of our group went and enjoyed another few hours with the locals.

Day 11 - Heading Home - the Adventure continues...

In the morning, I had breakfast, and as per usual, my roomie and I were packed and ready to go right on time. Other people.... not so much. Our team leader was frustrated a bit. But we were able to go pick up our Covid results (all negative) and make our way to the airport. It is small of course, with like no flights. But it took forever. We were basically in two lines for the ticket counter and a girl in front of me was denied boarding because of some issue - wow that sucks. It was my turn next - and I was denied boarding!!!! What? Then another girl was too! Just the three of us ultimately, everyone else had no trouble. As an American, I am very un-used to having this type of issue, and our leader was also American, so it made zero sense. We all had our Covid results. We all had our return permits. We all had valid visas and passports. It was so strange.

One woman took our passports and disappeared while the three of us and our leader waited. After everyone else went through, she came back and handed me my passport and ticket. Phew! They never explained what the issue was. I still don't bloody know! I was waiting for a bit, but they all told me to go ahead. I just assumed they would also get theirs shortly. One was Eastern European and the other was Indian, but literally born and raised in the UAE. So I went through immigration and security - the security guy asked me who our group was and if we all knew each other. My answer: well, we all do now!

We waited around and they started to announce the boarding for the flight, and the others still had not made it through. What was the problem!?! We were all getting nervous. Our leader said at that point they were in some kind of immigration office. Crazy. Finally, we saw one, then the other make it through and we all clapped and cheered, making them the center of attention of the hall for a few minutes. However, they only had hand written boarding passes, and still had no ticket onward to Dubai from Addis. Yikes.

The next complication was our layover in Addis was a scant 25 minutes. And our boarding time was pushed back and the flight looked packed. Sure enough we took off about 10 minutes late, pretty much sure we would miss our next flight. P was sitting across from me and we made plan to run for it, but when we arrived, I was like, don't bother, we're going to be shuttled on buses. Still we made it to the first bus, and I put us right near the door and as soon as we arrived, we made a beeline - there were like 5 of us together on this first bus. So, P, is a runner, a very very fast runner and I quickly lost sight of him. We all had to go through security still, then run to our gate. By the time we got to the gate, P ran and told us there was another flight to Dubai in 40 minutes and to get our tickets at the next gate, as he had. We got there and they started to process our tickets, while P stayed at the old gate to send everyone else onward.

At some point, they started sending others from our group BACK to the first gate for tickets because I guess they were boarding the flight at this point. And still, the two girls were trying to get their tickets to Dubai. Ugh. It was soooooooooooo stressful. I honestly did not think they would make this one, but at least there are multiple flights a day to Dubai on various airlines, so much better than Windhoek. I was in my seat when the one (Indian) girl came on and I was so happy for her, and she was also sitting in the middle seat right next to me! We were happy that if we had no seats between people, at least we knew each other and were in the same travel bubble. So, the flight back was not too bad at all thankfully. I just watched a couple of movies, but did not get to sleep.

Our final adventure was upon getting into to Dubai, we were fast-walking / running from our gate at the far far end of the empty terminal to the immigration area where we had to get yet another Covid test - we were trying to beat the queue of the millions of people on our flight. Thankfully, I made it through fairly quickly and only had to wait about 5 minutes. And due to the stress of traveling that day, I did not give a flying fig about the Covid test and just wanted to get home. The test was much much better than the one in Windhoek, though a poke in both nostrils. But at least it did not hurt! The customs line grew quickly, another 10 minute wait, but my luggage was ready by the time I got to the carousel, and I basically waved to the group members who had made it through by then and said "See ya!"

Thank god I was still working from home, so I got about 4 hours of sleep from 6-10am before I started my day. Seriously, such an exhausting (but very fun) trip!!!



*I really enjoyed this trip, but I was in kind of a weird mood the whole time. A bunch of different reasons I think. I was not used to being around people after having been isolating for 8 months - I really kept my social circle very small during this time period. I had a lot of work to do and it was always on my mind. I was not in the best of shape and it was annoying me. Our group seemed pretty young and happy (ugh! :p ). And it was just a long trip at 11 days.... I think I would have been super happy in a normal year, but 11 days during this time was a huge adjustment for me. Oh well, hopefully I will be back to normal on my next trip!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Tasty
Looks great.