The day Originally we would pack our bags, give back the rent a car at Cape Town airport, fly to Joburg and connect to Zurich. Thank you Swiss Government for making a mess of things, and especially thanks to Nenads parents who told us not to worry about them, but to enjoy Namibia. They are looking forward to our pictures and stories.
Well, now we pack, give back the rent a car, fly to Joburg, go to Pretoria, make a Covid test, leave half of the luggage in the hotel, fly to Windhoeck and continue discovering Africas driest sub Saharan country, Namibia. Oh almost forgotten, restart a Malaria prophylaxes. The northern part of Namibia (Etosha), where we shall start, is during the rainy season a malaria risk area. As predicted, with the wine bottles from the Graff winery, we had a serious problem of space in our suitcases. Our host of African Dream bungalow took pity on us and donated an old, but very suitable bag she did not need any longer. We filled it easily.
Pretoria on a Sunday evening is sleepy. Few people out and about, also because of the Covid restrictions, which include no
alcohol sales on Sunday and a curfew at 10:00PM. In South Africa the cases are on the rise and the Government is tightening the measures. They even talk about a partial lockdown again for the country. One story we have to share with you, that will make you laugh. Nui got to know an officer at the Thai Embassy in Pretoria, when she tried to get the Embassies help for a visa extension. Craving for Thai food after a long absence, she asked her for a Thai restaurant in the city. Calling there, she got the owner on the phone, but had to hear, that it is the off day and the restaurant is closed. A longer chitchat in Thai followed, (Nenad smiling because he knew what Nui was up to), where Khun Frang (not Farang) agreed to open specifically for us and offered to cook herself, something she usually has an employee to do. The Thai lady food mafia (as Nenad calls it), brilliantly at work. And yes, the dinner was a great success, the food delicious and Nenad even got his Singha beer with it.
airport is. For a town of barely over 300000 inhabitants having an airport 50km out is not usual. The airport has a very small building for a capital, despite the runway being able to long haul aircrafts from Frankfurt or Addis Ababa. It is quite similar to the provincial airport of Klagenfurt in Austria. You have to walk from the aircraft to the building over the tarmac. As we were reaching our hotel, Nicole was still struggling to finalise our arrangements for Namibia. It was weekend, Christmas and due to the lack of tourists many facilities have temporary or permanently shut down. At least we knew where we go tomorrow, Etosha, the prime safari area in the country.
The Republic of Namibia has been inhabited since early times by the San, Damara and Nama people, who were bushmen, Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion, we have also seen happening in South Africa on the example of the Zulu, Xhosa and others. Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the Ovambo, have dominated the population of the country. In 1884 the German Empire established rule over most of
the territory, forming a colony known as German South West Africa. It developed farming and infrastructure, built a railway and established military bases.. Between 1904 and 1908 it perpetrated a genocide against the Herero and Nama people. The Himbas, a tribe of the Herero, are often found today in tourist places showing themselves (especially their ladies) in their traditional way (which is selling local handcraft. German rule ended in 1915 with a defeat by South African forces, who were part of the British colonial army. In 1920, after the end of World War I, the League of Nations mandated administration of the colony to South Africa. They imposed its laws, including racial classifications and later the full apartheid laws.
