Journey Impressions: Windhoek

Windhoek: approx. 0.22 m inhabitants (2009)
Namibia: approx. 2.1 m inhabitants
Population growth (2008): 1.9%
People per km²: 2.6
Gross national income per person in 2008 PPP: 6,270 USD


29.11.2010 Windhoek: Today, our main responsibility was to ensure Westair carried out the 50-hour maintenance check at Eros airfield. I had agreed with CEO Peter Keil that it would be carried out there and that the plane would spend the next two months in a hangar. A brief phone call confirmed that he had prepared everything and an employee, Christian Heidenreich, had been appointed to meet us at the airport to organise everything else. On our arrival, we noticed the planes standing around - a wonderful sight for aircraft fans. Martin photographed all sorts of different types and was thrilled at all the rare aircraft. Then we met Christian Heidenreich and took 'Marie' to the hangar, sorted out the 50-hour maintenance, cleaning the plane and where it was to be left. Everything went smoothly. After about two hours, we left the airfield again, but had changed our plans for the rest of the day slightly.

Originally we had planned to fly from Windhoek to the west and on to the coasts to visit two towns there. But Christian Heidenreich suggested taking a four-wheel drive to the coast. He said it was a much more interesting experience to drive through the desert, over sandy roads and take in all the fantastic scenery. We decided to follow his suggestion and went off in search of a suitable car. To start with, we weren't very successful. But then we found a four-wheel drive right near to our hotel. Martin said he would be prepared to do most of the driving - which is on the left by the way. We rented the car for a total of three days.

Now that we'd sorted that out, at midday we went into a very attractive park in the centre of Windhoek and looked for a café. The café had tasty salads, cappuccino - in fact everything you could wish for. We now had a map of Namibia and an issue of the weekly German newspaper 'Die Zeit'. We also bought the 'Allgemeine Zeitung' - a German newspaper published in Namibia. We spent a few enjoyable hours reading in the café. This café was perfect for people watching. A lot of people, mostly Africans, used this park to go for walks. They played around with their children, or stopped in the café just like we did. Five young women were serving there. At one point a very attractive, rather plump and scantily dressed woman sat down three tables away from us. She began fairly blatantly to attract our attention. We grinned and smiled at the obvious chat-up moves. With my last cappuccino, the waitress suddenly gave me a little note. It was from the woman concerned. The note said: 'I am quite sure you would love to taste this package from Botswana. Hey, what do you think?' Definitely an interesting way of proposing an afternoon spent between the sheets! Martin was quite surprised when he read the note to me. We decided that I would write a brief reply. We picked up on Ella Cuyler's thoughts when we turned up at the Ellerman House and wrote: 'Thank you very much, you are looking very nice, but we are a couple'. I passed on this note to our charming neighbour. Both parties then fell about the place laughing. So she had understood the message, but we weren't sure whether she believed it or not.

Now it was time for us to work on our web site. Tomorrow we'll take our four-wheel drive to the coast.

30.11.2010 Walvis Bay and Swakopmund: In the morning we took the four-wheel drive to the Namibian Atlantic coast, where we wanted to visit Walvis Bay and Swakopmund in particular. This is considered a very German place with lots of German names and buildings for example.

The route we had been recommended was a sandy road via the Gamsbergpass. We drove through savannah and steppes, then mountains and finally desert. Gamsberg itself is 2,327 metres high. The drive took about five hours. At the beginning we also saw a lot of trees. The landscape was like the savannah that we had already seen in the Serengeti. After about an hour's driving, the trees slowly became scarcer. The landscape started to look like a steppe, in other words there were fewer trees, less grass, but more sand and rock. Eventually we arrived at a mountainous region with gorges, valleys and mountains. Gamsberg towered majestically above. We saw chamois and springbok and were surprised that there were zebras and monkeys here too.

On the way, our four-wheel drive unfortunately cut out completely on two occasions. The whole power supply was interrupted. As an old car mechanic, it was a good job that Martin knew his way around. He fixed the battery, reconnected it and we were able to drive on.

Once we had left the mountains, we entered what we believed to be a typical desert, with lots of sand, flat areas and practically no vegetation. We were all the more surprised to encounter ostriches in this area. We saw vultures and springbok again. It really was a living desert.

Martin enjoyed tearing along the wide roads, at times at 120 km/h, towards the coast. Eventually we reached Walvis Bay. Firstly we noticed all the palm-tree-strewn avenues there and secondly semi-fabricated buildings on the beach. Obviously they were developing the area for tourists. A large seaside resort was obviously in the making. It all looks a little bit like the Canary Islands.

We then continued on towards Swakopmund. And we really did find a small, very German town on the coast with a lighthouse as its landmark. It really could have been on the North Sea coast, exactly like the pier in St. Peter Ording near Husum. We had a break in café Anton which had German staff and coffee and cake. While we were there, we talked to the youthful-looking waiter. We asked him what was really vital to look at in Swakopmund if you only had ten minutes time. He said the lighthouse - which we had already seen. But he said that the second most important thing was the pier built by the British. Otherwise in his view there was nothing important in the town except for the fact that the bakeries, restaurants, banks and workshops often bore German names. We followed the young man's recommendation and left Swakopmund after having our coffee.

And by the way, I was glad that Martin was no longer interested in staying overnight there. He wanted to get back to Windhoek too, a much more interesting and vibrant town than Swakopmund.

We went on a tarmac road back to Windhoek and saw several heavy thunderstorms in the distance. About 100 km before Windhoek it started to pour with rain. The skies were so dark that photos without a flash would have been impossible. But our trip was well timed: when we arrived in Windhoek, the sun shone again and we looked out from the patio of Hotel Heinitzburg over the town.

01.12.2010 Windhoek: Today we'd planned a day's rest. We wandered through the centre of Windhoek and realised that it was pretty big. There were lots of modern shops. We were aware of the fact that by African standards people had a higher standard of living than many of the African towns that we had seen previously. Workshop manager Christian Heidenreich said that this was true. It looked as if people of all races lived together peacefully. In fact, it all seemed a matter of course.

In our view, Windhoek really is worth a visit. We'll be back on 1 February 2011, when we'll be continuing our round trip of Africa.