Winhoek, Namibia
Folks,
Got into the Capital of Namibia Friday AM, and located a ‘Backpackers Lodge’ through someone else on the plane.
It is $8 / night, for a shared dorm room, Lounge, TV, kitchen - and excellent company of other people that have travelled through the continent - mostly Australians, New Zealanders (Kiwis) and Brits here, many of whom are on extended trips of six months or more.
I organised a trip down to some huge natural sand dunes, that have had an uncommonly large amount of rain this year. Water in the desert is unusual, and the fauna adapts to make best advantage of it for the short time it is around. Most years there is no rain at all in this place.
We are in the rainy season here - not the best for the Game Parks. During the dry season all the game comes to the waterholes, and is consequently easy to find. During the wet season they are more dispersed.
I and six others from the lodge went to a bar/grill (Kudu, Ostrich on the menu - Kudu was good). Most of the party were Aussie/Kiwi women, and we attracted a couple of German businessmen to our table, on the make .. of course. They were born in Namibia, had weathered all its political storms, and knew the place well. They paid for the drinks .. and we got an idea of the prejudices in this part of the world.
The other guy from our lodge had black blood in his ancestry - a little darker. Listening to his experiences of trying to hitch-hike in South Africa was interesting ..
Water is very scarce here - a major damper to development.
Gay rights much in the news here. Not much corruption, as far as I can determine.
I am sending this from the lodge - they have Email…
Cheers, Andy!