Namibia day 1 - Windhoek

We had a good flight from London to Johannesburg last night. I managed to fall asleep easily and  slept soundly for what I thought was the entire night, but actually it was 2am when I woke up. I managed to doze until we landed at 5.30am.

Going through Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport is always a stressful experience. It has a badly designed layout so you land at international arrivals, go through passport control with long queues and then have to go to domestic departures to check in for our international flight to Namibia and then go back to international departures for passport control and security clearance. Makes sense right?! Obviously we initially went to international departures and had to be directed back to domestic departures to check in. Then you go through another passport control for a second time and here the queues were horrendous. There were two people working on a bank of about ten passport desks. We eventually had to jump the queue or else we would have missed our flight to Windhoek, and this is despite having a 3 hour window between flights. It really is the worst airport to travel through, and you end up walking great distances as everything is so spread out. I suspect we are spoilt by T5 at Heathrow being so efficient.

Windhoek airport by comparison is very small and quiet. We were met at the airport by the agent and taken to our hotel The Weinberg, which is lovely and situated just outside the central area of the city. After showers and a delicious sushi lunch we were collected by a guide for a city tour. 

Namibia has just reached a population of 3 million people, despite its large size (it's about 3.5 times bigger than the UK). It is the second most sparsely populated country in the world, the first being Mongolia. Like most African countries it has had a very cruel history. It became a German colony in 1884 and from 1904-08 the Germans slaughtered the local tribes, which was the first major act of genocide of the 20th century. After the 1st World War it was administered by the League of Nations, and after the 2nd World war, it was administered by South Africa who wanted to annex it as another province, even enforcing a policy of apartheid. It finally got its independence on 21 March 1990 so Namibia is one of the 'newest' countries in the world. Consequently South African and German influence is prevalent here.

Windhoek is a sleepy city on weekends, nothing is happening as it is mainly active during the week with city workers. Our guide showed us the main German church, seen on the left, and the National Museum with the statue of their first president, Sam Njomo. After we drove through the quiet city streets, commenting how spotlessly clean the city was, and remarking how all the stores were brands we knew from South Africa, our guide said he wanted to show us the 'real' Windhoek. Just outside the clean and quiet city is a large settlement area known as Katatura, where most of the city's population live. This was bustling as people were doing informal trading, sitting in shebeens and going about their weekend activities. He then took us to the Oshetu Community Market where we saw some local foods - in extras, top left is mopani worms which are a favourite food, ground sorghum to make beer, various types of meal for porridges and baking. There was a large meat market which I found rather sickening and then people cooking this meat that had been lying around in the heat with flies all over it in open BBQs (braaivleis). We were the only white people there and our guide said they do not get many white visitors - yet we felt safe, me walking with my expensive camera around my neck and carrying my handbag. It was fascinating to see how the people of the city truly live. 

We also saw the presidents home, an enormous building that would dwarf the White House that was built by the North Koreans! As is happening all over Africa there is much investment by Chinese investors and we saw some impressive buildings that were built from that funding. Opposite the run down government hospital is the new swanky headquarters of the ruling political party, SWAPO. It is obscenely huge with gold statues when the hospital across the road is not fit for purpose.

Back at the hotel we had a huge thunderstorm which has helped to cool things down a bit - now iwe are going to supper on the rooftop terrace of the hotel and then an having an early night. Tomorrow we leave for Sossusvlei!