Around The World in 66 Days: 05/27/17

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Hanging with Brad and Angelina

Well...not really but we may have sat where they sat and for darned sure, saw what they saw. Here’s the background and the last post from our fabulous time in the country of Namibia.

For our last three days we saved the best for last: a stay at the Wolwedans’ Dune Lodge in southern Namibia near the world famous towering red sand dunes. All-inclusive food, drink and activities, our own guide and the most spectacular scenery we have ever seen. The place is small and intimate and the best we could determine there were at least three workers for each guest. The facilities were world-class and the employees made us feel that we WERE Brad and Angelina…of course for the price we paid we would have expected nothing less. But it was well worth it. And speaking of the Pitts, the connection was that while they awaited the adoption of their Namibian baby several years ago, they stayed at the resort. Our bartender said he served them and hung with them without really knowing who they were until later. Anyway, the superlatives don’t do the place justice so please view the pictures for this piece of paradise.

This series of pictures was driving into the resort and our accommodations.

Front of our bungalow

Back of our bungalow

The walk to our bungalow

The evening gathering place

Private planes..... much better than our very small car!

We were able to custom craft the activities with our guide and we choose a morning desert walk with a real Bushman, an afternoon game drive with sundowner and a horseback ride with sundowner the final day. The sundowner is an African tradition of watching the sunsets…that are breathtaking…with a totty. The Bushman walk was particularly fascinating as he pointed out so much about the desert that the layman would never know or see. We also spent quite a bit of time just hanging at our villa or the pool or library reading, napping and enjoying the spectacular scenery.

Morning bushman walk: We dug for spiders and found this White Lady deep in her hole covered by the silk she had woven for protection.

Sunrise on the walk

Bill and the Bushman, Udi

First day desert sundowner jeep ride

Riding to sunset...Click here for video! https://youtu.be/54h6nZlGSzY

Second evening we rode horses to the sunset. We preferred the jeep ride...

Our guides

Andrea's horse on the right and below

We quickly became friends with the bartenders, Salome and Stanley

The meals were gourmet; multi-course and the evening meals were always presented with much African flair. The guests ate at community tables at night, which enables us to interact and trade safari stories with interesting people from all over the world. This resort was totally "green". All power was solar (Andrea managed to blow a fuse in our bungalow by attempting to use a blowdryer), they grew all their own produce and fed the all the food trash to pigs that they later slaughtered for meals.

There were French, Germans, Swiss and even a few other Americans. Also, there was a Namibian family from Windhoek…Ron, Tonja, Zune and Krynauw Weber who were on holiday there for a couple of days. They were very interesting and fun folks. Daughter Zune is in training for a spot to represent Namibia in free-style swimming in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Son Krynauw was a 2013 world champion in the Triathlete competitions in Cyprus and a national karate champion in his weight class. Pretty impressive family. When they found out we were going to be back in Windhoek on Friday night they graciously invited us to their home for a “real” Namibian Braai. After texting our man Nico the taxi driver for a ride to their home, we had a most enjoyable evening with Ron and Tonya sharing commonalities as well as differences between our two worlds. AND, we had an outstanding Namibian meal! It was nice to see a different side of this beautiful country. They promised to someday make it to the United States and to contact us when they do.

Ron, Bill, Andrea, Tonja... what a memory!!!

Today is Saturday, May 27, 2017…day thirty-six of our trip and we are in the Windhoek airport awaiting the start of our long journey to segment three of our trip: Eastern Europe starting with Krakow, Poland. We’ll sleep tonight in Johannesburg and then catch the Air France overnighter tomorrow night back to Paris, to Amsterdam and finally…to Krakow. Sixty-two hours door to door.

In closing, Namibia is one of the most beautiful places in the world and we believe it is a great, reasonably safe place to visit on holiday or honeymoon. Tourism does not seem to have overrun the place at this point although even now it is already the number one driver of the economy. The people are friendly but many are very, very poor. In fact we were told that of the country’s two million population, about two thousand taxpayers pay ninety percent of the income taxes collected. It seems there is no easy path for the improvised to pull out of that…or do they even want do? We hope so.

Vast areas of nothing....

The exit from Etosha was an adventure in itself. Because of poaching, the Namibian police monitor and control park traffic. Seems the latest way for the poachers is to use drones to locate the specific animal of interest (those with tusks or horns) and then go in for the kill. Thus, the police search your car...not for drugs...but for drones! Oh, the technology. Anyway, upon reaching the gate we had four different people process us out: one to record our tag number in a log, one to spray our tires for hoof-n-mouth disease, one to search our car and one to inspect our exit papers, receipts and passports. Plus, there were five others sitting under the shade tree staring at us. Oh well, such poor productivity keeps many Namibian people employed and Lord knows, they need the income. So, after passing the drone check, we are off, heading south to our destination about 250 km's away...the town of Uis.

We began to see entrepreneurial locals with stands along the side of the road, frantically doing anything possible to wave us down and get us to stop and buy whatever they were selling...usually rocks or pieces of ostrich eggs. One could see their homes in the background and the poverty was just gut-wrenching...10x10 huts made from discarded tires, cardboard and whatever else they could find along the side of the road. It made us want to stop, give them all our money, keys to our car and tell them how lucky we were to live in the United States. But, we didn't stop because we'd then be obligated to buy and just couldn't bear to negotiate what was sure to be exorbitant prices for junk. We did find other ways to give money, as described later.

Give them credit, these bush people...members of the Owahimbas tribe...tried every marketing trick they could to stop the tourists. From parading their kids around on donkeys to the mommas going shirtless in all their tribal garb with their enormous tatas hanging down, they did it all! In fact, we later saw them in the local grocery store pushing carts with the same level of clothing. Quite an odd site to see.

We ate lunch here.

Our stop for the night was at a B&B in Uis, Namibia...no hotels between Etosha and the Atlantic Ocean, our stop the next night and too far to drive in one day. Adequate, but we found when we checked in that the place had new owners (two weeks on the job) who clearly had some learning to do and also were dealing with several maintenance issues such as hot water, no water, swamp-like pool, etc. BUT...in their attempt to be gracious hosts, combined with our desperate pleas for help, the owners wife, Michelle, washed, dried and folded every piece of clothing we had for U.S.$24.00. Our scheduled laundry day was three days earlier in Etosha and the government employees there were completely indifferent to our plight...even after our bribery attempts that usually always got them moving.

Uis is a very small community in the middle of nowhere that existed because of a tin mining operation that was there until ten years ago. Now, there's no work and nowhere to go to find work. Those that are motivated enough to do anything besides sit under a tree and drink beer try to sell rocks on the side of the road, offer to guard your car when you stop at a gas station, or extort money from unsuspecting tourists that take their picture. Anyway, we had a pretty decent supper at a rest camp a few blocks from our B&B, were in bed by 8:00 and after the room finally cooled off (no A\C), slept until daybreak.

Bill thanking the new owner for the great laundry service!

After a 200 km drive the next day, we dead-ended smack into the Atlantic Ocean. Beautiful turquoise water, waves crashing and ice cold. Very different from the American side! Our destination was the pretty German coastal city of Swakopmund. Plus, after seven nights roughing it, we were ready for a little pampering in one of the suites of the Hansa Hotel, a beautiful old hotel built in 1905. Walked the city, scouted a good German brewhaus for supper and Bill got a $6.00 haircut from Justy at the local hair salon. Very cool city...wish we could have stayed a bit longer. But, the dunes are calling so tomorrow we will continue 500 km south to see them and begin what we hope will be the highlight of our time in Namibia...three nights at the luxury lodge "Wolwedans" in Namibrand Nature Preserve.d