The Wandering Chocoholic

Full circle

An early rise this morning, breakfast, down with the tents. I think we’ve finally got the routine down pat. Too bad it’s our last night of camping. George was under the hood of the truck fiddling with the transmission, so we wandered over to the edge of the campsite to watch the sunrise, and saw an oryx just sitting there right nearby. I’m amazed that wildlife manages to survive in this desert climate.

Today was the last day of the tour, and was basically just a driving day, with nothing in particular on the itinerary. We’d wheedled George into agreeing to drive a few minutes out of the way so we could stop again at the bakery in Solitaire for more apple pie. Other than that, we basically just watched the scenery go by. At one point, we stopped to take a photo of a tree growing out of a rock, and there was a Japanese couple in front of us taking the same photo. We looked and saw that they were riding in a tow truck, with their vehicle strapped on the back of the truck. Believe it or not, it was the same car we’d seen buried in two feet of sand at Sossusvlei yesterday. They’d busted the clutch trying to get out and had to get towed all the way back to Windhoek. Yep, I guess they learned their lesson.

Lunch was another stop at the side of the highway. We got back to Windhoek early afternoon, and I was dropped off at my hostel. I said my goodbyes and we all promised to keep in touch, though I doubt we will, to tell the truth. Everyone on the tour was friendly enough, but it wasn’t the kind of group that really gelled in that way, and ten days is a long time to spend in the company of the same people. That’s the downside to this tour thing; unless you get really lucky with a group and just click right away, you can find yourself searching for polite conversation long past the time when an indie traveler would’ve moved on. But, c’est la vie. Namibia would’ve been near-impossible to see as a solo traveler, so I certainly have no regrets about doing the tour.

One last hurrah

A twenty minute hot shower later, I’d mostly rinsed off the dust and sand and was feeling like a presentable human being again. I took care of some necessities, like flight confirmations and booking arrangements for tomorrow. And then I hung out with an American guy from Botswana and a Dutch guy who’s been here so long he’s practically part of the furniture, and we watched the tennis for a while. Windhoek being so religiously Christian, there’s literally nothing open on Sundays, so I wasn’t missing much in town. Oh, that’s the other thing — the group of schoolchildren who were here last week are gone, but they’ve been replaced by a group of teenage missionaries from South Africa. Needless to say, I hightailed it out of that conversation before they got the idea to try to convert me.

For dinner, I met up with Nathan, who is a friend-of-a-friend who’s living and working in Windhoek. He and I had exchanged emails last week, but he’d been away in Europe and just got back to town this afternoon. Despite being tired, he arranged dinner with a few of his friends at Joe’s, a local restaurant/pub/institution that’s famous (infamous?) among all those who visit Windhoek.

After all this time on tour with polite strangers, it was refreshing hanging out with Nathan and his friends, who instantly “got” me and my weird sense of humour. They also had good advice on the local brews that didn’t taste like water. We swapped travel stories for a while until the staff started making noises about wanting to close, and then one of his friends dropped me off at my hostel, and we all promised to stay in touch. Now, that, I believe.

It’s my last night in Africa and I’m sad to be leaving tomorrow. This has been an absolutely incredible trip in every way, and I’m definitely not ready to go back to reality just yet. But alas, all good things must come to an end.