Hello, Namibia!

From Springbok, we drove on to the border with Namibia 🇳🇦. As we did so, the scenery became increasingly dry and rocky. However, contrary to all expectations, as we arrived at the border in Vioolsddrift, the heavens opened! The unexpected heavy rain continued through the whole of our first night in Namibia – just our luck!

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, has as its western border, the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although it doesn’t border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres of the Botswanan right bank of the Zambezi River separates the two countries.

Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. It is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa and has been inhabited since pre-historic times by the San, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the Ovambo, have dominated the population of the country.

Today Namibia is one of the least densely populated countries in the world. It has a population of 2.55 million people and is a stable multi-party parliamentary democracy. Agriculture, tourism and the mining industry – including mining for gem diamonds, uranium, gold, silver and base metals – form the basis of its economy, while the manufacturing sector is comparatively small.

The border crossing into Namibia took a while with so many people in the group, but we all got through without issues. On entry to Namibia, we immediately crossed the Orange River, which marks the border with South Africa. From there, it was just a 20-minute drive to our first campsite. Felix Unites. We arrived just before 5, so Laban did a quick walk around with us to show us where everything is before it got dark. It looks like a lovely site, right on the banks of the river. We were warned that it’s caterpillar season, so we shouldn’t pitch our tents under any trees, and we should be careful as we walked around site. Apparently, if any part of your skin touches them, they leave a sticky residue that causes severe itching and a rash. Just after getting this warning, we came across one. There’s a photo attached to this footprint. You can’t really tell from the picture, but it was about 15 centimetres long. Its markings were incredible!

After the orientation, we managed to get our tents up between showers. Mark’s group was on kitchen help duty, so he went to chop veg while I sorted out stuff on the truck. The same couple who have been late for everything haven’t yet participated in any of the truck chores! I took the opportunity to have a word with her in the washroom. I was very polite! She took it quite well. As we came out, her partner joined us, so I repeated it all to him. He thanked me and promised that they would do the necessary from now on!

While dinner was cooking, some of us went to the bar to enjoy a drink around the firepit. There are some lovely people in the group. It’s nice to get to know them better.

Henry prepared pumpkin soup followed by pasta bolognaise for dinner. It was warming and filling – just what we needed with the downpour going on! It was blowing a gale, too!! So much for desert conditions! We were late having dinner, so by the time we’d washed up (my group was on dishes duty), all we wanted to do was go to bed, hoping for a better night’s sleep than last night.Lue lisää