The Jovah Express

The sunset over Windhoek from the porch of our room
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Let me just start by saying that this was a 21 hour long bus ride...

But it was the easiest and cheapest way to get from Cape Town all the way up to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.  The bus ride started with a prayer asking God for our safe arrival to Windhoek.  This reminded Bill of a story he read in Lonely Planet Unplugged where the travel writers tell all about their tales of traveling.  The story's title is Bus Drop.

For those that have not heard of a "Bus Drop" let me tell you about them.  These are the tiny articles that appear in papers across the world when a bus fails to arrive at its destination because it is missing.  They are extremely common in Northern India and South America where poor maintenance + mountainous roads = buses plunging from the road.  They only make big headlines when there are foreigners on the bus, because these parts of the world treat them as normal occurrences.  So when we get on the bus and the first thing that we do is pray for a safe journey, this is the story that starts flashing through my mind.  Not exactly something you want at the start of 21 hours on a bus.

So many a prayer is a good idea, but it was after our first break that the real surprise came.  Instead of the regular in transit movie, they started with a religious rock band video and ended the video with contact details on how to hire this band.  Next, came the letter from a "Father" that "could change your life if you let it."  Then the missionary work that this bus company does with children followed by more religious advertisements until somewhere after an hour or so, some type of missionary movie was on.  I felt trapped on a Jovah Witness Bus with no escape because at least when they come to your door, you can politely close the door.  And so, we discovered why the bus ride was so cheap.

Not to mention we had the best seats in the house, surrounded by load South Africans who need to talk at the top of their lungs to each other at all times of the day and night.  I'd never been so thankful for my ipod, and for the first time, Bill would have gone nuts without his.

After enduring this long bus ride where the seats appear to be comfortable but mine kept sitting itself up all by itself.  And the foot rests suppose to help you recline further hurt your knees as it locks them in an uncomfortable position. So when we finally arrive to Windhoek, I was optimistic for a change of luck.  And so, I decided we'd just walk through town with all our bags trying to find a hotel for the night.  BIG MISTAKE!!!!

It's about 6:30 in the morning and we set out walking through the streets of Windhoek.  It appears to be a fairly big city, so I didn't think there would be a problem getting a place.  We walked a couple of blocks and turned down a street that looked like a hotel was at the end, but our "hotel" turn out to be an office building or something else.  So we kept walking and came to a taxi area.  We figured we'd just take a taxi to one of the places in the book, but the more we waited, no taxis appeared.  So Bill saw that it was just a couple of more blocks to one of the hostels, so we kept hiking it.  We arrived at the cardboard box to find out that they were all booked except for a tent.  I didn't feel like staying in a tent, so we kept going and saw another Hotel which was also fully booked.  Fully booked meaning they were booked the night before, and we were trying to find somewhere we could check in now as we were so tired.  And we'd seen a Protea Hotel, which is the same place that saved us the night we'd drove and drove until we made it to Whitbank in South Africa.  However, they had no available rooms either.  So we were tired of walking and decided to get a cab to the next place as it was far from where we were, the Chameleon.

Bill went in to make sure they had a room, and they said they did.  Though once Bill checked in around 8:30 by this time, the room wouldn't be ready until at least 10 but probably 11.  And so, no room but at least they had a common area with couches and some computers to use the internet.  We never did get into the room until 11:30.  But that time I really needed a shower.  The room was up a very steep flight of stairs and overlooked the pool. It was a cute room with wood polls around the room. I learned the hard way that you have to walk closest to the bed when trying to get into the bathroom because on my way out, I didn't and took a hard hit to the head.  After that, once I laid down I just feel asleep.

Bill went in search of food and activities while I slept.  I woke up to see the note he left as he did try waking me before I left, but wasn't very successful.  He returned with pizza and a salad. and also, a tour agent was coming to tell us about he tour in about 30 minutes.  So we ate happily as that was our first meal of the day.  And then, Bill went to wait outside for our tour agent as there was a locked gate.  He came and got me and I met Tongai who showed us his 8 day, 7 night tour leaving from Windhoek all the way to Victoria Falls but it left on Friday.  Bill got him to leave on Sunday, so we had time to go see the Sand Dunes, and our journey was all arranged except for the fact that his credit card machine didn't work.  So we'd have to take care of that tomorrow at the bank. The hostel we are staying at didn't have any rooms for Saturday night, so Tongai took Bill to another one he knew of to book a night.

When Bill returned, we decided to walk to town and try to find a faster connection to upload some pictures, get some dinner, and book our two night in the desert at the Sand Dunes.  However, it was after 5 and it was hard to find much open even though it was a weekday.  We finally found on internet cafe, but the connection wasn't any better, and we weren't having any luck finding a room, so we figured we should ask at our hostel.  So we didn't get dinner as we weren't sure what time reception closed, and went to ask their opinion on where to stay. They suggested the Desert Camp as it was the closest to the entrance of the park.  However, they were closed so we'd have to wait until morning to get a room.  So Bill rented the car we needed on the internet in the hostel and then went and got some KFC for dinner and off to bed we went.  Luckily, in the morning, the lodge had room and off to Sossusvlei we went.

Michelle