Initial Impressions of Namibia

Initial Impressions of Namibia

Its dry, very dry! Our visa allows us to stay up to 90 days in Namibia and we fully intend to use this time to tour the length and breadth of the country.

Distances between ‘things’ are greater than in Europe and we easily drive a couple of hundred kilometres in a day. Fortunately, diesel is reasonably priced at about 80p per litre and the European spec low sulphur content of 50ppm is widely available. The distance between petrol stations can also be enormous and we are pleased that we can carry 600 litres or 2,600 km of diesel.

Shopping centres are also sparse. To this end we have installed a second fridge/freezer so that we may carry a good stock of foodstuff. Food prices are similar to the UK. Something new to us is that you are able to refill water bottles at the supermarkets here – what a great idea. We have used the same three plastic water bottles since arriving. Why can’t Europe do this? But plastic bags are still given freely.

Surprisingly, and counter to our expectations, credit cards are widely accepted at shops, restaurants and petrol stations. Our Halifax Clarity card is proving very useful.

Restaurant meals have been excellent and cost less than the equivalent meal in the UK. Biltong (dried and cured meat) is sold everywhere and is an excellent accompaniment to beer!

Francine has crossed another item of her ‘bucket list’ having jumped out of an aeroplane at 10,000 feet tethered in tandem to a strapping South African and free falling back to earth until their parachute opened and delivered them safely back to terra firma. Namibia offers a very competitive price, a good safety record, wonderful scenery and without all the European ‘red tape’.

Namibia is definitely set up for camping and there are many tourists that have rented 4x4s here – but they all seem in an awful hurry and are hammering around the tar roads to cover ground.

We have favoured the excellent gravel side roads and prefer to ‘free camp’ rather than use the paid camping where we can. Twice we have driven to a farm and have been granted permission by the farmer to camp on their land. Both times resulting in an ‘experience’. The first farmer was deeply religious and told all about the time he carried a huge cross from Walvis Bay to Windhoek (several hundred kms) and the second invited to use his private camp adjacent to a lake on his farm.

Mobile communications are sporadic; when we have reception {normally in the towns) we are able to use the internet and call home.

Namibia’s land area is three times that of the UK, but has a population density of 3 persons per square km. That’s 86 times less than the UK! There are not many people about! One of our farmer friends told us he didn’t like the capital Windhoek – “its too busy and nowhere to park”. We thought Windhoek to be the most sleepy capital we have visited, with plenty of parking. He told us that five cars had passed his farm yesterday – it was a busy day! I wonder what he would think of London??

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