Wednesday, 6 September 2017

The end of our time in Angola approaches and a holiday in Namibia

September 6 and the packers have arrived to prepare our air and sea shipment to Kuwait.
I am sad to be leaving. I will miss Africa dearly.
Two weeks ago we took a wonderful 11 day break across the border to Namibia. We spent most of the time relaxing in Windhoek and also a 3 day camping trip to Etosha national wildlife park.


On a walk through Daan Viljoen Game reserve outside Windhoek

A nice wander through the reserve


Windhoek, a city of curiosities. Our whopping cakes at Mugg n Bean....took me three days to eat mine.
Sickly sweet treats

Barnee..

...and Chicky!

And Diddle Daddles?!

Namibia has had a fair share of meteorite showers


We knew it as midwives but I had not seen it before now...
A unscheduled trip to the dentist for Jeroen....this sign set the tone for the very friendly clinic


We enjoyed a day to the Windhoek museum, fort, and church. The church is a mix of designs...I saw a commentator mentioning it looked a bit like the Gingerbread House in Hansel and Gretel...I can see it!
A forgotten relic hidden away in the old fort


Inside the Christ Church


The Gingerbread church

Such a unique spot for a church...on a traffic island on Robert Mugabe Avenue
 

Inside the museum, tributes to the many victims of Namibian land wars.



Returning to Namibia after eviction

School children deposed to Angola.




War scenes in Namibia

Glory..

...and Freedom
 
 
Kori bustard...Jeroen insisted on calling him a bastard






 


Finally, some cheetah



A Namibian cobra


On to the big fellas.






A parade of elephants heading to the waterhole at dusk


We came across these two guys about to have a scuffle.





Take that!


A tower of giraffes
 It was wonderful to witness the groups of animals coming to the waterhole at night...taking their turns and especially the vulnerable, taking turns to guard the pack from attack.


Glossy blue starling

Our camping group
 These are the ladies we spent a few days with....left = Fuka (Japanese) and right of me Vivienne (Italian) and Makiko (Japanese). Fuka and Makiko are on temporary resident vias' to teach in a little north west village of Namibia. Japanese culture dictates where the teachers will go and these two are making the most of their posting. Vivienne was volunteering for 2 weeks at an animal sancturary 50km from Windhoek. Poor Vivienne was a bit sad as her cat back in Italy had to be put to sleep.



Hippo car hire gone wrong

Our driver and guide Gerhard


a pack of hungry jackals
Jackals were heard cackling at night and seen roaming through the campgrounds.


 
Some lazy lions

Waterhole companions

Mongoose! There were heaps of these chaps in our campground


A crash of Rhinocerus



On safari

Oryx


a flock of ostrich
 As we were driving I spot this round white orb....and by the time we managed to stop it was miles behind us. With jokes that I had probably only seen a white rock, we were delighted to see an ostrich egg just laying around.
Ostrich egg art is a big tourism craft in Namibia.


A lone ostrich egg, undoubtedly kicked out of the nest
Sand squirrel


A sand squirrel scurry





Thirsty family

These extra large birds nest protecting from snakes

A busy community


A dazzle of zebra


Time to leave Etosha.
A small stop at a cultural centre (aka street kids making some money for their families to dance and sing for tourists).


I was informed that the children only did this in the school holidays and all Namibian children, including those in the bush were required to attend school.


Time to say Bye bye Fuka and Makiko.



We enjoyed a visit on the way back to Windhoek at a roadside craft market. It was a must for us to fairly visit each stall in zig-zag fashion.


We wandered through the market, not especially keen on anything until we saw this big fella. We joked that we would never fit him in our suitcase and estimated he was around 20kg.

We had a moment of insanity and decided to bargain for him

And he's ours! Wrapped in newspaper and carried out to the van
 After a few hours of sourcing materials to wrap and protect him, we hauled him onto the plane and here he is, back at home, intact and ready for his next international adventure!

A hefty 42KG!
Our Mumuhuila
 Lots of goodbyes in the expat world. I didn't get to say goodbye to Sister Jemine from my Bible study group so it was a real bonus to find each other at the airport.

Bye bye....jemine off to the Congo and France
Farewell Café Nilo and your delicious bolo de Berlim com crème!

Farewell Domingos Neto, our fearless driver, protector and all round good sort.


Catch you next when the dust settles. Off to Dubai to process work visa for Jeroen. Then, it's off to Kuwait to settle into our next host country.

Farewell Angola.



 

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