ONE DAY IN SWAKOPMUND

We get up at seven this morning-a real luxury after having got up at five these past few days. After a quick breakfast, we leave to tour Swakopmund-the idea is to see as much of the town as possible. The town is shrouded in a thick fog and it is difficult to make out much of the buildings.

Our first stop is the museum, which is right next to the red and white lighthouse. The museum has interesting displays on the local history. The display on the people of Namibia is very interesting as it details the culture, tradition, language, customs, their contribution to the Namibian society and the impact of modernization on their lives.

For lunch we head to the Lighthouse Café with superb views across the Atlantic Ocean. Adi and I manage to get vegetarian lasagna and a vegetable grilled sandwich. But the seafood platter of our friend looks really delicious-one of the rare moments when I am tempted to give into my ma-in-law’s requests and start eating “at least fish”.

We then visit the Kristal Gallery to see the largest quartz crystal on display and wander into a world of colours, hues and formations. There is the amethyst, ruby, aquamarine and a host of other minerals that have been forced into beautiful colours and textures by unimaginable heat and pressure. I fall in love with the Pietersite stone and buy a pair of earrings made from Pietersite at the jewelry outlet at the Kristal Gallery. Pietersite is golden brown in colour and found only in China and Namibia. It has been named after the guy who discovered it.

Shopping Time! We check out an antique store in the centre of town-lovely stuff from all over the world. All that shopping has tired us and we decide to grab coffee at Anton Café. This café has been around for a long time and sells some authentic German goodies. The Black Forest Cake is heavenly and the freshly ground coffee refreshing. The area in front of the Anton Café is the site, where local crafts are available for sale. The “Big Five” carved in wood, in varying sizes form a significant portion of the items on display. We go closer to examine the handicrafts and are soon surrounded by the stall owners trying to peddle their wares. We beat a hasty retreat-even before we have had a chance to admire the stuff on display.

We then walk to a bookshop that we had seen earlier. I cant remember the name now but it had a decent display of books concerning Africa and more particularly Namibia. I bought Namibia Space by Chris Marias and Julienne de Toit-an excellent read and great photographs too!

We return to our hotel to freshen up and decide to go to “Cairo to Cape Town” for dinner. We have to look for it a bit since it has changed its name and we almost walk past it! True to its name, it has the Arabic hummus, tagine and the labneh dip as well as game meat on its menu. And the service is unobtrusive and friendly. Over a bottle of wine, we make promises to our friend to always stay in touch. What a wonderful end to a beautiful trip!

Preparing for the trip to South Africa and Namibia

Preparation for our desert adventure trip to Namibia was a challenge because of a number of reasons. Firstly, we were traveling to Africa; secondly we were going on an “almost camping” tour (I say almost because the only difference was that most of the time, we stayed in lodges rather than tents) and thirdly, we were preparing for our trip from Cairo, Egypt. Some tips and an update on some experiences:-

BAGGAGE

Baggage- No Samsonite style luggage for this trip. Backpacks and daypacks are the recommended kind of luggage to carry. Check out our hunt for backpacks in Cairo on my other blog at www.egyptiansanks.blogspot.com

VISAS

Namibian visa-Namibia has a High commission in Cairo and the address is as follows:-

41, Nada Square
18 Street, Ist Floor,
Flat No 51
Tel:23590151
Tel: Fax : 23598170

We applied for the Namibian visa on a Monday morning and it was done in a couple of days-we got our visas on Wednesday morning. They are extremely courteous and helpful at the Namibian High Commission. Along with the application form, you will have to submit an invite letter and show proof of flight bookings. The hotel or the tour company that you are booked with can help you with the invite letter. Also you will need to submit four passport-sized photographs.

For a visa for South Africa, allow for at least 6 working days for the visa to be processed. They do not accept any applications on a Sunday-so effectively you need to plan your submission from Monday to Thursday-since the embassy is closed on Friday and Saturday. In this case too, your application has to be accompanied by an invite letter and proof of flight bookings.

BECOME INTERNATIONALLY MOBILE

Activate international roaming on your mobile-in case you do not already have it. This will make you feel more secure, knowing that you are always reachable. Since I am a Vodafone subscriber, I have the relevant information:-

Vodafone recommends Vodacom to be your network during your trip o South Africa, if you use Vodacom, your outgoing calls will be charged at 10LE / minute as compared to LE 28 for any other network. In all cases, your incoming calls will be charged at LE 4/ minute, you can send SMSes at LE 2 and receive SMSes for free.

For Namibia Vodafone recommends MTC. Outgoing calls are charged at LE 28/minute, incoming calls at LE 4/minute, outgoing SMSes at LE 2 and incoming SMSes are free.

VACCINATIONS

Vaccinations-Traveling to the African means the red alert for health related precautions. To err on the safe side, every possible vaccination is recommended and the malarial prophylaxis are a must-take. Read all about it on my other blog on www.egyptiansanks.blogspot.com


TRAVEL INSURANCE

Travel insurance-Get a travel health insurance in place for those unforeseen emergencies and exigencies. And look out for that airlift clause which will pay for your air-dash to a hospital in the event of an emergency since the medical facilities in the African continent are not the best and not easily available. We approached a number of insurance companies but none of them were offering the airlift option. So, finally we decided to go ahead with the travel insurance from Egyptian Saudi Insurance House. For a premium of LE 150, we were provided an insurance cover worldwide (excluding USA and Canada) for 15 days