We woke in the middle of the night with someone leaving at around 2am in the morning. First thought that crossed my mind is what have they stolen from us and now running off. Then rationality kicked in and I thought surely I would have heard them come in to chalet. But then again I was pretty fast asleep. Some quick checking by the light of cellphone and everything seemed to be where I left it so relief set in. Then I started to wonder why someone would leave at 2am in the morning. About the same time the electricity came back on (it was loadshedding from 12-2:30am). Besides that interruption, we both slept well until 6am when the sun rose.
We did a morning birding walk and the owners 3 dogs joined us for the 2.5 kms. It seems they were delighted someone was walking. We added a few more birds to our trip list. We were on road by 8am and at the border by 9:15am. Border formalities went smoothly and after filling up the car we headed north towards Keetmanshoop and Mariental. Already two positives of Namibia are clear – diesel is about 10% cheaper than SA and there is no loadshedding (despite them getting the majority of their electricity from SA). H told me when we crossed the border: “Now don’t drive fast like you usually do on this road as I want to watch my granddaughter grow up”. Needless to say, so do I!
We stopped at Keetmanshoop to eat lunch (we had brought our own) and then headed on to Mariental. Thunder clouds were gathering and we had a smattering of rain for a few kms but nothing substantial. It dropped the temperature from 33.5 degrees down to 29 degrees. The air is very dry so it feels much hotter actually. There were numerous swifts flying above us and we realised that it was worth stopping to see if we could positively identify them. We did and the result was that we added another lifer as they were Bradfield’s Swifts. I am on 43 birds for the trip and H is on 46 birds – see keeps seeing stuff and not telling me it seems #notcompetitive.
We arrived in Mariental at about 3:30pm. We are staying at Boutique Guesthouse. Nice rooms and a bit of a garden in front of the house which was good for adding 6 more birds to our list this afternoon while we were just relaxing. Dinner was at the only open restaurant in Mariental – Padlangs Padstal. It is a meat and potato type of place. H had a cheeseburger and I had pork schnitzel (with chips obviously). Another realization is that I need to brush up on Afrikaans again if we are going to get through the next 2 weeks. Everyone speaks Afrikaans to you even if you answer them back in English. Not sure what you would do if you didn’t understand Afrikaans (#mykids).
After dinner we drove around Mariental to see what it is like. H concluded “Remind me to never retire to Mariental”. Not sure why she ever thought we would retire here but the drive around town definitely sealed it for her. The best buildings by far was the Swapo Regional Office (it seems politics is same everywhere) and Hollard Insurance. H kept of saying “This place is so sad”. It is pretty run down and ‘sad’ is not a bad description.
It is just an overnight stop for us!
Until tomorrow (WiFi dependent)
P & H
