The flight

After we arrive separately, the two families arrive at Munich's Franz Josef Strauss Airport almost at the same time. Check-in opens at 7 p.m. and afterwards we still have enough time to Airbräu something to eat. We don't trust Condor's onboard menu despite being in Premium Economy and since the flight is scheduled to depart at 10 p.m., it's too late for us.

The journey to the gate turns out to be a major undertaking, but in the end we leave almost on time and only leave one passenger behind. We are not told why. The flight is uneventful and we land on time at around 7 a.m. local time at Windhoek's Hosea Kutako International Airport.

The cars

After landing, we enter the airport without any problems and can soon collect all of our suitcases. Our pick-up person from the Safari Car Rental, who also gave us some tips on driving in Namibia and Botswana. We quickly got some Namibian dollars from the machine with our Maestro card and then we went to pick up the car at Kapps Farm. This is located between the airport and Windhoek and we were greeted very warmly and with good coffee.

The large Toyota Hilux cars with 3.0 l engines from last year are in very good condition and have only about 60,000 km on the clock. Ellen does the paperwork with us and Vincent explains the 4×4 powered cars and the associated additional equipment in detail. We also take the travel documents of the Click & Travel Travel Agencies from Swakopmund and we are delighted to receive two presents: one for Marie-Luise for her birthday and one for Martina and Jörg for their upcoming wedding anniversary. But more on that in due course.

Thus informed, we drive to our first accommodation, the Londiningi Guest House in Windhoek's north-east. Here, too, we are warmly welcomed, although we are a little early to move into our rooms. But that doesn't matter, because at 11 a.m. Alexandra from Red Earth Tours for our tour through Windhoek.

The city tour

Windhoek from Joerg on Video.
The city tour with Alexandra shows us some facets of Windhoek that we hadn't discovered in this way the last time. On the one hand, the Hamburg native gives us a lot of background knowledge about places we have already visited, and on the other hand, we also get to see places that we hadn't seen 4 years ago. We pass the train station and go into the Christ Church with its wonderful windows.

The most impressive thing, however, is the drive through Katutura, a former township. There are now significantly better structures here than during the apartheid era, and you can find people from all walks of life in this district. The social status of the individual residents can be seen less in their homes than in their cars. Overall, this former problem district cannot be compared to the South American favelas or Indian slums, as a lot of shops and infrastructure have developed here.

Dead tired, we arrive back at the guest house at around 2 p.m. and are able to check into our rooms. The well-earned nap brings back the energy we lost on the flight, even if it is not enough to use the very cold pool. But the sundowner on the Heinitzburg We don’t miss out and go to dinner in Joe's Beerhouse – why break with beloved “traditions”?

Tomorrow, after some major shopping, we want to drive towards the border with Botswana.

Weather today: sunny with a lot of wind, 10-30 degrees Celsius, beautiful moonrise (full moon) directly after sunset.