Arrival

Despite several obstacles on the way, we have found our way to Windhoek. First off, the door of our plane was broken so we had to wait on a very cramped Airbus in Heathrow for 2 hours. That meant that after minimal sleep on the plane, our connection in Johannesburg was tighter than planned. However, a lovely woman at the airport helped us, until we realised she had put us in the queue for the wrong flight, and it took a surprising amount of exasperated pointing to convince her otherwise. 

So, we had caught our flight to Namibia and the only thing left to worry about was immigration - we had been warned. But we all got through without a hitch and waited at the baggage carousel... Yeah you guessed it, no bags. We left the airport after 2 and a half hours of waiting, went to our accommodation and were reassured by our Country Representative - "Oh, Jo'burg is the worst place to lose your bags. Doesn't matter if you have padlocks, they have all sorts of dirty tricks." Comforting.

The journey from the airport to the city gave us our first glimpse of Namibia. First impressions - flat and orange. Here are my first couple of photos from Namibia - views out of the window of our minibus. 

After a journey into the city today to buy water and sim cards we arrived back at the hostel to the fantastic sight of these in the lobby. Relief.

Apparently the only dirty tricks that Jo'burg baggage handlers played were rifling through Daisy's underwear pocket and stealing Kerry's well-placed fake wallet.

We also had a nice night last night - we were taken out to a sports bar to watch the football. Who would've known that 14 people could fit in a Land Rover?

Finally, we've been learning some of the language - this is local dialect for "light switch"

So the goodbyes have been said and the packing done (albeit yesterday) and I have now started my journey to Namibia. I am currently sitting in Heathrow Terminal 5 for a few hours before our overnight flight to South Africa and arrival in Windhoek, Namibia at lunchtime tomorrow. Not much to say yet, I'll post again once we're in Namibia - if we get through Customs, that is.

A final farewell to sunny Edinburgh

 The North Face better appreciate my endorsement of their red products.