mariand: Namibia, Days 13 and 14, Thursday-Friday, 27-28 April 2017. Windhoek-Johannesburg-Amsterdam-Montreal

In the morning we can admire the beautiful grounds and surroundings of Midgard Estate. Would be nice to stay... no predators, just some mischievous baboons; so, long walks would have been possible but we can't complain. We depart for Windhoak for our last ride together on the bus.
Lindy shows us a little bit of Windhoek, it's history and government.
In 1840 Jonker Afrikaner, a Khoi tribesman came from the cape and founded a settlement. It was destroyed by wars between the Herero and Nama tribes. In 1890 the city was founded a second time by the German imperial army under Von Francois.
The Germans had dominion of what was then South West Africa. Von Francois built a fort, "die alte Feste", the 12 hot springs provided water for produce and grains, the settlement developed.
After WW I Germany lost SWA to South Africa which administered the territory until indepence in 1990. Afrikaans and German languages are still widely used but the government speaks only English, it is the first language taught in school. Local languages have no official status. It seems the transition from apartheid went relatively smoothly, this was confirmed to us by a third generation Namibian white lady we met in the plane. She also agreed with Lindy's assessment of the government which functions democratically and with little corruption. There are 45 % women and one white member in parliament. Presently, the country is relatively easy to govern because of its small population: 2.5 million in Namibia, 323,000 in Windhoek. However, the population is growing at 10 % yearly, which will surely cause problems in the future.
Windhoek is clean, has beautiful gardens, some historic buildings, statues and monuments and a new modern museum, all very pleasant. We stopped at a cooperative market with good handicrafts made and sold mostly by women. Really in Africa I don't know what they would do without women! The men sit as presidents, but the women do everything else! Contrary to most tourist traps, I really enjoyed that market. I bought hand printed cushions, an ostrich egg necklace and Schnaps glasses. As we do on every trip we always buy such glasses as souvenir and I was looking for them all through the trip but couldn't find nice ones, so I am very pleased to add them to my collection.
And then it was good byes at the airport, so it goes. Andre has everybody's e-mails so I hope to keep in touch.
The short flight was very plesant in the company if the Namibian lady. She was very positive and hopeful about Namibia, but worried about South Africa. She camps all over Southern Africa including Botswana which seems as beautiful as I imagine it. Problem is it's very expensive and we are becoming too old to self drive.
Arrived in Johannesburg at 1 PM, some people had earlier connection flights, ours was at 11 PM so we had the whole day to wait. Lindy had procured us with free VIP lounge tickets and that was wonderful. According to Marc the best lounge he had seen; lots of decent food, oudles of booze, free showers, smoking room and, of course, WiFi.
Unfortunately since we couldn’t preregister much ahead of time due to the lack of WiFi in the boondocks, by the time we reached Windhoek all the aile seats were gone
our seats were in the middle in a jam-packed and very unconfortable Boeing 777 plane. The man sitting at our end was very friendly, I disturbed him often as I have trouble sitting still. I spent a lot of hours standing in the back. Got to Amsterdam at 9 AM, no time change with SA. Andre and I took a shower in the KLM VIP lounge for which we paid too much: a rip-off with miserable cold cuts for food and a long wait for the showers. Next time we will be smarter. The boys wisely didn't follow us. The flight to Montreal was ok; nothing to report. The seats were also in the middle but more comfortable, it was an Airbus.
The Airport Inn shuttle picked us up promptly, the car was in good shape, the dog happy to see us. After a quick spaghetti dinner at Nives’, we set off for our the last hour and a half drive to the house and arrived at 11 PM. Still a bit of snow but almost all gone.
From 6 AM Thursday Namibia time to 11 PM Friday Montreal time, that's a long stretch but oh how much worth it. The long flight is soon forgotten but one can relive all the beautiful moments over and over again.
Happy travels to all of you.