Today we left the coast and headed back to Windhoek for the last time. On the way we stopped at a local craft market to purchase some souvenirs and I decided to buy lots of woodwork and other crafts including bowls and little statues. They wanted a mixture of both cash and other items. I was able to part-exchange an old watch, old pair of shoes and some unused suncream for some of the statues. It was a nice place to pick up traditional souvenirs but there were so many people there in competition it almost felt like we were being fed to the Wolves at times but they were really friendly with it and we never felt threatened or anything.
After arriving back in Windhoek we did some last minute shopping in the city centre – parking in the same car park by the Supreme Court again. I bought some souvenirs for people and also stocked up on Steers Special Seasoning. I tell you – this stuff has been a life saver these past few weeks. We bought it on the first day just to spice things up occasionally but ended up using it on everything every night so had to re-supply ourselves with some when we stopped at the supermarket in Mariental after leaving Hardap. The food we were supplied in advance (the MacDougall’s stews etc) was so horrible it tasted like watery cardboard. I think what we didn’t use was exchanged by people in the craft market too but the Steers definitely helped get us through until we could get some proper supplies. Although we carried on using it after getting supplies as it’s nice stuff!
When I got back to the truck Dan was causing more problems and this time for the locals not just us. There was a kid that was trying to sell the people in the truck some sort of traditional musical instrument. Dan decided it would be a good idea to demonstrate his spear that he bought at the craft market and when I got back to the truck he was chasing this poor kid across the car park waving the spear over his head to cries of “don’t kill me… don’t kill me”. If that isn’t an example of how bad things were getting with him, and an example of something that will destroy relationships between Africa and Europe, then I don’t know what is. It was also not a good idea to do that outside of the Namibian Supreme Court but luckily for our group he didn’t cause some sort of international incident.
We then made our way back to the same hostel we started at on the first night. I arranged it so we were in the same room again… and were greeted by seeing GERTRUDE again! When we were relaxing in our room the Meerkat paid us a visit too. It came walking into the room and straight under one of the beds. We wondered what he was looking for until I laid down and saw him unwrap and then eat a boiled sweet that somebody had accidentally dropped. That creature was so cute… I love Meerkats!
Tonight we decided to blow the money we had left on ordering something like 18 pizzas for us all to share and while they were basic they were also really nice. As pizza is my favourite meal it’s a fitting end to my time in this amazing country. I’ll be sad to say goodbye in the morning!