Jour 1 : Windhoek – Waterberg Wilderness

After a rather comfortable crossing of the Atlantic, without those horrible disturbances that always give me the willies, we land in Windhoek. In the airport hall, José spots the sign ‘Wiertz welcome’, held up by a man with a smiling face. It’s Anton, our rental partner, picking us up.

We have to go to the exchange office to buy Namibian dollars. The queue is long and, for each request, you have to provide your passport and fill in some paperwork. We’ve been waiting for half an hour, without really making any progress, when we’re told there’s no more money and we have to change offices! We have to wait again, as most payments in Namibia are made in cash. We get organized: while José takes care of the exchange, I go to the MTCAirtime store to buy Sim cards. Here too, we have to queue up and meet the same administrative obligations. It’s almost noon and still no Sim card. Anton intervenes… and a few minutes later we leave the airport.

Anton takes us to the depot. Our rental vehicle is ready, a Toyota Hilux with tent on the roof, camping gear, car equipment, GPS and the indispensable satellite phone. After a short briefing, all we have to do is carefully check the condition of the car and sign the rental contract.

We need to refuel and go shopping at the Spar Westerlaan. After some hustle and bustle in the streets of Windhoek, here we are. Once we’ve done our shopping, we pay by card without thinking about the change for our guard, since in Namibia it’s customary to have your car parked in a parking lot in exchange for a few Nad. So, we assume! 50 Nad it is, which our young guard pockets with a broad smile.