After a restful few days in Windhoek with Glenn’s family and much enjoyment of the civilized amenities, we set off for Cape Town. The cats were being left behind as they needed to have had their rabies jabs for over a month before being allowed into South Africa, so Glenn’s mum was going to look after them and put them on a flight when they were ready. Amazingly, Glenn’s mum had managed to re-pack the car for us so that Jemma could fit in as well, meaning that we hardly had to leave anything behind; just an old suit of Glenn’s and the kettle (in hindsight we probably could have chosen something less needed). It was like watching a master at work, she carefully filled the vases and glass jars with anything that would fit, and used a tactical approach to wedging everything in like a jigsaw. My space in the back was not much larger than me, I had things piled up to the roof on my right hand side, a quilt to sit on and even things under my feet, it’s a good thing I’m not claustrophobic. It was quite cosy though, and surprisingly comfortable to sleep as I had the pile of objects to rest my head on.
We set off at 3am again with Glenn driving after a minor panic that Jemma couldn’t find her passport. Of course Jem and I promptly fell straight to sleep leaving Glenn holding the fort. After I don’t know how many hours I awoke and continued to read my Harry Potter book. We planned to drive straight the way through with no sightseeing stops (although we were allowed to ask for toilet stops) as the drive from Windhoek to Cape Town is about 16 hours on a good day, although we did stop early in the morning to grab some breakfast at Wimpy, which for the record is a hell of a lot nicer over here than it is in England. As we drove further into southern Namibia it struck me how similar the landscape is for miles on end. From Katima to Windhoek it changed quite constantly going from bush to hills to mountains, but this time it was just flat bush as far as the eye could see. The roads are incredibly straight, they make our ‘Roman roads’ look pathetic. These ones go on for hours with no bends, no change to the landscape and no villages or towns. They’re not fun to drive on because there is nothing to keep your attention as nothing changes for hours on end. You’d be a bit screwed if you broke down.
We set off at 3am again with Glenn driving after a minor panic that Jemma couldn’t find her passport. Of course Jem and I promptly fell straight to sleep leaving Glenn holding the fort. After I don’t know how many hours I awoke and continued to read my Harry Potter book. We planned to drive straight the way through with no sightseeing stops (although we were allowed to ask for toilet stops) as the drive from Windhoek to Cape Town is about 16 hours on a good day, although we did stop early in the morning to grab some breakfast at Wimpy, which for the record is a hell of a lot nicer over here than it is in England. As we drove further into southern Namibia it struck me how similar the landscape is for miles on end. From Katima to Windhoek it changed quite constantly going from bush to hills to mountains, but this time it was just flat bush as far as the eye could see. The roads are incredibly straight, they make our ‘Roman roads’ look pathetic. These ones go on for hours with no bends, no change to the landscape and no villages or towns. They’re not fun to drive on because there is nothing to keep your attention as nothing changes for hours on end. You’d be a bit screwed if you broke down.
After many more hours of the same landscape and me nearing the end of my book in between naps, the scenery started to change. There were mountains in the distance and the road became more bendy, winding in between the slopes. After a quick stop at a service station to fill the car with yet more petrol, Glenn warned us that we were approaching the South African border. When we finally reached it we were immediately told to turn round and go back to the petrol station we had just been to, to buy a ‘Nam’ bumper sticker to show which country the car had come from. On the second attempt at the border we were let through and did the usual tedious filling in of forms. The border here was definitely a lot different to all the ones I’d seen in Zambia and Botswana, which looked mostly like run down huts with big scary looking black men who didn’t really pay much attention to you. This one was clean and modern, and had well-ironed suited men behind the counters who looked at us with interest. After explaining our trip they stamped our passports and let us through.
Thinking that now we were over the border we must nearly be there I took to checking out the scenery, this lasted about an hour before I got bored and went back to my book (Jemma had mostly been asleep so far). The landscape continued getting more and more mountainous with each minute we drove through it. It looked like someone had super-imposed the mountains in the background as there were so many they just became dark shadows against the horizon. After at least 14 hours of driving, I was starting to get incredibly bored and uncomfortable in my little cocoon in the back of the car. I can’t imagine how Glenn felt. With Jemma successfully awake by now I decided to persuade her to teach me some more Afrikaans. She chose to go with animals and started by telling me the names of them and then quizzing me over and over, with Glenn correcting our pronunciation occasionally. Soon becoming tired of this and me quite good at remembering the names of animals in Afrikaans, Jemma and I started getting a bit delirious with the boredom and started asking Glenn ‘are we there yet?’ over and over again whilst slotting in random words like ‘owl’ in strange voices. Boredom can do strange things.
As we drew nearer to Cape Town the scenery was beautiful; we were completely surrounded by mountains and started to see signs of the vineyards that take over the whole outskirts of the city. It really is an extraordinary sight, they spread out below us for miles with rows and rows of well kept green vines. When we were about half an hour away Jemma rang to arrange the collection of the keys to our new house, only to find that the landlady was away and her mother didn’t think her husband would be too pleased with her venturing out to give us the keys. Why they didn’t tell us this beforehand as they knew we were coming that day and why that seemed ok to leave us with nowhere to stay after a 17 hour drive is beyond me. After some negotiation we agreed that we would book into a hotel which would be paid for by the landlady. We found one reasonably near the area of the house and booked in to stay the night. It was nice to spend the evening in the restaurant after such a long trek, with a waiter that was so keen to impress he even suggested with some force to order a passion fruit and lemonade instead of just lemonade, as obviously this was far too bland (and probably a lot cheaper).
The next morning we met the landlady’s mother at one of the malls near the house, where she gave us the keys and drove us to the door as we didn’t know the area. The house is beautiful; a huge 3 bed-roomed modern house on a quiet estate in Brakenfell. There are huge walls around the boundaries with an electric gate and garage door for security. There are armed response vans that patrol the area day and night for extra security, which seem a little extreme as the place is very quiet, but I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry. The interior is all tiled with new kitchens and bathrooms; in fact I think the whole house is only a few years old. The area has a lot of plots that you can buy to build your own house so each one in the road is different which makes a nice change from the similar-looking houses in towns in England. Definitely a good find by Glenn.
The next morning we met the landlady’s mother at one of the malls near the house, where she gave us the keys and drove us to the door as we didn’t know the area. The house is beautiful; a huge 3 bed-roomed modern house on a quiet estate in Brakenfell. There are huge walls around the boundaries with an electric gate and garage door for security. There are armed response vans that patrol the area day and night for extra security, which seem a little extreme as the place is very quiet, but I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry. The interior is all tiled with new kitchens and bathrooms; in fact I think the whole house is only a few years old. The area has a lot of plots that you can buy to build your own house so each one in the road is different which makes a nice change from the similar-looking houses in towns in England. Definitely a good find by Glenn.
No comments:
Post a Comment