| The
Rental Car:
If your son or daughter tells you to
reserve a 4-wheel drive, don't settle for anything else.
We spent days on the homestead afraid to try the sand
road to get out to the city. (We got used to it finally.) |
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| The
Language : Learn
the greetings so you can say good morning, afternoon
and night. Laura lives in the bush and her Memes don't
speak English, so we got very good at it. Using a greeting,
even if you say "Good Morning" at night, brought
lots of warm smiles and helpful directions. Try language
lessons. |
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| Shopping:
We
found two good ways to buy souvenirs. Any nice hotel
has a gift shop and we found some beautiful things there.
Also, there is a town called Okahandja about 70 kilometers
north of Windhoek with two large craft markets where
we found animal carvings, baskets, wooden bowls and
all sorts of marvellous things for amazingly low prices.
Everyone bargains! |
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Winter:
We
travelled in our summer - their winter, which was
cool at night and only slightly hot in the middle
of the day. We saw hardly any bugs - not one mosquito!
However, it was dark by 5:30 and we were on a homestead
without electricity, so that wasn't great. Also, we
weren't able to co-ordinate our vacation from school
with theirs, so Laura was teaching during the day
and our excurions were limited to the weekends. Summer
is HOT!
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| Driving
to the North:
We decided to drive from Windhoek instead of flying
in order to see the country and to save money. It takes
about eight hours, they drive on the wrong side of the
road, and all the cars seem to be manual transmissions.
But we enjoyed it. We spent the night halfway up at
a hotel called Otjibamba before the town of Otjiwarongo.
It was great, with a little game park all its own. It's
on the internet. |