2 Weeks in Namibia (November 2013)

Preparation of our trip

After we had heard so many fantastic things about Namibia, we started with the preparations of our first self-drive trip on the African continent. The biggest risk, in our opinion, was related to the bad situation of the roads and the limited availability of petrol stations in the more remote area’s. That was certainly something to take into account. For the rest it did not seem to be too complicated. We hoped that 2 weeks in Namibia would be sufficient.

After we had set up a draft planning, we contacted a specialist in the field to help us with the reservations on the spot. We thought it would be useful to have a contact point in Namibia in case we encountered difficulties.

In hindsight, we were glad we did, even though we didn’t run into any major problems.

We flew with British Airways and South African Airways, so we had to catch 3 planes. First from Brussels to London, then to Cape Town and finally to Windhoek.

River Crossing Lodge, Namibia — *River Crossing Lodge – 2 weeks in Namibia*

Windhoek, the capital of Namibia

Upon arrival in Windhoek, we picked up our car (after inspection). We were very pleased with the upgrade that we had received. Initially, we had foreseen a normal sedan which would have been sufficient for our itinerary. However, we ended up with a Nissan X-Trail that had a higher clearance. I have to say that we were lucky because with all the gravel roads, this was much more appropriate and comfortable. But it is also much more expensive if you have to pay for it yourself.

We drove to our first destination just outside the city of Windhoek, the River Crossing Lodge. The lodge was located in a beautiful setting at 30 minutes from the international airport. We immediately felt very welcome. The rooms were located in different bungalows close to the main building, they all had a little porch where we could sit on.

We did not do anything else the rest of the day, we just took a rest to recover from the long journey.