Journey to Windhoek for Emergency Passport
Good day, February 12th. Well, in the meantime, I did get word that my new passport, be it an emergency passport, had arrived, so I could go pick that up the moment I got to Windhoek. And I let them know that that either be on the 12th of February or the 13th. Since, uh, nephew had Gert-Jan is dropping in from the Netherlands on the 12th— no, on the 13th. He’s leaving on the 12th and he’s flying to Cape Town and then taking a short flight to Windhoek where I am to pick him up at the international airport near Windhoek.
There’s one airport in town but that is relatively closed. The international airport is about 40 kilometers out of town to the east. So it was time for me on this February 12th to make my way to Windhoek so I’d be near there for, uh, on the day for pickup and take less of a chance for something going haywire.
Taking the Rough Road Route
So this time I wanted to take a different route, which I always like to do. However, the different route was more direct, shorter, but only paved a very short way. The last 20 kilometers were paved and the first maybe 40 kilometers, so that’s 60. And I think it was about probably about 320 kilometers, so that means, uh, 100 and— no, 260 kilometers were not paved.
And then you can expect just about anything. Although really Namibia has good roads, even the ones that aren’t paved. So you have at times you have corrugation or you have a little bit of soft sand, but it’s highly unlikely you find a really like a pothole-like thing in Namibia on those through roads. So I opted for, uh, what, for the rough road.
A Lonely Desert Journey
And very, very few people did. I think that whole 260 km I probably didn’t even see 5 cars. Uh, one, one passed me by, or 2 or 3 went the other way. So it was a lonely riding and very little going on, just, um, um, no services for those 320 km. The moment I left Swakopmund Sokopoint. It was, it was, or should I say, uh, yeah, Sokopoint. There was nothing, not absolutely nothing. No stores, no people, just cattle.
And that changed. And at first there was no cattle either, was just desert. And at some point we get some more growth. So then every so many kilometers there was a a cattle gate, you know, one of those things in the road so that the cattle think it’s a gate, um, that you had to go over. And that came back on an occasional basis. And eventually I did see some cattle and some other little animals.
Beautiful Scenery Through Boshoi Pass
But Boshoi Pass is part of this, and that was going up pretty steep. We have a lot of ruts in the road, so you had to really be careful and don’t go too fast because that may not work too well. As well as there were big drops. Just beautiful scenery. I really enjoyed that ride very much so. So if you ever want to do that again, do that Take your time for it. Don’t expect a lot of people. But it’s, uh, Namibia has a lot of beautiful, beautiful sceneries, and that is definitely one of them.
Arrival and Passport Pickup
So I made it back to Cades Nest Guest House again, and at least one of the people was still staying there that I had met there the day before. So that all worked out. Thanks for coming along. And actually, no, wait, no, I was able to pick up my passport that day. I just made it before 5 o’clock.
Well, would you believe the emergency passport you get is pink and about 8 pages? It’s only good for 7 months from the day it was originated, was February 3rd, so I’m good through February through September 3rd, which makes it just about only good to go to South Africa with and apply for a real passport. And there was no way to arrange this any different because they have their rules. Hey, and they’re sticking with it. So that was my catch of the day, a new passport. At least I can leave the country. Thanks for coming along.
