Day 15 - Off to Windhoek and flight back to Germany 02/12/2017

In the morning some of us did one last game drive, this time around the ranch seeing rhinos,some other antelopes, warthogs, two crocodiles, giraffes, various birds... 

It was a nice way to start the day and the last day of our round trip. Soon we were off to Windhoek stopping by a supermarket for some shopping where I got some local beer for someone at home and since the summer holidays had just started and we could not visit a local school (normally on agenda during school term) we killed the rest of the day at hotel in Windhoek.

It was a bit of waste of time and I wished the travel organiser will change this some time but eventually it was time to go to the airport for our flight home. 

Flight was okay. It was nearly booked out but I sat in an aisle seat of a three seater row and the middle seat stayed empty so space to stretch out during the night. 

Plane landed ahead of schedule, security was quick, so was baggage reclaim, got my direct train to Hamburg  1 hour later and was home by 1pm. Vacation was over. :-( 

Overall it was an amazing trip around an even more amazing country. It is certainly a visit, or two, three... I really want to go back and see some parts with more time on my hand especially the area up north combining it with Botswana and Zambia maybe - maybe already next year? 

Day 14 - Tsumeb, Okahandja and off to Okapuka Ranch

On day 14 we left the Etosha are and drove via Tsumeb and Okahandja to our last lodge, the Okapuka Ranch.

First we visited Otjikoto Lake which is the smaller of only two permanent natural lakes in Namibia. It is a sinkhole lake that was created by a collapsing karst cave and was a dumping ground for the German Schutztruppe during World War .

In Tsumeb we visited the local museum which focuses on the mining history of the town, and also has a collection of Bushman and Himba artefacts. This is also a place where we could learn a little history about the German colonial period as stuff from the artillery of the German Schutztruppe that was retrieved from Otjikoto Lake.

It felt a bit weird to see some of the stuff from the German colonial period, a lot of stuff so acquainted as the housewares being stuff my grandparents also owned!

We stopped over in Okahandja to visited a wood market but with the sellers there being rather obtrusive most of us left the market after a few mins if visiting at all.

Our last lodge, the Okapuka Ranch, is just about 30 kms away from Windhoek but it being a private game reserve with animals running around and crossing your path as it felt like being in the middle of nowhere.

railway line running through farm

my cottage