Via Düsternbrook Guest Farm to Windhoek

Via Okahandja to Düsternbrook Guest Farm, 2 october
Today we have all the time to drive to the Düsternbrook Guest Farm. First we pass Okahandja where a lot of nice woodcarvings are sold. We fully load the car, but have no idea how to take all of this with us on the airplane.
At all the booths were accosted. At one of them a salesman tells us he has a cold and that is why he has to go to the hospital, but has no money for that and blah blah blah. I always leave immediately when I have to listen to this kind of rubbish, but as we pass again he accosts us another time. We don't want his N$600 statue and so we bid the ridicules amount of N$50. Deal! We may have it for that price so we have to buy it.

When we have to draw money from an ATM we are addressed by a boy. He wants money for bread. I think back to the children in Mexico who wanted a peso for a tortilla, but when I offered them a tortilla they didn't want that. I don't give the boy any money.
Later, in the supermarket, I still have to think about that boy and about what Kees told us about the street-children in Rundu. I cannot buy myself luxury food and do nothing so we buy an entire bread. We drive back to search for the boy and finally find him. I give him the bread and he thanks us exuberantly and starts eating immediately. We feel a little bit satisfied, but powerless at the same time about this poverty.

We eat at a gas station and a tiny little boy comes asking if he can watch over our car. For a dollar of course. He is so small that one can blow him down, but O.K. Working is better as begging. I bought some rice-salad that I don't like so much. I give it to the boy and he likes it very much. He sits at a strategic place so he can eat and guard the car at the same time.

We have a spare night in our itinerary and don't feel like doing much anymore. Therefore yesterday we have booked a room for tonight at the Düsternbrook Guest Farm. For we haven't seen any cheetahs yet and they have cheetahs.

In Namibia leopards are a plague for farmers. If they once have stolen cattle they keep on coming back. That is why they are being trapped and shot dead.
The owner of the Düsternbrook Guest Farm caught his first leopard years ago. He didn't want to kill it and tried to shelter it at Etosha. This was not allowed and he couldn't leave the animal somewhere else. That is why he decided to keep these problem-leopards.

The animals are hold in large enclosures. The enclosure of the cheetahs is 60 acres large en the enclosures of the leopards vary from 10 to 40 acres. So this sure is no zoo. Large game cannot enter the enclosures, but the predators can follow their instincts on smaller prey.
Of course we rather see animals in the wild, but at least these leopards are still alive, while others are being shot. Still a thought keeps haunting us if a leopard would rather be dead or rather spend the rest of his life in an enclosure. At least they are better of than leopards in a zoo.

Around 2.30 PM we arrive at Düsternbrook. The farm is beautiful situated on a hill overlooking a river that actually contains a bit of water. The rooms are quit large and comfortable.

Soon after our arrival we take the "leopard-drive" in a large open safari vehicle, for which we have to sign a form that it is at our own risk. Large troughs with raw flesh go with us. At first we drive to the enclosure with the cheetahs.
Soon three cheetahs approach the car. They are just like housecats. They purr, miaow and jump up against the guide to receive their food as quickly as possible. It is much more exciting to see these animals in the wild, but just for a change this is fun too and we can make marvelous pictures.

Than it's up to the leopards. These are all in separate enclosures, and moreover are supplied with electrical wires on top. Now that we get the chance of seeing these predators so close by we clearly see the difference between a cheetah and a leopard. A leopard is a mighty and powerful predator, by which a cheetah is more like a kitten. How much strength such a leopard radiates...! The lion might be the king of the jungle, for us the leopard is the emperor.
And this time even the driver stays in the car with these animals around, although it is just an open vehicle. The leopard gets his meat at two different spots. At first the meat is laid on the branch of a tree. After that the car drives around a hill, that is thus situated in the leopard's enclosure, where the guide throws the meat towards the leopard.

When all the meat is eaten we go back to the guest farm, where we will have diner later. The owner has diner together with his guests here also. The other guests are eight Germans. The owner is also German, but that was to be suspect considering the name of the farm. we tell the others a couple of times that we unlearned speaking German a long time ago, but that we still can understand it very well. So it is not a problem for us if they speak German, as long as we can talk back in English. Nevertheless they all do their very best to speak English. Secretly we find it quit amusing that just by our presence, nine Germans are talking English to each other.

After we already ate ostrich, springbok and eland in this vacation, tonight we have oryx on the menu. And that also tastes terrific. This will undoubtedly also come from this farm's estates.

In the vicinity of the rooms is a small enclosure with a leopard. As we approach she is brushing against the fence so that we can caress her.
But we only stick our fingers through the fence when the head has passed by. She even starts purring, although it is more like a deep growl and it doesn't sound like the purr of a housecat. We almost start thinking that it is just a cute kitten, but if we come to close with our video camera, she spits impressive, and she leaves no misunderstanding about her being a dangerous predator.

To Windhoek, 3 october
Today we have all the time to calmly drive to Windhoek. As we leave the Dürstenbrook Guest Farm we see two women and some children at a river. We decide to give them the remains of our camping gear. We walk to the women and ask them if they speak English or German. They don't but they do speak Afrikaans. Here we are, with two women who talk some kind of traditional language to each other and we can speak Dutch with them! Strange.

We explain to them that our vacation is over and that we have some stuff that we cannot take with us on the airplane. We ask them if they want to have them. They say it's fine but say not much else. They probably don't exactly understand what we mean.

Hans walks up and down to the car to get the stuff, while I have a chat with them. One of the women laid a trap of chicken wire in the river and traces fishes. When she sees one she tries to chase them in the trap by splashing in the water. She shows her prize: three humble fishes. She tells that she can't see in the water because of the algae and she's afraid that there might be snakes.

We stay and watch for a while and than say goodbye, leaving the gear behind. Only than, the women seem to realize that we give our stuff to them. We scarcely turned around or they climb up the bank. When we reach the car we secretly look what they are doing. They look at everything, put the pillows in the folding chairs and sit pleased as Punch. When we drive off they exuberantly wave good-bye. We ask ourselves if they will go back to their village now. A prize of chairs, buckets, plates, cutlery, rice and canned meat is more than three little fishes. We wonder who will sit in our chairs tonight. What a pity that we will never find out...

Around noon we arrive at Villa Verdi in Windhoek. It is a small hotel in a quit neighborhood with a fine garden. Windhoek itself is not very special. It is modern and we discover another Mall that merges into an open-air shopping-center. Windhoek has the size of a large village.

Here too we find people who sell woodcarvings, and here too we can't omit to buy all kinds of things. We will have a major problem tomorrow.

We visit the small and somewhat droll Owela Museum, which however has some very nice displays of the animals and traditional people of Namibia.
We read that a cheetah always has only one leg at the ground during its run, and twice flies to the air: when all legs are stretched out and when all legs are retracted under its body. This manner of running makes it the fastest land-mammal.

In the evening we want to have dinner at a certain Italian restaurant but we can't find it. We see a safeguard on the street, who is talking to some women and we ask for the directions to the restaurant. One of the women decides to walk with us and she tells us never to ask for directions just like that. According to her it is much too dangerous. And if people come to close (she demonstrates how) than we have to be particularly careful because those are pickpockets. And certainly after dark we should never talk to any strangers.
But the only people we see after dark in the center of Windhoek are safeguards. So we don't feel unsafe at all.

And here we sit on a terrace having a meal and is our vacation almost over. This was our best trip so far and we don't expect that last weeks experiences will be outmatched in the near future.

Leaving Windhoek, 4 october
Our plane to Johannesburg leaves at 2.50 PM. We have plenty of time to pack our bags and suitcases and that is much needed. It's a matter of cut and contrive but finally we get to fit it all.

We have a hard Samsonite suitcase now and that is very opportune so we can pack all the woodcarvings safe. At the airport our luggage is of course being weight at check in. The first piece is the Samsonite with woodcarvings and this alone weighs the maximum of 20 kg. I don't dare to look at the woman behind the desk as she continues weighing, to prevent her from saying something. I don't know if that helped but at our boarding pass it says that we have 58 kilos of checked baggage! And that is not counted the 10 kilos of hand baggage per person. Here we are very lucky.

We don't notice any sharpened safety measures. Our hand baggage is barely checked.
We have just enough money left to buy an.......ostrich-egg. The flight with Comair goes off smoothly and two hours later we land in Johannesburg where we have to transit on a KLM flight.

In Johannesburg the safety measures sure are sharpened. Long drawn waiting lines for the checkpoints make that clear. When our hand baggage goes through x-ray we are taken out of the line. An utmost friendly man excuses himself that he has to bother us and if we please want to tell what's in a certain bag. In the first instance we don't have a clue what this is about. We don't recognize anything on the x-ray images. But than it starts to get clear. It is about the Himba jewelry. We have a couple of kilos of iron in our hand baggage and that is of course suspicious these days.
Than we can pass and the man excuses himself once more. We tell him that it is not a problem and that we are glad that they check so well.

In an hour a blue bird will bring us back to the Netherlands, but we are determent to come back soon.