Arrived in Windhoek

Alright, we made it to Windhoek, Namibia! It was a 10-hr flight on a half-empty plane from London to Johannesburg, South Africa. We had 3 hours to kill at Joburg airport, so Zoe decided to see if she could track down an old friend who'd she lost contact with 15 years ago when she moved to Canada and he moved to South Africa. We found the only telephone directory at the airport and started calling all the "P. Middletons" listed. The third call was the luck one, and we found him! It was great to chat and catch up; too bad it wasn't a long enough stay to visit him.

Somehow we got bumped up to First Class for our 2-hour flight from Joburg to Windhoek and were royally treated. We even sat between two members of the Namibian parliament.

We're making a habit of leaving countries just before major sporting events. We left Ottawa just before the Sens reached the Stanley Cup final (I hope, they were up 3-0 when we left). We left England the day before the FA Cup final, and even passed by Wembley Stadium on the train on the way into London. And we left South Africa hours before the "rugby match of the century", the first all-South African Super-14 final between the Sharks and the Bulls. The Super-14 is contested between the best rugby clubs from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and an all-South African final would be like Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final between the Sens and Leafs, (if it were possible).

Windhoek is a pretty sleepy country town, not really like a capital city - even quieter than Ottawa. We've wandered around town seeing the oldest church and the Parliament buildings (photos to be added later). The weather is perfect - sunny and not a cloud in sight all day - a pleasant 20-25 deg C. It's very desert-like so it gets quite cold at night.

We've just finalized preparations for our two-week trip into the desert. We pick up our rental car at 9 a.m. tomorrow. We'll be out of contact for two weeks, but hope to have lots of good photos to share next time.