Today was a long day of driving (500 km/310 miles). Everything is very spread out in Africa so our guide said we’ll have a few days where it’s mainly driving. I was productive though and read an entire book on the drive. We did get into Namibia so that was exciting. Unfortunately we had to say good bye to someone in our group. She had a Greek passport and didn’t realize she needed a visa for Namibia which you can only get it at the embassy, not at the border. This caused quite a problem since our guide had to find a way to get her safely back into South Africa and help her find her way back to Cape Town. In the end, a camping resort right near the South African border came and picked her up. I assume she spent the night there (it was already 5:00 by the time we got to the border) and she’ll make her way to Cape Town tomorrow. It was a sad situation, but it just goes to show the importance of investigating the visa situations before you leave your home country.
Germany officially colonized Namibia in 1892, but in 1914 Britain pressured South Africa to into invading. By May 1915 the Germans faced their final defeat and Namibia was under South African control until its independence in 1990. Today Namibia is one the better performing democracies in Africa, but it has one of the most unequal income distributions in the world. Statistics state that 180,000 people are living with AIDS and in 1996 it was the leading cause of death. In 2012, Namibia’s population was estimated at 2,165,828 which means that there are approximately two people per square kilometer making it the world’s 2nd least populated country per square kilometer after Mongolia.
This is the view from my lodging. Absolutely gorgeous!
We got to sleep to the sound of the running river. It was awesome.
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