Although Grant had told me Namibia was one of the most desolate countries in the world, I did not realize how empty everything would look until we flew in. The experience was like flying into El Calafate, where nothing could be seen for miles until we headed into the city. The capital city of Windhoek where we flew into is the largest in the country (500,000 out of the 2.5 million people living in the country) and was more extensive than any of the three of us expected it would be. After landing and heading through customs, we headed to the arrivals area where we thought our driver would be. With no service and subpar WiFi, we could not contact our tour company to see if they were at the airport waiting for us. We decided to grab a taxi, and on our way out, I spotted what looked like our tour company’s van. The group headed to the airport dropped their truck off late, so he was late to pick us up. Thankfully that saved us an almost $50 taxi ride into town.

We headed to Africa on Wheels, picking up the truck we would rent for the next week. They gave us a tour of what came with the car and how to set up the tents properly. We were surprised with everything the truck included, especially the dishes, cookware, and refrigerator on its own battery hook-up… we did not expect to be able to have cold drinks for the journey! This all ended up working out perfectly, as the lodge we were staying near on the first leg of the trip ended up not allowing campers to eat dinner there. After the paperwork was finished and GPS set up, we went to the local hotel in Windhoek for the night, as our first leg was some hours away. This again was quite a journey finding it, along with trying to figure out how to park since we had two tents atop our truck. But we finally got it figured out and were able to get settled in for the night.

Once checked in, we dropped off our bags before heading up to enjoy drinks and food at the rooftop bar and pool. Grant had thrown on his swim trunks on the off chance that he would hop in; however, once up to the 15th floor, we realized it wasn’t a pool for swimming but instead just for looks. They had a Heineken promotion, and two girls dressed in Heineken green dresses came up to our table to ask if any of us had heard of the beer/wanted to get one – they said Heinken was working to get better brand recognition in Namibia. Grant offered to have one, and they took pictures of her pouring the beer for Grant. We tried a charcuterie board of local cheeses and meats though we only really enjoyed the cheese and the chili bites as the biltong and droewors weren’t as tasty. The dinner wasn’t the most incredible food, especially for Grant, who ordered a sirloin and had difficulty finishing it. And our stomachs didn’t enjoy the food at the end of the night, but we were hopeful that cooking our meals for the next few days in the desert would help! Nonetheless we enjoyed the drinks, watching the sunset, and people watching – it seemed like the place all the locals went to before heading out to the local clubs for the night.

One of the cool things (and the first time we had ever seen it) about the hotel was that the elevators required you to put in your floor number before entering, and it would take you straight up. It felt weird not to push a button once inside, and it took me about the third time before I stopped trying to push a number that wasn’t there.