We drove through Etosha stopping at as many of the man-made waterholes as we could find but there were not so many animals about.
Once outside the park we drove onto Tsumeb where we stayed at a guesthouse that had some rustic outdoor rooms and better indoor ones. The guesthouse was owned by a German speaking couple. We got the car washed of all the white dust at a more reasonable price than we would have to pay in Windhoek so took the opportunity to do it while in Tsumeb. Tsumeb is quite a wealthy town as they have copper mines nearby. The streets in our Lonely Planet guide were out of date as the whole town has now had the streets all renamed.
Once back in Windhoek we were able to pick up my replacement glasses that I had ordered from Specsavers. When we phoned to ask if they were ready the assistant told us they would be ready by 5pm. When we arrived at 3.30pm she whispered to us to come back at 5pm. We couldn't work out if there was some sort of scam going on that they didn't want the owner or operator to know about. However the glasses fitted well and were made to the same prescription that my lost glasses were and I adjusted to them quickly.
I had lost my previous glasses as I didn't have a small bag to carry the glasses and case in so I was able to buy some material and webbing and hand sew a handbag so I could carry a few small things about rather than lumber my overloaded day-bag about. Some of the young travellers couldn't believe that I had not only made a bag from a small strip of material but that I had hand stitched it. The female Namibian staff thought I should start a stall and sell handbags as well.
Chameleon Backpackers was pretty full but there was enough space for everyone without being too crowded. It is a pretty well thought out place and nice and quiet. Compared with the Cardboard Box Backpackers at the other end of town it was cheaper, cleaner, purpose built and well laid out. There were signs everywhere warning you of theft and muggings. There was not one warning at Cardboard Box.
We had met a few people who had eaten at Joe's Beer Hall restaurant so we drove there to have a meal in the evening. The restaurant is quite difficult to describe, but eclectic comes to mind. It had a quite large pond with huge koi carp in a central open area. There were walls made from small bamboo stakes and grass with thatched rooves. Car parts and number plates were hanging from the walls as well as stuffed antelope heads. It would once have been quite a large house and they knocked doorways through the walls creating different eating rooms set out with benches and large wooden tables like you would find in a German beer hall. There was a circular bar in the courtyard and tables with umbrellas, giving a feeling that you were by a beach and not in a city residential area. John ordered oryx, zebra, and ostrich steaks and Lil had zebra. We both enjoyed the flavour of the zebra although it was pretty chewy. It was a pretty popular place for tourists and we had to make bookings to get a seat.
We got the blog updated, photos burned to CDs, gear cleaned and food supplies restocked and posted a small parcel home. John had to get some antifungal cream for an itchy fungal rash from the hot sweaty temperatures. We bought a bus ticket for the Intercape bus to Livingstone in Zambia. It was a double decker bus and left at 6.30pm and we were told it would take 20 hours. We would have preferred to have driven the rental car across the Caprivi Strip to the Zambian border but the one way charge would have been nearly as much as the whole 8 day charge for the car so we were stuck with the night bus.
