Cape Town to Windhoek

Friday, 23 May 2025


With our pick-up scheduled for 7.00am we headed down to the restaurant at 6.00am believing that it opened at 6.00am. That would be wrong – the doors were closed because it does not open until 6.30am! We headed back to our room to fill in 15 minutes before returning to the dining room to bolt down breakfast before our ride to the airport arrived. Still in our room at 7.00am but close to walking out the door our phone range to chase us up. Yes, yes, we’re nearly on our way we’ll be there in a couple of minutes. This is the worst part of travelling – early morning pick-ups!

We wheeled our bags to reception and met our driver. This time just one driver in a maxi taxi sort of van that could have seated seven. While Bernie was returning our room keys the driver told me that really we were far too early for a flight to Windhoek (which he tell me should be pronounced Vind-hook not any of the increasingly weird pronunciations I have been attempting!) because the flight is considered domestic. He said that we really only need to be at the airport an hour before flight time. Ah well, we would always prefer to be early to the airport than late.

Driving out of Cape Town to the airport at first light the traffic was light and we had a fantastic view of the elusive Table Mountain. Not. A. Cloud. In. The. Sky!! We are pleased that we did get to see it yesterday evening. How disappointing would it have been to visit Cape Town without seeing its iconic Table Mountain at all?!

We arrived at the airport and made our way through bag drop, security and immigration in record time. The only thing that had to come out of our carry-on bags was Bernie’s lap top so that made it quicker and easier to go through. We wandered down to the gate and discovered that it was very cold down there. With more than an hour to wait until boarding we ventured back upstairs where we found a comfortable spot to sit in the sun. The sun, the sun, so pleased to be seeing some sun after the dreadful weather we experienced Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday!

As boarding time neared we headed downstairs to wait. As we queued for bag drop we had encountered another couple with Bunnik luggage bands on their bags. It turned out it was Marilyn and her husband, Bernard, who Cathy had already connected with on the Bunnik Facebook Forum. We found them again at the gate and exchanged details about previous Bunnik excursions we have been on until our flight was called.

At the gate we boarded buses to be driven to our SA Airlink aircraft for our 2’10” flight to Windhoek. Although it was only a short flight they managed to provide a meal service which was delicious. We enjoyed some cold roast beef with potato salad and it was easily better than any mean we were given on Singapore Airlines!

We touched down at Hosea Kutako International Airport slightly ahead of schedule. At 40 kilometres out of Windhoek it felt very much like we were landing in the middle of nowhere. We walked across the tarmac into the terminal building and quickly completed the arrivals procedure. Despite having completed an e-visa online we had to fill in another form with all the same information to hand in. Although they scanned our passports it seemed that they were recording a lot of information manually too so quite a laborious process at immigration.

By the time we were through our bags were on the carousel so Bernie hauled those off and we made our way to the scanner at the Nothing to Declare customs lane. We made it through without any trouble and walked out into the arrivals hall where we were met by Wian (pronounced Vee-an) holding a red Bunnik sign. The six of us who had flown from Cape Town were joined by Mandy who had also flown in from Cape Town this morning.

With our friends Debbie and David’s flight from Johannesburg due soon after ours, Wian advised that we would be waiting at the airport until they arrived. Their flight also landed about 10 minutes ahead of schedule but, unfortunately, there were two other flights that landed between our flight and theirs. I was standing with Wian to help him spot the last two members of our tour group. The longer we waited the more anxious I was getting that they had missed their connection in Johannesburg. Where it only took those of us who’d flown from Cape Town about 20 minutes to complete immigration it took Debbie and David nearly an hour because of having to wait for the passengers from two other flights to be processed.

With everyone accounted for – our group will only be nine passengers rather than the maximum 12 that Bunnik tours are capped at – Wian escorted us out to the 4WD truck that will be our transport for the next 23 days on safari. We motored into the city of Windhoek, Namibia’s thriving capital and largest city that lies in a valley bordered by the Eros Mountains in the north and the Auas Mountains in the south. Wian dropped us at the Avani Hotel mid-afternoon and suggested that we freshen up and settle in and he would meet us for breakfast at 8.00am in the morning.

With it being mid-afternoon all our rooms were available for us to occupy straight away. Having only come from Cape Town this morning we were feeling chipper enough to venture out for a walk around town. We wandered up the hill along Fidel Castro Street to the Christukirche, a German Lutheran church consecrated in 1910. The church was built using local sandstone in a neo-Romanesque but is topped with a 42-metre Gothc spire.

Across the roundabout from the church is Namibia’s Independence Memorial Museum. We could spy what looked like a viewing terrace on the museum building so we crossed the roundabout to see if we could go up for a look. It turned out that the terrace forms part of the Windhoek Sky Restaurant so we purchased a couple of drinks so that we could sit on the terrace and look out over the scenic city of Windhoek. Unfortunately the museum closes daily at 4.30pm so we were too late to visit to learn more about Namibia’s struggle for independence.

We walked back down the hill to the shopping centre to buy some beverages at the Pick n Pay. With Coke, beer and water purchased we made our way back to the hotel only to find that we had a Checkers supermarket in the Gustav Voights Centre where the Avani Hotel is situated. Damn, Bernie needn’t have lugged those beverages back up the hill.

Arrangements had been made when we checked in for the group to meet at 6.30pm at Stratos At Avani, the restaurant on the 15th floor so, at 6.30pm we made our way upstairs. We enjoyed a meal with group we will be travelling with for the next four weeks although, as it turns out, only three members of the group are unknown to Bernie and me! Our frequent travel companions, Cathy and Steve, booked onto this tour last year when we did and when Debbie and David decided to join us earlier this year they were told they were taking the last two spots. It would seem that three people have pulled out since then?? Not to worry, generally speaking the smaller the group the better.


Steps: 11,658 (7.85kms)

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