Saturday, 24 May 2025
This morning we attempted a city of Windhoek tour but found our way blocked by a running event. Wian retraced his route and found a different way to drive towards the west of the city … which was blocked by a Youth Organisation protest march. After the marchers had passed by we were able to continue to Penduka Village via the informal settlement of Katatura. Katatura translates as ‘the place we do not want to live’ and is a settlement area that dates back to apartheid. Wian says that these days the inhabitants aren’t as negative about living in that part of the city and generally they enjoy a living in a vibrant community. The informal housing here in Windhoek seemed more substantial than the shanties in Cape Town with many of the dwellings built with adobe rather than sheets of corrugated iron.
We arrived at Penduka Village, a development and training enterprise for over 500 underprivileged women, which was very quiet on a Saturday morning.The enterprise offers work to the women and provides them with craft, design and management opportunities. We were taken on a guided tour where we saw the studios where they make batik items, transfer patterns to fabric to be embroidered by workers off-site and the kiln where glass beads are made. Our tour finished in the Gift Shop where we had to make some hard decisions about purchases. Many of their items were lovely BUT it’s only the beginning of our tour and already many of us are at our 15 kilogram baggage weight limit. We purchased a cute item (we think it’s an angel?) that we are going to use as a Christmas tree decoration … even if that is not what it is intended to be. It was at this stop that we also dropped of items for the school that is attached to Penduka Village. We left them with a selection of exercise books and pens, colouring books and story books for the use of the children.
With the running event concluded, Wian was able to return us to the area around Christukirche and the Independence Museum and found a park. The others had not already seen the church and museum so had a look around the outside of both buildings. We crossed the roundabout in the other direction today to photograph the Parliament Building. As we climbed down from the bus we told Wian that we visited yesterday and we would be quick to look around and then we would walk back to the hotel.
Back at the hotel we found a light lunch at The Pantry cafe attached to the Avani. After our quick lunch it was time to meet Wian back at the buss for this afternoon’s special experience, a carnivore feeding experience at Na’ankuse Lodge, a refuge for sick, injured and orphaned wild life. They also take in animals that people have tried to keep as pets before discovering that the cute baby animal grows up into a predator that is unsuited to a domestic environment.
We went out with another tour group on a 16-seater open-sided vehicle with an experienced guide, Mattheus. As we drove out to the enclosures, which a many hectares in size, we saw a female oryx by the road. Our first stop was at the baboons. Despite the park’s no breeding policy there were several baby baboons riding on the backs of their mothers. Mattheus told us that the males inside the enclosure are all castrated so not responsible for the babies. Despite the electric fence wild baboons driven wild by their hormones come over the fence to mate with the captive females despite it being a shocking experience for them!! Mattheus said that their new strategy is going to be giving the female baboons a contraceptive to prevent more babies.
Next we visited a caracal. Super cute cat with big, fluffy ears even when grown up. Luna was kept as a pet until his predatory instincts kicked in and he started attacking the neighbour’s domestic cats. The neighbours complained and the person who had tried to domesticate the caracal relinquished him to the refuge.
We moved on to the African Wild Dogs. A pack of dogs came to the park when the alpha female became depressed after the alpha male was killed by an oryx. She wasn’t leading the pack on hunts and all the dogs were losing condition so, rather than have the pack starve to death, the dogs were moved to the refuge. Some of the dogs have since been relocated to larger game reserves but Robyn (the former alpha) and Kalahari remain at the refuge.
Big cat time with a visit to see the refuge’s leopard our next stop. At the moment neither of us can recall the leopard’s back story but this guy had some attitude! He really didn’t want to be gawked at by the visitors to earn his food hissing at us through the fence as he waited impatiently for Mattheus to throw his dinner over the fence. His sister in the next enclosure was much calmer. The siblings have to be separated after having a big fight that almost resulted in the female’s death. That’s making me think that the pair were probably orphaned if they came to the refuge together.
Our final stop was at the cheetahs which were the only animal not waiting at the side of their enclosure for their food to arrive. Mattheus had to call them to come for dinner from wherever they were resting in their enclosure. The three cheetahs arrived for us to see them and then they were fed. I’m sure they are still very dangerous animals but they did not have the same aggravated attitude of the leopard. In fact, they were pretty chill laying inside the enclosure purring while they waited for their food. One even gave us a bit of a meow with Mattheus telling s that cheetahs are the only big cat that is capable of purring and meowing like a domestic cat.
On our way out a member of our party lost a cap when it was blown out the back of the vehicle. Despite Mattheus back tracking over the section of the road, the cap could not be found. We all joked that one of the wild baboons probably picked it up to wear to impress the ladies next time they are fertile, ha, ha.
We returned to the lodge and took pit stops before piling back into the truck. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that Bernie is impressed that it is a proper ISUZU truck which he thinks is called an MPS. He tells me that at home people kit them out as 4WD campers. Anyhow, back into the truck and we drove back to the city and straight to dinner. Tonight was our tour group’s welcome dinner at Joe’s Beer House. Bernie researched a few good eating places in Windhoek before leaving home and this came up as the No.1 place to eat. Wian confirmed this by saying that there is a saying that you haven’t been to Windhoek if you haven’t eaten at Joe’s!
The restaurant is a quirky place that made us think of some of the Road Kill Cafe types of place in Australia and the US. The decorations were eclectic and plentiful with toilet seat stools at the bar, a taxidermied leopard, a koi pond with a carved crocodile poised above it, hundreds of empty Jagermeister bottles lined up on a multitude of horizontal surfaces all around the restaurant and a Mini Cooper on the roof. Joe’s is famous for it’s game meat skewer with five different meats on it and a smaller three game meats option. All the boys went for one or the other of those options. None of the girls could bing themselves to eat some of the animals featured, preferring to opt for domesticated meats like beef and lamb!
After we had all eaten our main courses Wian advised us that this year is Bunnik’s 30th year so all tour groups are treated to birthday cake and two complimentary drinks at the tour’s welcome dinner. The cake was brought to our table with the staff playing drums and singing happy birthday. The Chinese patrons at the next table joined in and I do wonder which of our group they thought could possibly be only 30??! But, it would have been much too difficult to explain to them that the tour company is turning 30.
After our meal it was back to the hotel to try to wrestle the majority of our luggage back into our bags before bed time. Everything seemed to fit well when we packed at home but the more you are in and out of your bag wearing and using items that you have packed the more it seems to get out of control. We haven’t made any significant purchases, and in fact we dropped off more than a kilo of exercise books and pens this morning, so why is it getting so much harder to close the zipper?
Steps: 11,159 (7.91kms)
