Part 5: The Getting Home Part
After another night in camp, we woke up for the drive back to Windhoek. We drove over the Spreetshoogte Pass (please don’t ask me how to pronounce that), not the easiest way to get back but probably the most interesting and enjoyed the views along the way.
The rocket is very obviously fake. Other than that, I have no idea what is going on here.
Our rental car company had told us to return the Hilux with as little gas as possible, the same way we got it, and we took them very seriously. I sure hope they had a gas can on site because I don’t think they were going to make it to the nearest gas station on the fumes we left them in the tank.
The trip back to the airport was uneventful. Once there we needed to wait in line for a minute as the airport requires a paper boarding pass to go through security. The line wasn’t too bad and we soon found ourselves in the Priority Pass lounge where my kids did some serious damage to the buffet.
We were flying home on a self-connection, with a flight on Discover Airlines to Frankfurt followed by a flight back to the States. Like most of the flights between Europe and southern Africa the flight left in the evening and arrived first-thing the following morning, much like flights between the US and southern South America. We snagged three sets of pairs along the windows, the Anarchist with Mrs. dfw88, the Observer with me, and the Engineer getting two seats to himself so he could get some rest. The flight was entirely uneventful. Most of the passengers were German, unsurprisingly, either young adults or retirees, with a few Belgians, Spaniards, and other western Europeans. A meal was served after takeoff, though we were still fairly full from the lounge. I don’t even think my kids stayed up long enough to eat it. After all of our adventures we were exhausted, so we all slept well and landed in FRA with plenty of time to continue home.
Ground boarding our Eurowings Discover A330 for the flight to FRA, as the sun sets.
Overall, this was an exceptional family adventure. There was really nothing that went wrong at all. We made it where we needed to go, had plenty of time to enjoy the sites, didn’t need either spare tire, avoided running our car into any giraffes, and no one, especially not Mrs. dfw88, had any desert snake encounters. This was our first trip to Africa and it was a great introduction to a continent that we hope to return to many times in the future. The locals with whom we interacted, primarily at our campsites, were all friendly and helpful. The driving wasn’t too bad, once we learned what to expect, and the campsites were in good shape. I’d highly recommend a Namibian road trip to anyone considering it.