Short hair Francis

Some of the German Architectures of Swakopmund




Other side of Palm Beach



Don’t let this fool you for a tropical paradise, current temperature is 16C


Swakopmund Lighthouse


Swakopmund Museum, had a little bit of everything about Swakopmund, German South-West Africa and Namibia


A quick reminder of Etosha




And German South-West Africa







Want to get dropped off on Skeleton Coast?



Various Namibian Tribes




Part 54 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

Some German-related items





Rocks/Minerals of Namibia



After about an hour or so at the Swakopmund Museum, it was time for the other main stop inside town and that was the Kristall Galerie which apparently has the Largest Quartz Crystal Cluster.

Kristall Galerie


A Props up ^








The Swakopmund Railway Station, now a hotel/casino


Some random shots of Swakopmund



And after heading back to the guesthouse to get change and changed some of my personal item, it was time to go for some dune buggy and sandboarding




I think I’ll save this for when I go to the Sahara



Part 54 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

Some basic rules



Time to go











Time for some Sandboarding




I gave up after a few runs, Sandboarding is very tiring.

Time for some more Dune Buggy time


Atlantic Ocean in the distance




Part 54 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

As well as Swakopmund





As the adventure parts came to an end, I decided to drive slightly more South to enjoy the sunset










Next Part
Part 55 – British Airways Comair Business Class WDH – JNB

dat4life

Finally got a chance to catch up on this monstrosity, ShF. Looking forward to the grand finale.

Short hair Francis

Great to Hear dat4life, hopefully I'm keeping people's interest, have been kinda busy recently so haven't gotten the chance to image additional photos yet.

AhogZ

Patiently waiting for the next parts

brumbrum

so there were some German territories in southern Africa? Or it was only in the 20´s century war times?

Eddy421

I gave up after a few runs, Sandboarding is very tiring.

Sandboarding looks only really good on pictures..
Btw, Your "boards" were really quite "basic"...

Short hair Francis

Will do AhogZ, up in a couple hours ^

Brumbrum, all left from the German South-West Africa during the Scramble for Africa era.
Amazing how some upkeep and a good coat of paint will do

I agree, looks good in photos, very tiring to call back up to the top of the dunes.
And yes, very Basic boardss, more like Tobogganing than real Boards

Short hair Francis

Part 55 – British Airways Comair Business Class WDH – JNB


With a 6am departure from Swakopmund and 9:30am arrival back to Windhoek for some sightseeing already posted in Part 53.
4 full days of touring around in Namibia were over, it was time to fly to Melbourne via WDH – CPT – SYD – MEL.


Aug 14, 2013 – Wednesday
BA 6274 WDH – CPT 1:55pm – 4:50pm (734/J)


After spending another 2 hours touring around Windhoek, it was time to drive back to the outskirts where Windhoek Int’l is located.
Whose bright idea is to build an airport 42km outside the city when it’s surrounded by barren desert and the city of Windhoek only has about 320000+ population.
Talk about someone getting a deal on the land aka Denver Int’l.




Finally time to return the Corella back to Europcar, received the car with 7kms, return it 98 hours with 2308 kms, hehe I think I got my money’s worth




Windhoek Hosea Kutako Airport



British Airways Check-In


*Had to wait about 10 mins before getting checked-in, couldn’t OLCI and Older Male in the Y line started chirping about how I was cutting in line.
Hold back SHF, don’t do the Up in the Air quote “Promotions are Great, You Should Check it out with reference back to FF programs of course

Security and Immigration Check luckily had no line up and was airside quickly.

And here is the entire departure hall of WDH, it isn’t much

*1 restaurant, 2 gift shop, 2 currency exchanges airside, really isn’t much to do here so don’t come inside too early.

And for you smokers, can I say cubicle of shame

*It’s a size of a telephone booth, quite funny when you see 4+ people try to stuff themselves inside for a puff

Windhoek Int’l Oshoto Lounge







*Not much for a lounge either, only wifi, very small bites and drinks available here


Part 55 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

Sadly for today, the inbound from JNB was running a bit late, it parked around 1:20pm

British Airways Comair Boeing 737-400




*54th Flight, 127945 Miles flown since Apr 28
British Airways 6274
Windhoek Hosea Kutako to Johannesburg O.R. Tambo
Scheduled - 1:55pm – 4:50pm, 1 hr 55 min flight
Delayed Departure – 2:13pm, Late Arrival of Inbound Aircraft
Delayed Arrival – 5:00pm
Business Class, Seat 2C>1C
Food – Snack
Equipment – Boeing 737-400 Operated By Comair (South Africa)



Boarding was worse than a free-for-all, no J or Y lines, no departure screens, no mentioning of which boarding door until boarding commenced. Jeez!

I did however lucked out on being the premium gate lice so here are the cabin photos

British Airways Comair Boeing 737-400 Business Class Cabin



British Airways Comair Boeing 737-400 Business Class Seat




*As others have mentioned, Comair sells the middle seat on the right side of the J cabin, so a 2-3 config unlike the BA itself in Europe

Geez, can’t remember the last time I was on a 734, old


Pre-Departure Beverage


Luckily around the end of boarding, the bulkhead row was still clear so I moved up to the better seat




Bit of an odd window/bulkhead on this plane


The Air Namibia Airbus 340-300 getting ready for retirement


And a South African Airways Airbus 340-300 coming in from JNB



And with a no jetway airport like WDH, everyone walks on the ramp




There is only 1 problem with this set-up, the blowback from the plane, so workers had to stop the SA paxs to allow our roll-off from the apron.


Part 55 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

Boarding was completed at 2:07pm, and a couple min wait for the load-sheet, door were closed at 2:13pm for departure for the 1 hr 37 minutes flight to Johannesburg.

Thank You, South Africa and Namibia, this trip has been amazing


Bye Bye Namibia



Service kicked in about 10 mins after take-off, first a drink service

Bitter Lemon and Bottled Water with Cashews



BA 6274 Snack

To Start
Almond and Cashew Bits

Main Course
Vegetable Sandwich with Condiments
Or
Chicken Cold Plate with Eggplant Salad


2 Options for the flight, Chicken Cold Plate or Vegetable Sandwich


Chicken Cold Plate with Eggplant Salad

*It’s a tasty snack, small but tasty

Black Tea to end the Service

*Sadly Comair doesn’t cater green tea bags

And around 4:30pm, we made our descent into Johannesburg



Flying over Kyalami, a former Formula 1 race track


We landed around 4:50pm with a quick taxi to an outer bay position




A last look at the British Airway Comair Boeing 737-400



A kinda short 1 hr 10 minute connection the Qantas Sydney flight, man I wish Comair ran more than 1x frequency on Windhoek – Johannesburg.


Next Part
Part 56 – Revisiting the Old Classic, Flying on the Old Qantas 744 First Class Seat JNB-SYD

brumbrum

"Chicken Cold Plate with Eggplant Salad"

what about that blue flower inside? Did you eat it?

FYWE

The international airport in Windhoek is situated so far from town due to aircraft performance. In the event a long haul flight loses an engine, especially on departure from runway 26 there is enough room for them to climb and maneuver without having terrain issues which would happen if it were closer to town.
Love the report!! Can't wait for the rest.