Day 1 + 2 of our vacation (Windhoek)

Early on Saturday morning we set off for Windhoek. It's about an 8 hour drive from Oshakati. One the way down we saw baboons crossing the road and climbing over the fence on the other side. I was pretty excited about this because this was the first time I'd seen baboons in Africa.

One of René's colleagues and his wife and kids live in Windhoek so we were thankful to be able to stay in their flat there. We had a great time in Windhoek, even though it rained a lot on the days we were there. We went to NICE (Namibia Institute of Culinary Education) for dinner one night, really neat place and really good! And it's nice (no pun intended) to have a bit of a different scene than Oshakati. We have three restaurants that we frequent in Oshakati and that gets tiring! Anyway, there was a huge concert when we showed up there and it was packed! Also different from Oshakati because the restaurants are never packed.
We also went to Joe's Beerhouse for dinner one night. It's a bit of a tourist trap (evident by the fact that two huge tour buses that pulled up and the 50 or so tourists that poured into the restaurant). But it's a really neat place full of Africa paraphernalia including a mokoro canoe. Joe's Beerhouse is famous for a menu full of different game. I had springbok, which at the time I felt a little bad about because they are so cute, but after this trip I no longer feel bad. Springbok are EVERYWHERE in Africa, we saw them in the desert, in the grass, in the mountains, everywhere (see below for example)! René had a skewer with crocodile, ostrich, zebra, kudu and the less exciting chicken. All of the meats were tasty (springbok was the best in my opinion). The crocodile was interesting, it was mostly a huge piece of fat and the part that we could taste was pretty tough. After dinner we enjoyed several Camelthorn beers (Namibia's only? microbrew, at least the only microbrew that we know about). They are very good! But I do miss good old American brewed IPAs (or Canadian brewed!). Camelthorn has a really tasty "American Red Ale" and also a really good wheat beer that reminds René and me of home! But there is no way you could find a nice hoppy IPA here. There is a huge German influence, so all of the beers here are lagers.
Springbok in the desert! These next two pics are a little preview of our tour into the desert (Namib-Nakluft National Park).
Ostrich in the desert.
And just in case you aren't familiar with African game species, this is a kudu. I remember when René was here last summer he told me he ate kudu and Tom (from work at Rush) and I immediately google imaged "kudu." Now I am very familiar with these guys.