Acknowledgement: This walking tour came straight from the guidebook I was using – Bradt Guide Namibia. I’d highly recommend the tour and the guidebook was pretty good, if a little heavier than I’d have preferred.
I set off early in the morning. A strange side-effect of travelling is that I appear to wake up far earlier than I would otherwise expect to. Perhaps it has to do with sleeping in a dorm full of strangers. Although, it may also be to do with the fact that I was going to bed ridiculously early – almost to bed with the sun, so I suppose up with the sun wasn’t unreasonable. Given that I was trying to explore a particularly hot place at the height of summer, it turned out to be useful. Most days, I’d head off early and be back at the backpackers by mid-day, in time for a deliciously cool swim before the afternoon thunderstorm gathered.
After the standard breakfast of pancakes (supplied as part of the cost of staying at the backpackers – Cardboard Box Backpackers, Windhoek FTW), I set off walking. It was already getting warm but the day was early enough that the morning cool hadn’t quite burned off yet, so things were just fresh enough to be pleasant. I walked down along Dr Frans Indongo Street towards the shopping centre of town. My first stop was Post Street Mall to see the meteors. The Gideon Meteors are a group of 33 meteor-pieces found in Gideon, Namibia, are part of the largest and possibly oldest meteor fall ever found. They’re shiny and black and red and apparently metallic. The largest weighs 650kg.
Next to Zoo Park. This is a lovely public park in the central area of town – although I’m not clear on the ‘Zoo’ bit. From a quiet bench, here, I looked across at three old German-built buildings, some of the oldest in town. One of them is even built with a snow-roof. I wandered through the gardens, enjoying the green and the flowers. Parks are beautiful and I particularly enjoy those that are well-maintained and feel lived-in. In the centre of the park, I stopped and looked at a monument to the German soldiers who fell the war with the Nama.
Across Fidel Castro Street, past the market area full of baskets and carvings all too similar to those at home, I noticed a city-tour bus just like the one used for city tours in Cape Town. I popped into the tourism office to find out the price but it was N$200 and the information man didn’t seem to have much information about the duration or route, so I decided I’d stick to walking. Next time, perhaps. I wandered on, wondering about the windmill on a stall next to the information office.
Up the road, on a large circle, is Christus Kirche. This ‘fairytale church’, as the guidebook so accurately describes it, is the oldest in Windhoek, built between 1907 and 1910 . It is a stone church in art nouveau neo-Gothic style and would make a beautiful icing-sugar creation. I found myself taking picture after picture of the building against the clear blue sky.
The real joy of this walk would be along to the right: the national museum. Before I reached it, I took a stroll along the road, past the Kaiserliche Realschule (first school) – now the research section of the National Museum, past Bank of Namibia, to the end of the block, from where, across the road, I found a beautiful view across the city towards the mountains. Across the road were the offices of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), interesting because this little-known organisation plays such a crucial part in the economy of the region.
Back along the road, past Windhoek High School, to the old fort (Alte Feste), now the National Museum of Namibia. As well as being amazing, this was probably the most harrowing part of the day.
The first part of the museum dealt with resistance and the independence struggle. The first room was fine – filled with tales and artefacts of the early resistance to the Germans in the early 1900s. Focussing a century later, the later part of the section dealt with the desperate struggle for Namibian independence not from a colonial Germany but from a determined and uninterested South Africa. The room dedicated to Namibians imprisoned on Robben Island was particularly difficult. And then the room dealing with resolution 435. This was the UN resolution that finally drove Namibian independence and first democratic election. In the room are all the flags of the countries that helped. Conspicuous by its absence is the South African flag. Not only did we occupy the country against their will and the pleas of the international community but when it came to finally granting them independence, we didn’t help. Or perhaps they didn’t want us. It was a strange experience. In between was some fascinating stuff, like their fist electoral posters and information on the policies of each party. There was even a room with a specially framed flag and coat of arms, etc. donated to Namibia by South African mining company, Goldfields.
Above this was a ‘panorama of Windhoek’ up a winding staircase. It wasn’t hugely impressive but definitely worth the climb. Actually, the climb would have been worth it just for the gorgeous wrought iron spiral staircase.
The next section was social history. It was great. I think one of the things I liked most about it was that it combined social history of different groups – with calabash milk holders right next to old metal pails. The kitchen equipment was really interesting. The next room was a music room with all sorts of instruments, from shakers, thumb-pianos and horns to violins and baby grand pianos, clearly representing the heritage of a particularly musical country. There was also bathroom stuff, including a sitting-in bath, an early washing machine and huge blocks of home-made soap.
The final section of the museum was definitely the most carefully done and academically stimulating. It was a very good (or at least I thought it good) section on Rock Art. Fascinating not only for the very interesting images but also because the various debates about interpretation of rock art and how they might have been made, as well as the history of how they were found and researched in this area, are all presented from a particularly open-minded perspective and in an interesting blend of text and images. I really enjoyed it and probably understand more about Rock Art now than I ever have before. Outside there were a series of wagons which were nice but something of a let-down after the Rock Art Section I had just seen.
As I walked down the steps from the museum, I passed another monument to German soldiers, this time to those killed in the Herero uprising in the early 1900s. The monument has caused some controversy recently because similar recognition has never really been given to the Herero who fell in the same war. Particularly as it is now fairly solidly established that the Germans not only managed to wipe out 80% of the Herero population but also used concentration camps and death camps similar to those the Nazis would use 40 years later in Europe.
After the museum, I headed back along the road and past the church. On the right were the parliament buildings. I didn’t really want to see the Namibian parliament but the gardens drew me in. They were beautiful, with huge trees, including the biggest Jacarandas I think I have ever seen, plenty of beautiful flowers and a fountain. Brightly coloured lizards – red and blue and yellow – lounged on the rocks in the sun. A gentle breeze lifted red-and-orange day-lilies. It was a refreshing breath on a day that had now become significantly hot.
It felt so strange to head back to the backpackers before the sun had even reached midday. It felt as though I had done too much for just one morning.