Mischief United

On Friday while waiting for the bike to be checked in, Hedley introduced me to an American rider, Allan Karl, who had just arrived from Walvis Bay on the C28 over the Khomas Hochland on his GS 650 Dakar. It had taken him six hours to travel the 358 Kilometers, and en route he seen a large male lion, which nonchalantly strolled across the road in front of him! “I nearly crapped in my britches!” was his only comment on the incident!! His bike had an electrical problem of some sort, and he needed it fixed in a hurry. Allan was on an extended trip around the world, and had already completed the North and South American legs of his journey, taking almost two years to do so… He had flown his bike from Buenos Aires to Cape Town, and was now on his way to Istanbul, in Turkey, via the African Continent!! Some ride!! I had no idea at the time how this chance meeting would affect the rest of my own journey…

We sat chatting for awhile and agreed to meet at his hotel for drinks later that evening… After checking in at the Backpackers Unite, I set my GPS for the Hotel Thule in Gorges Strasse, and rode into the early evening gloom. I had forgotten to change back to my clear visor so had to ride with the tinted visor open to see where I was going! The hotel was situated in the suburb of Eros, and when I got there, Hedley and his wife, Tammy, were already there, along with an Over-Lander couple from South Africa, whom Allan had met in Sossusvlei earlier that week. We shared a few drinks on the pool terrace, which has magnificent views overlooking the city of Windhoek.

We then decided to have a meal at Joe’s Beer House, a legendary restaurant a short distance from the hotel. The décor of this place keeps the patrons talking all night long. Hunting trophies are attached to almost every surface available, along with bits and pieces of household items from days gone by… Even old toilets…!! There is just too much to describe, and a visit to this amazing restaurant is strongly recommended to fully experience the thousands of items on display… We enjoyed a great meal, and a number of bottles of wine accompanied the beers and too many shooters… At midnight, Hedley suggested we go to a club on the far side of Windhoek for the old, “One for the Road”…. The rest of the party declined and went their separate ways, while I rode back to my lodgings on the bike, parked it, and met Hedley and Tammy on the pavement outside a few minutes later… I forget the name of the club we went to…in fact the rest of the evening was a bit of a blank…

At 3.30am, they dropped me at the gate to the Backpackers, and watched while my befuddled mind struggled to remember the code to let me in…. I finally punched in 7830#, and the gate slid silently open… Whew!!! I waved them goodbye and staggered to my room, passing the kitchen on the way… The house was as quiet as a tomb, (as most houses are at this time of the morning!!) and while I made myself a cup of coffee, I spent time filling the sugar bowls with salt, and putting Tabasco in the tomato sauce containers… No point in passing up such a wonderful opportunity…

I got up early on Saturday morning, but avoided the kitchen until there were a number of guests sitting down to breakfast… First victim was Attila, closely followed by the four German girls… I watched as they sipped their coffee, faced screwed up, and then added more “sugar”… Eventually Attila licked his finger and put it in the sugar bowl, and tasted it…. He looked around and saw me watching him…it took only a few seconds for him to make the connection, and then he winked at me and said, “Gud von, Ggonnie !!” He never let on what he had discovered, but came over to sit by me and watch the rest of the guests drink their morning coffee, faces screwing up at each sip. That day, some of the folk went out and bought their own coffee, not trusting the “terrible stuff” that was served in the kitchen… I also noticed that after their first taste of it, they also stayed the hell away from the tomato sauce…!!

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The kitchen at Backpackers Unite, scene of the “Salt and Tabasco” caper…

I rode the bike around Windhoek, taking in the sights and sounds of the city, wearing only shorts and T-shirt, revelling in being free of my heavy biking gear. I visited a couple of the stores which stock our furniture – Homecorp, House and Home, Homeconomix and OK Furnishers, marvelling once again at the high prices they charge… You’ll never believe what we get paid for the stuff…!!

I had a few cups of coffee at the Mearua Mall’s Mugg & Bean and then prowled the mall looking for an Internet café. None of them had computers which could take the flash drive which I had copied a few chapters of my journal onto… This meant that I would either have to try a place in the city itself, or wait for Swakopmund…

Saturday afternoon was spent watching cricket (much to everybody’s disgust, as Arsenal were playing Liverpool on Sky sports) and trying to beat Attila at “Spite and Malice”. Steve lay about in a stupor, having sampled his latest delivery of “The Herb” as he called it, and found it much to his liking…

I spent time alternating between the pool, and chatting to the German girls about their three month trip through Namibia in a Toyota Condor. They were studying environmental management, and were doing their “praktikal” in Namibia. I did not see much evidence of their actual work, but they did spent an inordinate amount of time, surfing porn websites, screaming with laughter and calling all and sundry to “come and zee zis von!!”. Attila eventually advised them that if they continued in this vein, he would have to invite them to his tent… They stopped asking him to look at their computer after that…

I bought a few bread rolls and cold meats to have for supper and retired to my room to catch up on my journal, and to avoid the attentions of the rest of the house, who were intent on having a “Saturday Night Special”… I wondered into the kitchen the next morning at about 5.00am, and was astounded at the amount of empty beer bottles that littered the counters… They had been at it until about 2.00am, and would probably not surface again until much later… I spent this valuable time changing all the labels on the keys to the various rooms, which were hanging in reception, and removing the batteries from the TV’s remote control…

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The entrance to the Backpackers Unite in Windhoek…

Sunday was spent lazing about and watching Estee the manager, struggling to open the doors to rooms which she had let to arriving guests. She eventually caught me laughing at her, and realized what had happened, and shouted, “Dis jy, jou Bliksem!!” at the top of her voice!! She then dumped all the keys on the table in front of me and said, “Maak reg, of ek moer vir jou!!”. She being of rather large stature, and with a look on her face that left me in no doubt as to the seriousness of her threat, I quickly got all the keys clipped on to their correct label tags… Mollified, she made me a cup of coffee and sat chatting to me about her life and family in Windhoek…

Just after lunch, a group of five British students arrived from Gobabis en route from Dar es Salaam, where they had been trying to teach the Queen’s English to groups of unreceptive school children for the past three months… They told me that they had experienced nothing but rain for the last week coming though southern Tanzania and Zambia…. News that did not instil much happiness in me. They looked like they needed a holiday. They had also “disturbed my Karma” with their tales of bad weather on my route ahead, and I decided to get even for this…. They were after all, prime targets for the practical joker in me… I started it off by advising them that I “thought” they were entitled to a free beer from the manager’s fridge, and showed them where the keys to the fridge were hung…

They duly helped themselves and when Estee arrived a few minutes later to check them in, the look of consternation on her face was a sight to behold!! She loudly berated them for opening the fridge without permission, and advised them that the beers were not complimentary, and that they owed her N$ 55.00, payable immediately!! I shrugged my shoulders when they looked helplessly at me and then told her that I said they could have a beer. She looked across at me, and then told them to, “stay away from that man, as he will get you into a lot of trouble!!”… Attila and Steve voted me, “King for the Day” after that one, and fetched a round of beers from their own stock in the fridges to commemorate the occasion…

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My loyal “subjects” for the day, Attila and Steve….

On Monday, I rode the bike to Danric Motorrad to have it serviced and to have its new “shoes” fitted. Hedley arranged a 1400 Nissan bakkie for me to use while the bike was being serviced, and I went back to the house and took all and sundry to do their shopping. The English students had by now forgiven me and we had a great time shopping in the local supermarket… To while away the boredom, I began adding various items to their baskets when they weren’t looking… Chaos reigned at the checking out counters as Davis discovered a packet of tampons and a slab of Gorgonzola cheese in his basket… Geena was not amused by the packets of condoms and two cans of sardines in hers… I waited nonchalantly at the magazine counter, watching them sort themselves out… Geena refused to speak to me on the way back, while the guys thought it was a huge joke… She eventually reached over and punched me on the arm, signalling all was forgiven, but made me carry her shopping bags to their tents at the back of the lodge as “punishment for my terrible behaviour…”…

The software update for the “Big Fella” took longer than we had expected and I used the afternoon to try and get my cell-phone sorted out. It was refusing to take any pictures, and kept advising that the memory was full. We discovered that while the memory card was not damaged, the card reader in the phone was “kaput”… This was as a result of the ride through the rain to Port Elizabeth when my cell-phone became completely waterlogged… Spares would have to be flown up from Johannesburg, and would take a few days… I could not wait that long, and had them put the phone back together again, then left to collect the “Big Fella”…

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Hedley Tavenor of BMW Motoraad, laying some TLC on the “Big Fella”…

Having paid for the service I decided to keep the spare air filter and plugs which had only done 5000kms since the bike was last serviced, I headed back to my lodgings and spent the rest of the afternoon packing and getting ready for the trip to the coast the following morning… Attila and 20 Dollars came to sit in my room while I packed, which was a little unnerving, as I fully expected them to try and play a last practical joke on me… I must have looked like a chameleon, as I eyes went every which way in an effort to keep both of them in plain sight at all times…

I bought a small bottle of whisky to share with the guys, and we spent a pleasant evening discussing our various travels, dreams and aspirations…. I had enjoyed my stay here and hoped that all the travellers I would meet in the future, would be of similar dispositions to those I had met here… If they had been any more “laid back”, they would have fallen over!! It definitely makes the long road a little more tolerable when you can pass the time in idle conversation with strangers who are also looking for that “something” in their lives…

© 2008 TBMH