Audley Blog

Heather Miller February 20th, 2008

Last week I was in Windhoek for four days of meetings. After dark, cold, rainy Oxfordshire it was brilliant to spend 4 days under blue skies with temperatures of 30°C and cooling down perfectly in the evening. I stayed in a small guesthouse I hadn’t stayed in before, the Olive Grove, which is in my opinion is currently the best place to stay in Windhoek.A particular bugbear of mine are hotels that look beautiful but that are actually uncomfortable to stay in (e.g. beautiful showers - no water pressure, expensive leather couches – hard to sit on, wrought iron chairs in the dining room - too heavy to pull out etc). Olive Grove isn’t like this. It looks beautiful but the beds are firm, the water pressure excellent, sofas very soft, staff genuinely friendly and food some of the best in Windhoek. Overall, a great place to stay.

Most of the days were spent in meetings, however I did manage to find time to eat quite a bit (you’ve got to love corporate entertaining if it’s in Windhoek), go on an official city tour which I’d never previously done and of course, do some shopping for the team back home. Starting with the shopping, I had a list with three items, Roibos teabags which we drink like fish in the office, biltong – requested by our South African’s Mel & Bronwen and a teapot for Matt, our Yorkshire lad who loves a cuppa and is finding one cup just isn’t cutting it.

Ruth, who heads up our Southern Africa division, was with me and suggested we head for the Namibia Craft Centre. What a brilliant place to shop! The old brewery has been converted and lots of local craftsmen all have individual stalls. Everything in the centre has to be made in Namibia and the stuff is beautiful. I found some embroidered linen made in Katutura, a seed-pod mobile from Keetmanshoop and a teapot with elephants on from the pottery in Omaruru.

After a hard afternoon shopping there is even a small café on a leafy balcony where you can have an enormous slab of cake. Eating is a particular hobby of mine and it was great to try some other restaurants in Windhoek apart from Joe’s Beerhouse where I’d been previously. Our agents introduced us on the first day to a new restaurant in Windhoek called ‘Fresh & Wild’. On turning up I found it is owned and run by two people I’ve known for ten years. Penny Scott, who used to guide for us, and Sue Camp who used to work for our agents and who did my bookings six years ago.

Penny & Sue certainly know how to run a restaurant. There is a small menu of healthy food (if you discount the chocolate brownies) using lots of fresh ingredients. And ten specials that change every day – fortunate really as we were to eat lunch here every day we were in Windhoek! You can sit under an acacia tree, and enjoy your lunch in peaceful surroundings. It isn’t open for dinner but Penny & Sue have a wine bar planned for the evening that will do snacks - somewhere definitely on the list for my next visit. In the evening we were taken to Am Weinburg which has an amazing situation in Klein Windhoek. It’s the place to sit on the terrace, nice glass of wine and watch the sunset. I had the most perfect oryx steak there, although I did find the presence of the tinned peach garnish on the side a bit alarming. Still, I decided the perfect place to bring my husband when he next comes on a trip with me as he enjoys excellent and innovative cuisine (is a tinned peach innovative?!).

Finally, we ate at The Olive Grove, our guesthouse. If I had to rank the meals in Windhoek I would say this was the top. Excellent steaks cooked to perfection, salads that actually tasted of salad (what a nice change from the UK) and a pudding that was a few handmade chocolates from the chocolate factory in Omaruru. It had never occurred to me that the Omaruruans might give the Swiss a run for their money but surprisingly they really do.  After all the eating and meetings I did want to get out and about in Windhoek. I’ve lived in Windhoek for short periods of time and have always loved it so I took the chance to walk about a bit under my own steam. I walked down Independence Avenue, up to Christus Chirche and through Klein Windhoek. Evidence of Namibia’s booming economy is everywhere, construction is big business and I saw a number of expensively dressed business men on Independence Avenue, one with a superb pair of pointed crocodile shoes.

The thing I love about Windhoek is that I feel so safe. You can chat to people at the bus stop without ever feeling threatened and it’s the one of the few places in Africa where I can jump in a cab on my own (the ones from the Information Centre, not the yellow lighted ones) and not even think twice about it.

As I had an afternoon to spare I thought I’d better do a city tour to see what it would offer to guests who’d like a bit of guidance. I completely lucked out with my guide as it turned out Festus Mbinga, one of Namibia’s top guides. Only having 3 hours before going for my flight we whizzed about the city, visiting the museum (excellent rock art exhibition at the moment), the Old Location cemetery and then into Katutura, Windhoek’s largest township. Festus told me that it was completely safe to drive or walk around in the day and certainly I didn’t feel even the slightest bit uncomfortable. We visited the house he had grown up in and then went to the local market where we could wander about and chat to the stall holders. At night, the stall holders simply put a sack over their wares, tie it with a bit of old rope and leave them. Come morning they are 100% intact and the day’s business starts again.

Having stopped for a cup of tea in a local café we headed back to the airport to fly home to Gatwick. So, that was Windhoek. Sunny, safe and a place to put on weight! I thought about taking my husband for a city break at Easter. Sadly, his work has decided to send him to Bremnen in Germany instead so that’s out of the window. If Air Nambia has a good deal on flights though, I might just go with a friend….

• Africa , Staff Travels
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