The Night Train to Keetmanshoop and beyond

Emile dropped me at the station and I immediately found my compartment. This train was a lot busier than the one I took from Swakopmund to here. The platform was active and we left two hours late. I had another character that fitted the slangoog profile in my compartment. He was a friendly guy wearing a faded Fubu sweater and slops with feet that looked like he walked barefoot through the desert with eyes fitting the slangoog profile. He soon decided our compartment was to boring for him and moved next door to the party cabin where the Nama tunes played through the night.

I was left with three women, an old man and his grand child in my compartment. The old man and the child was in a ‘who could speak the most’ battle but soon went to bed. The babies did not cry once on the trip, but coughed as if they had TB. The compartment had a door and we closed it because Slangoog and his friends were partying next door. It was hot and stuffy in our compartment. I had the top berth and the babies slept on the floor. I had a good night sleep rocking to the movement of the railway tracks.

From Keetmanshoop I wanted to take the train South to Karasburg and then to Upington, De Aar and Cape Town. The Karasburg train only went the next day; there was no passenger train from Karasburg to Upington and also no passenger train from Upington to De Aar. From De Aar I would only be able to board a 00:00 train to Cape Town. This option seemed stupid and I decided to rather travel back by road to Cape Town.

In Keetmanshoop I asked around for the next bus south. Intercape and Ekonolux would only be leaving Keetmanshoop at 23:00. It was 09:00 and I had all the time in the world. While walking to the ATM to draw money for an Intercape bus, I thought of giving Fritz Brandt a call. I’d been in contact with my father and according to one of his sources Fritz was in Namibia. Fritz told me he would only be in Namibia in 3 weeks time. It was 2 weeks on, but I called him anyway.

Fritz was loading fish in Walvis Bay due for Cape Town. He would be in Keetmanshoop around 04:00.

“I’ll give you a lift if you’re willing to wait till then”

The bus would only arrive at 23:00 and they might even be late. With Fritz I had a free lift to Cape Town. One time, I was taking the truck.

I walked 4km out of town to the Engen garage where I sat waiting, killing time by reading and listening to my Ipod.

After sunset I moved to a seat in the Wimpy watching the Leopards VS Griqua’s rugby game. When the game finished I moved back outside and pulled my usual stunt by sleeping under the tree till Fritz arrived.

It was as if I had seen him yesterday. Two weeks passed and I told him all my adventures.

Back in South Africa we passed through the same flower fields again. In two weeks the landscape had changed and new flowers where prominent.

I arrived back in a wet and cold Cape Town on Saturday 22:00.

In my short two week trip to Namibia I met up with an old friend and made new friends along the way.

Had some great experiences and took nice photos.

The trip hardly cost me anything with most expenses going towards food and booze. It was almost cheaper to travel than stay at home.

What an amazing trip I had all by just making use of opportunities, being flexible, tolerant, patient and having faith in others.