A tyreing time

We believe it was a good decision to retrace our journey on the dirt road and travel south on perfect tar. The countryside was very wet with cows grazing in water meadows and people fishing with mosquito nets. It would probably have been very difficult driving. We reached the border by 4.30 and speedily left Angola. It was a bit like entering another world into Namibia: English speaking, driving on the left and all looking very organized. We put the time forward 1 hour and followed Werner to find a good place to stop for the night about 30 minutes from Oshikango. The sun was close to setting in a stormy looking sky and our bush camp for the night was amongst some gentle tethered donkeys beside a railway line. We immediately set our chairs out and introduced Werner and Gaby to gin and tonic with The Eagles playing on the radio. We sat and chatted for our last night together with lightening flashing in the sky. We were driven indoors by a heavy rainstorm.

This morning we had a slow start then drove back to Oshikango to do some food shopping and buy a new Simcard. All fine. Chris wanted to get the tyre fixed before leaving so we found a garage to check if they could do it straight away. While he was chatting at the back of the Enterprise I also jumped out to take a photo. While my back was turned for a moment a thief climbed in through my open window threw our laptop case and a bag with other phones etc in onto the ground and jumped out the driver's window. Chris, I and 3 garage men were all close enough to catch him before he ran off but no-one did. Afterwards we found the only thing he had taken was the old iPhone we had just bought a Simcard for to use as a wifi hotspot. The garage would not phone the police for us so we were a little suspicious about the whole thing. They did point out the accomplice across the street and Chris offered money to get the phone back. It worked but they wanted far too much and we have everything on it backed up. We did have to buy another Sim but we have another device to use it in.

At 1.30 we headed out to the next town, Ondangwa, to get away from the border. We thought we had learned our lesson and would be much more careful in future. We did put our portable hard drive into the safe and I had my window wound up nearly fully. At 2pm we found another tyre repair place and Chris had just got out to talk to them, leaving me sitting in the passenger seat to check on somewhere to stay for night on the tablet and read about Etosha Game Reserve from the Lonely Planet. No sooner had he left when a man jumped up and clung on to my part open window and started shouting. At the same time another one did the same on the other side, grabbed the almost empty laptop bag and the one on my side snatched the tablet from under the book. They jumped into a car which sped off. Some men from the Regional Government had seen it all and gave chase with Chris in their car. They caught the car and driver but the 2 thieves had gone. Lots of police arrived and we spent a couple of hours at the nearby police station. I was in shock and very upset but they were all very kind. We realized that we had also lost our 2nd old tablet, Chris's spare glasses, a few charger cables and the key to our car at home. None of it irreplaceable but it will make things a little more difficult until we can get replacements. Fortunately they did not get the new iPhone, our cameras or Chris's wallet with credit cards, all within reach. We suspect they had followed us from Oshikango as they knew just where the laptop bag was from before. 3 police then escorted us back to the garage and stayed with us while we had the tyre repaired and the Enterprise pressure washed. Tonight we are secure in the rear of the police station next to the cells!! Chris has taken the opportunity to do a hat swap with a young policeman.