Namibia - South Africa

First trip to a new continent
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I had it stuck in my head that I wanted to visit Africa. I had never seen a safari, and always wondered what ‘wilderness’ really meant. What better place to explore this than Africa itself? I brought the topic up in passing with a few colleagues just before my departure, and so knew I had to make good on it. It was actually the last day of the G Adventures tour that drove me to actually proceed and book a tour (suffice to say I am still FOMO and deadline driven), and after much deliberation on the different alternate routes I finally decided to go from Windhoek to Cape Town with G Adventures, and then to have a safari trip with my dad. I narrowed it to Namibia as I had heard others I met while travelling mention the place as being impressive and safe, and someone had remarked to me “if you have already seen snow and the northern lights, why not check out sand dunes next?”.

The whole trip planning experience was truly nerve wrecking - with the trip booked exactly 2 weeks before departure I had the fortnight to research, prep and pack. With it being an entirely new continent I ended up looking into more things than expected, and getting stressed by seemingly mundane questions that I just could not find the answers to online. (I’ve jotted some of these down at the bottom of the page in case anyone else is planning to do a trip there!) Furthermore, Africa is huge but connectivity is limited, and it took me some time to figure out the typical routes as I was considering which region to go to and how to extend the trip.

We often talk about how the internet sometimes amplifies fears and negative information, and I truly felt that when researching for my trip. (TLDR: If you do your research and stick to the touristy areas it feels perfectly fine.) South Africa including Cape Town was painted in an incredibly negative light, and even discussions on channels such as reddit were anxiety inducing. Thankfully just a week before the trip I heard that a friend of mine had actually done a brief tour from Victoria Falls to Windhoek through G Adventures, so I chatted with her as well as another friend who had visited Cape Town to prep.

I had set my departure date as 14 Feb as it gave me enough time to reach in advance of the 15 Feb tour start, and it held some significance given that it was exactly a month since my last day. (Fun fact: my next trip is now also set to depart on the 14 of April). I probably lost weight and sleep in the last week leading up to my flight - that is how truly anxious I was - but on 14 Feb I was on the flight with my 40L backpack (which I managed to squish my belongings into after repeated repackings) and smaller frontpack.

The excitement of the trip started for me when I was on the second leg of my flights. I watched as we flew over JNB, seeing it for the first time through the windows of the plane. The landscape changed as we gradually moved towards Windhoek, and I was most amazed by the shadows cast by the clouds on the ground. The lady sat beside me was a Namibian herself, and she spoke on how it was the green season, and they were happy that the rains had come and made the place more beautiful with the greenery around. (From a tourism perspective, the green season is usually the low season as people try to avoid the rains, and it is more difficult to spot animals in the safaris). P.S. I flew via Airlink and it was great! They are a full service airline so you get food and drinks as part of your trip.

Landing at the airport and finding my airport pickup from the hostel was smooth. When you first enter into the arrival hall, the drivers are scattered about and there might not be someone standing there with your name held out but they will approach you to ask if you are so and so. The drivers from the different places seem to know each other well, and if you ask someone if they know where your driver is they can also help point you to him. My driver showed me where to get my sim card and to draw money from the ATM, and was apologetic as we had to wait for a french family whose luggage was lost by their airline and they were busy filing the paper work. In that time many other drivers approached us and offered me a separate list and tours, which my driver jokingly fended off for me. All in all, he was a friendly figure and a great first person to interact with in Namibia.

Once the french family was done, we bundled into the vehicle, and did the ~50min ride into town. It was a pleasant ride, as I listened to the radio and stared out into the vast green landscape around us. It is always these first moments in a country with large swathes of land that it hits me I am in a different country. The songs on the radio sounded the same though, as I listened to Hero by Enrique Iglesias, and Beautiful Things by Benson Boone. There were some African songs as well, of which the beat provides a great backing for road trips. Surprisingly, the accent for Namibian radio doesn’t sound too different from the Singaporean accent (without all our lahs and lehs of course).

I stayed at Chameleon Backpackers - it was one I had found through other blogs online, and they also have a free walking city tour and other paid activities. It’s not exactly my favourite place I’ve stayed but it was decent and the staff were helpful - if anyone is looking to visit Namibia independently without a long tour, this may be one way to do it as I believe they also have options for transport to other towns like Swakopmund. There is also a craft market behind the hostel for souvenir shopping. As you leave the hostel, there are signs recommending you don’t bring a purse out, or if you do you keep your key in a pocket instead to reduce the chances of it getting stolen or snatched. Another thing I noticed was that there were signs on water conservation everywhere, which made me feel a twinge of guilt (earlier at the airport, in between transferring flights I had suggested pouring away water from my bottle given I could not bring it along, to probably the dismay of the airport staff we asked me to drink it).

The hostel did indeed feel like a little safe peaceful oasis. At about 430pm, I decided it was time to venture out to the nearest shopping mall (Wernhil) which was a 10 min walk away. This was an experience in itself. The area around Chameleon Backpackers seems to cater more to blacks, and as I walked through the mall as an Asian I truly stood out. There were few whites even, and few other tourists that I could see. 430pm Friday seems to be a peak timing that many are out and about (in comparison the streets were much more peaceful on Saturday morning). I did get a few ni haos and some kid said “chairman mao”, but actually more people started with Konichiwa, so I wonder if they get more Japanese tourists there than Chinese. It was my first day and I did feel a bit wary of the crowd, so I grabbed some snacks and mosquito repellent, before heading back to the hostel. Only close to the hostel entrance did I turn around to take quick shots of the scenes around me.

The next morning, I joined a tour by Chameleon safaris to learn more about Namibia. It was also then that I learnt that the country’s first president had only just passed away the week before.

There are 14 dialects in Namibia, with English as the official language (similar to Singapore!). 80% of the country is Christian. They are a democracy and the country’s first female president started her term on 21 March 2025.

The tour first started with the country’s history and current challenges

  • 1904 - 1908 genocide by Germany

  • Apartheid

  • They are now facing poverty: 40% unemployment out of 3 million people. Whites make up 6% of the population but own 50% of the land and wealth in the country. Namibia is the country with the second highest Gini coefficient after South Africa

They have free healthcare (other than cases that need specialists) and free education. On their economy, the guides shared they have many sectors rather than a main economic sector, but uranium and hydrogen are also part of this. On foreign investment, China has the most investments with the largest uranium mine in the country also owned by China.

We learnt about the the township Katatura, which means “a place where people do not want to live” where 250,000 people live with no running water. The black population was moved there in the early 1960s during apartheid.

We visited the local market, where we tried Kapana, a kind of grilled meat which was dipped in a spice and quite delicious.

That afternoon, the hostel driver drove me to my next hostel about a 10min drive away - called Urban Camp, it was a modern hotel / camping / glamping ground and the start point of my G adventures trip. This was semi nerve wrecking, as it was THE day I would meet the people that were going to spend the next 2 weeks with. so I am hugely grateful that this went well. I first came across 4 other girls at the pool, and as I perched at the side to read Caroline asked if I was joining the G adventures tour too and invited me to join them - a smooth segway into the group all of whom were also just starting the tour! G adventures tours work such that there are different legs of the tour, so the Windhoek to Cape Town was the last leg of the full tour and some others had started a week earlier and some even 3 weeks earlier. We had a good mix of people on the trip, from Germans, to a Canadian, Australian, American (Chinese ethnicity), Swiss, Norwegians and Danish. There were also a pair of Korean sisters with us.

At 6pm, the 8 new joiners (out of a total group of 18) were given a welcome briefing and introduced to the Lando, the sturdy vehicle that would be carrying us for the journey. We had a dinner at the hostel itself with Malba pudding as dessert, before turning in for an early night. It was random selection of rooms but it turned out that I did not have a room mate for the night given we had an odd number of each gender. This then translated into being in a solo tent as well for the rest of the time which I was slightly concerned about, but turned out to be a blessing and very restful haha (although I did carribean the tent zips shut for the first night).

Now I can’t go into the full details of the tour as that would take way too long, but overall thoughts are: I’m not the most sociable person but I would do G adventure tours again when travelling to such locations. For the safety definitely, but also the prices are quite reasonable and in such vast countries overlanding in this way with a large group seems more cost efficient than arranging my own transport. It is also a great way to meet other international travellers (in this case many of them were frequent solo travellers but decided to do group travel for Namibia). I would however look at age group and starting point selection haha to see if the travellers are more around my age and the younger pre uni crowd could have quite a different party vibe - in this case I felt very lucky that those who started from Windhoek were about the same age range - and we didn’t club the only night people stayed up was to play cards hahaha). And importantly it does seem like G adventures seeks to support the local businesses and provided an introduction to the culture and history of the region that I may not have been able to understand on my own.

Note for G adventures: you do spend a lot of time in the Lando travelling however, so definitely something to take note. And there are certain parts of the Africa route where the travel days are long to cover ground and you see little, so some of the others in the group did not recommend doing it for certain parts.

The route we covered took us to Waterberg Plateau > Etosha National Park > Spitzkoppe > Swakopmund > Bushman Camp and the dunes > Fish River Canyon > cross over to South Africa > Orange River > Cape Town.

The parts of the tour in the Namibia segment were much more naturey and I appreciated getting to start off with that. Hiking in Waterburg Plateau was a fun way to stretch our legs after our first travel day, and was my first experience of setting up the tents and how dinner was prepared. Thank you ODAC for training my outdoor skills, and allowing me to feel somewhat comfortable with camping.

Etosha National Park was great but our safari guide was not the best (the other group apparently had a much more enthusiastic guide), our own G adventure guide though was pretty good in spotting the animals and sharing details with us. I can now tell the difference between a Springbok and an Impala, and Springboks have now entered my top 3 favourite animal list. It was actually the early morning drive segments from the lando that I loved the most, and we had fairly decent sightings of giraffes and rhinos.

Spitzkoppe - the Matterhorn of Namibia - was THE place that absolutely blew my mind. I wish we had had more time there. The landscape looks absolutely incredible, we got to walk and hike around slightly to check out an arch. Our guides suggested we climb the rock nearby to see the sunset (which I struggled with and which completely reminded me that I have a fear of heights) but the other girls were incredible and we all made it up. What amazing views and what amazing stars and how nice it was to chat around a campfire after dinner. Our guide told us ghost stories, we spoke on spirituality, and our guide (who was from Zimbabwe) told us about how he felt Africans were similar to the Chinese in some of the beliefs around spirituality. I wanted to stay up later to take night photos, but the ghost stories scared me and I scurried off to my night around midnight after the others had gone to bed.

Swakopmund was a fishing town and to be honest is not what one would visually think of when looking at Namibia. It looks like it could be any other town in the US. We had a free rest day here as it was midway in the trip. Some went for skydiving, and a large group of us went to do a 4WD to Sandwich Harbour to see where the dunes meet the sea. We also had the opportunity to pass bay and see salt production, which I found fascinating. The salt on the ground looked like snow. And while the salt lakes look vast and natural, they are actually manmade.

Visiting the bushman camp felt interesting in that it gave us a sense of the past, and the indigenous communities in the area. Our guide was a bushman himself and we stayed on his land. He talked about the knowledge they held, such as on how to find water in a desert and to keep it buried in the ground in ostrich shells so they could store it for a return journey. He talked about their nomadic nature - the males would go on hunts and if they were successful they would take the tail back to their families and the whole family would move to the prey - at times leaving the elderly and the young (those too heavy to be carried but too young to cover the journey themselves) as it was necessary for survival. He talked about how people in the past could actually get permits to hunt bushman and take their diamonds from time - such a terrifying thought.

We visited Dune 47 and also Deadvei - the classic areas that Namibian tours go to. Beautiful areas, but perhaps not as mindblowing to me as these were already expected. The whole geology and landscape of the region however was fascinating to me. I felt of twinge of regret at not studying geoscience instead of ecology. The structures were incredible and you can see the strikes and dips from a mile away. The guides themselves are all fairly well versed in the topic and it is a prominent one for the country.

Once we reached Cape Town, I had half a day with the group where we took a leisurely walk to Seapoint, and I had a full day out on my own to explore the next day. We were staying at CURIOCITY Green Point which actually felt really safe and I would definitely recommend. You can also book tours through them. I got it in my head before the trip that I wanted to do paragliding at Cape Town and I booked through CURIOCITY’s website the night before. Not only did the provider reach out to me very quickly to confirm, even CURIOCITY’s staff reached out to me directly to ensure everything was arranged for me. For those staying in the hostel side (which I did for one night), the nice large common area also comes in very handy. You might also see some locals from other parts of South Africa staying here - 3 others in my room were South African ladies who stayed out of Cape Town but had come for a night out away from the families. The rooms are clean and comfortable, it might be noisy unfortunately from the street but for the price and for the safety I think it was worth it. It is generally recommended to stay around Seapoint and Greenpoint, quite a few of my friends rented airbnbs in seapoint.

Paragliding was delayed on my solo day due to the fog and weather, so I wandered over to the V&A waterfront and grabbed a coffee. Around 1230pm I was given an all clear and immediately grabbed to the top of signal hill. The total paragliding experience from reaching to prep to coming down and transferring photos took 15minutes… S$160 on 15 minutes including photos but it was my first time so still an experience! The photos and videos turned out quite funny with the instructor as the main character.

Checking the timings, I immediately grabbed over to Georgetown coffee in the CBD to catch the start of a Bo Kaap free walking tour which my G adventure guide had recommended the night before. Bo Kaap is known for bright colorful houses and as the birthplace for Islam in South Africa. Christianity was not open to slaves (you could not sell Christians), so Islam was spread amongst the slaves. The oldest mosque here dates back to 1794, when freedom was first granted to practice any religion (the dutch east india company went bankrupt so you could then practice any religion). Under the group areas act, the area was classified as the coloured Muslims area. The bright colorful houses that the area is so known for actually only goes back to 1987, when people began to be granted more freedom. In this area, there is also the strong presence of protest art to support Palestinians in Gaza. We were reminded that this goes back to 1995. It is not about religion, but in 1962 - 1992 Palestine stood by the National African Congress as they fought for freedom. Nelson Mandala said that they are not truly free unless Palestine is free. We were introduced to Cape Malay cuisine, and I tried a koesister at a shop we passed by.

I had saved the remaining touristy items to do with my dad upon his arrival.

Day 1: Lunch at COY. We were initially planning to go to Robben Island but that tour was cancelled due to technical issues with the ferry. Instead, we grabbed over to Camps Bay. It was crowded and vibrant. The wind was strong that day, which was intense as it hurts when the wind blows the sand against you on the beach.

Day 2: Cape of Good Hope Tour

Day 3-6: Flight and safari at Sabi Sands Private Reserve

Day 7: Flight back to Cape Town and visit to Table Mountain

Day 8: Stellenbosch, Francheok and Paarl wine tasting

Day 9: Flight back to Singapore

Elaborate on cape of good hope history in trade

Things interesting about Africa

  • Concept of wildnerness

  • New place - now have a much better idea of other countries and where to visit next

  • Indigenous / bushman - surviving off the ground

  • Politics and economy - concept of ‘Colored’ was completely new

Tips

  • One item I was extremely stressed about was my initial transfer at O.R. Tambo. Here is some information about the self transfer that I previously struggled to find online.

    I arrived in JNB from a SQ flight and had to do a self transfer to an Airlink flight to Windhoek. For such situations, you will need to go out to collect your luggage and check in again for the next flight IF you have check in luggage.

    If you only have carry on, you do not need to leave and can go straight through to the international transit area, where there are airline counters to help you. They will stamp your passport with a transit stamp and you will go through another security check and then to the departure hall.

    If you are unsure after leaving the plane whether you need to exit the arrival hall or can go through international transit, there is also a helpdesk at the airport right before the immigration area for arrivals where you can ask.

    I arrived at JNB early in the morning around 6am, and it was an extremely quick process for me to get back through to departure (around 40min) - the whole international transit was extremely empty. However, researching online, I have seen many people suggest having a 5h transit timing if you have check in luggage which you need to collect and re check in.

    If you are transferring a JNB and your luggage is checked through, a few people in my tour group had their luggage lost and only received it a couple of days later, which may have been attributed to their short transfer timings. In any case, be prepared for this as a circumstance especially if you have a group tour to catch the next day (keep an extra set of clothing in your carry on)

  • Note that your international adaptor will NOT work in Namibia. In Namibia, power sockets type D and M are used.

    You can purchase an adapter during a transfer at JNB O.R. Tambo Airport, or the hostel or hotel you stay out may also sell one.

  • Looking at online sites, E-sims in Namibia don’t seem to work well. Airalo has also stop selling its e-sim for Namibia. However, you can easily get a sim card at the MTC shop in Windhoek airport. Take note to do this at the arrival hall AFTER you leave the luggage collection as the rates there are more reasonable

  • There is a very strong tipping culture here. In general, 10% at restaurants for decent service and you can top up for stellar service. For the kind of safaris that we went for, it was 100 rand per person for the guide, and I also paid 100 rand to the guide for free walking tours.