We rose early about 6am, packed up our tent and headed out of Etosha. The nearest exit, Namutoni, was 60km (or 30 miles) so again we took our time looking for wildlife. Animal spotting started slow, but eventually we saw giraffe, zebra, wildebeest & tons of deer. Carisa has also become quite the birdwatcher spotting all kinds of little guys. Sadly we did not see any lions. Once out of the park we headed to a town called Tsumeb, where Ulrich's family stopped to eat when he was 13. We found the hotel, The Minion Hotel, with no difficulty but we were too early for lunch - So breakfast it is! Let me first explain that all Namibian Restaurant menus read the same:
Ham & Cheese Sandwich
Ham & Tomato Sandwich
Ham, Cheese & Tomato Sandwich
Schnitzel
Bratworst etc.....
The girls were all concerned with the advertised 2 star rated hotel, so we agreed waffles w/ ice cream were a safe bet. Our waiter was in his 70's or 80's and took quite some time to remember our order. He kept going around the table saying what we ordered then he left and returned repeating it all for good measure. Carisa ordered a waffle w/ strawberry sauce and ice cream and it looked so gross. After lunch we stopped for gas and got a snack at Wimpy (a fast food place). On the way to Windhoek I spotted a couple of giraffes and baboons, it was such a cheap thrill! We checked into our hostel, The Cardboard Box, luckily and despite its name we found it quite acceptable. An employee from the cardboard box sent us to Joe's Bierhouse for dinner, which blew us away. Pulling up to it looked like a garage, but once inside it was like a tropical oasis. The food was really good and cost about $11 a person for dinner, drinks & dessert. When we returned to our hostel we rearranged the beds and tables to start speed competitions. We were being so loud and having so much fun. We even started filming them so we could do playbacks in slow motion for replays. One round Carisa, Leeman and I were sitting on one bed and a pretty spectacular ending to a game had us all jump and shout. Then suddenly the bed cracked and half of it fell. We were so loud and then silence, as we waited to see if we were going to be in trouble. Ulrich quickly jumped into action and said, "clear the other bed we'll swap them". We all started working hard trying to fix it, when we realized Ulrich was just trying to keep the game moving. We eventually alerted staff, but not before moving the beds around and trying to cover it all up. We continued to keep score on Ulrich's fabulous diagram. We did find one minor flaw in the diagram, but it's nothing an excel spreadsheet can't fix when we get home.
When I first saw that picture of waffles with strawberries, I thought it was spaghetti with meatballs. You did not mention that the Hotel Minion was the nicest joint to eat at between Etosha and Windhoek. I think that can of strawberries had been sitting on the shelf since Ulrich went when he was 13.
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