Niall's Travel Blog

I start to think about how to get to Etosha Game Park, the big safari park in the North of the country and slowly come to the realisation that there is no possibility of getting there by public transport. My next thought is to hitchhike it but assuming I could hitch there (a big assumption!), it would be impossible to get around the park and I would be confined to the rest camp water hole to spot game. With this in mind I arrive in Avis and ask to hire a car. Car hire is pretty steep in Namibia because most of the roads are gravel surfaces which makes it easy to overturn the car. For a small car I am quoted about 45 euros a day which as well as petrol, park fees and accomodation would add up to about 120 euros a day to see Etosha park. I make the booking as this is a once in a lifetime thing and just as I'm about to hang up I ask whether there is any charge for being under 25 - an extra 20 euros a day, ouch!

I consider the financial impact of these 6 days on my year of travelling as I walk back to the hotel and I am told that I have a new roommate. He's a Dutch guy called Frank and has been travelling in South Africa and Namibia since finishing an internship in a university in Johannesburg. He was with a few friends who had to go home recently and was now having to pay the costs of his cheap South African hire car (about 20 euros a day) by himself (my ears prick up!). He tells me he is travelling north to Etosha, Botswana and Zimbabwe and at this point we start to discuss plans over a beer and within a hour of meeting each other I decide to call into Avis the next morning to tell them where to put their young driver's surplus charge!