After much discussion and deliberation, we finally knew how we were leaving South Africa. We bought an Intercape bus ticket from Cape Town to the Namibian border, which would get us there in 10 hours, at around 8 pm. The plan was to get picked up by Felix Unite, who we’d be doing a 4 day canoe trip with in the coming days.
The trip was mostly uneventful as we passed the Cederberg Mountains and into the desert that had smooth, round rock formations. The bus had movies playing almost constantly although many were not ones that we would recommend. We stopped occasionally at a gas station to stretch our legs and feel the intense dry heat.
South African border
Crossing the South Africa border
Around 7 pm we reached Vioolsdrift, the border town on the South African side. Our bus, including us, was searched high and low. There were several steps that needed to be followed. We took our passports to immigration and we could bypass customs unless we needed to declare something. From there, we took our passports to the police station and left them to check our status. We headed back to the bus where they unloaded all of our luggage onto what looked like a loading dock. The instructions were to get our carry-on bags off the bus and stand in front of our luggage. With gloves on, they opened each of our bags. They removed bags from within and squeezed things trying to find contraband.
Once our lugggae was cleared, it was put back on the bus and they inspected our hand luggage. They had already looked in Tico’s bag, but another person came and wanted to look through it again. Upon discovering his laptop and camera, he was sent back to the police station to have the serial numbers written down in case they were stolen. Then, the men and women were separated and one-by-one we were put in a room to be patted down. After more than an hour had passed, we were cleared to go to Namibia.
Namibian border
The bus drove about 3 kms up the road to Noordoewer, where we would repeat some of the same processes. We lined up to go through immigration and with only one attendant working, it was slow. Even though it was late, there was no wind or air conditioning and it was hot. As we cleared immigration, the bus was sent through a massive X-ray machine. A few people were called over because of their luggage, but it was nothing in comparison to what we experienced just before.
We loaded up and thought we were ready to arrive at our final destination, but the driver informed us that we needed to return to South Africa. So we drove the 3 kms back only to drop someone off that was denied entry to Namibia. This actually worked out well considering we left someone at the Namibian border so as we passed through he hopped back on board.
Noordoewer bus station
Our bus stop was the Engen gas station in town. We unloaded our bags and dropped them inside at the Wimpy. Tico questioned whether this was the stop, but I reassured him that this was it. By then it was 10:30 pm and our ride was not waiting for us. We had been told by the owner of Felix Unite, Carlos, that we’d be extremely lucky if we made it before 11 pm so we thought maybe they’d be there soon. In the meantime, we bought a Namibian SIM card and minutes and connected to the wifi. I texted Carlos to tell him we were there as it was the only number we had, but got no response.
Road to Felix Unite
After about 40 minutes we saw a Felix Unite car pull up. I jumped up and asked the guy buying ice if he was there to pick us up. He said he wasn’t and that he was off the clock, but he was unaware of any pick-ups that night. Thankfully, he agreed to let us pile in and took us the 10 kms to camp. We set up our mosquito net on the grass under a tree and crawled under with our sleeping bags. This would be our new home for the next several weeks.
Rising sun at Felix Unite
wow! Esta si fue algo tediosa! Que bueno que todo bien!! Un abrazo!!! Sigo pendiente de sus fotos 🙂
This is super useful thanks! my 2 friends are crosing the border by bus soon, we are from New Zealand so don’t need a visa by the looks, is there anything else we really need? Like proof of onwards travel? (We have flight tickets out of Kenya but nothing else booked as we are doing it as we go…) and would we have to declare any items like cameras etc.
Cheers
Glad to hear that it’s been helpful! I can’t speak directly to New Zealand citizens, but if you don’t need a visa prior to entering (on the list of exempt countries) then you don’t need proof of onward travel or declare anything. If you require an application, I think you do need to though. Our entry was very straightforward and easy. Enjoy your trip!