The drive from Windhoek to Tsumeb was around 430km on tarmac roads and pretty much all of it on the main north/south highway, the B1, in Namibia.

If honest the scenery was not stunning but impressively baron/desert bush like and there was a lot of 'big sky' moments on the drive north. Fortunately I am now fully up to speed driving on the left (as we do in the UK) so keeping to the 120 kph speed limit on mainly straight roads with the odd junction and roundabout was very easy going. Between towns there was very little traffic and very few bends in the road either - very easy driving!

Our first stop, about an hour north of Windhoek at the nicely named Brewed Awakening Coffee Shop in Okahandja was well timed. The place served up good coffee and had decent toilets too!

By the time we had reached Otjiwarongo it was time for lunch and pulling into a modern shopping centre we visited the SuperSpar - for water and foreign crisps followed by grabbing lunch at Wimpy! It seems that Wimpy, at least in Namibia have branched out a little in food offerings and serve up sandwiches and wraps as well as the traditional burger/fries option you got at home when Wimpy were on every UK high street.

We also knew that there was a narrow gauge steam locomotive sat outside the railway station at Otjiwarongo so it seemed only right to call in to check it out.

We arrived into Tsumeb (having been stopped at the police check point for a driving licence and vehicle document check) and checked into the Kupferquelle Resort. The room seemed brand new and was massive - it seemed like we had made a good choice as the resort had a nice feel about with lush gardens, outdoor BBQ pits and a large swimming pool too.

We had enough time to visit the town which was very quiet on a Sunday afternoon and got a good feel for the place . . . well, not that there was too much to see/do. Once back at the hotel we picked up a bottle of chilled crisp South African rosé wine (~£5) from the supermarket at the hotel to enjoy on the balcony before dinner as the sun set on our first full day in Namibia - this certainly is the life.

Dinner was had at the Kupferquelle Resort at the [rather poorly named] DROS Steak House which is a chain establishment that originates from South Africa but has a couple of overseas restaurants, including one at Kupferquelle in Tsumeb. Great value and decent food too at around £21 for two main meals and three drinks although Heather's strawberry daiquiri was particularly artificial in flavour.

We wanted to call in at the Tsumeb Mining Museum before heading to Etosha National Park on the Monday morning so, yet again, we were up fairly early ready to head off after a swift visit to DROS for a cooked breakfast.

The museum though was closed as it was a public holiday so we headed straight to Etosha instead. Our self-drive safari is up next!