To be honest, we were thinking that we are totally safe therefore we could get rest a little and sleep deep in Namibia after western Africa. We didn’t know that it was only a dream for us.
It was wintertime for Namibia when we entered. Our sleeping bags and the tent can keep us warm till 15 degrees. That’s why we decided to go to a city for a day so we can go shopping and stayed at a camping site. Normally, we never stay in the cities for camp. We arrived to Otjiwarongo, found a campsite. We put our motorcycles in front of the reception and our motorcycle gears-bags inside the reception.
We turned back before sunset. Set up the tent and had dinner. It was 8 pm but cold and dark. It was time for us to go to the tent. The campsite was crowded. Only one rental car, a lot of local workers who are working on the roads and stay at the campsite.
We watched one episode from the TV shows and get ready to sleep. I heard steps, which were coming, next to my motorcycle at 9:30 pm. When I told Ferry, he said that ‘it just from the next tent’. Ok, maybe I was wrong. Just five minutes passed I heard a zip was opening. I was sure that this was my side bag. I told again Ferry that ‘somebody is opening my bag’ He said same thing but I was stubborn to check it. We open inside the tent zip and look outside from our front tent (ex-tent had storage in front that we could put some stuff in it. So we had second zip to go out and also had a little window that we could see outside; didn’t need to leave from the tent) Ferry said that I was wrong nobody around. Fare enough because we checked outside.
Passed 10 minutes. That time I was hearing steeps just next to my head. Definitely somebody outside but at the same time we had a tent just behind us maybe 2 meters far. I wanted to tell him again but I knew that he would say again same thing. So, I just tried to be quite and listen outside.
Suddenly, Ferry jumped from the mattress. He said that he saw a shadow next to the tent. It must be same person what I was listening before. We heard a zip sound. Ferry got out the sleeping bag and moved to open our inside tent zip. He was sure that somebody opened our storage zip. He was right!
Ferry was in front I was his back. We came face to face with a man, half of his body was inside our tent and digging to find something. When he saw us he got surprise and started to run. Ferry was behind him without any shoes. I was screaming to him don’t run behind the thief. Because we didn’t know he was alone or somebody waiting for him on the corner. But this is some kind of human behavior I guess.
When I was screaming and Ferry was running I saw some people started to run behind to Ferry as well to help him. Other people came to me and ask ‘are we ok? Did he steal something?’ I said no because we had only shoes and some basic stuff in front of the tent, nothing valuable.
I was really so much anxious about Ferry because there passed 15 minutes and nobody turn back. Did somebody do anything to him? Or he cut his feet or something? Because the ground had a lot of stones and glass. I saw him 20 minutes later, he was coming slowly. Thanks God! He was ok. He said that he run behind the thief until security. He didn’t go to the street. Other persons went, who jumped behind Ferry to help.
That moment the security or who is responsible for the camping site came to us. She was asking we were ok, anything steal. Yes, we were ok and he took nothing but it was strange that we were in a secure campsite and something like that can happen. Also, she was telling us ‘If the thief steal something they could find easily because they have a security camera’ Are you really serious to telling this! How could somebody enter from the reception door if the security there? They told us, sometimes people come around the bar inside and if they need the toilet to use they can pass to the campsite for toilet. Possible that the guy see motorcycles and the tent so tried to look what he can find. No comment for that….
Of course we couldn’t sleep in the night and we got ready early in the morning to leave from there.
It was our first experience that something happened after a year on the road. We talk about our behavior. And promised each other that nobody never run again behind a thief. It doesn’t matter what they take from us.
In the morning the first thing we did? We bought pepper spray!
GS
