We packed and showered after getting up. Barely, just barely, we were able to fit Justin's backpack into the burgundy bag, so that all we'd need to carry on the way back would be the camera bag, the computer bag, and Crystal's (much smaller) backpack. We had heard some odd noises in the night, animals running around very near the tents, but we weren't sure what kind of animals. Well, when we walked over to breakfast we saw. There were lion tracks everywhere on the path leading from our tent to the main area. We should have pulled an all-nighter - we would have seen them. ;-) At breakfast it was still just the 4 people, the 2 of us plus a couple from the Cape Town area, JC and Barb. JC was a veterinarian, and was relocating up to Namibia to be a wildlife vet. We told him if he had been our vet, he could have retired 5 years ago. We chatted for awhile, but then had to go on our way, and we wished them well on their move and new adventure.

Our morning drive, on a scenic route to the airport, was a bit of a letdown. There was almost nothing, literally almost nothing. Leon was surprised as well, and exclaimed "It's Sunday, everyone's at church." Finally we saw a lone giraffe, and then a couple zebra and oryx, but that was it. While we'd seen 14 rhinos the past 2.5 days, ironically we saw none today, which was World Rhino Day. We did, however, see the anti-poaching unit, which drives around the concession looking for any poachers that may be around. At the airstrip, we recognized the pilot, it was Trish again. She remembered us as well. She told us that she spent the night in Ongava two nights earlier, but at one of the other camps. We told her that was the night that 4 rhinos came into our camp, but other than that she hadn't missed anything. ;-)

At the Windhoek airport, we got our purple bag back from the Wilderness Safaris office, then took it and the burgundy bag to get checked in and checked through to Los Angeles. There were only about 3 people in front of us in line, but by the time we checked in, there was a line of 50 behind us. Perhaps a big travel bus or something had come in. In line we saw Hans & Dora, who were the Swiss couple in our truck the first day at Ongava, and we also saw Richard and Vivian again. We went through security and hit up the one restaurant there. Crystal ordered some Pinotage, which she kept hoping to find given our close proximity to South Africa. They were out. Justin ordered the biltong pizza, which didn't sound so much good as it did interesting. But they were out of that as well. So we both got cheeseburgers and fries.

We were about halfway through our meal when Richard and Vivian came in and sat down, and we chatted some more about what each of us had seen the last couple days, and why neither of us would ever pay for First Class or Business Class seats. We also chatted about the Premier League, and we found out they were also Arsenal fans. Coincidentally, an Arsenal match came on the TV just as we were finishing up, but our flight was about to leave, so we had to get up. Arsenal scored very early, while we were waiting in the departure line, so that was nice. We really enjoyed Namibia, but we can't really see ourselves coming back, certainly not any time soon. For wildlife, we'd go to Botswana, Zambia, or South Africa well before Namibia. And for the great scenery, we saw it, and it's not like it's going to look any different the next time. But we're very glad we came and saw what we did.

The flight to Johannesburg was short and with no issues. We had dinner at Jackson's, the same place we'd had breakfast 9 days earlier. Crystal was finally able to get some Pinotage, and with the South African Rand taking a beating since we were here in 2007 [we really wish it was 10:1 instead of 7:1 in 2007], the wine was cheap. Justin got a steak, but eating a steak with a plastic airport knife is an ordeal. Justin tried to check his work email so he could get started on catching up, but he kept getting an error that his password was wrong - he hoped he hadn't been fired. The terminal was far busier than the week prior - including a Christmas sale in September - but even with all those people, it was freezing. It was, no joke, probably about 60 F (15C), which is almost impossible given that most AC units don't even go that cold. On the flight out to London, everything went according to schedule and we slept essentially the entire flight.