HouseFinder Magazine is a practical home-and-garden-magazine. We feature a selection of properties for sale and rent from leading real estate agents in Namibia and deliver in-depth articles and expert insights on property trends and news.
It doesn’t knock at your door or wait for your invitation; it simply finds its way in, straight to your heart, and settles there.
This silence makes every thought you brought with you from the city lose its urgency. It doesn’t know the concept of rushing, of traffic lights and noise and deadlines.
Instead, you are offered peace, silence, balance. You start to breathe deeply again, as if something in you has finally come home.
What a blessing to exchange the walls of your home, even briefly, for a home in the veld, whether in a tent, a caravan, or the comfort of a lodge. Even better when you can call a farmhouse your own or have friends or family on a farm where you can visit sometimes.
I remember the first time I was invited to a Namibian farm, fresh from the Cape Winelands, where the landscape feels softer and… well, greener. This farm was close to the Etosha pans, and the drought had held its ground for years. As far as the eye could see, the land was bleached and brittle: powdery, chalk-white stones underfoot; the trees were dry brown silhouettes protruding from the earth like quiet prayers. I had never before experienced nature speaking so loudly, pleading so openly for the mercy of rain.
We arrived at sunset and began unpacking. A few donkeys stood around the farmhouse silently watching us. Then someone announced in Afrikaans that we should “steek ’n donkie brand”! I had never heard this phrase in my sheltered vocabulary before and very nearly had a mini-breakdown until the farmer (who has probably seen city folk misunderstand far worse) calmy explained it was simply farm language for heating water. Nothing dramatic, just the promise of a warm wash.
That night I slept under the stars for the first time in my life. In the city, people say the lights are beautiful; in the veld, the heavens are so close that you feel you could stretch out your hand and touch them.
And I realised that it is good to be reminded every now and then, how small we are and how vast and awesome creation is.
The Namibian veld has a humble way of teaching us that truth.
It shows us the raw honesty from times of drought to the abundance of joy when it received good rains. And if my little story today gave you even the smallest spark of gratitude for the blessing of living in this beautiful country, then it has done exactly what I hoped. And I’m quietly smiling right along with you.
