29 March 2018
A surprise halfway between nothing and nowhere. The elephant route, read a clients latest review!
Wouter just having returned from his first Windhoek to Vic Falls Elephant Route WVac15 had some extra time to do a little exploring and had this to share. Exactly halfway between Windhoek and Sossusvlei, a drive of about 350 kilometres through rugged terrain, deserted desert plains and gravel roads, lies ‘Conny’s Rest stop & Coffee Shop’, located in a miniscule cattle herding settlement named Klein Aub. The only way one would know of its presence in this dry and almost uninhabited landscape is a small sign saying Conny’s Rest.
The actual coffee shop is still a 300m drive and not visible from the road, so one might wonder if it is some sort of a prank or really a nice place for a stopover.
On previous tours I had been driving past this sign so many times, but we never really had time to have a look here so I have always been wondering what is there! On my latest Windhoek-Vic Falls tour we left Windhoek in the early morning and we had plenty of time to explore and have a small break here. With nothing in mind and very low expectations we entered the driveway, we were only wondering what we would find here.
We parked the truck in front of a small building, and surprisingly we found some other tourists having a cup of coffee on the terrace. In front of the house we found a red box which was opened and pointed towards the sun. The box was closed with glass on top and covered in aluminium to absorb heat. Inside stood a small pot and a thermometer, which was saying 150 degrees Celsius. This unknown red box was a natural oven, and Gunther, the owner of this coffee shop, was preparing a delicious curry stew inside!
This made us really curious and now we were definitely going to order a coffee. It turned out that Gunther is not only selling coffee, he also has a small shop with cold drinks, souvenirs and even a small guest house. He also makes delicious muffins and other snacks in the same natural oven. Very happy with our visit, Gunther welcomed us and started offering us different types of coffee from different areas in Africa. He had fresh coffee from Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenia, and judging by the way he was speaking about his products, he was extremely passionate about it! According to him, all his coffees are produced organically and fair trade, really helping the local people in the areas where the coffee is from. Every type of coffee had its own strength, character and flavour and Gunther explained us everything in much detail. Gunther told us that this is his only income, and he is not interested in making a lot of money. Al he wants is to live a quiet and peaceful life in which he can sustain his self and his small farm. Every day he waits for the few clients he can attract, and he enjoyed making conversation with them. After we made our choices, Gunther prepared our coffees on a small table on which he put 6 glasses with coffee filters on top
There we were, sitting halfway between nothing and nowhere, far away from civilisation, enjoying a fresh organic fair trade coffee prepared by a legend named Gunther!
I recommend everybody who has the chance to visit this place.
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