Namibian Bar Blog



When you think of Africa maybe you have images of elephants strolling the vast landscapes or lions stalking their prey at a watering hole.  You probably don't have images of bars.  Yes, bars; like those you go in for a beer or two.

During a drive in northern Namibia going from Epupa Falls on the Angolan border to Etosha National park, I was watching the roadside scenery when I noticed how many bars lined the road.  By the time I started photographing and counting them I had passed at least sixty. Some looked like nothing but rats had been drinking in them for years while others appeared well taken care of; neat and orderly.  More than the looks though their names caught my attention; names I tried to breathe reason into.

I wondered if the owner of The Bruce Lee Bar knew Kung Fu or was he just a fan of the movies. I passed the Lets Push Bar; lets push what, I questioned; the limit of how much you can drink? Then there was The Professer Bar; the professor of what - not spelling, that's for sure!  Was The Morning Fire Bar a place you could go for your morning Bloody Mary while standing by a roaring fire?

Some bar owners were either very entrepreneurial, with several locations, or they wanted us to believe that was the case. I saw the Sweet Bar No 3 but never Sweet Bar numbers one or two.


During the middle of the day I assumed you would find the owner of Days of Our Life Bar watching soap operas.

The Oxygen Bar and Just Another Life Bar looked like they were either just being built or had fallen into ruin many beers ago.

Two bars I passed were conveniently located next to funeral services in case you drank yourself to death.

I passed approximately two hundred roadside bars in the hundred or so miles during that drive to reach the turn off to Etosha National Park; two bars per mile.  Rehab centers might also be a booming business for someone to open along that road.

Finally, I was in Etosha with elephants
strolling along vast landscapes and lion stalking their prey at a watering hole.  I prefer this African image over the bars, but spotting and photographing those drinking establishments certainly made the miles pass by quicker and gave me a lot of laughs along the way.