Windhoek City Guide.

Based on the Secretly Namibian blog, the Namibia Business Innovation Centre NBIC has created an awesome City Guide for Windhoek. Other than your usual Windhoek guides, this small booklet is free of ads and only features selected businesses, innovative entrepreneurs and recommended eat-out options. The focus is on well-curated content rather than paid-for advertorials. For locals and tourists alike the Windhoek City Guide provides to complete lowdown on arts, crafts, culture and design, as well as the capitals burgeoning culinary scene. It's a celebration of one of Africa's most liveable cities, a hidden gem on a human scale that waits to be explored.

The booklet is available for N$20 from NBIC, but more outlets in Windhoek will follow soon. You can also check it out online at http://issuu.com/nbicnamibia/docs/windhoek

Pure & Simple.

In the Namibian retail landscape, dominated by big players from South Africa, it's hard to find shops that make an effort to stock beautiful things made in Namibia. Enter Pure & Simple. The airy shop-cum-café in Garten St just around the corner from Sardinia Restaurant awaits with a whole range of household and beauty products, most of them sourced locally. The space is divided into four colour sections to make it easy for customers to find things in their favourite shades. They also serve and stock Slowtown coffee beans and will treat you to a yummy muffin to go with it if you ask nicely. A changing exhibition by Namibian artists rounds off the Pure & Simple experience, so make sure you bring some time to exlore everything on offer.

www.pureandsimpleshop.net

A Weekend in Omaruru.

Not many towns in Namibia qualify as destinations in their own right. One of the few exceptions to this rule is the quaint little artists enclave of Omaruru. And even if it wasn't, with an ideal location at the centre of the Windhoek-Swakop-Otjwarongo triangle, Omaruru is just a short detour en route between these other places of urban interest. So, if you want to get away from it all and are longing for some inspiration and change of scenery, Omaruru is your destination this weekend. Take a walk along the picturesque main road with its many colonial-era houses that have been turned into galleries and craft shops. Then find yourself a cosy chair under one of the huge trees at the Sanddragon café and watch people passing by while you slurp your super-creamy vanilla milkshake. Continue with a chocolate tasting at the Dögerloh Chocolate Factory, add some wine tasting at the Kristallkellerei, one of Namibia's very few wine estates, and call it a day with a decent dinner at Kashana. Let's just hope you will still make it to your lovely campsite next door at the Riverside Guesthouse. Can you see the shooting stars through the foliage of the giant trees that gently sway overhead at night?