Five months in Africa and never any perceived or experienced threat or danger. Some common sense in personal safety seems to prevail. Never though, let your guard down and become complacent.
We were driving in the Northern Industrial park of Windhoek, coming out of a little side street and a guy shouts at us and points towards the back of our Land Rover. What did he say? I look at him and he shouts something again and continues pointing towards the back of the truck. Had something fallen off? Was something dragging? It was quite possible. I couldn't see anything in the mirrors and also didn't hear anything unusual. We drove around the corner and another three guys shout and point. Something must be wrong with our vehicle. But what? After all, it was still running.
I drive a little further ahead and stop, we jump out of the truck and have a quick look at the back of our Landy. We can't see anything unusual. During the time we jumped out and walked to the back, the three guys on the right closed in at an alarming rate. Ingrid rushed back to the front and jumped in. She yelled at me to get back in the truck, which I promptly did. There on her side was a fourth guy whom we had not seen before, switchblade in hand!
Without further ado, we sped away, not saying a word. It's only after about ten minutes that we admitted to ourselves that what happened back there was a close call. We stopped later on to inspect our vehicle once more; obviously there was nothing wrong. This experience was a valuable lesson that reinforced the necessity to be cautious. This was the first time we felt threatened in any way.