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Published: October 11th 2010
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My second base in Namibia is Swakopmund. Swakopmund is the second biggest city in Namibia...but it is clearly smaller than Windhoek. I rented a car for 5 days to drive the 375km from Windhoek to Swakop. It's a pretty boring ride of nearly 4 hours...and during four hours, you pass a little town, and only 2 villages...who say there are a lot of people living in Namibia!
Swakopmund lays in the middle of the famous Skeleton Coast. I spent 4 full days in Swakopmund, this is quite a lot, but I wanted to make sure I could do what I really came for. So on 2 days, I play golf on one of the very few courses that have been built fully on desert sand...pretty nice and impressive! It's was great to get back on the greens, something I haven't done a lot lately!
But I came to Swakop for 2 things...flying low-level the Skeleton Coast an going for some quad in the dunes!
The flight...not a cheap thing at all...the only way to make it "reasonnable" is to have 5 people (plus pilot) per plane. So basically I shop around to make sure I could get the
fifth seat on a plane. The ride is 2 hours and 20 minutes. You better love flying low level on planes (2 ladies ended properly sick in the back!). But what a flight!
On the program, we saw the River Kuiseb...well...more a river bed than a river...and at the end, it's a very nice Canyon...in which the pilot has a lot of fun getting up and down between the ridges...impressive! We saw ostriches, zebras, oryx...the all lot!
Next is on to Sossusvlei and Deadvlei. Interesting enough, this place is actually way more impressive from the ground than from the air. But flying above all these dunes and basically between the dunes trying to spot oryx is a really great experience.
Our next fly-over are the Diamond camps that the germans had trying to find some...diamonds...obvious! These have been abandonned for a really long while. Than we got to the Skeleton Coast itself with Conception Bay and Sandwich Bay! Is it the beach which is small...or are the dunes part of the beach and than you've got the biggest beach on earth! Wow and wow! Something I will remember. My Dad is a pilot on small planes, he
would have love the experience! We saw two shipwrecks lost in the sand....and thousands of seals on the beaches and playing in the water.
It is also the mola mola seasons and we may have seen a good 40 of them in the water...but bear in mind, this is from high up (well...not that high most of the time!). What is a mola mola you are going to ask me...it's a big fish, also called the moon fish...as it is a huge circle which can reach 2 meters minimum and may be around 20-30cm wide...kind of a specimen that I wish to see pretty soon while diving...you never know where....well...we know!
The flight end by flying over Walvis Bay and Swakopmund. For info, I went to see Walvis Bay. Not a lot to see there, it's actually a massive port which provide for Namibia...not really a tourist place...stick to accomodation in Swakop, way nicer with way more choices for restaurants too.
Restaurants are here pretty interesting...some of them are fully german...the staff...the food...the clients, the full ambiance....is this a part of Germany? And for info, at this time of the year, your average tourist is german, between
45 to 60...in little groups. Not really on for any party time! Oh, and avoid the pizza at Napoletana...i think they have the worst pizza I ate in years...Western Saloon is a way safer bet...but most days I kept myself to german restaurants....saueurkrant anyone?...or schnitzel?
On my last day I did the quad with Desert Explorers. I wanted to do it the day before, but all the credit card machines around where down...one of the reason why I was happy to have scheduled ample time for Swakop. I chose the 2 hours ride. So much fun, you can go for automatic quads or manual...went for a manual, 250cc...can tell you, going up and down the dunes is also a great experience...specially if you do end up in the "fast group" with all the youngsters! Fun, fun, fun! But not really safe to take the camera out, I needed
This is it for Namibia. what a great surprise. I know, i could have gone to Etosha for a safari.....but I want my next safari to be with Mari, cuddling between the game drives. That is coming....maybe sooner than you may think.
I drove back to Windhoek to catch
my flight to Joburg. In Joburg, I stay with my good friends Angela and Julian...even managed to get slightly lost to find their nice place in Parkview. We had a great diner out on 4th Street, not sure this is in Parkview or Westcliff area. and it was already time for me to get back on few planes...Asia, I'm back!
Back home pretty soon, i cannot wait to see Leslie and Mari!
With love...from Shanghai!
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Scott and Kristy
Scosty
Great!
Fantastic Pierre what a good way to see the dunes!