Forest without trees

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Swakopmund on the coast of Namibia is the place to get your adrenalin fix for the country. Here you can find all the activities from sand boarding to skydiving and you will be sure to see some spectacular sights. The highlight for us was no doubt ‘dune 7’ that rises above the desert and makes a nice day trip from Swakopmund. The city itself reminded us of a city you would expect to see in the Middle East where the desert and sand dunes meet the outer suburbs. Swakopmund doesn’t seem like it should be there but it is the fastest growing city and with its German architecture and vibes it is easy to see why it is a hot spot with the locals and tourists alike.

The other reason we were in this area was to visit the Petrified Forest which is more inland. Well like Swakopmund and ‘dune 7’ this area is really not touristic at all and getting there was a challenge indeed. We first needed to get to Khorixas to locate a place to crash for the night and hope to get a lift out to this forest. When we heard of the Petrified Forest we didn’t really not know what to expect when we arrived there. A thick forest with tall trees that have lost all the leaves and somehow looked petrified?

We were way of this mark as when we got the sign post to entre we were in the middle of the desert and no trees standing higher than two meters for as far as the eye could see. It turns out that Petrified Trees are dating back around 250 million years and have actually turned into stone due to certain minerals that made their way into the wood. They were once where Angola is now and came down in a river, stopped there and settled in for a very long time. What was really cool is that we could see the rings on a few of the trees where they have snapped off to count the age of the tree. Also a few are still up to ninety meters long with branches hanging of but it is now solid stone, nice fossils they were.

Overall the area around Swakopmund is very cool.. The city with nice beaches and fancy restaurants, the seal colony and great fishing to the north (the last blog) adrenalin and sand dunes to the south. It is a place where you can find everything you hope to do for a fun filled weekend.

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