Blogs from Swakopmund, Namibia, Africa

We finally reached the Atlantic Ocean on February 21. An entire continent crossed with several means of transportation, but essentially "on the ground" since we had left Dar and the Indian Ocean by train about a month earlier (remember the Tazara?). That evening we saw our first "over the water" sunset from the perfectly west-facing jetty and it seemed a good omen of things to come. That afternoon the entire group had visited the "booking office", a not unusual feature of Southern African tourist centres that have many extreme activities to offer. They showed us a very badly edited video with particularly tacky music highlighting some of the adrenaline pumping possibilities: sky-diving, dune-boarding, and quad-biking over the dunes (a bit like playing chicken with an avalanche on a snowmobile in the Whistler back-country). None of them ... read more

Vor mir liegt der atlantische Ozean. Die Sonne geht langsam unter. Der Himmel und das Meer schimmern wieder einmal in tausend Rottönen. So viel Wasser und nichts als Wasser und doch kann man ewig Richtung Westen starren, die Wellen beobachten und die Gedanken schweifen lassen. Ich denke an die Fahrt hierher, Swakopmund in Namibia. Nachdem wir endlich die Grenze überquert hatten, ging die Straße mal wieder nur geradeaus, immer Richtung Westen der Küste entgegen. Ab und zu wurde die Fahrt von einer Polizeikontrolle unterbrochen aber sonst gab es kaum Hindernisse. Die ganze Strecke war eine Sandstraße aber eine gut befahrbare Sandstraße ohne Löcher und Pfützen. So kamen wir gut voran. Die meiste Zeit habe ich aus dem Fenster geschaut und beobachtet wie sich die Landschaft verändert. Zunächst war da Busch auf beiden Seiten. Mit jedem Kilometer ... read more

This weekend we took a four hour bus ride on the intercape mainliner to the coastal town of Swakopmund. Namibia used to be a German colony and Swakopmund reflects this heritage. We stayed at a place called Brigadoon B and B that was really nice and served delicious breakfasts with bacon and eggs in the garden. Our first night we had dinner at a place called Kucki's pub. I had a local fish called kingklip which was white and flaky and really delicious. Katie had a lovely surf and turf. We tried another local beer called Hansa which is really nice. Then we headed over to the pier to watch the sunset. Swakop is on the west coast of Namibia which makes it on the other side of the Atlantic from the US. It was spectacular ... read more

We arrived in the early afternoon. I have an entire day and ½ free to do whatever I want in this ‘Nazi’ town. The entire town has German influence. I have never been to Germany, but apparently it has a strong resemblance with German restaurants, street names, etc… It even has shops with Nazi souvenirs. OYE I tell you. The drive here from Solitaire was bumpy, but only a few hours and very scenic. We passed by the birth place of Shiloh (a very famous baby here). Apparently, the real estate in the ‘Brad and Angie’ area has skyrocketed to the exclusive rich and famous. The starting price for a waterfront home/new construction is about R25,000.000. As this was the first time with internet in a few days, I spent some time catching up on uploading ... read more