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Published: September 29th 2012
Today we have a long way ahead of us so we wake up early and walk to the breakfast area which is quite far away from our room. Along the way we see and especially hear lots of birds including some local sparrows. The lodge has quite a few interesting sculptures that we examine before going upstairs to the open air breakfast area and eating our daily eggs. We try hard to find cell phone reception and finally get it in the parking lot and call our kayaking guide for the next day to confirm the reservation. Then we load the car and drive to the lodge's work station that is 6 km from the lodge and is supposed to have gas so we can top up. Unfortunately they have only diesel and leaded gas and our car needs unleaded so we move on to Twyfelfontein which is both a National Monument and Namibia's first Unesco World Heritage Site protecting a large area full of petroglyphs.
After parking (again there is a guard watching over the cars) we walk to the visitor center where we pay the entrance fee, fill out our details in the guestbook and get a guide for the tour. From the beginning he gives us a choice of the 2 trails, Dancing Kudu (1/2h easy) and Lion Man (1h more difficult but with more petroglyphs). We choose the longer one and on we go. It starts slowly with only one panel initially but it is not boring as the guide is showing us different plants along the way and the ruins of the farm of the previous owners who had to leave as the water level from the permanent fountain nearby dropped dangerously. The most interesting things afterwards until we reach the main panel sites are a tree that looks like an elephant foot and a dassie rat, a very cute local rat.
Then we arrive at the petroglyphs which are interesting representing the diverse fauna both in the area and further away. There are petrogyphs of penguins and seals that are found only on the coast 100 km away for example showing the range the local nomad community traveled. There are also engravings of animals with human features including the well known Lion Man which are supposed to show shamans that are in trance and have taken an animal shape. The guide presents the petroglyphs as being a way for the San, the local nomad people, to teach their children aboutthe different animals and their footprints as well as maps of permanent and temporary waterholes in the area. It is interesting but quite exhausting especially as the temperature starts to climb and we are happy that we visited in the morning. In the end we tip the guide and start the long drive to Swakopmund.
After leaving Twyfelfontein our plan is to drive to Swakopmund but not on the faster and more mainstream route through Brandberg but through the longer and more scenic route through Skeleton Coast National Park. For us actually they would have the same length as we intend to visit the Cape Cross Seal Colony on the way and that would require additional travel time if we went through Brandberg. The road that we take, even though is one of the major ones, C39, is very corrugated and therefore we cannot go as fast as we need to go and it is also bone rattling. At least we see ground squirrels and goats on the way and we pass a few small farms with souvenir stands near the road. Finally after about 100 km the road starts to improve and we arrive at the entrance of Skeleton Coast National Park. We sign in and are ready to pay the entrance fee however the guard tells us that there is no fee even though our guidebooks were mentioning quite a high one. So we buy instead a few souvenirs from the giftstand and ask about the state of the road going forward and he mentions it is much better. And it really is as it appears to have been recently graded and now we can make up for the time lost. The desert also changes and it becomes really desolated with nothing growing except a few welwitchias here and there.
After another 50 km where we meet only one car we arrive at the coastal road on which we will drive south to Swakopmund. There are dunes in the distance, the desert is still lifeless and the ocean that we glimpse in the distance seems really agitated with high waves. The temperature also drops precipituosly from 30 degrees Celsius to 12 Celsius on the coast so we have to put on warmer clothing whenever we get out of the car. We pass the (luckily) dry wash of the Koichab river which at least has a few bushes and then we arrive at Toscanini.
Toscanini Diamond Mine is a small abandoned mine where only very few diamonds have been found. We investigate the ruins of the plant and the cormorant colonies nearby, we are surprised at the number of dead birds near the shore so we do not approach them. The ruins are interesting as we like to explore abandoned structures and cities. There are fishermen who we see in the distance that fish directly from the shore - wonder if they catch anything.
After a short drive we stop at an abandoned oil rig nearby. This is one of the few remains of oil exploration in the area built in the 60s before the National Park was created. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for the area) they didn't find any oil and now the ruins can be explored as long as no cormorants are nesting when it is off limits.
The remainder of the drive through the national park has a stark beauty with the ocean on the right and the desert and sometimes dunes all around us. The road is in great shape and we make good time. Soon we arrive at the exit gate that plays on the Skeleton Coast theme as can be seen in the photo. After signing out of the National Park we get our first (and happily for us only) taste of the fog that supposedly lingers for hours and days on the coast.
And at about 2 PM we arrive at Cape Cross Preserve. We pay the entrance fee and drive the additional distance to the seal colony. It is difficult to describe the large number of seals including pups and of course the stench that permeates the air. And this is not the full strength colony which will occur only later during the year when it can get to more than 100K seals. We take lots of pictures of seals in water and on the shore, of white seals and pups and of the interaction between the seals.
The area is not protecting only seals though. This is the site where the first European explorer has set foot in the territory of modern day Namibia. He was a Portuguese explorer, Diego Cao, who reached the area in 1485 and promptly claimed it in the name of Portugal. The original cross was removed by Germany and is now in Berlin but there is now a replica of the cross as well as some informative signs at the site.
After Cape Cross we drive to Henties Bay a larger city where we finally find an ATM and we can withdraw more money as we were down to very little reserves. We also get some gas after driving 600 something kilometers from the last gast station and then we drive the last 80 km to Swakopmund.
We make one more stop on the way to take a look at the now more greener desert and take pictures of the sunset. This is the first time that the sunset catches us still on the road but we expected this. There are beautiful views of the sunset and also some interesting plants in the desert including a dollar bush that you can supposedly use to get water from in times of need.
We stay the night at Brigadoon B&B in downtown Swakopmund and for the first time we have to park on the street and not in a protected parking area. The room is large and spacious and looks like a boutique hotel except for the gaping hole in the roof through which we can see the boiler.
Given that the breakfast starts only at 7:30 and we have to be in Walvis Bay, a city about 30 km away, at 7:45 for our kayaking trip we arrange for a cold breakfast that is delivered to our room this evening. It is quite a lot and should be enough for the whole day. We then go out for the evening to a well known restaurant Kucki's Pub where to our surprise we cannot find any sitting place. We decide to order carry out from the menu (oryx steak and springbok schnitzel) and to eat at the hotel. So we wait for 1/2h in the bar area, there is lots of smoking and there are lots of Germans here who have a great time. At the hotel we eat the great food and then go to rest after the exhausting day to prepare for tomorrow's expedition.
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