http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Namibia , Swakopmund en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:06:09 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:06:09 UTC Our B B the Princess Rupprecht Pension was very comfortable and everything worked with Germanic efficiency. But we were anxious to get on so we set off early for the Toyota garage.The service manager reacted immediately to our request to have the vehicles checked and allocated to us a young Afrikaner mechanic Nicky for as long as we needed. He spent about half an hour on my car going throu http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-350035.html Monday afternoon we arrived in Swakopmund. We're staying at the Swakop Lodge close to the town center. When we arrived we got situated and watched the activities video. Swakopmund is basically a town for adrenaline activities. Skydiving quadbiking sandboarding horse riding etc. In the evening we went to the barclub in the hostel and basically just hung out until about 3 am. Good times... Tue http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-349026.html Aprs l'Afrique du Sud direction pour une destination d'un pays limitrophe la Namibie et plus prcisement Swakopmund station balnaire situe sur la cote atlantique de la Namibie. Aprs 1H45 d'avion en provenance de Joburg et 4 longues heures de voiture en polo me voici arrive Swakopmund ville d'origine allemande car colonise une bonne partie de des colonisations par les allemands avan http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-347518.html We are currently in Swakopmund on Namibia's Atlantic Coast. It used to be a German settlement and the architecture is still reminiscent of it plus there are great Strudels beers and pastries Not really losing the weight we thought we would with all this good food and the camp meals have been excellent.We left Capetown on the 15th visiting the District Six museum which was where the endemic blac http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-347184.html Todayrsquos drive turned out to be the longest we have so far done in one day over 330 miles with one fuel point en route.This was at Palmwag a rather smart tourist lodge setup where there was also the fuel pumps and a cold drinks shop to water the tourist minibuses that pass frequently.Full tanks again was a blessing as we turned westwards towards the Atlantic and the Skeleton Coast Nation http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-346968.html Hi everyone from Swakopmund Namibia.Since leaving Victoria Falls a couple of weeks ago we have now finished the westward leg of our journey and are on the Atlantic coast in the old German colony town of Swakopmund. On our way here we initially had a brief stop at Botswana's Chobe national park Thebe river. Here we had an evening cruise up the river into the national park this stop was unfortu http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-346838.html Okay okay okay. Day 2 Namibia. Sandboarding. Swakopmund. We wake at eight. Or Kiran does somehow. Maybe his belly is revolting from the beer. Or maybe his belly is just revolting. Whatever the case K stumbles to his feet stretches his arms skyward belches gratuitously and declares he needs 'brekkies'. Stat. Pallen and I sigh long breathes of stifled frustrations and utter exhaustio http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-331176.html The Massive massive dunes......I have climbed some of the best dunes in the world Really loving Namibia. After hanging out at Cardboard Box Backpackers for 4 days I managed to meet enought people to hire a car and we set off for 9 days around Namibia in our 4x4. There's 2 Canadian girls 1 Aussie and 1 German. The Canadians leave us tomorrow and Ricky and Jose join us for the rest of the tour. http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-327874.html This has happened to me before. You have 'the best ever' of something that you typically associate very strongly with one place in a completely unfitting area of the world. Like when I had the best ever gelatto not in Italy but in Hanoi Vietnam. Or when the best ever hamburger turned up in an unmarked and empty anglers' club in Tutukaka New Zealand. And while given Namibia's German coloni http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-326442.html Can you believe this is still about the first day of our trip It is. Okay so finally after driving around for a long time in the middle of nowhere we suddenly smell the sea and enter upon civilization Swakopmund.Funny name for a city I know. But it's a funny city. A palm tree lined boulevard that could be from any little beach town in Florida welcomes us. The skies are overcast so the pla http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-326059.html Hello all this is the first time in a week i have had a chance to see a computer the trip is really good so far and all the people are amazing so its all good.I didn get off to the best start on the trip as i went out the night before it started with the Aussies i met and me and Riley decided to got out till 34 in the morning raving out to drum and base and drinkin well to many brandies. Then http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-323802.html We're in Swakopmund Namibia. The majority of our group was eager to arrive in this adrenaline sport hotspot and we all immediately booked 4wheeling sandboarding and sky diving excursions. Less than an hour after arriving in this town we were already seated on our 4wheelers or 'quad bikes' I foolishly thought that the 125cc automatic quads were too wimpy and selected a 250cc semiman http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-320919.html ... oder auch nicht. sorry Babette this one will be mostly in German. We are after all in Swakopmund a town which is supposed to be more German than Germany but I disagree with this and I mean totally. There are a few street and other signs in German and there are some leftover colonial buildings which however do not look very German either. Otherwise it gives off a feeling more of the n http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-317650.html Wow I've covered a lot of ground since my last entry. I joined an overland tour in Livingstone and over the past couple of weeks we have driven through Botswana and into Namibia. After leaving Livingstone Zambia we crossed back into Botswana and headed for Chobe National Park for a game drive and a cruise. Botswana has so many elephants thanks to their antipoaching laws that they are no http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-310042.html Ghanzi There wasn't alot to Ghanzi as we were staying in a campsite but there was an opportunity to go on a bush walk with the 'bush' people. Although it was brief it provided quite an insight into how these people live. Their environment is very basic and the bushmen have to survive on what they can find. Quite often just small shoots in the ground can be dug up to provide water or medicines to http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-307943.html We left Cape Town on time Wednesday morning 5 days ago. Our first stop was in the Cederburg mountains north of the city. It was cold at night and dew formed making it feel even colder. It's winter here the sun sets early and we always eat around the camp fire in the dark. There are 21 of us in this truck a truck built for overland travel. We sleep in tents on a mat and in sleeping bags. http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-302754.html Fun and GamesWe are doing our best to get the mountain of pictures out that we took. Definitely we will not get them all out but have a few more we thought you might enjoy. You have seen some of the animal we saw and the places we stayed now thought we'd show you some of the cool things we did in Africa.Starting in South on the Orange River dividing Namibia and South Africa we did a relaxing c http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-301444.html Matilda has now safely brought us to Swakopmund midway up the Namibian coast. Since Fish River Canyon we've also passed through Sousselvlei which is meant to be Namibia's No1 attraction a set of sand dunes that make up the Namib dessert. We saw sunset from the top of Dune 45 there after camping just inside the national park at Sesriem the night before. We then had a 6 hour drive through the N http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-299615.html Right so sorry for the late third installation of the blog......I was catching up on sleep after the trip having gone to work at 9am after landing in Heathrow at 6.45am on a Monday was not the best idea....children don't do this at homeAh where was I.......right so we are traveling up from Sossusvlei to Walvis Bay and Swakopmund google earth Namibia and you'll see the entire west coast line http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-299548.html Hello allWell I am now about a week into my journey and am loving it. My tour group is awesome we consist of 6 Canadians 4 Brits 3 Americans 2 Aussies 2 New Zealanders and 1 Irish and we range in age from 19 to 5060. It is really neat to hear everyone's travel stories most of us have travelled quite extensively even the 19 year oldToday we are in Swakopmund famous for being the lo http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-297093.html The overland trip is underway and it is great so far. The truck is huge and definitely well equipped for African overlanding. The people are amazing and we're having loads of fun both in the truck very long drives and at the campsites. There are 4 Americans including me a couple Canadians a couple Brits a couple Kiwis and the rest are all German and Dutch. Socially the group tends to sp http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-295267.html Photos to followSo Kirsten made it back and just typed up her expereince and we were hoping to download some photos while we are here. However the internet cafe closed on us so we are now using the lodge's crappy internet cafe and they won't let us download any photos. Bummer. Give us a few more days and hopefully we can get to another civilized city and add more entries and pictures. We ar http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-288958.html I Jumped OUT of An AirplaneI just got back from one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I did a tamdem sky dive in Namibia. Not nervous at all. But had to tell my tandem jumper that this has to be the only job in the world that he tell a girl to sit on his lap and not get slapped for it. It was amazing. Feeling like you are floating on air. Nothing scary at all untill I landed. Than http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-288944.html Greetings everyone from Africa. We are sorry it has taken us so long to get in touch. We have not had the opportunity to get online or even find an internet cafe until now. Where do we begin The tour is very well organized and planned. We have three guides one in training and 11 total tourists. It is a good group of people 2 Dutch girls a British couple a father and son from the s http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-288927.html We arrived into Windhoek and were pleasantly suprised by how modern the city was. It was liked we stepped into Germany surrounded by German architecture and cleanliness. We spent the night at the Cardboard Box thankfully the rooms did not reflect the name of the place. Headed out for dinner that evening to Joe's Beer House. At the Joe's you can get platters of game meats to try. Zebra kudu ost http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-287989.html Swakopmund is the activity centre of Southern Africa. You can basically do anything here from quad biking to sand boarding to skydiving. Our thrills came in the form of quadbiking and paragliding.For the quadbiking it was great because they were able to split the group based on experience and how fast and extreme you were willing to go. Somehow we managed to end up in the fast group but in t http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-286136.html Well it's the anniversary of DDay everyone so take a moment to thank the vets from 1944On a more lighthearted note having an awesome time on my overland tour. If you've been keeping up I met my group on May 30th and we loaded the truck up on May 31. There are 19 of us on the tour beside me and the guide from Zimbabwe and the driver from Kenya we've got two Canadians eight English http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-284418.html We've now arrived in Swakopmund a reasonably largish town in Namibia after nearly a full week's camping. Camping has been okay especially considering I've never camped in my life but we're staying in a lodge this weekend which is pretty nice in comparison ha.I'm quite impressed with the trip so far. It's very organized and our trip leader Kat has been doing this job for four years and ha http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-282109.html Sitting in an internet cafe in Swakopmund a town on the Namibian coast. The music in here is appalling. At the moment we have a bizarre version of Bridge Over Troubled Water which actually sounds like it's being sung underwater. Namibia is a strange place. There's not much more to add. It's an old German colony and some of the women dress like 19th century German women. Full on outfits with http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Namibia/Swakopmund/blog-272798.html