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Published: March 10th 2007
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No one would have heard of this place - the mouth of the Swakop River in German or the "bottom of excrement" in Nama, but for Angelina Jolie. Of all African countires, she decided to come to Namibia, specifically, to Swakopmund to have her baby with Brad Pitt. And for the first time, Swakopmund has a little space on the world map ever since. It is hard to understand Hollywood stars but it is easy to understand what AJ sees in this place.
A sleepy little coastal town with around 25,000 people, Swakopmund, with its palmtree-lined streets, picturesque Baroque-style buildings, Atlantic-front esplanade, is not really a typical African town. This place is European! There are far more German people living in Swakopmund today than any native Namibians. It is so German that you are likely to be understood if you spoke German than Afrikaans. It is so German that most of the menu in restaurants and cafes are in German and sometimes in English. It is so German that breadrolls, Frankfurters, Sauerkraut and puddings are found in most cafes and restaurants. The good side of things are with the Germans around, that simply means good beers are easy to
Damara Building
During rush hour? come by. Speaking of which, Namibia, a nation of not more than 2 million people, already has a good selection of local beers. Windhoek and Tafel (also known as Das Pilsener) are both local Namibian brews. On top of that, Castle, Hansa and Miller (imports from South Africa) are widely available as well.
It appears that when the German colonists came to Namibia back in the 1800, they brought along their precious brew. They realised that this would not be enough to quench their thirst in the hot Namib desert, hence they founded Namibia's very own brewery to ensure there would be adequte supply of beer. To date, Windhoek and Tafel are brewed following the old German purity recipe. This is where I started having beer for branch, tea, dinner and after dinner ever since.
After getting baked in the Namib desert and getting windburn on the truck, Swakopmund is a good pitstop for us to just rest and relax. It is also a place to run errands for those who are on long overland trip. We can withdraw money from the ATM, change money, stock up on supplies and enjoy freshly brewed coffee again. With its mild
temperature, we could venture off in the day and not having to worry about risk of suffering from heatstroke. We could finally put all our dirty laundry to a proper machine wash as well but it seems that even washing machine could not get rid of the sand which we gathered from the little 'sandstorm' which swept across Sossovlei the night before. Most overlanders will somehow stop at Swakopmund for the same reasons on route to VicFalls or Cape Town, depending on which direction they are doing their overland trip. Cruise ships carrying their posh passengers from Europe would also dock at Swakopmund for its passengers to have their 'African' experience. Once they are around, the quiet sleepy little coastal town will no longer be quiet and sleepy. The restaurants will be packed. The bars will be full. Loud western music will be blaring from these premises. I feel guilty as well as sorry for the locals.
I was happy to simply not do anything over the next 3 days. Other than in bed, the other likely places that I could be found were the beach and the cafes. While the action junkies in our group found many things
to do over the next 3 days. Swakopmund claims to be the best place in the world for skydiving. With the sand dunes at the back and the Atlantic Ocean at the front, the claim is not unwarranted. An aerial view of the place would be rewarding, I suppose.
Quad-biking in the desert, sandboarding, paragliding, hot-air ballooning, kite-surfing, space-walking (coming soon, perhaps) could also be organised here. Deep-sea fishing, sailing, surfing and diving could also be easily arranged here. WeiL was all hyped up to skydive and of course, it would only be right to encourage her. As the saying goes, if you do not do it now, you will never do it! And I was glad that there was not even a remote sense of anxiety and fear in her before she embarked on her skydiving trip. I was just scared shitless when I was doing mine in
Northshore, Hawaii.
If my dad's belief of "You Are What You Eat" is ever to be held, I am now a chunk of meat. Game meat, specifically. If you think the Chinese are bad, you should see the stuff that end up at the dinner plate in Africa. Almost anything
with 4 legs, except tables and chairs, will eventually be eaten in Africa. As for the Namibians, they seem to have a thing for game meat and game meat is what I have been having for the past week in Namibia. At the safari, I have seen quite a number of them and now I have eaten quite a number of them as well - springbok, eland, impala, kudu, klipspringer... oh my goodness, I am officially a glutton! Life is tough in a place where these are the only things found on our dinner plate but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Apparently, game meat is only available in South Africa and Namibia as it is banned in places like Kenya, Zambia and in Zimbabwe, you will be lucky if you can get any food at all.
A sleepy little coastal town - that was exactly how Swakopmund was like. By the third day here, we were getting bored of the place and we were ready to move on. And tomorrow the Intercape Mainliner will take us on a 4 1/2 hour ride to Windhoek.
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