Blogs from Swakopmund, Namibia, Africa - page 15

We now drive west and across the "Gravel plains", and as if in the dessert, I see water just ahead, many times. Oh, well, in reality I kept seing mirages, tricks of the desert. I think of loved ones during the boring drive. Some who'd love this experience, the many who will be content to just hear about it, and the others who will still think "Is she crazy?" Crazy is to think this trip isn't worth it. 116 from Uis we can see the Atlantic Ocean and finally feel some cooler air. We are now at the SKELETON COAST, on Henties Bay. The arrival at CAPE FUR SEAL colony at CAPE CROSS, was announced by the strong, pungent , almost unbearable smell of the thousands of seals. They were noisy too, and can number as ... read more

Mark turned 30! Oh to be so young! ... read more

Sand Madness This was one of those great days where the unprofessionalism and incompetence of the activity operator cannot mask what is at its heart a really great, fun day. Despite their best efforts to convince all and sundry they were incompetent nincompoops by forgetting to collect two passengers, and having to turn around an already full Kombi and pick them up so that all eight of us were sharing just six seats, and then having a nightmare drive where every 'STOP' sign appeared to mean go faster and the difference between sealed and and unsealed road was so infintesimal as to be undetectable, this was a really great experience. There was a reasonably hard trudge into the place we would use for the rest of the morning as our return point, but once there, each ... read more

Hallo meine Lieben eigentlich sollten an der stelle jetzt die fotos von kapstadt kommen. und dann gleich ein paar meiner ersten 500 von der tour. aber ihr koennt euch ja gar nicht vorstellen, wie langsam so eine namibische internetverbindung ist. der typ hier im cafe hat mich vorgewarnt, dass ich alle compis lahmlegen koennte, sollte ich es versuchen. deshalb muss ichs schon wieder einfach so, ohne die fantastischen bilder machen (wobei, ihr duerft die dann ja anschauen, wenn ich wieder da bin. und ich weiss, dass sich da ein paar gar nicht einkriegen koennen vor vorfreude. huestel. huestel). also, unser guide hat uns am ersten tag the best trip of your life versprochen. bislang hat er doppelt und dreifach wort gehalten. ich weiss gar nicht, wo ich mit eindruecken schildern anfangen soll. vielleicht einfach am anfang. ... read more

On the way to Swakopmund from the Namib Naukluft Park area we drove through two passes - I especially liked Kuiseb pass - the scenery (!) was a mix of rocky hills with bands of grass growing on them, which made the whole landscape seem striped black and greeny-yellow - rolling and undulating into the distance. We filled up with fuel at Solitair and arrived in Swakopmund in time for lunch. We had driven a little detour in Walvis Bay to see if we could see the flamingoes in the lagoon (we couldn’t drive down to Sandwich Harbour to see them because you needed a 4 wheel drive for that trip). We could only see a pink line on the horizon - which with binoculars was indeed a HUGE number of flamingoes. I was expecting them ... read more