Blogs from Swakopmund, Namibia, Africa - page 2

Z paszportami w dłoni ruszyliśmy trasą C28 przez góry z Windhoek nad morze. Przewodnik mówił, ze droga jest malownicza, a z mapy wynikało, ze przez 420 km nie napotkamy na żadne miasto, żadną osadę, żaden sklep, żadna stację benzynową. Jadąc z lotniska, szybko przecięliśmy miasto i nagle znaleźliśmy się na C28 z jedną butelką wody, paczką oliwek, suchym mięsem piri piri i sucharami. Droga przez chwilę była asfaltowa, a pózniej znak objaśnił nam, że asfalt zmienia sie w kamyczki i tak było przez następne 350 km. Q szalał ze szczęścia, bo to prawie off-road. Kręta,kamienista i śliska droga. Marzenie. Droga wspinała się, a raz opadała. Czasami przecinały ją krowy, a czasami antylopy. Pózniej pojawiły się jeszcze strusie. Regularnie przejeżdżaliśmy przez bydło-zapory - mostki z metalowych rur, mające zapobiec przemieszczaniu się krów. Przez cała drogę minęliśmy 3 ... read more

En route to Namibia we celebrated our 42nd anniversary. It was a lovely day and night as we joined up with friends for a celebratory dinner and dance. We came back to a decorated cabin artfully done by our steward. We have been fortunate to be at sea for 14 of our last 15 anniversary parties. Namibia is the land of desert and dunes, skeleton coasts, wild horses and pink flamingos. It has one of the highest life expectancies in Africa and seems to have a fairly stable government. Namibia gained its independence from South Africa in 1990 after a 23 year war with South Africa and is prospering. One of the first things we noticed was the absence of barred windows and barbed wire fencing around the houses in Namibia. That is a good sign! ... read more

En route to Swakopmund: En route to Swakopmund we stop first at Sorry Sorry, a village of Herrera. Here in stark contrast to the Himba, the women dress in many layered voluminous skirts, shawls and pancake triangular hats, their unique interpretation of 19th century European ladies dress. Tourism is the life blood of so many rural communities here, the women smile, welcome us and offer their lovely wares in the form of patchwork purses and beautiful, colorful, detailed dolls in traditional Herrera dress. On my truck are several women, German, British, Swiss, Russian, American, some more sensitive than others but for the most part generous of spirit and of pocket. At every stop they marvel at the handy work, interacting with smiling, kind, humility, woman to woman, spending liberally, they do the west proud. Scores of ... read more

Geo: -22.67, 14.52After the eco-isolation of the Namibia we had seen to date, it was nice to roll into the relatively pristine towns of Walvis Bay (South African flavour) and, an hour further up the coast, Swakopmund (German flavour). Since we'd now be on paved roads until we dropped the Wounded Zebra at her Namibian destination, we emptied the camper, hung everything on clotheslines, and beat the dust out of them. Just as we thought it was time to open a beer and start decompressing, our neighbour in the caravan park wandered over and offered to help change the flat tire on Woo Zee (the Wounded Zebras rapper name ). Normally I'd get upset with the idea of a flat tire but I had to silently express a high degree of admiration for Woo Zee- in ... read more

Namibia on land We were off to Namibia in search of adventure! It was only a two hour flight to Windhoek (pronounced Vindhoek) when we landed it was really hot! I all most died from the heat. We rented a car so we could drive to Swakupmond since it's to small to fly to. It took a really long drive I listened to music all the way there on my iPod. We got in about noon the hotel it is all most on the beach we could see the ocean from are rooms. On the top there is a pool only to relax in and look at the ocean. Are room was on the third floor a nice place one from the top two to the pool. There are elevators but I prefer the stairs. We ... read more