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Published: September 30th 2009
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(This about 3 weeks old now - sorry!) We hit the Skeleton Coast in the far NW of Namibia (well, at Torra Bay) in a screaming side wind that was whipping sand across the road and sand-blasting the vehicle fairly effectively! What a journey from the searingly hot, interior, flat scrubby semi-arid so-called farmlands to the desolate and exposed coast with cold sandy southerly. We did hunkerdown for a night first at an inland camp before entering the Skeleton Coast Park on the edge of a dry riverbed at Twyfelfontain where there are apparently masses of ancient rock paintings (we decided not to see these) - hunkerdown being the operative word as there was also a hefty wind bearing down upon our braai fire, such that we retreated into the truck and crunched on sand and charcoal coated potatoes, kumara and some sort of meat in the semi-dark!! (our best meal yet). Also at this camp ground in cocktail hour as we sipped out G&Ts, just as we set up before this gigantic wind whistled down the valley, we did notice great elephant footprints on the bank between the truck and our chillybin drinks table - and next day we
did see an ‘desert’ elephant not far off - hmmmm. We survived a very rocky night in our noddy-town tents in that strong wind.
The salt road down the Skeleton Coast was great - not sure how its formed but a brilliant surface - we think they might use oil to compact it and we have now got a fine film along with all the other dust and dirt coating the vehicle top to bottom and inside and out! What a strange corner of the world, more so with the wind still blasting and lunching at Mile 108 campground which is something else! We had thought to camp here BUT..... the camp ground comprised of terraced bare shingle bull-dozed levels barely above highwater, but with street names (!!!) and concrete bunkerlike loos scattered over about 150m each way N and S with not a plant in sight - and the Altantic thundering metres away. We lunched in lee of a loo-block and a little man came to investigate - we waved a cup of tea at him and indicated that we were leaving!!! fast.... We found much more salubrious quarters at Die Dune Hotel in Henties Bay (apparently a retirement
spot) - note that this judgement is all relative but we figured we deserved concrete block walls that night and a fish dinner in their restaurant. Apparently hoards come fishing in December up this way and Mile 108 camp is bursting.
Next stop was Swakopmund, the coastal holiday destination of Namibians (white ones). We still felt we needed some pampering so booked in for THREE nights in a rather nice chalet/motel place - midrange (note - not budget!!) in the Lonely Planet accommodation guide - Alte Brucke which we would highly recommend. This town, as most other (white) towns in Namibia is distinctly german and you have to be sure to speak clearly to establish that you speak English. We had a great 2 days here: we went on a whole day trip called the Living Desert - just brilliant! In the morning we zoomed out onto the dunes that surround the whole town (indeed this is what the town is built upon) in search of “the small five” and Francois found lizards, spiders, snakes, chameleons - just marvellous - the fifth is a scorpion which he didn’t find. In the pm we went into the ‘moon landscape’ area -
jumbled huge mountains and up and down valleys to poke around at plants and rocks, ending with finding some rather large Welwhitschias - brilliant again - shades of my ancient botany textbook!!
On the other day, a Saturday, we strolled in the town and explored numerous crafty type shops (needed a little fix of civilisation), then realised that just everywhere shut up at 1pm so home for lunch. We drove south 30kms to Walvis Bay, Namibia’s port, in the pm to successfully search out flamingos in the lagoons, less successfully, initially was our search for the bottle store - again all shut. A very helpful person pointed us to the Walvis Bay wine expo that happened to be on in the municipal centre - and while Hugh sat in the truck (being security conscious with all who were laying about!) Barbara and I raced into the expo in search of a bottle of wine. As in NZ we had to first buy a glass each for tasting and have our hand stamped as we entered and they were all very jolly about insisting we could drink as much as we liked - well there seemed to be only 3 or
4 wine stalls and all manner of other goods on show but we did manage quite a few tastes and some interesting conversations. Two of the wineries hadn’t brought enough wine to be able to sell us a bottle but we did end up with 2 nice chenin blancs for $6 each! Hugh was not exactly impressed at the time we took nor that we bowled back a little more cackly than before!!
From here we were ready to head south through more sand and mountains to the red dunes. This Namib desert stretches north and south of Swakopmund and the colour of them deepens as you go south. Surrounding this gigantic sea of sand are all manner of shapes, swirls and mountains of rock as if they have come from a giant pot of molten toffee, not mixed properly. This country has just amazing landscapes - vistas that stretch for miles. We have pondered that in the north and earlier in our trip we searched out animals, now we are into plants, rocks and landscapes - with our daily living conditions at various campgrounds colouring matters a little at times!!
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