Day 3 + 4 Swakopmund/Walvis Bay

The theme for our trip was “Where are we?” As in seriously, where the heck are we?

We left Windhoek fairly early to drive to Swakopmund, which is on the west coast of Namibia. Namibia is huge and there are very few people living here. In fact, Namibia is second only to Mongolia on the list of least densely populated countries. (René informs me that Canada is on the list as well.) Anyway, the drive from Windhoek to Swakop was interesting. There were very few cars going either way and the landscape was totally different than anything we had seen in Africa before. Since we had not yet booked accommodation for the two nights we would spend in Swakop our first activity when we arrived was to drive around the city looking for a place to stay. We somehow managed to drive a bit north of the city center and basically got lost in hundreds of new developments. They were building new houses, there were new houses that had already been built (and were empty), and they were clearing more land to build more houses. Most of the houses were quite impressive- they were huge and fancy and generally right on the beach. We are here in the rainy season, which equates to the off-season for travelling here, so this northern part of Swakop was pretty much a ghost town! (We kept asking eachother: “Where are we?”)

Anyway, we finally managed to figure out that where we were supposed to be was south of the ghost town and we found a really nice place to stay that had a great ocean view and a huge patio off of our room. Swakop is a resort town and in the peak season I gather it gets really quite crowded. (Evident by the fact that there were thousands of unused parking spaces and by the northern part of town, I would guess that it somehow gets filled up during peak season.) But it was so nice to be there now! The ocean breeze was cool and we heard that it doesn’t rain there very often. In our room we could open the windows at night!!! (That has not been possible in any other place that we’ve been so far because of the mosquitos.) Also, we didn’t even need air con in Swakop! It was amazing!

Our first night there we enjoyed a sundowner on the patio and then headed to a local seafood restaurant. Our table was out over the ocean with floor to ceiling glass on three sides! And the seafood was obviously very fresh and very tasty. (René ordered line caught fish from the Swakop waters and it was so tender that it tasted like lobster.) The second night we had a picnic on the beach while watching the sunset. Very nice!

Here's René enjoying his sundowner on our beautiful porch!

And here we both are enjoying our 360 degree view of the ocean at the local seafood restaurant.

The ocean on the West Coast of Namibia looks just like Lake Michigan. Except for all of the jellyfish!

We also checked out Walvis Bay, a town 30 kilometers south of Swakop. There is a lagoon in Walvis and it was there that we saw hundreds of flamingos and pelicans. Walvis Bay is also the northern most tip of the Namib-Nakluft Park, probably the most famous place in Namibia because it contains Sossusvlei where people flock to see the huge red sand dunes. Before I came to Namibia this was top on my list of places to see! We didn’t get down to Sossusvlei on this trip, but plan to on a future trip. Anyway, we did venture into the Namib-Nakluft Park and we did see some huge sand dunes along with some other amazing and different views. The Namib is a huge desert that stretches the coast of Namibia. We weren’t really sure what to expect in the desert, but there are actually animals living there and right now during the rainy season a lot of the desert is green! (Once again, “Where are we?”)

This is when we decided we should (could) climb the huge sand dunes. First we scarfed our lunch so that we would have the energy to climb. (This dune in particular was huge. Look it up: Dune 7- "highest dune in the coastal dune belt." Also, locals come here to "sandboard" down the dune.) So, after we were properly energized (by chicken and mushroom pies from a local German bakery!) we headed to Dune 7. After three steps up Dune 7 we realized there was no way we were going to make it more than three steps up the thing- the sand was soo soo soo soo hot!! And we made the mistake of thinking we could climb the hot sand with flip flops on! As we were retreating we saw some locals with special "sand dune climbing shoes" on- well more like regular closed toed shoes with high socks. In this picture I am three steps up the dune and I'm thinking "Hurry up and take the picture René, my feet are burning!"

René out in the desert.

"Where am I?"

Pelicans

I liked the flamingos a lot! It was really neat to see them in real life.

Cheers to a successful vacation! Sundowners on the beach.

René and I after our picnic on the beach. All those floaty things are specks of water. It was not raining, but the air was damp because of the ocean and the waves. Also, this is with our less exciting digital camera that takes pictures that are less good. It was actually cool enough in Swakop to wear a jacket and a scarf!! Thanks for the scarf, Ab!