Spitzkoppe, Seals, and Swakopmund

After leaving Etosha, we headed west and spent a night in Spitzkoppe, a rocky desert area. Betsy climbed to the top of the nearby hill while I / Hugh wasted his time on a walk to see some bad tribal paintings, which apparently were probably faked: being outside, they have aged badly and may have been re-done by local guides trying to earn some easy money. But even the story of them was bad: I was told they were made by local tribes sometime between 200 and 4000 years ago. You might be able to see Betsy on the peak of the hill - she is one of the dots. We slept on the rocks under the stars for another night of stargazing, our last outdoor night as part of the Acacia Africa camping trip.


As previously mentioned, Namibia used to be a German colony. The effects/benefits of that are still seen today in many ways, which thankfully includes bakeries! On the way to Spitzkoppe, we stopped in some small town and found a German bakery. We had a really good pretzel and some tasty bakery cookies. In discussions with some other travelers and our driver, we were told about another bakery, located in the very small town of Solitaire that was the best in Namibia and possibly had the planet's best apple pie. We are less than a week from going to Solitaire ourselves, and we are surely going to have to investigate! In the morning, we drove to the coast to see the Cape Cross Seal colony, where apparently 50,000 - 100,000 seals live. It was a pretty impressive sight, and pretty impressive smell. It was horrible: even from 100 yards away, it was almost unbearable. Even the vet found the smell tough to handle. Of course, a lot of the seals were sitting around lazily like we see at the piers in San Francisco, but there were also a lot of them struggling in the surf, others barking and squawking, and some coughing like they had a 30 year, 2 pack a day cigarette habit. There were males fighting for some sort of dominance, females nursing their young, and some even scratching themselves like dogs do.





We then traveled down the Skeleton coast of Namibia, known for the many shipwrecks that have occurred here, and the low chance of survival for the crews involved. We were taken to a shipwreck, but Hugh feels it was a fake, that it was a ship purposely put here, and so no picture was taken of it. But it was a desolate place, and here is a pic of our vehicle/home for the past 11 days.


It was during this drive that we left the Kalahari and reached the Namib desert. We arrived in Swakopmund, a resort town on the coast of Namibia. It's an interesting place because it is full of colonial German architecture, plus palm trees. It also happens to be one of the safest cities in Africa and the only city we've been told it is safe to walk around in at night.


There were a lot of cool things about Swak. Betsy was able to get a good cup of coffee (best since Pt Elizabeth, SA) at a cafe that had an original bell from a San Francisco trolley car. Our Australian friends, Jon, Naomi and Paul were excited to take us to Nando's, a Portuguese fast food chain that they have in Australia, specializing in spicy Peri-Peri chicken. It was plenty spicy for us, and therefore decided it would not be appreciated back in the states, so we are abandoning the idea of bringing this franchise to the US. Another meal in town allowed us to continue to taste many of the animals we've viewed in the wild. This time it was just two of the antelope species: oryx meatballs with spaghetti, and springbok medallions, which is now our favorite. Swak was one of those places with a clear delineation where the town ended and the desert began.


You might be able to tell that it was overcast, which continues our streak of having suboptimal weather in every coastal town we have visited so far, but then again, it is winter in Africa. Swak is also one of those adventure towns for backpackers. Being just a few miles from sand dunes, there are lots of opportunities for playing in the sand. While most of our camping group went quad biking (ATVs) around the dunes, we decided to go sand boarding, which is essentially snowboarding on sand. With boots and board, we hiked up the sand dunes outside of town and rode down. A bit harder to do than snow, as sand is not as slippery, but still a lot of fun. However, hiking back up the sand dune takes about 5 times longer than boarding down. We also rode lying down on sheets of particle board which was much faster and easier. Betsy only went sledding on the "junior" slope as it was too fast for her, but Hugh tried all the slopes, and unsuccessfully did not match the hill's highest recorded top speed. We both felt the sport could be improved with a chair lift, but that apparently may not fit in with the environment. We unfortunately do not have any pictures to share of sand boarding, as we were warned that sand and cameras are a dangerous combination. But we did get a free DVD, that we can show all of you. But only if you watch the wedding video first. :) We said goodbye to our camping group and headed to a guesthouse where we cleaned up (best shower in weeks!) and got ready for the next adventure - renting a car and driving to the southern deserts of Namibia. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Central Namibia