Namibia

We flew in to Windhoek from Cape Town and before we’d even landed we knew we were in a different place. Gone were the storm clouds hanging over the Southern Cape and below our plane we could see the barren landscape of the Namibian desert.

After collecting our luggage and getting our rental car from the agency we were on the road. And it was a barren road indeed. There was no traffic between the airport and Windhoek but there were Baboons on the side of the road!

We passed right by Windhoek and spent the next several hours driving out the the Skeleton Coast and the town of Swakopmund. The road out to Swakopmund was well paved and pretty devoid of traffic but our progress was limited by the many photo stops that we took along the way. Not only was the scenery amazing but we also saw many animals including baboons, springbok and even a giraffe.

We spent a couple of days exploring the coastline, using Swakopmund as our base. We found the town of Swakopmund to be an interesting place. On the one hand it was nice to be out of South Africa and put the security concerns behind us. It's also located right along the ocean, and offers nice walks along the coast. On the other hand, it's a strange place. The underlying German feel to the town is a little out of place, and the town itself has these wide streets that lend it this always empty feel.

We spent our time checking out the nearby town of Walvis Bay, the coastal dunes, we rode on ATVs, saw flamingos and tried to get over our colds. Ultimately our colds (Which we had had since our departure) cast a mood on our stay in Swakopmund as neither of us had a lot of energy. It was bad enough that we both started taking antibiotics (and within a few days we were both much better).

All-in-all we liked our stay in Namibia and would highly recommend it as an African destination that would allow for a varied sight-seeing trip.

After Swakopmund we head East through the Namib Naukluft park towards Sessriem and Sosussvlei.