Day 1-3

To make reading all this info about our trip easier, why not copy and paste it into a word document and read it when you are off-line! I shall be adding more pix to illustrate info below.

We left Ongwediva on Jan 3rd. We had to stop in Oshakati to buy something and Caris asked if we were at Swakopmund already!
The pix below show some of the different terrains we passed through on our way down to Swakop.
Most of the 1000 km drive was ‘gravel travel’ – windy, bumpy dirt roads.
Our first stop was at Opuwo and the OvaHimba (see pix above include ‘round hut’)) who still retain their traditional way of life and dress.

We slept the first night in Sesfontein (6 springs – there are thermal ones in the vicinity), 100s of kms from electricity (they had a generator). Sesfontein, on the edge of Damaraland, is gateway to KAOKOLAND (search on google/World book/library for more info on places in caps). The ruins of Fort Sesfontein can be seen, built in 1896 as a control point for cattle disease. (Cattle equal people in Namibia – 2 million of each. In Australia cattle outnumber people by 10 to 1.)
You can see the house on stilts in which we slept. Unfortunately, ‘slept’ is not quite true as the place was a mozzie haven, But it was still an adventure – esp as the place had a pool! It is SO isolated out there, yet with a beauty in the mountains.

The next day we passed into SKELETON COAST Park. We stopped at some baby dunes (see pix). We are yet to see the big ‘uns in the sand part of the desert. However, the landscape was so desolate and dry we could imagine the horror of people in the past that survived a shipwreck … only to be faced with a totally unsurvivable landscape.
Animal life we saw included oryx (gemsbok), kudu, springbok, ostrich, jackal, and zebra. We also saw lots of WELWITSCHIA (see pic). It bears a single pair of leathery, green leaves that spread over the ground. They grow in length for the life of the plant. Older plants appear to have many leaves because hot winds, blowing sand, and age split the two leaves into long, ribbon-like shreds.
Welwitschia plants grow slowly and often live 1,000 to 2,000 years.
The salt road of the Reserve was the best road we met in our travels going down. We saw places where they produce huge mounds of salt to be used commercially.

As we travelled down it got cooler and windier. We stopped at wreck (1976) and the children paddled in the cold sea. It is called the ‘skeleton’ coast because of whale, ship and (shipwrecked) human skeletons washed ashore. We camped at Mile 103 the 2nd night. Going north from Swakop there are little ultra-basic camsite and/or fishing spots as Dec-Jan draws fishermen from all over the world. There is no electricity and one must bring one’s own water. There is NO water occurring there. Mile 103 (103 miles north of Swakop) had the advantage of petrol (not many places along the route with petrol!). Our vehicle carries fuel for 1000 km straight driving but the terrain etc caused higher fuel consumption.

The wind had dropped by the next morning and we enjoyed the last stretch to our destination. We stopped at CAPE CROSS (a cross was erected there in 1486 by a Portuguese explorer) and saw both the cross and the humungous seal colony. Étienne was not impressed by the smell (poo and decaying bodies of baby seals whose mums never made it back from the seal in time for the next feed). But we were amazed by the noise as 1000s of mothers called for babies and 1000s of babies replied. We stopped for lunch at HENTIESBAY, a small seaside town and reached Swakopmund that afternoon.