Last night was very cold. We had to make a big fire to keep us warm. In the dark some other people showed up, so at least we were not camping there alone.

Today we had to drive another 250 km on gravel and 150 km on tar. Luckily the gravel was not so bad and we arrived already around 13h at the Shark Island Camping in Lüderitz. It’s very quiet here in town and at the camping. The campsite is on an island connected to the coast, it’s very windy and the ground is hard so putting up the tent was a mission.

In the afternoon we went to the centre of Lüderitz. We ate some fish in a restaurant at the waterfront. We also booked a Kolmanskop-tour for tomorrow and did some groceries shopping. Lüderitz is a small town with a lot of German remains. It is not that cosy as Swakopmund.

Before we started our trip, we saw a documentary about Shark Island. On Shark Island there was a concentration camp from the Germans where in many Namibian black people were killed. This was before the Holocaust so concentration camps were already used in Namibia. Off course no one speaks about this in Lüderitz because it would be bad for all the German people who live here. So actually tonight we are sleeping on a place where many people were murdered.

When we got back from town, we discovered Shark Island. It’s a lovely place. We walked between the rocks, visited the lighthouse and watched the sun going down (amazing!).

It’s again going to be a very cold night!

Today we woke up at 5h30. Because we were sleeping at Sesriem Camp, we had the privilege to enter Sossusvlei at 6h to go and see the sunrise. We drove to Dune 45 and saw the sun coming up. We took nice pictures of this amazing view.

After this we drove to the car park where we had to take a 4×4 taxi to go to Death Vlei and Sossusvlei. On our way in the taxi we already saw beautiful dunes. The taxi first dropped us at a point where we could walk to Death Vlei. We walked through the dunes (again amazing views!) until we got in Death Vlei. It really is a death valley between the dunes. It was very nice to see. After we walked all the way back to the taxi point, the taxi brought us to Sossusvlei. We walked around and saw again beautiful views. Sossusvlei is really worth seeing! After enjoying this amazing place, we started our trip to Duwisib Castle.

Again we had to drive on gravel roads the whole time, what is not that easy with our car. Jan had to concentrate very well to avoid stones and holes. We were happy when we arrived at Duwisib Castle without any damage on the car.

Duwisib Castle was built by Hansheinrich von Wolf (Germany) and his wife Jayta. They married in 1907 and chose Namibia as there new homeland. In 1908 the work on the castle started (with material that came all the way from Germany). In 1909 the castle was completed. The couple only lived in the castle from 1909 until 1914. After that they went to England to buy more material to build more on their castle but because of the Great War they never returned to Namibia.
We visited the castle and there are still a lot of things left from Hansheinrich and Jayta.

We booked a camping site here but we are the only people. There is no power so it will be very dark when the sun goes down around 6h. We will make a nice campfire to keep us warm because we know it can be very cold in the desert at night.

After completely packing the car again (we took everything out for the car wash), we left Swakopmund. Our next destination: Sossusvlei, about 430km of which 400km of gravel roads. What a drive, driving 80-90 km/h on gravel roads for 400km. Sossusvlei is a valley in the middle of the desert. It is only reachable by driving on gravel roads. The roads are not bad, just lots of rocks. The only thing you hear while driving is rocks clashing underneath your car. It is nice that you can drive an hour without seeing another car. There’s even a few mountain passes, all with amazing views.

We arrived around 14h in our camp: Sesriem camp; the only camping site within the Sossusvlei park gates. This means that we can go into the park before sunrise to look at the beautiful coloured dunes.

After putting up the tent at our huge private camp spot, we drove into the park towards Dune 45; a massive dune on the way to the actual Sossusvlei itself. We climed the dune and enjoyed the amazing views. Afterwards we also visited Sesriem canyon, a big canyon within the main gates.

Tomorrow we will try to get at Dune 45 around 7h to enjoy the sunrise. After that we will drive to Sossusvlei. The last 5km we will have to do in a 4×4 taxi because the roads there are extremely sandy. After that we will move on to Duwisib Castle; a big castle in the middle of the desert only 160km from here where will camp 1 night before heading to Lüderitz.

Today I went to do some sandboarding and Hanne came along to take some pictures. Around 9h15 a mini-bus from Alter Action, the sandboarding company, picked us up at our apartment and brought us to the dunes. Immediately it became clear to me that we had to walk up the dunes instead of taking a lift or being brought up by a quad. So after we got the gear (normal snowboard and boots), we walked up the dune. What a hassle with snowboard boots! The first run was very smooth and the boarding on the sand feels as snowboarding in fresh deep snow. It is just awesome cruzing down the dune at high speeds. The view on top of the dune is just amazing.

Every time you also have to wax your board with some messy wax because the sand just eats the wax of the board. I did about 6 awesome runs andthe walking up every time makes it really exhausting. At multiple spots at the way up they put water container cause the sand and the sun makes you so thirsty.

Just before the last run we did a slide down the other side of the dune on what they call a ‘lay-down board’. It’s just a flat thin piece of waxed wood. I was the second fastest and reached a crazy speed of 71 km/h.

Around 12h we had lunch and some drinks and after that they brought us back to the apartment where we had a nice shower. The sand was just everywhere! At 6h this evening we are going to watch the video because they filmed everything and you even get the DVD for free.

Last night we slept very well; no cold and no mattress that goes flat every 2 hours. We slept long today (8h00).

After breakfast we went to the centre of Swakopmund. We first went to the carwash. The car was very dirty and needed to be washed urgently. After the carwash we went to the museum of Swakopmund and the lighthouse. We also visited the market with African souvenirs. Then we went to town again. We walked around and did some shopping. 

After eating lunch in the Lighthouse Restaurant we went to Walvis Bay; a big town close to Swakopmund. On our way to Walvis Bay we saw the amazing dunes of the desert on our left side and the beautiful sea on our right side. We drove around in Walvis Bay and visited “Dune 7”; one of the biggest dunes around the area. We also went to see the lagoon.

Around 16h we went back to Swakopmund.In the evening we did a braai at our apartment and relaxed.

It is very warm in Swakopmund. Apparently that is not normal for this time of the year but of course we don’t complain. We enjoy every minute of the hot sun and the warmth because in a few days we will be in the freezing desert.

Today we left early again (we are always up around 6h :p). After breakfast, packing our tent, a last quick look at the waterhole and some trouble with the GPS to findthe fastest route, we arrived around 13h in Swakopmund. This very nice town is situated at the coast on the western side of Namibia, just above the desert. It’s so amazing when you’re getting closer to Swakopmund; it suddenly gets really dry everywhere you can see, until you suddenly see Swakopmundin the distance with huge dark coloured dunes next to it.

We booked an apartment in Swakopmmund as it costs the same as staying in a double room in a backpacker. The apartment is really nice. It’s a brand new very stylish apartment at the back of a huge house which was built for the Namibian prime minister who hasn’t moved yet because of the house colour. At least that’s what the owner told us.

In the afternoon we parked the car in town and did a walk in Swakopmund. We stopped at the tourist office to book some sand boarding for Jan on Saturday. Sand boarding is exactly like snowboarding, just on a desert dune instead of on snow.

Swakopmund is an old German town with a really nice and cosy atmosphere. It’s the most touristic place in Namibia during South African school holidays. Now it’s calm.Swakopmund doesn’t feel like Africa, it feels like being in Europe. The people are also very friendly and it’s lovely to hear people speak German and Afrikaans (you hear these languages a lot in Namibia). Apparently the crime is also extremely low and the houses even don’t have fences. This town already left a very positive impression on us.It seems a dream place to live!

Tomorrow we’ll discover more about Swakopmund; we’ll go for a big walk in town and on the beach.

Tuesday morning we left at the backpacker in Windhoek. The new destination was Etosha National Park, more in the north of Namibia.Etosha National Park is one of the world’s greatest wildlife-viewing venues. ‘Ethosha’ means ‘Great White Place of Dry Water’; this refers to the vast greenish-white Ethosha Pan, an immense flat, saline desert.

To our surprise we already arrived there in the early afternoon. We got a massive camp site in Okaukuejo for ourselves where you could easily put up 10 tents. After putting up the tent, we went to have a look at the waterhole in Okaukuejo. This is very nice, a waterhole only 200m away from the camping. At the waterhole you can see animals passing by the whole day and night. It’s also very nice at night because they have got lights pointed at the waterhole. We immediately saw some elephants and huge herds of zebras drinking. After this we went into the park to the western points of interest in the park. We saw a rhino and some other game.

After driving around for a while, we returned to our tent to start our fire and to prepare dinner. In the late evening we went back to the waterhole where we saw again some rhinos, zebra’s and jackals.
The next morning we left early to drive through the park to Halali, the eastern rest camp. On the way we stopped at all the points of interest. Along the road we saw elephants, giraffes, rhinos, gemsboks, springboks, blue wildebeests, some nice birds etc. We even saw a lion sunning next to a waterhole.

In the evening we made a fire again and went back to the waterhole. Etosha is really the best game viewing place where we have ever been, it’s even much nicer than Kruger National Park. The camping is very expensive but it’s worth it; you see plenty of game, there are clean toilets and showers, the camping spots are very nice, etc.

After an early breakfast with free cinnamon pancakes offered here at the backpacker we started our walk through Windhoek. We went to the tourist office and got a map of the city. We then followed a walk explained in the ‘Go Namibia’ magazine which we got in South Africa. It took us from the city gardens on Independence Avenue to the famous kudu statue created in Germany, to the national museums, to the German Christian church, to a famous castle in the city, to the popular craft market and we ended at the outside shopping mall on Post Street.

The city is very nice. It’s a combination of modern buildings and old German styled buildings. It sometimes feels as if you are in Germany. Lots of shops have German names and you can also hear people speaking German. I’m not going into more detail because a city is a city of course and this stopover in Windhoek was more to move away from all the nature for a few days before going back into nature for more than 10 days.

Tomorrow we will leave early to Etosha National Park. One of the best game viewing places in Southern Africa!

Last night we slept very well in our luxury safari tent. We had electric blankets so it was so nicely warm. We only woke up at 7h30; this is late for us because normally we wake up around 6h30 or 7h. We took a hot shower, packed our stuff and left on our way to Windhoek.

When we got at the border, we immediately saw that it was very calm. Everything went very fast and the people were very friendly. Before we knew it, we were in Namibia. In Namibia there is 1 hour difference. We are one hour ahead of South Africa (and Belgium).

The road to Windhoek (the Trans-Kalahari Highway) was amazing. The landscape of the Kalahari is beautiful and there were a lot of warthogs next to the road what we really enjoyed. Off course there were also a lot of cattle again.

Around 2h we arrived in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. We went to the ‘Cardboard Box Backpackers’ where we booked a room for 2 nights. It’s a cosy and busy place with a nice bar. We put our stuff into our room and went for a walk in town. The centre of Windhoek is very close to the backpackers. It is Sunday so it was very calm in town and everything was closed. But we found out what we want to see and visit tomorrow. We ate dinner at Spur and walked back to the backpackers. We were just back before dark. In Namibia it is even dark sooner because the hour is different.

Tonight we will have a drink in the bar of our backpackers and go to bed early. Tomorrow we will discover the rest of Windhoek.