Friday 2019/12/27

Ugab River – Swakopmund

We change the planning a bit, and drive straight out of the Canyon without any further detours, which is a little disappointing for Wolle. The destination for today is Swakopmund.

Soon after the Rhino camp, we pass an abandoned mine that you can drive/visit. Very impressive!

On the way we pass a great plateau with hundreds of stone balls, some of them huge. That would have been a great place to stay.

The road is easy to drive, solid gravel, solid sand, salt. We come to the coast and see the Atlantic for the first time. The last 80 kilometers along the coast to Swakopmund are rather barren. The targeted campground is full, which is no harm, because a disco is booming right next to it. Another campground is also fully booked and telephone inquiries don't really help either. Swakopmund is pretty busy right now. The hustle and bustle and the question of where we spend the night and how we want to spend the next few days is a little overwhelming for us all. Leo, Astrid and Brigitte feel like they need a break, doing the laundry, planning and digesting. So we decide for a free hut in the Municipal Rest Camp. Nobody could have guessed that it would take ages for us to check in. Astrid manages this patiently and after 1.5 hours we can finally move into our accommodation. We collect our laundry for the laundry place around the corner, which Brigitte initially triggers the association "self-service laundromat", because there are simply several washing machines in the room. However, these are served by a service person and we hand in our laundry, which we can pick up again in the late afternoon of the next day. So we stay here for two nights in any case.

With a bit of luck, we just get into the German bookshop in Swakopmund shortly before the shop is closed and we buy an even better map for Namibia there. The German impression of Swakopmund leads Brigitte into the prejudice trap. No, it's not the nice elder white-skinned man who runs the bookstore, he's just another customer. Racism point on Brigitte's account!

Afterwards we go to the pier in the restaurant "Tug" for a delicious meal.

After the experience with the booking situation here, we consider in the evening how we want to proceed and decide that we should book in advance to visit the dunes at Soussusvlei in the Sesriem camp site, it will be New Year's Eve.