Our drive from Sesriem lead us along a dry, desert gravel road for 100 km with the landscape changing from desert to moonscape desert (no vegetation!). Somewhere in the middle of this isolated and dusty drive, we encountered a group of local Namibians on the road, and their older model pickup truck, with obviously some vehicle problems. We slowed down (with hesitation), rolled down the windows, and one of the men explained in broken English that their truck gas line had a leak and they were out of gas, in the middle of the road, in the heat of the day. With some intrepidation, we offered one man a ride to the closet town (Solitaire) to get gas. The man got into our caravan with empty plastic oil can in hand, and off we went. It was the quietest 50 km of driving to date, with the kids (and us) watching this stranger in our van carefully – and with the Namibian staring intently out the front window. You hate to feel so suspicious, but travelling in a foreign land, with a whole new set of cultural experiences, can bring out fear and terror, that is not related to really any concrete experience. Of course, everything went well and the man was extremely grateful, and as fate would have it, we rolled into the Solitaire gas station with a flat tire ourselves. A flat tire at a service centre is a $200 new tire and 15 minutes of time. A flat tire on the isolated gravel road we had just driven would have been numerous hours of figuring out how the spare works, jacking up the caravan and 6 hot, exhausted and cranky people. Let’s just say, we felt that it was the luckiest flat we have ever had. Given the 1000's of km of gravel road we have driven with a caravan full to the brim, one flat tire thus far has been a minor event. Mostly we see well equipped 4x4 vehicles on the road, so our ‘luxury’ van is really quite a site rolling through some of these small villages, and people stop, stare and point in some cases (likely also wondering why we don't have at least 40 people inside).
Solitaire is really nothing more than a gas station, shop, small lodge and amazing famous bakery – which of course we all had to try. Moose Macgregor (yes a Scot, and that is his real name!), bakes the best apple pie (applestrudel) and homemade breads, scones, and pastries. He is an enormous guy, with a comment about everything, and knows a little bit about the world from the travellers he encounters. He told me about the famous ‘Moose of Canada’, and how he received some maple syrup sent to him from a customer on their return to Canada (may have been a subtle hint to me). We stopped at the Tropic of Capricorn - took the obligatory photo and rushed out of the dry, desert heat and blistering sun back to our van. At the coast, we stopped off at Walvis Bay along the coast and had a nice lunch at the waterside. Ben’s school collects bikes to send to this town, so he will have to report what he saw there when he returns to his class.
We arrived in Swakopmund late afternoon and headed straight to the bank, grocery store and laundry shop (yes, we still have to do these mundane tasks even on an exotic trip). We had not done any laundry since we picked up the caravan, so essentially everything needed cleaning. The great news was you drop it off, and return a few hours later with everything washed, cleaned and folded for you – all for a few dollars. This is the result of an abundance of labour around and low wages. You essentially see several people working everywhere you go: if you use a toilet, there is a woman inside to clean up; if stop at a service station to gas up there is always service to clean your entire car by hand – inside and out; camping grounds are spotless and orderly and most buildings well kept and clean. The people seem happy enough to be employed and are certainly very hard workers, they also seem genuinely happy to have foreigners come and add to the revenue base of the country. Swakapmond is an old German town, with many of the historic buildings still in place. It is a heavily visited tourist town, which offers a variety of adrenaline sports – yippee. We booked ourselves into sand boarding down the dunes, ATV’ing, go-carting and paragliding; all of which seemed to keep all members of the family happy. Sandboarding is essentially strapping on a gear of a snowboarder and riding the sand dunes. We booked our trip with Alter Action, run by a woman Beth from San Fransisco, who came to this area 16 years ago and never left. For Sam and Anna, they did the equivalent of tobogganing on a waxed up board to soar down the dunes. It is all great fun – but the slog back up the dunes (no lifts here), in the heat can be exhausting. We got some great photos and movies of the event, and left with even more of the Namibian sand in various crevasses of our bodies! Quad-biking/ATV’ing over and around the sand dunes was also a huge hit (especially for the kids). We rented for 2 hours with a guide for the Sundowner tour and cracked open a bottle of bubbly on the top of the dune as the sun set. The boys started the first 2 hour trip with the automotic vehicles, with Sam and Anna riding with us; but by the second day (and second 2 hour rental) Ben and David had graduated to manual vehicles, and Sam and Anna essentially drove John and myself around! Later in the evening, we had a lot of discussion about when they could get their drivers licence and why we do not have ATVs at our house. Sam said if he had an ATV at home, he would ATV to school by himself everyday – while David has decided on a career as an ATV tour guide in Namibia (which was probably partly due to the great guide we had Tondo, who really enjoyed the boys ‘zest’ for adventure). We had a half day instruction and session on paragliding off the dunes, where we glided ourselves (not tandem with instructor), over the dunes and towards the sea. We had a hippie instructor Mario, who at the beginning we were really unsure of (seeing that he arrived to pick us up in his 70’s VW combi and proceeded to try to explain that there had been a big party the night before and his ‘lander’ was to hungover to help, so he brought another guy he was ‘training’), but Mario won us over when he showed us that he was a well seasoned pilot and good teacher (although his language was a bit foul). We glided with another family from Germany and their 3 older boys and had some time to talk about their trip to Botswana which they completed 5 years ago (when their youngest was 6). It has been nice to pick up a few ideas and tips from others who have travelled through the area. We stayed at the Alte Brucke resort, another lodge and camp location with buffet breakfast included, again spotless (German run), with your own camp site bathroom with shower, outdoor kitchen area and braai area at each camp location. We were exhausted at the end of each day and had a few good meals in town. We left Swakapmond with a new found appreciation for some great sports, and a love for the Atlantic Ocean parallel to the dry, ocean dunes that border the area. Next stop, Etosha National Park for some wildlife viewing!
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