Enroute we passed the Tropic of Capricorn once again, the Gaub Pass, a mountain pass at an elevation of 750mm, the Kuiseb River and Canyon (which is not really a canyon as you picture it), the Kuiseb Pass, another mountain pass at an elevation of 905m, all offering beautiful often spectacular views of the stark schist rocks.
We saw some desert giraffes, they are ordinary giraffes but look a lot brighter and a lot wirier than the ones I got to the see at the Etosha national park a couple of days later - certainly my highlight of the day.
We saw some desert giraffes, they are ordinary giraffes but look a lot brighter and a lot wirier than the ones I got to the see at the Etosha national park a couple of days later - certainly my highlight of the day.
Getting closer to Swakopmund we got to see the valleys of the Swakop River which form a spectacular moonscape.
We travelled along a short bit of the Welwitschia-Drive, a road along which hundreds of plants can be found.
The Welwitschia Mirabilis is a plant, related to the pine tree, which is endemic to the Namib desert in Namibia and Southern Angola. Named after Friedrich Welwitsch who "discovered" the plant in 1859, some of the specimen found found close to Swakopmund are estimated to be between 1000 and 1500 years old.
While the big old plants look like having dozen, hundreds of leaves they (most specimen) have in fact only two leaves (as can be clearly seen when the plants are young).
These two leaves grow continuously, but slowly and pretend, as they are torn with increasing age, to have several leaves or even a whole heap of leaves.
We got to Swakopmund in the afternoon, did a short bus tour around the town, our tour guide showing us the most important buildings and after checking into the hotel (Hansa hotel, so kitschy) we started to explore the town on our own.
I walked to the jetty bridge with two others where we had a late lunch at the Tug restaurant just by the bridge with a table on the terrace drinking in the stunning panoramic views of the Atlantic ocean. I couldn't get enough feeling like being at home.
In the evening most of us went for dinner at the Brauhaus.
Yes very cliche but it kinda had to be done. It was certainly really weird to be 1000s of km away from home and being in such a place not only serving German food but the staff speaking better German than English.
We got to Swakopmund in the afternoon, did a short bus tour around the town, our tour guide showing us the most important buildings and after checking into the hotel (Hansa hotel, so kitschy) we started to explore the town on our own.
I walked to the jetty bridge with two others where we had a late lunch at the Tug restaurant just by the bridge with a table on the terrace drinking in the stunning panoramic views of the Atlantic ocean. I couldn't get enough feeling like being at home.
In the evening most of us went for dinner at the Brauhaus.
Yes very cliche but it kinda had to be done. It was certainly really weird to be 1000s of km away from home and being in such a place not only serving German food but the staff speaking better German than English.
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| desert giraffes |
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| "Baby" Welwitschia with two leaves clearly seen |
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| old Welwitschia which seems to have hundreds of leaves |
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| Jetty Bridge - Landungsbrücke |
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| Brauhaus |
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| Käsespätzle |
