Let’s Dune This!

A ship is safe in the harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for. – Gael Attal

The second half of our adventure in Namibia was in the desert. We visited Swakopmund, which is on the coast and has a lot of activities to do. Note that I didn’t call it a beach town. It has a nice beach and a freezing cold, and treacherous coastline. This coastline was the focus of one of our tours to the Skeleton Coast. We went North up the desolate coastline which has no towns or development. There was one or two places for shore fishermen to stay and then as we continued North, there wasn’t any development at all. It is called Skeleton Coast due to either the large number of shipwrecks that litter the shore, or the number of seal and whale skeletons that litter the beach, victims of the sea or the hyena and lions. Seas here are very dangerous due to a strong current coming from Antarctica and crazy winds. Then if a ship got into trouble the coast had no respite, being desert with predators still roaming the wild.  Our picnic on the beach by a cool wreck broke up the long drive. The sand there looked purple and when I asked why our guide said it was garnet in the sand. He added that he’s been told by gem hunters that it is possible to find a diamond washed up on the beach here. Can you imagine? I had to look, but no treasure for me. We also visited Cape Cross where the first European explorer stepped foot on this soil, but is also the home to up to a million sea lions. Turns out Namibia has more sea lions (2.5 million) than people (2.1 million). The pups were 3 months old and fun to watch. Some were nursing, others wandering out seeming to look for momma. And a bunch playing in the waves close to shore as they just recently learned to swim and they are eagerly figuring out how much more easily they get around in the water than on land.

We also went sandboarding in Namibia. This is the activity Liam has been anticipating most since even before we left home. It didn’t disappoint. We went to some substantial dunes outside of Swakop and with some floor polish and shiny sheets of wood we took to the sand. Liam reached 38 mph cruising down the dune. It was awesome! Hiking up after each run was quite the PE class too. They had a mid-dune platform and our instructor did a flip off it like a dune diving board. Then he was quite surprised when Shia did one too! He loved it, it was the first time he had a client do that. So cool.

By this time we were having so much dang fun in Swakop that we didn’t want to leave. So, we extended our stay so that we could try a couple more activities. We hoped to find a chameleon and sidewinder on the Living Desert Tour. We weren’t super confident about the experience at first after a flat tire on one truck delaying our departure and watching our guide wander around looking for critters while we waited. But, this dude could find the treasures in the sand! Most of what he showed us spends the day buried in the sand where the temps are cooler and predators can’t find ya. First he dug up a nocturnal gecko with wonderful colors and translucent skin. She kept running to hide under my shorts for some reason. Next we found a sidewinder snake (Adder). He hides in the sand with just his eyes sticking out watching for dinner. Still don’t understand how our guide found him!  When he was in hiding he was pointing at it from just a few inches away and I still couldn’t find the eyes in the sand.  They do the sidewise motion to stay cool on the hot sand because it only requires 20% of their body to touch the sand at any one time. Watching him move and bury himself was fascinating. Then the chameleon was hilarious. Funny looking dude anyway, with a tongue this seems too cartoonish to be real. But this one we found was very interested in us. One guy had his camera on the ground and the chameleon was hanging out on it. Then after we shooed him off so we could leave he crawled onto Liam’s black shorts. Apparently he liked black stuff! Shia got to feed him a worm and helped remove him from Liam. These wildflife experiences are so awesome. We also learned about the beetles lizards and plants that live in this crazy desert. A frequent fog that rolls in keeps everything going. The fog basking beetle for example does a handstand in the fog, it condenses on has back and trickles down to his mouth. Then he is a walking water bottle for a bunch of other critters, like the chameleon. All the adaptations to survive in the desert were incredible.

Another great thing in Swakopmund was the food. Namibia was once a German colony and Swakop is one of the more German towns. So we had some great German food! Combine this with seafood fresh from the incredibly nutrient rich Benguela current from Antarctica and we were soo happy! We’ve also been enjoying some of the local game. Feels sad to eat the beautiful creatures we see on safari, but eating local is the best, so zebra salami, oryx jerky, and springbok steak it is.

Leaving Swakopmund we stopped at Walvis Bay to do a dolphin cruise. We only saw a few dolphins and then they went down to feed. But it was still a lot of fun.  Chad spotted an impressive pelican flying towards our boat and pointed it out to us.  It looked so cool gliding above the water, we were shocked when he proceeded to land right in front of us on the bow of the boat.  Turns out the crew rescued him as a baby when he fell off a seabird platform and hand raised him.  He is now wild but comes to visit the boat and they feed him some fish while one of the crew educated us on pelicans.  The captain called him the Namibian Air Force.  Then a sea lion came on board too and Liam said he was the Namibian Marines, clever boy!  It was cool to see the wild animals visit with us on the boat. They had so much personality! And we learned about the oyster business. They can grow a cocktail oyster in their Benguela current fed waters in 9 months, where in Europe it takes 3 years! We all tried an oyster. Chad is the only one of that likes them, but its awesome the kids tried it!

Next stop Soussevlei. The Namib Desert is the oldest desert in the world and the red dunes of Soussevlei are the oldest section. The red color comes from the aging of the sands and the iron elements have rusted over time to yield the incredible colors. We camped under the desert sky full of stars and awoke to hike the dunes with sunrise. The kids were like mountain goats clambering up so fast. I couldn’t keep up to save my life! That sand is a killer. These dunes are massive, 300 meters in height! We had a picnic on top of German danish from the Swakop bakery and looked down on Springbok and Oryx grazing on the grasses below. Lastly we visited Deadvlei with some otherworldly dead trees in a clay valley surrounded by the massive dunes. By then we were tired of heat and sand and ready to return to the pool in Windhoek.

The 5 hour drive back to Windhoek was all on dirt roads and we passed one town – Solitaire. Man this country is sparsely populated! But, on this drive we saw Baboon and Mountain Zebra.  The road didn’t turn to pavement until 20 minutes outside of the capital city, Windhoek.  Now we are back at the Hostel from where we started in Namibia.  Feels like home to return to a familiar place.