Road Trip in Namibia

We arrived in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, in the morning after taking an overnight bus from Zambia. We were immediately impressed. This city looked like we could have been in the U.S. We didn't stay long though, as we headed straight for the car rental dealership to start our first road trip. This was exciting, but also a little nerve-racking at the same time. We were looking forward to having the freedom to go anywhere we wanted. On the other hand, automatic cars are difficult to find and very costly in Africa (neither of us is super comfortable with driving a manual).  Add it to the fact that in Africa, they drive on the left side of the road, and it could have meant disaster. Knowing my history with driving a stick shift (my last lesson with my Dad's car was less than fabulous), I let Sam take the wheel first.  He only killed the car a couple times in the dealership parking lot (the gate guard only chuckled a little) and we were off. Luckily, the road to Swakopmund, our coastal destination was mostly well-paved highway.

The road stretched ahead of us.

We pulled into Swakopmund, and again felt like we were no longer in Africa, but in Germany this time. We learned that Swakopmund was an old German colony that is a hugely popular vacation destination for not only Germans, but also South Africans. Here, palm trees lined the beach, hotels and nice (mostly German) restaurants littered the street of the small town. We felt like we entered a little piece of paradise in Africa.  Just outside of the town, desert extended as far as the eye could see, and one of the highlights were all the sand dunes, including the largest dune in the world, only a 30 minute drive down the coast.

The view of Swakopmund from one of the main docks.

A picture-perfect view of the dunes.

We liked Swakopmund so much, we decided to stay for a full 5 days (instead of making the arduous 5 hour drive on a dirt road to see the other major copper dunes at Sosussvlei). What we didn't realize when we arrived was just how popular and crowded Swakopmund would be. After asking several places, we only found a very dirty and less desirable youth hostel at which to camp. Finally, after two nights there, we barely snuck into one of the last campsites the Desert Sky Backpackers.

For us, Swakopmund was all about the food and the dunes. We splurged as we ate out almost every night for dinner, eating all sorts of fresh fish and meat, more than making up for any lack of protein in our diets early on in our trip.  We ate pan fried hake, salmon, springbok (a type of antelope), shrimp, sushi, and oysters. Our favorite place was a little beer garden called Beryl's Beer Garden that made burgers as big as your head and an amazing spare rib pizza. I'm not usually a huge fan of burgers, but after trying the cheese, egg, and bacon burger with garlic sauce, I got craving a few days later and had to go back for another (hopefully none of my patients are reading this post;))  I definitely don't need another burger now for a couple months.

A rare (but delicious) burger at a German beer garden.

The sand dunes also didn't disappoint. We managed to slowly hike up to the top of Dune 7, which is claimed to be the largest free standing sand dune in the world. We took a chance and signed up for a quad bike tour, which turned out to be a great adrenaline rush going up the sides and zooming down the dunes. It took us right out to the middle of the desert so that all we could see were dunes in every direction.

Us on top of the tallest sand dune in the world (Dune 7) with sand-filled shoes (the sand was WAY too hot for bare feet).

On the quad-bike tour surrounded by sand as far as the eye can see (nice hair...).

A desert friend we found along the way (I refused to hold the Sidewinder snake we found).

Finally, we had to try the sandboarding, which I had read about and decided I wanted to do before we came to Namibia. We chose the lay-down sandboarding because the company who ran it actually took you back up to the top of the dunes by quad-bike. Head first is the only way to go down, so naturally I made Sam go first on the first run.  After a run or two, we asked if one of the guides could take some action shots while we went down and it just so happened that this run was the one I did a 360 and got covered in sand. In all, we got to slide down 6 times, and it  definitely provided a quick thrill. We were glad we tried it, but ready to be sand- free after we got cleaned up.

Sandboarding at up to 50 mph!

I decided to show off my skills and do a 360...

Good times, but there was sand EVERYWHERE!

A quick stop at the national aquarium where you could touch the stingrays and watch a diver feed the sharks.

For New Year's we celebrated on the beach with champagne and friends we met at the Desert Sky Backpackers, including three other couples who were on year- long  adventures themselves (from England, Austria, and Belgium), and some crazy solo backpackers as well. Of course, we all traded traveling tips and advice (The three big questions are always 1. Where have you been? 2. Where are you headed? and 3. How long are you traveling?).

And the very next day, we were off to drive back to Windhoek for our last night in Namibia before flying off to South Africa. Our food binge wasn't quite over yet as we had to still experience Joe's Beer House, which is apparently renown in Windhoek for its game meat. There, we tried various meats such as kudu (another antelope with wavy horns), zebra, crocodile, and ostrich all in one dish. We topped it off with delicious lamp shanks that fell off the bone! While glad we tried all of the exotic game, it made us realize why beef and chicken are so common.

A kabob of game meat at Joe's Beerhouse (kudu, ostrich, zebra, crocodile, and some chicken)

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to Namibia. We vowed to each other to come back with our family one day when we have kids since Namibia has so much to offer, including western conveniences we are so used to. We also vowed not to eat out again for at least a couple weeks, for the sake of our waistline and for our wallets.

(Written January 6th)