Namibia

Sept. 23
We’re in Africa!
I just spent 5 days in Namibia and for those that don’t know Namibia is just north west of South Africa on the Atlantic Ocean. It’s pretty crazy to think we are on the opposite side of the same ocean as the eastern U.S.- that my family on the Jesery Shore is on the same ocean as the one I’m looking at. The only country with an even lower population density is Mongolia. It’s mainly desert with about three major cities (the capital Windhoek, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund). It gained independence after having been a German and a South African colony in 1990 (Walvis Bay got independence in 1994) so it’s a very new country with a heavy German and Afrikaner influence. The ship docked in Walvis Bay which is the commercial center and nothing to really write home about. It’s really small even though it’s one of the largest cities. Swakopmund is the main tourist spot and is an hour or so taxi ride north. The country has a pretty good infrastructure because of it’s relationship with South Africa- for example in Walvis Bay the streets are paved, there are two major groceries stores, restaurants, major banks, stoplights and though the buildings aren’t very high it looks pretty modern. It’s sort of odd because there’s the relative small but modern port area of Walvis Bay then on the road to Swakopmund there’s the suburb for lack of a better word which is much less developed and so obviously the poor area where the vast majority of the Black people live. After that there’s basically nothing but sand and ocean until sort of out of no where Swakopmund arises. It’s a coastal resort “city” of about 30,000.
Swakopmund reminds me of Epcot but imagine a German Disney deciding to do Africa. Everything is German/Afrikaner with random reminders that it’s Africa (mainly the tourist shops and sand). It’s all German, British and Afrikaner tourists who come here for the beaches, the extreme sports and European feel. I spent two nights here touring and exploring. The restaurants all served European food (with random reminders that it was Africa like game stew or gazette on the menu). All the food and wine is imported from South Africa. After a while I realized that one of the reasons it looked so odd was that everyone was basically white. The only Black people were young/middle aged and worked as taxi drivers, waiters, in shops… There were no Black families shopping in the grocery store, couples out to dinner, etc. The only time I saw differently was a cab ride through the opposite side of the city, which was so obviously poorer (roads in poor condition, houses more run down…) and suddenly my friend and I were the only white people as far as I could see. Apparently some people went on safari or traveled north, which they said was less touristy, less Afrikaner and more agricultural. In general the people were so friendly and welcoming. I felt so much safer here than in Brazil where there was a sense of constantly needing to be on edge/very aware of your surroundings.
I went 4 x 4 all terrain vehicle driving across the desert. It was sooo much fun driving around the Namib Desert. We went out across and up and down the sand dunes. It was amazing looking around and only seeing sand- no buildings, other people or roads. Eventually we drove out to the ocean and the sand dunes just went straight into the ocean. On another day I climbed Dune 7, which is the highest sand dune in Namibia. It’s out in the middle of nowhere (which is fairly easy to find in Namibia). It was so high I thought I was going to die- I literally climbed up on my hands and knees. Every time you stepped the sand in front started to fall. At the top though it was an amazing view.
We drove out to the salt mines and lagoon. The salt mine was about as interesting as it sounds though I did learn some random info like that salt is mainly used for plastics not consumption. Fascinating right? On the drive out there we went through the suburbs and vacation areas, which look like Dutch modernism meets American adobe meets African safari style. It looks so random especially since the suburbs seem to just pop out of no-where. They also look a bit off since every house has huge walls and no landscaping. Namibia is famous for the flocks of flamingos but we only saw a small group though we also saw a bunch of jackels. I did go sea kayaking another day, which was amazing. It was so cold out we all were like, “I can’t believe this is Africa- it’s freezing cold out.” We went ocean kayaking but it was actually in between the lagoon and salt flats that went out to the Atlantic. We saw dolphins, which came right up to us. There were thousands of seals- I’m not exaggerating there were thousands of baby and adult seas on the beach and in the water. Hundreds of seals started swimming next to our kayaks. It was pretty crazy because they were open kayaks so the seals were hitting the kayak and biting my paddle. The seals smell really bad and sound like drowning sheep or just like Chewie from Star Wars. Apparently on other trips the seals got on the kayaks or jumped over but most people know that I’m not really an animal person so that really would have freaked me out.
We arrive in South Africa in two days and everyone is so excited. The pictures of it look amazing so I can’t wait to explore!