Our Trip to Namibia

Today I am happy to share the last leg of our trip to Africa with you.  We spent our third week traveling with our friends Ian and Becky in Namibia, a country located on the northwest edge of South Africa.  Visiting parts of Namibia is like being on the moon with its dry, desolate, and rocky terrain.  Parts of it is like being in the Sahara desert with his red sand, and parts of it is like being in a German city.  Mr. Right and our son rode their bicycles from the top to the bottom of Africa about nine years ago.  The trip took them four months to complete.  The one country Mr. Right talked the most about was Namibia, and he always wanted to take me there.  Most Americans might be familiar with it because it is where Angelina Jolie gave birth to their daughter, Shiloh.

We flew into Winhoek and spent the night near the airport at Etango Ranch Guest Farm, a bed and breakfast that was also a working farm.  There was a ruggedness to it that I really liked.

 

We ate breakfast on their outdoor patio and could hear the cows mooing beside the ranch fence.

 

The next morning we went back to the airport, rented a car, and headed to Swakomund.  What we thought would be an easy trip of about three hours turned into a rocky and dusty trip that took around six hours.  Instead of traveling the interstate, we decided to use a secondary road which became a dirt road a few miles out of Windhoek.  We could have easily turned around, but since we were in it for the adventure, we took the road less traveled.  After all, how many places in the world can you be riding down a road and come upon a lone giraffe just hanging out?

 

 

When we arrived in Swakomund, a beach town, we went straight to the Seabreeze guest house and relaxed there till dinner time when we ate meal in a very old light house converted to a restaurant.  Namibia was colonized by the Germans, and their influence was everywhere, but especially in the architecture.  We ate a meal at a great Italian restaurant.

 

 

The next day we drove to Walvis Bay, another beach town.  We visited the salt shores.

 

 

We also saw the flamingos from afar.

 

 

 

 

Then we went four-wheeling on the sand dunes.

We returned to Swakomund and had a delicious sundown dinner at the Jetty 1905, a restaurant at the end of a very long pier.  The sunset was amazing, and the food was, too!

 

 

The next day we headed to another part of the country called Sossusviei to visit the sand dunes, which are the tallest in the world.  It was another six hour plus trip on rocky dirt roads through moon-like terrain.

 

 

On the way, we stopped at the only town (they might have had 25 residents), and it was fittingly called Solitaire.

 

Our destination was Sossusviei Lodge also in the middle of nowhere, but it was fantastic.  Our room was an adobe/canvas like structure that was so warm.  Since it was around 100 degrees, we welcomed the hard-working air conditioned comfort our room provided.

 

 

That evening we ate dinner on the terrace.  We were told that the wild animals were being kept out by a fence, but it was so small that we couldn’t see it.

 

 

The next morning we drove about 60 kilometers to hike on the sand dunes.  The tallest one was 1,000 feet high.  They were so impressive.

 

 

Then we headed back to the edge of Winhoek and stayed in the Daan Viljoen nature preserve park that was just beautiful.  Our room was once again a private cabin, but its decor was beautiful and very high end.  That was my favorite overnight stay in Namibia.

 

From there we drove to the Etosha National Park.  We arrived at the end of a very, very, hot day and were once again so happy to have a lovely air conditioned cabin with an exotic mosquito net.  Etosha is set up for self-driving safaris, and we spent our last full day in Namibia watching more wild animals.  We saw the most zebras there.  The road to Etosha was paved, and we traveled through some lovely towns that were quite advanced.  The people of Namibia have a good lifestyle that is very laid back and unhurried.

 

Once we returned to Windhoek, we went back to the working farm bed and breakfast near the airport for our final night.  We were served zebra for dinner, but since I don’t eat red meat, I thankfully stuck to the veggies and potatoes.  The meal was delicious.

 

 

 

Our last sunset on our last night in Africa was amazing.  We have been to Africa many times, and I have visited 12 of its countries.  Although I loved some of the countries more than others, the continent is beyond beautiful, and the most of the people have been so kind to us.  If you ever have the chance to visit Africa, or return to Africa, do it.

 

Take care.