March 8-11
We flew from Zimbabwe to Windhoek, Namibia on March 7th. After a super easy (and free!) customs stop, we had some slight confusion renting the car. Apparently the company that Michael rented with online just outsourced us to Avis. Good to know…
But once we got into that car, things were great. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now: rental cars are really good for us. There is something great about having the freedom to go wherever you want to go, at any time. Add a UBS port that both charges our phones and hooks our music up to the stereo and we are just tickled.
We also had a spectacular sunset on our drive into Windhoek:
We spent one night in Windhoek at a great AirBNB and then headed the next morning to the coast. It is about a four hour drive west from the capital to get to Swakopmund, where we stayed for four days. Here’s what we knew about Namibia: we should visit the skeleton coast, they have lots of seals, the locals speak German (and English), and they have amazing oysters. Well we’ll be the judge of that.
We arrived in town and went straight to the water to see what kind of oysters we could find. Our first stop did not disappoint. Brut and oysters. Yes, please!
Namibia ended up being a great, easy country for us to rest and relax. We really didn’t do much other than drive around, eat and sleep.
Eating: we had great seafood plus more South African wine at great prices!
Driving:
We drove to both Walvis Bay and up to the Skeleton Coast. Walvis Bay had much less going on that originally expected. There were suppose to be some flamingos on the beach, but we couldn’t locate them. Walvis Bay does have catamaran cruises leaving early each morning, but we needed sleep more than we needed a morning cruise to see an oyster farm. Otherwise, not much going on.
Here’s me and the Atlantic Ocean:
Our other road trip was more exciting. We drove up the Skeleton Coast. The Skeleton Coast is the 976 mile Namib desert coastline. The Namibian Bushmen called it “The Land God Made in Anger” and some Portuguese sailors called it “The Gates of Hell”, so I guess Skeleton Coast is being kind. It is so named for the thousands of shipwrecks and whale carcasses that litter its shores. That said, we saw one small wreck and no whale bones on the shore.
So much empty Coast!
Before getting out the actual park, Michael decided to take a detour down to the water. There were some anglers fishing off the coast and their 4x4s over time had compacted the sand, giving us a road to drive on… for awhile. And just as good as that hard sand was for a period of time, it became not good very quickly. We were stuck. Avis was excited to give us a brand new Toyota Corolla. 7 kilometers when we took it from the Windhoek airport and we had it stuck on a beach. Two issues: First, the car is super heavy – too heavy for me and Michael to push out of sand. Second, the best method would have been for Michael to push while I have the car in reverse, but I don’t now how to drive a manual. So Michael reversing while me pushing was a joke. We got it moved a tiny bit, but things were looking a bit grim. There were some anglers not too far away, but we were trying to fix our predicament without letting locals know that we’re the stupid Americans that decided to drive a Corolla on the beach. Not too long after we got stuck, a truck drove by and two super helpful locals jumped out to help. The dad jumped in the car to reverse while the son, Michael and I pushed the car out. It took about 45 seconds. The older guy did a bunch of grumbling in German while the younger guy seemed pleased to help. Both repeated told us that we could not ever drive the car on the beach again. We knew. It was stupid. But definitely another rental car adventure to add to our growing list.
When we entered the national park, Michael asked the woman at the gate if there was anything we should be on the look out. Her response? “Meh, not really”. Hahahaha.
His follow up questions was about the ship wreck that we’d read about on the internet. She managed our expectations by letting him know that there wasn’t much left of it. We did get to see the ship wreck and it was great that our expectations were managed, because she was absolutely correct. Here are some pictures.
Impressive, right?!?! I wanted that picture of me with the wreck so you could get a true sense of the scale.
Really, the best part of the Skeleton Coast ended up being the vastness. We drove for hours rarely passing another soul. The desert was really quite incredible.
We also found out that there are lions that live in the desert. They are smaller and have longer legs than other lions. Sometimes they’ll eat mice for hydration. They are better than every other cat at regulating hydration. They are desert adapted lions and there are only about 150 of them and they only live in this desert. We didn’t see any, but Michael especially thought that was super interesting.
We drove up and down the coast for 4 or 5 hours before heading back. While driving this very remote and empty highway which was sometimes dirt and sometimes pavement, Michael also had me practice driving. This makes my third time driving a manual. I practiced a bit the day before and then Favazza tried to teach me probably 15 years ago. Michael has decided that when we get back to the States he wants a manual instead of an automatic, and what better time to practice than on a rental? It was a little tricky because Namibians drive on the wrong side of the road, so it was my first attempt at driving on the left side of the road and all the fun that goes along with that, in addition to shifting with my left hand and trying to gauge when to shift based on kilometers instead of miles per hour. It went ok… there were definitely a few times where I revved the engine and a few times where the clutch made a horrible noise, but I had a few great moments too. I definitely need more practice before I would want to drive a car that we actually own though.
Here’s some waves hitting the shore by The Tug Restaurant where we had dinner one night:
Final oyster count: 46 split evenly between the two of us. We were hoping for a better showing. We were trying to pick up another 12 on our last day, but couldn’t find anyone that would serve them on a Sunday at 10am. Final verdict on level of deliciousness? The oysters were huge, very filling and available at nearly every restaurant. One place, the Fish Deli, had possibly the best oysters we have ever eaten in our lives. The rest were good but maybe not as good as some we’ve had in San Fran. Definitely worth the visit!
So we’re heading to Morocco now where we will stay for about two weeks and try to get my passport issue sorted. Morocco has been on the top of my list since I was a little girl, so I am jacked that we are finally getting there.