Namibia Part 4: Holidaying in Swakop

August 25, 2013

Probably the highlight of the trip for M: quad-biking the dunes

Leaving the inland desert behind we continued our Namibian adventures and headed for the Atlantic coast to the quaint and quirky town of Swakopmund, which prides itself on being the adventure capital of Namibia. Think sky diving, dune boarding, quad-biking and the like. While sky diving will have to wait for another adventure (or never, according to M), we did experience the dunes on four wheels and on our bellies (see below), and had a chance to explore Swakop and the neighbouring town of Walvis Bay. 

Drive from Sossusvlei to Swakopmund: crossing the Tropic of Capricorn

Swakopmund is Namibia's most popular holiday destination, and attracts people from all over South Africa and Germany to hang out in this chill beach town. Yes, you read that right, Germany. Germans were the first permanent settlers to Namibia back in the late nineteen hundreds (known then as "German South-West Africa"), and it was considered a German colony until South Africa took it over during WWI. Eventually the UN took over control of all former German colonies in Africa (in the mid- 1960's after WWII), and Namibia finally gained independence on March 21, 1990.  And so, the town is a little piece of Germany in Africa, and continues to hold onto its roots; it is easy to find a good German beer or a schnitzel, and the architecture of the buildings have a distinct colonial feel.  

Clockwise from top left: M chilling on the beach-front promenade; the Hohenzollern Building (built as a hotel in 1906); fully operational lighthouse built in 1902; who can resist a cute little bug?; Swakop makes its own rules when it comes to business (We experienced this when we stayed over a holiday weekend and found everything closed for the holidays. Awesome timing, Smiths).


The Jetty: originally built of wood in 1905 as a cargo and passenger landing, it was later replaced with an iron jetty as the wood could not withstand the high seas (while no longer required for commercial purposes, the town raised money to have it completed as part of a public appeal). We ate dinner at the restaurant occupying the space at the end of the pier and watched the sun set over this side of the Atlantic.

Cruising the dunes on quad bikes: definitely loads more fun than we both expected it to be 

Plummeting head first down the dunes on a piece of greased-up particleboard (in case the photos don't quite do the trick, here's the mental image: tobogganing head-first on a wooden crazy carpet on sand) 

Watching wind-surfers in the bay and stopping for lunch at The Raft in Walvis Bay

The Lagoon: this wetland on the outskirts of Walvis Bay hosts over 150,000 transient birds annually, including huge flocks of greater and lesser flamingos. The "greater" flamingos are whitish-pink in colour with light beaks with a black tip, while the "lesser" flamingos are a reddish-pink in colour, and their beaks are dark red. We saw both loitering around the lagoon just outside of town.