August 26 - Uis & Swakopmund, Namibia

Our next camping stop was Uis (pronounced oose, like moose without the m), a tiny mining town, except the mine closed almost 20 years ago. We’re not sure exactly who lives there and what they do (we heard a lot of pensioners) but we stayed in a camping rest stop that had a great bar/restaurant and FREE high speed internet. I think we spent every waking moment with someone on the keyboard; emailing, downloading photos, planning our Cape Town stay and checking in with our banking. We did meet a great group of South Africans there also passing through. Two, the twins, were on touring dirt bikes and two (husband and wife) were in a 4X4 vehicle as support . They arrived to use the internet as well, ordered their first beer at 10:30 am and were still ordering when we enjoyed the sunset with them later that day at a different spot (you can see why we were instantly drawn to them!). They were great fun to talk with and a wealth of knowledge as they have spent a lot of time traveling around Namibia. They talked us into staying in the area for one more night and taking a 4wd trip up the white sand dune just outside of town (great photo ops and even a bit of exercise). Uis and our campsite at White Lady Lodge are both situated below Brandberg Massif, Namibia’s highest mountain at 2,573 m. Moving to the White Lady Lodge Camp was fabulous. As already mentioned, we had more social time with the biker dudes (still not sure of all their names) and endless entertainment playing with the tame Springbok and 3 baby Meerkats (just like the TELUS ads) in the gardens. We were also treated with our best sunset yet. Our plan is to keep in touch with the biker dudes (although we really should get to know their names) and get together with them in Cape Town.

Southern Damaraland, the area we were in, has many rivers. The “rivers” look like absolutely dry sand river beds but apparently there is actually water flowing under the sand. You can drive up and down the “rivers” but risk getting stuck and/or getting charged by desert elephants when they are in the area. There are however, large green trees lining the rivers and in the middle of the rivers providing proof of some sort of moisture and relief from endless parched and sandy coloured vistas.

We left Brandberg Mountain with a heavy foot on the accelerator in anticipation of arriving in Swakopmund, 2 nights out of our tents and in a lodge called The Alternative Space. Swakopmund, or Swakop to the locals, is a resort town for Windhoek and briefly famous for being Brad Pitt & Anjolina Joli’s residence while having one of their children and I think adopting another. We didn’t see them while there. It is also an amazing centre for adrenalin activities from sky diving to sand boarding, quad biking and kayaking. We followed the advice of our biker friends to drive by on our way a place called Spitzkoppe – a massive eruption of red sand stone rising out of the middle of a huge desert plain. Once driving amongst the rock formations, we felt as if we were in Moab, Utah. We spent a couple of hours climbing on the rocks, eating lunch and checking out the one arch. The land, rocks and sky provided the most incredible palette with blue, red, sand, sage and straw (ok, now you definitely know it is not Ron writing!).

What an incredible feeling to arrive to clean, comfy and groovy accommodation after camping. I mean, camping is GREAT, but arriving back to a few comforts is great too. The Alternative Space is every bit groovy, providing a room for us with a round master bedroom, two beds for the girls in the main space and a claw foot tub with full bathroom facilities at the other end. We have an attached common area with fire place, courtyard and access to a fully stocked kitchen. The owners are art collectors so the white walls are covered with all sorts of art created by local artists. They also fancy themselves to be photographers and their favourite subject is the woman of the partnershop…naked! Sadie looked at me and said, “Mom, I’m so glad you don’t do that.” Our only complaint was being torn between spending time in our awesome pad and heading out to enjoy all that Swakop has to offer.

We’ve had two great dinners out, some fabulous wandering into shops, finally found a great book store with English novels and enough time to have a couple of hot baths and showers each. But the main attraction was sandboarding. And it is exactly as it sounds. We drove out to the sand dunes just outside of town and commenced a 3 hour hiking accents and decents on the dunes with nothing but a helmet and piece of rectangle flexible board. Ron tried stand up boarding which was doin’ the dunes on a snowboard. Our only measure (except for smiling photos) was the speed gun which clocked us at 68 – 74 km per hour on the steepest slope. Ron got the speed record for the day, what a surprise! Sadie, Anna & Janet beat most of the others. Call us the Crazy Canucks. Sadie & Anna both showed incredible energy hiking up these dunes numerous times in anticipation of the next run. We finished the day energized by some thrills & exercise and sand spilling out of our clothes, ears, shoes…

Namibia and especially Swakopmund definitely does not feel like the Africa we conjure up in our minds when we imagine Africa. Except for the local stores selling African trinkets and art, looking around at mostly white faces, we feel more like we are in Europe than in Africa. It’s more of an observation than a complaint. We’re just glad we’ve seen a bit of Kenya, Tanzania & Zambia too.

Since being on top of the dunes and seeing quad bikers off in the distance, Sadie was plugging for us to check that out too. It was a bit of a squish to jam it in the last morning but they offered early trips so we booked. Hilarious! We were the only ones on the dune tour, two quad bikes with Sadie & Anna on the back. Janet can drive both a car and a boat with confidence and has experienced lots of sled driving in her very distant past…but nothing prepared her for the first go on a quad bike in the sand. Anna kindly offered to be Janet’s first passenger which was especially kind because that’s when the learning curve was the steepest. Thankfully she chose the semi-automatic vehicle, which had gears (more power for when she finally got the hang of it) but no clutch. The first hour was good for lots of laughs as Janet jerked, chugged and swerved along (nobody told her it feels like you are driving on ball bearings!) at a ridiculously slow pace…but the good news is, she got the hang of it and was howling along before too long. Completely environmentally questionable but an unforgettable bit of family fun.

Good-bye Swakop – it was a great fix .