After Cape Cross we drive to Henties Bay a larger city where we finally find an ATM and we can withdraw more money as we were down to very little reserves. We also get some gas after driving 600 something kilometers from the last gast station and then we drive the last 80 km to Swakopmund.
Even though we are now in civilization there still are quite a few shipwrecks, a testament to the harsh ocean conditions.
We make one more stop on the way to take a look at the now more greener desert and take pictures of the sunset. This is the first time that the sunset catches us still on the road but we expected this. For a random stop we find some interesting plants in the desert including a dollar bush that you supposedly can use to get water from in times of need.
There are beautiful views of the sunset and the desert also, that is why we stopped and we take lots of photos before moving on.
We stay the night at Brigadoon B&B in downtown Swakopmund and for the first time we have to park on the street and not in a protected parking area. The room is large and spacious and looks like a boutique hotel except for the gaping hole in the roof through which we can see the boiler.
Given that the breakfast starts only at 7:30 and we have to be in Walvis Bay, a city about 30 km away, at 7:45 for our kayaking trip we arrange for a cold breakfast that is delivered to our room this evening. It is quite a lot and should be enough for the whole day. We then go out for the evening to a well known restaurant Kucki’s Pub where to our surprise we cannot find any sitting place.
We decide to order carry out from the menu (oryx steak and springbok schnitzel) and then to eat at the hotel. So we wait for 1/2h in the bar area, there is lots of smoking and there are lots of Germans here who have a great time, we less so. At the hotel we eat the great food and then go to rest after the exhausting day to prepare for tomorrow’s kayaking expedition.
After the kayaking tour we return to our room to change clothes as we intend to visit Swakopmund in the afternoon. It is quite a good time also to take pictures of the room else we are either too early or too late in the day.
Our first trip is to a bank so we can exchange some of our US dollars and finally after so many days we succeed and are flush with money (more or less).
With the money in hand we go to a tire shop so we can change the patched tire. However they do not have the correct tire but they apply a permanent patch instead of the temporary one which they guarantee is as good as a new tire. Given that the temporary one lasted over 1000 km we have confidence that this will last us till Cape Town. And then we walk through downtown Swakopmund doing window shopping and admiring the old houses in this well restored German colonial town. They even have a fur store with furs from lots of different animals from which probably half you cannot even import in the US.
Before returning at the B&B we go and buy some provisions from the Spar supermarket close to our B&B which has quite a large range of different products. And then after a short dinner we go to sleep as tomorrow we have to leave Swakopmund and drive to the Sesriem area.
Today there is no hurry so we wake up later and eat the regular breakfast out on the terrace. There are lots of birds singing in the trees around us which is quite enjoyable. Again we eat eggs but at least we had a break the previous day.
After that we pack and start south towards Walvis Bay and then SE towards Sesriem our next stop where there is a huge accessible field of sand dunes which is well known in Namibia. Passing through Swakopmund we take a few more photos of the town including of the lighthouse as we have to pass through the entire city again.
