Comb The Desert!
We ain't found shit!! Sorry, I had to put a Spaceballs reference in this. We rented a car and our first stop was the Namib-Naukluft National Park, which is a dune park near Sossusvlei, Namibia. It was awesome. Supposedly, as you can read on the link above, these are the world's oldest dunes, and sometimes some of the tallest (they change with the wind). We left Windhoek and thought we would take the "shortcut", which turned out to be a dirt road...the entire way, which was about 300 km (about 200 miles). We thought we would be there around 7 pm; we ended up getting in around 10 pm. It was dark and there were many animals on the road. (see previous post re list of animals)
We went to the dunes, hiked up them and down them and all around them. We got up at 4 o'clock to sit in a line at the gate of the park in order to watch the sun rise over the dunes, which is cool, as they have the shade on one side and the sun on the other and they have such a high spine and a windy one. However, once you've seen one dune, the others all look very similar.
It was very fun, but very hot, so we retired to our campsite to find that...our tent was gone!! And somebody was in our space!! As it turns out, there had been heavy wind and our tent had blown away. The resort had found it and secured it with rocks (ooops, I guess we will use tent spikes from now on!) and they gave us another spot so all was well.
The next day we drove north to Swakopmund, which is a German inspired town near the beach with the dunes in the distance. You can do many things here such as sand boarding and dune buggies but we are using the time to use the (fast!) internet, do laundry, run errands, grocery shop (we are self catering!) and get things like that done before hitting the road again tomorrow.
Things have been a lot more expensive in Namibia than in any of the other countries. We sure are not getting the 1 dollar rice and chicken plate anymore! But, you get other things, such as cleanliness and fast internet for the price. I am not sure if it is worth it, as I was hoping to save money in Africa. I have also heard that South Africa is expensive and that is our next stop. So, PB&Js to the rescue!
I have a feeling we will have better access to the internet so hopefully can avoid these long stretches of time where I am silent.
I did put some phtos online. Please check them out at your leisure HERE.