Day 9- Swakopmund and Walvisbay

Swakopmund was one of the main destinations of our motorbike trip. It was also the furthest point from home. So we decided in fhe planning stage already that we would spend an extra day here, just resting

When we woke up on Sunday morning, the whole town was covered in fog.

My wife and I decided to walk through the beautiful town of Swakopmund in the fog. One huge bonus of staying at the municipal resort- we saw a laundromat next door, and we gladly handed them our first week’s dirty laundry, to be washed, dried and picked up at six.

Afterwards we walked down to the beach, and discovered that it was really cold along the ocean. So we turned into the commercial part of town. Being Sunday, it seemed totally deserted… we found that this could not be the main tourist season, there was nobody in sight… and with the fog… quite scary! Have you ever seen the original horror movie “The Fog”? I have when I was starting high school, and was traumatized by Fog ever since… 🙂

But turning a corner in the main street, we saw a delightful sight- a small restaurant/ coffee shop, Bojo’s,  with open doors! And the smell of freshly brewed coffee just invited us in. So in we went, and first had a beautiful cup of coffee, and afterwards a most memorable breakfast. They had excellent wifi, I was really, really impressed with Bojo’s!

After this breakfast we just walked around town for hours, enjoying the sights of Swakopmund. Here are some of the scenes of our flaneur….

Late morning it was time for the one thing you MUST do if you ever go to Swakopmund. I mean, you have not been to Swakopmund if you have not done this thing. It is a crossed item on my Bucket List since my first visit. (See Bucket List Button above, #50)

Overlooking the famous lighthouse there is Hotel Schweizer. And they have Café Anton. And when you get there, you order their Apfelstrudel. They have lots of other things, which I have not tasted, it must be good. But their Apfelstrudel- you dont get anything more delicious than that. Yes, I know, my American friends do like their Apple Pie. But… I think the Germans does this better! Don’t believe me? Go try it out then (and send me some American Apple Pie to taste…)

Is that not heaven on a plate?

After this delicious stop, the weather was clearing a bit. So we went back to get our bike. We decided to ride the Salt Road that runs behind the first ridge of dunes to Walvis Bay. This road is just gravel road, covered by salt. It is as smooth as tarmac, we could run on it at 120 km/h without any problems…. a beautiful ride in the desert!

No, not going to take photos at 120 with my wife on the back!

This road goes to Dune 7. It was also on my Bucket List (#51) years ago to climb, because you have a really hard time getting to the top.  It looks small from here, but it is one of the highest sand dunes in the world. We did not ride up to the dune because of the extremely sandy road on the other side of the rail. From here, we turned to drive into Walvis Bay, Namibia’s main port city. And it looked like a scary movie when we approached it. While in the desert there was no fog. But in Walvis Bay the Fog was hanging over the town menacingly. I expected eery music to start up, and zombies to start walking towards us, maybe I watched that one episode too much of Walking Dead with my kids.

I remembered Walvis Bay as a stinking industrial place from my first visit. There are a lot of fishing industry companies around here. But riding around this place, I saw I was also wrong, There are beaufiful parts of Walvis Bay, where I would live any day if given a chance. It is also known for the millions of flamingoes walking in the shallow water of the beach and estuaries.

We arrived at another deserted walkway on the other side of the harbour. And were rewarded by two dolphins playing around in the ice cold water. But very lazily, just like us…

This turned out to be one of the best days of my life. Being with ,my wife, just the two of us exploring new places on our bike.  It is so good to share these experiences with your loved one…

Swakopmund will always be one of our very special places in life!

And that evening we had a wonderful barbeque (BRAAI!) with all our friends… THAT was the picture we had in our minds when we started planning this trip. And it all came together that Sunday in Swakopmund/ Walvisbay. It must be a very special place, that is why Mrs Brad Pitt, Jolly Angelina, picked Long Beach to bring her twins into the world- halfway between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay…   What a day…