Namibia Highlights Part 3: Swakopmund

Our third and final Namibian destination was to the coastal town of Swakopmund, known for its German style architecture and plethora of bakeries. As it was winter, the beach was not a main attraction for us, which was no problem because there were plenty of other things to see and do.

Sunset at Swakopmund.

We took a bus from Windhoek to Swakopmund that arrived in the late afternoon on the 5^th of July. It was actually a rather exhausting ride (and was several hours late) so the only thing we did that evening was walk down to the water and take a few pictures of the sun set over the Atlantic, not something I saw on the east coast of the US.

View of the town and the dunes from the Swakopmund Pier.

The next morning we set out to explore the town – right after we stopped by the post office to buy some stamps and mail a few postcards. After our errands were done, we headed to the water and walked out onto the pier to get a great view of the town and the dunes. We also decided to make a short visit to the National Marine Aquarium of Namibia. It was not very big, but it had a few very creative exhibits, and I especially liked watching the stingrays swim right up to the edge of the tank and nearly hop out over the glass. It seems unlikely that they will ever be successful, but I guess you never know. After a short lunch (and pastry) stop, we headed back to the backpackers to get ready to meet our guide for our afternoon tour.

My sister poses with a 1500 year old welwitschia plant,
the national plant of Namibia.

Since my sister is a biologist, she was very excited to see the famed Welwitschia plant of Namibia. It is sort of a bizarre and somewhat unimpressive looking plant that it thought to be almost prehistoric in nature and can live to be thousands of years old. It is actually more a tree than a plant, it only ever grows two leaves its entire life (although the leaves split so it appears as though there are more) and there are separate male and female plants that depend on insects and other natural occurrences to reproduce. There wasn’t too much about it that I found interesting, but it was cool to see as one of many very unique sights in the Namib Desert. I personally enjoyed the “moonscape” so named because the pictures brought back from the moon looked remarkably similar to some of the rock landscape of the desert. It was especially nice that our tour ended as the sun was setting and we were able to see another beautiful African sun set over the rocks and dunes in the area.

The "moonscape" of the Namib Desert surrounding Swakopmund.

It was almost impossible to believe, but our time in Namibia was coming rapidly to a close, as the next morning we were headed back to Windhoek by bus, and then the morning after that we had an early plane to catch back to South Africa. When we arrived back in Windhoek the afternoon of the 7^th of July, we still had time to make a quick trip to the local craft market to pick up some last minute souvenirs before it closed. After that, we headed to Joe’s Beerhouse (a can’t miss eatery from all the things we read) for an early dinner because our taxi to the airport was leaving the next morning at 4:30am. Probably not the best planning, but we survived to tell the tale.

And that was it! Overall, a fantastic trip. It was great to see my sister, although I can’t believe that she is already back in the US after the months and months of planning that was done before her arrival. I can’t say enough good things about the places we stayed and the people we met. I would seriously consider returning for another visit to see a few other places around the country, although I wouldn’t mind going to all these same destinations again too :-)