We had an earlier breakfast and set off at 8am north to Twyfelfontein which is where we stay for the next 2 nights. The road out of Swakopmund was excellent. It is made of sand that is hardened by salt water which effectively fixes the surface. Because they get so much mist by the coast the road remains excellent. I noticed the same on some roads in Swakopmund itself. 
We stopped at this little beach place that has these old baches and is swarming with residents in the summer. They order in their water from a tanker.

There is no shade and we can’t imagine a more severe summer environment. That was before we passed the tented campsites up the road. Wilfred said the area is very popular with white holiday makers from South Africa, Namibia and Germany. The men fish and drink beer, the kids ride their quad bikes and the women sun themselves. 

They shoot quite a few movies in the area and Wilfred has worked on 2 film sets. He was an extra on Beyond Borders starring Angelina Jolie and was an office runner/driver for film management on Mad Max:Fury Road. 

Wilfred explained that there is no racial apartheid any more, but there is economic apartheid. Most of the black people can’t afford the $200-300,000N for a section and so live in the townships where you can get a house for $80,000N ($8,000NZ). 

Just outside Swakopmund is a desalination plant that supplies fresh drinking water to the city and to the local uranium mine. Namibia has an abundance of minerals but the foreign mining companies do not have a good history of completing rehabilitation after mining. We passed one place that had a tin mine which was abandoned during the GFC. There are huge sand piles everywhere and a huge hole in the ground. A local company is now using the sand to make very attractive bricks. 

 I saw my first mirage. There are no lakes in the Namib Desert. 

We stopped at Henties Bay to get ice for the water in the chilly bin and Mike and I used the loo in a cafe/bar. The power was out so a man brought a paraffin lamp. You tip for everything and always pay to use the loo in Namibia. In this case, I got stung because of my lack of attention. Wilfred had given me $19N in coins (for a $20 note: roughly equivalent to $2NZ) and I assumed they were ones and twos so handed over 2 big ones and one small thinking it was $6N for both of us. Actually it was two 5s and a one. I really do need to get better glasses – and look at the money. 

The coastline has numerous shipwrecks due to the lack of visibility from the mist. Further north is the skeleton coast, so called because of the whale bones that washed up off the Atlantic coast. Huge whale bones decorate many of the beach houses. 

Soon after leaving Henties Bay we turned inland and away from the coast. Also away from the mist and the road soon deteriorated. You need to drive fast to get anywhere so we had a pretty rough ride in places although the car is fitted with a sensor and Wilfred can expect a phone call if he drives faster than 100. I don’t know that the Mitsubishi is built for these roads but overall it’s pretty comfortable. 

The roads are amazingly straight. Wilfred says that infrastructure is one thing the Germans did well.  I would never stay awake driving there. 

The landscape changes every 40 or 50km from one form of desert to another. To start with it was flat sandy plains with granite outcrops in the distance. We passed Namibia’s highest mountain which is 2,700m high and 24km in diameter. It was too far away to get a decent photo. 

We passed a solo cyclist in the middle of nowhere with bike kitted out with tents and so forth. We could hardly see him in the dust as a car passed. Our consensus was that solo cycling is sheer madness in Namibia. I hope he knows about all the plants that can kill you let alone the animals. Wilfred showed us a different Euphorbia that is also very poisonous. Some early German settlers gathered its wood for a barbecue and were dead the next morning as the smoke penetrated the meat. 

There are telephone poles all along the roadside and each pole is surrounded by a ring of sharp rocks to deter elephants which don’t like stepping on sharp things. There seems to be good cellphone coverage everywhere and Wilfred got numerous calls. 

We stopped for lunch under a tree in a riverbed. There is no water in any of the rivers. There was evidence of recent elephant movements.

Brigadoon had supplied a basic but tasty packed lunch: ciabatta buns with lettuce, cucumber and cheese, hard boiled egg, cheezels, fruit and chutney flavoured crackers and drink. 

We passed numerous roadside stalls selling rock crystals and handcrafts. Some belonged to the Himba tribe which remain very primitive and wear few clothes but cover their bodies with red ochre for sun protection and to manage personal hygiene given they don’t bathe. They live in very basic villages but can lease land for communal farms where they raise goats.  

There were also stalls from the Herero people. Closely related to the Himba these people differ in their dress code. They are all nomadic but the Herero had more contact with Europeans early last century and the women adopted Victorian long dresses which can be augmented with petticoats. They paint their faces with red ochre which helps as a sunscreen and for decoration. Quite surreal really. They top it off with a wide hat that symbolises their cattle rearing background. I’m hoping to get a photo if we see more of them. I’ll have to pay of course but would rather have the photo than their wares. (Didn’t get a picture but you can get the idea from the image below)