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Namibia 2003

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Namibia 2003 Main

Part 1 Etosha

Part 1a Animals

Part 2 Otjitotongwe

Part 3 Highlands

Part 4 Van Zyl's P.

Part 5 Marienfluss

Part 6 Kaokoveld

Part 7 Damaraland

Part 8 Twyfelfontein

Part 9 Namib

Part 10 Wolwedans

Part 11 Gamsberg

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Namibia '03 Gallery

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last updated:5-Aug-2005

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Part 9 - From Swakopmund to Kuiseb - The Northern Namib Naukluft

Travel Details

From Swakopmund (0 km) we drove to Walvis Bay (km 35 from Swakopmund), and onwards to the Namib Naukluft NP. The first big feature is Vogelfederberg at km 86, where we turned right towards Gobabeb (km 144) and Homeb (km 160). We then drove via Hope Mine and Zebra Pan to Mirabib (km 226), where we camped. The next day we proceeded to Kuiseb Canyon outside of the park (km 276), and onwards to Solitaire, the next fuel station (km 354).

Please do check out our Namibia '03 photo Gallery.

Swakopmund

Being Swiss, we of course checked into Hotel Schweizerhof, with famous Café Anton. They did offer Black Forest Cake. The hotel is okay, but it felt strange to be in a closed room again after so many days outside. Also Swakopmund felt a bit strange, everything being shrouded in fog, and streets quite empty due to low season. Next time we might check out Sam's Giardino - not Swiss by name, but Swiss by origin.

However, we found a few nice shops - after being deprived of shopping facilities for so long :-) Do try the Deon Siebold Leather Shop: JJ had bought shoes made of seal leather before and convinced me to buy my own pair. With a decent inner sole (bought at home), they are much more comfortable than any other hiking shoes, and very light. They also offer other goods made of seal, kudu or ostrich leather. Furthermore, we bought a springbok skin (don't remember the name of the shop, but they sold linen and soap and funny lamps and stuff downstairs, and springbok or zebra hides upstairs. Our springbok fur cost ca. 150 N$, and our cat at home REALLY loved it - she "hunted" it for days! Swakopmund also offers a few restaurants, a nice bookstore, some antique shops - so it's nice to browse a bit, after going back to the desert. Swakopmund was also the place to stock up on food and firewood, as we didn't expect to find other shops before getting back to Windhoek. There is a butcher called "Namaqua Meat" (or similar) which offered excellent meat.

The next day, we drove on towards Namib Naukluft National Park. We first got the permits and park maps in Woermann House, and then left Swakopmund for Walvis Bay. Things got worse there: The sun was trying to burn away the fog, and this damp climate was then mixed with the most terrible stench of fish. The whole city smelled like fish. Walvis Bay is a centre of fish processing. We stopped and asked locals about this smell - they said it can happen from time to time, so at least it doesn't smell like this all year round. We fled the city with upset stomachs.
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Namib Naukluft Park

The Namib Naukluft Park started about 10 km out of town. Just driving through, it feels a bit boring: endless flat sand and stones, from horizon to horizon. Getting closer, there are lichens, plants, insect tracks - fascinating. And after 37 km is Vogelfederberg, the first inselberg (island mountain) when coming from Swakopmund. Inselbergs look like giant tortoises lying in the sand: smooth round hills raising above the plain. After a break at Vogelfederberg, we left the main road and turned South towards Homeb - on a street straight as an 58 km arrow.


Flat Namib desert	The dunes at Homeb

Homeb can be seen from afar as a dark line between the plain and the sky. It consists of the green vegetation along Kuiseb river (or better: riverbed), which forms a distinct border between the white plain and the red dunes behind. Marked on the map are a research station at Gobabeb which can't be visited, and a picnic spot. We made for the latter, and were very surprised when, suddenly, the flat plain revealed deep crevasses - the Kuiseb. The road leads town into this canyon, to the riverbed. We parked our car and strolled to the other, red bank - passing two lone donkeys standing in the glaring sun in the middle of the riverbed. Tracks indicated that there must be people living here, but we didn't see anyone.

The red dunes are made of fine sand and are quite steep, we didn't make it to the top of the first row. But even half-way up the view over Kuiseb, the canyon and out to the Namib were great. And it was fun to tumble down the slope - in my brand-new seal skin boots!

We continued to the next mark on the map, which is Hope Mine. This is a ghost village in the middle of nowhere, but still with orderly lines of drilling cores all over. The mine provided copper, but was closed long ago. The next sight, Zebrapan, was deserted when we came, so we drove on to Mirabib, our destination for this day.

Gerry had suggested that Mirabib is the most beautiful campsite of the Namib Naukluft Park. We hadn't seen many other ones, but Mirabib was perfect. Mirabib is another inselberg, with 840 m asl a bit bigger than Vogelfederberg. We were the only campers there - so it was a huge mass of stone, our car, much emptiness and us. And a bunch of rabbits who obviously lived in this solitude. Our camp site was a beautiful room formed by a rock promoting over the desert sand. There are braai facilities and a toilet hut, but that's it. No people, no shop, no water or firewood. But this was fine with us. We climbed the hill (an easy climb) just in time for the most beautiful sundowner ever. Imagine a sunset on a hill at the sea: you see the sun set below you, in a way. This was the same at Mirabib, but without water. The desert and the faraway red dunes glowed in the twilight and then were extinct. Check out the panorama site fore more pictures.


Campsite at Mirabib	Sunset at Mirabib

We were back on the top early next morning, to enjoy the sunrise. It was as beautiful, we sat there for at least an hour, even though it was quite cool. Gerry had told us that there is sometimes GSM reception on top of the hill - with the next antenna being 80 km away? So I sent some SMS to the people at home who where just getting ready to go to work.
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Kuiseb Canyon

We left soon after, towards Kuiseb Canyon. Again, the canyon only becomes visible when you're really near. I had read "The sheltering desert" by Henno Martin - which got more impressive once I saw how barren these rocks are. We saw several zebras and birds, and there are many half-desert plants (check out "Wild flowers of the Central Namib" by Antje Burke), but it really doesn't look like a shelter you would like to take. However, d(r)iving down to the place where the road crosses the actual river, there was water flowing there. This road going down and then up is called the Kuiseb Pass - funny for us Swiss, because here passes are usually mountains, not dips. There was soon another "pass", Gaub, which is formed by a tributary of Kuiseb. Out of the Kuiseb pass, we drove southwards, with the dark hills of the Escarpment to our left.

This part stops at Solitaire. This spot really has a right to this name, as it doesn't have more than a wildwest style fuel station once featured in a fuel ad; a shop with an excellent apple cake; and a lodge/camping.


The plains around Kuiseb Canyon	The Kuiseb

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