Coastal Landscapes of the Namib
Day 4 until 6 of 27 – Namibia & Botswana Safari Trip
Between the dunes of the Namib Desert and the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean lies Namibia’s central coastline. Swakopmund reflects its colonial past in architecture and street layout, while Walvis Bay is defined by its lagoon, salt pans and birdlife. The meeting of ocean mist and desert sand creates a unique environment where flamingos gather in shallow waters and dunes descend almost to the sea. It is a region shaped by wind, light and open horizons.
Day 4: Sossusvlei – Solitaire – Walvisbay – Swakopmund
Just before Walvis Bay is a bird sanctuary lagoon, with hundreds of flamingoes. We also saw our first jackals here.
We arrived late afternoon at our camping place Alte Bruecke, where we checked-in and then walked straight to the Tiger Reef Bar, next to the Swakop river estuary, for sundowner beers. It was very misty and this sunset turned out to be the only forgettable one of our trip.
Day 5: Swakopmund – Pelican Point – Sandwich Harbour – Walvisbay – Swakopmund
Today’s program: in the morning kayaking with seals at Pelican Point, a sandy peninsula protecting Walvis Bay from the Atlantic Ocean, followed by a an afternoon off-road jeep ride towards Sandwich Harbour, through the sand dunes of the Namib Naukluft National Park, where the desert dunes meet the Atlantic Ocean.
At Pelican Point the wind was blowing hard and the seas was unusually rough according to our guide. He gave us a good brief about the conditions, as he knew not everybody would be comfortable under these conditions, so the first question was actually whether or not we wanted to canoe. It was freezing cold, choppy water and the wind was almost blowing my ears off… We saw another group half a kilometre down the beach, and they decided to not go into the water. And so we went in; it was hard work to canoe into the currents, so we warmed up fast. We ended up getting pretty wet but had a great time with the seals.
After an excellent lunch we drove back towards Walvis Bay, where halfway we met our guide who would drive us towards Sandwich Harbour with his jeep, for some spectacular desert dune sand driving. The scenery is spectacular, but the large number of jeeps driving around takes away a lot of the feeling to be really out in the outdoors.
Desert meets Ocean.
A lot of jackals scavenge the coast line, mostly for dead seals.
These jeeps can do a lot more than I ever thought possible.
In the evening we stocked supplies for the entire next week, to last us until Grootfontein.
Day 6: Swakopmund – Spitzkoppe
Yesterday we decided to give up today’s planned detour via Cape Cross, saving about 3 hours driving, as we felt we had seen enough seals at Pelican Point and this gave us the opportunity to do a half day Living Desert tour instead. I believe this was an excellent decision, as we wanted to arrive early afternoon in Spitzkoppe to make sure to have a nice camp site and then fully enjoy the surroundings.
So, early morning we were picked up again for a desert tour, in search for desert-adapted wildlife in the dunes around Swakopmund: Sidewinder or Peringuey’s adder, Fitzsimmon’s Burrowing Skink, Namib Web-footed Gecko, Namaqua Chameleon, Shovel-snouted or Sand Diving Lizard, Namib Sand Snake, Namib thick-tailed Scorpion, the fog basking Tenebrionid Beetle, etc.
