Swakopmund Sandwich

The guesthouse organised breakfast slightly earlier than the usual 7am so we would be ready for our 715am pick up for our Sandwich Bay Tour. We picked up two other parties en route to Walvis Bay where we changed over to three 4x4 cars. We were in our own 4x4 driven by Marius.

Our first stop was a Salt farm where we were taken through the process of salt making. It takes around 16-18 months to complete the process! The salt then gets refined and packed in South Africa. I’ll never take salt for granted again…

Breakfast

The salt pools. The pink is from the same algae the flamingos eat that make them pink

The cliched circle of life is so apparent here. We saw a dying seal on the beach and just a few hundred metres away, the jackals were also circling. Further down, we saw a baby seal waiting on the beach for its mother to come back with food. If they are not reunited, it would either die of starvation or be eaten by predators.

We finally entered the Namib-Naukluft National Park toward Sandwich Harbour where the Namib desert meets the Atlantic Ocean. We drove along the shoreline with sand dunes on our left getting progressively bigger. We turned to head up the dune and stopped for a brief geology lesson, going through how the dunes and desert were formed, the composition of the sand and the flora and fauna of the area. We continued to a vantage point where a simple lunch was prepared for us. The tour ended with a drive around the sand dunes up and down some pretty steep slopes! It sure beat walking…

We were dropped back at our guesthouse after the tour. The tour was enjoyable and convenient, but it was also very expensive at around AUD140 per adult! We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and sleeping. Having now seen Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, we were not quite sure what the big appeal was of the towns itself. The weather although pleasant for us as a respite from the heat, was never “beach” weather. The water never gets warmer than 12-14 degrees so no one swims in it. The Europeans, however, seem to love the beachside bars and restaurants…The only appeal for us was the nature, but that part seemed to be quieter.

Back to the same National Park!

Driving along the shoreline

Poor dying seal :(

One of two jackals around the corner

The large dunes of the Namib desert to the left and Atlantic Ocean

Umm I thought I wouldn't be doing this again!

Lunch included

The vastness and steepness of the dunes were so hard to capture on camera

Right on the edge just by the water. Shot of the children for a sense of scale

The pier at Swakopmund

Dining at the "The Tug"