To Swakopmund: The Most German Town in Namibia

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Our southern journeys in Namibia are at an end, and we're heading north to trade dramatic desert landscapes for wildlife and safari. It's a trade we're all excited to make, even if we have to bid a fond farewell to the canyons, red sands, and endless vistas that have become so familiar to us in the past week. 

And so we're off -- on our way to Swakopmund, where we'll meet another familiar traveling companion -- the Jewel of the Desert, which is waiting for us there. But first, we get to see more of Namibia as only a Road Scholar can see it. About an hour after our departure from the Namib Desert, we stop in Solitaire, a town that can't have more than a few hundred residents, and Moose McGregor's Bakery, which claims the best apple cake in all of Namibia. Moose greets us, if you can call it that, with stories of how his hometown, on one weekend every year, hosts the Desert Music Festival, the Woodstock of Southern Africa, when 15,000 people gather for peace, love and music, Namibian style. You can doubt him if you want. I won't.

Our next stop is a true landmark. We're crossing north through the Tropic of Capricorn, and Bianca has asked for a photo stop to mark the occasion. The fact that the tropics can be so dry is a bit unexpected, but the sun is well on its way to summer in the southern hemisphere, and we're all here, so why not? We get back on the bus heading north, and have ample time to tell each other stories of where we've been. 

The best of the day goes to Warren Boudreaux, who traveled the world as an Aramco executive, and now as a Road Scholar. Along the way, he went to Bhutan, where his tour guide was Tenzig Norgay, who climbed Mt. Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953. How's that? Later, we stop at Vogelfederberg, the "Ayers Rock of Namibia," from which you can see the enormous dry landscape that we're about to leave behind.

Finally, we arrive at Swakopmund, a town with strong German roots, the largest urban area we've seen since Windhoek. It's a beautiful afternoon, and we're all happy to stroll about streets filled with people for the first time in several days. There is much colonial history to explore, and many shops to visit. But the most surprising and welcome sight of all is the South Atlantic Ocean, and a sunset over it, to the west.