The community of motorcycle riders never ceases to amaze me. I know of no other means of transportation that attracts common threads like a motorcycle. In fact, most travelers slip through cities anonymous and without making an impression or attracting attention other than to the taxis, souvenir hawkers, panhandlers or tourist offices. They blend in, […]
Dining in Swakopmund. As the second largest city in Namibia, Swakopmund plays host to holiday residents looking to escape the heat of the inland deserts and plains. Fortunately settled and comfortable in my Deutches Haus hotel, for my holiday in this colorful slice of Germany hanging on the fringe of the Namib Naukluft Park, I […]
While Christmas Eve in the United States typically is a mad rush until 6pm or later for last minute shoppers to find gifts for loved ones and families, holiday party planners making mad runs to the supermarket for food, booze and assorted goodies and everyone else jockeing through traffic to get home to be with […]
If someone blindfolded you and dropped you into downtown Swakopmund Namibia you’d be hard-pressed to identify the place as Africa. Walking along the promenade with the pounding surf of the Atlantic, Swakopmund in the shadow of its signature lighthouse, the very well preserved colonial architecture offers clues and picturesque evidence of the regions history. Wait! […]
I had to pull myself away from my camera to get on with making the journey across this desert and to the seaside town of Swakopmund It was inevitable. My visit in Sossulvlei took longer than I planned. And with 300km of questionable quality dirt roads to Swakopmund, I probably pushed a bit too much. […]
I spent most of the morning at the dunes. There’s a 60km tar road that leads into the park from the entrance gate. Paying N$80 for me and N$10 for Doc I sped down the nicest new tar I’d seen in awhile. Then there’s deep sand 5km from Sossuvlie. 4×4 Shuttles take you in for […]
One Last Night In Sossulvlei. Bliss in the bush.
Ever since seeing photographs of these dunes in picture books I’ve dreamed of coming to Namibia to see how such marvels of nature could exists — and if they really looked like those pictures we’ve all seen…. That afternoon the tour director at Sossulvei Lodge offered me to fly with a Swiss traveler who was going on the 45 minute flight regardless if any others joined.
Perhaps the trademark or signature image of Namibia comes from the glorious orange colored dunes of of the Namib Desert — perhaps most famously are those of Sossusvlei. Tucked into the central Namib surrounded by vast arid plains dotted with acacia and quiver trees and various desert shrubs such as sage or some sort of […]
Maybe it was each of the continuous 20km without even ten meters of relief of perhaps the worse corrugated, rocky and gravely road I’d been on during my trip. Bone jarring, teeth rattling and bike beating nasty washboard with spots of deep gravel. Or peradventure, was it the 130km of dirt riding requiring heavy concentration […]
