Red Rocket Vs the Namib

We arrived in Windhoek to collect our hire car and are now the proud temporary owners of a shiny red VW Citi. Whilst it is a pretty new car, I think the rest of the world stopped making them in the 1970's for good reason, and the design has changed little since then. In the handling and spec level it is more like a little red tractor, but that probably isn't a bad thing since we have given it a belting on hundreds of km of gravel roads already - as well as doing a good impersonation of a little red grader by shaving the top off the occasional rock. It also sucks in dust like a vacuum cleaner, but it was cheap! Still, most of the important parts are still attached and we are now in Luderitz and back on the bitumen so round one to the Red Rocket, but there is still plenty of time for the Namib desert roads to get their own back!

We headed directly from Windhoek to Swakopmund as I was due to visit the Rossing Uranium Mine on 12 August. They were a friendly crew and I had an interesting few hours there poking around whilst Nicole wandered the streets of Swakopmund. We then headed south into the Namib Desert - and a more arid, alien landscape you cannot imagine. They claim this is the oldest and driest desert on earth and I am inclined to believe them! It is a mix of bare rocky mountains, massive dunes and bare rocky plains. I've never seen anything quite like it - surreal and very empty even by Australian standards.

We spent a day visiting the dunes at Sossusvlei which was amazing on a few levels. It initially resembled the Sossusvlei circus - we had to line up to enter, line up for a permit and then line up again to get through another gate. We could have camped there, except the fees are now AUS$100 per night just for a camp site!! We stayed elsewhere. Still, the dunes really are amazing - up to 300m high - and to walk along the dry clay pan surrounded by the mountains of red sand is something else. We attempted to climb one of the taller dunes, but managed to ascend a foothill and contented ourselves with collapsing at the summit of that instead.

We took another couple of days to make our way from there to Luderitz (where we are now), with two really nice camping sites on the way. This afternoon we took a drive around the local peninsula and managed to spot some flamingos, sea lions, dolphins and lots of rocks, but sadly for Nicole we are yet to find a diamond, although apparently they are all over the place here.

For some reason my mobile is not working in Namibia. Telstra helpfully provide a cheap help number, but it is a bit hard to call without a phone (payphones attract international rates). I'm still trying to get it sorted, but for the moment I won't be getting any text messages.