May 4

Brandburg to Swakopmund

It was a warm, windy night at our camp. The tents were flapping and noisy, but at least,the breeze kept the bugs away. Our "riverine" camp was below the Brandberg mountains and beside the dry Ugab River, at a relatively new lodge called the Brandburg White Lady Lodge. After a simple breakfast we were underway again, heading south to Uis then west out to Hentiesbaii on the Atlantic coast. The landscape became flat, sandy and barren.

Along the way we stopped to admire one of many roadside stalls selling "gemstones" . After a short time looking at the collections a mother and two young boys appeared. Charlotte chose a few small gems, for which she paid about $2. Devon gave the boys fresh pears. Along this route we saw many small dwellings, mostly tin shacks. At one place an extended family appeared to be living in lean-tos covered in scraps of plastic. Obvious poverty here contrasted its the neat thatch huts we saw along the Caprivi strip, where people may have been poor but not living in poverty the way they appeared to be surviving here.

We drove north along the salt road to Cape Cross, stopping on the beach for a lunch picnic. The sea was cold and the waves suggested a dangerous undertow so we walked only in shallow water along the sandy beach.

About 30 km further north we came to Cape Cross and the cape seal reserve. Hundreds of seals were basking in the sun, swimming, and even 'porpoising' in the surf. Young were still nursing, something we have never seen before in all our years of sea mammal observations.

We have some excellent photos but Internet here is not fast enough to post any.

From Cape Cross we drove south about 100 km to Swakopmund, where we camped in the most developed urban campsite so far. Our site had a private brick building with a full toilet and shower facility, as well as kitchen and braii area.

Devon and Charlotte treated us to a seafood feast out at a waterfront restaurant called the Jetty.

Photos of the shoreline will also be posted later.


Irene

Sent from my ipad....Oops, did auto - complete create strange words?
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