The first tour was a 4x4 drive through the desert to Sandwich Harbour on my birthday. We were only 4 people in the group, so it was quite a private atmosphere. The vehicle was a purpose-built Landrover Defender with a steel construction inside in case we roll over. Which we did not. The drive alone was exciting enough, climbing up the dunes and going down so steeply that you sometimes could not see the bottom on the other side. On top of this it was an amazing landscape: first the salt pans near Walvis Bay, then “hammock dunes” (bushes in the pan that have caught the sand and become a little hill), then real, high dunes, the seashore and finally the lagoon Sandwich Harbour. The sand of the dunes has different shades depending on the material deposited. The base colour near the coast is yellow while further inland, at Sossusvlei the dunes have literally rusted and display a bright orange colour. Then there are black patterns from iron containing sand and dark red ones which is actually garnet.
On the way we saw springbok, flamingos, pelicans and even one spoonbill who got here by mistake during strong winds and was adopted by a group of pelicans. It was an awesome sight to see some pelicans flying in front of the dunes. Sandwich Harbour itself was formerly a fishermen’s settlement, but all the houses have been swallowed by the ever moving dunes. Today the area is a biosphere reserve because the lagoon provides a unique biotope for fauna and flora. Our guide explained how the plants have adapted to the conditions of living between the desert and the sea. We tasted salty sea-asparagus and sweet-savory Nara, a kind of melon which is highly valued by the native people for its water content. On the way back we stopped for a play in the strong waves of the Atlantic followed by a picnic on top of a dune. It was delicious and combined with the great view of the empty landscape just incomparable.
In the evening I made a “braai” (BBQ) in the cozy backyard of our accommodation. Unfortunately, just at this time Swakopmund received about a third of its annual rainfall (which is about 5mm) so that I had to use an umbrella for it. Nevertheless, it was very tasty.
