Swakopmund

We’d been looking forward to spending a few days in this seaside town with a very German – African character, and it did not disappoint. We were only there for a couple of days, but managed to fit in some great experiences!

The town has a number of places where one can eat very very well, but probably the most special is “Fork ‘n Nice”, operated from a bus on the beachfront. As you would expect from its location on the edge of the Atlantic, their Fish and Chips is great, but I can also highly recommend the Cuban Sandwich!

We drove a bit further South along the coast, towards Walvis Bay, so named because there used to be a whaling station there. The harbour is now a commercial import/export facility. Some of the copper products produced in Zambia, that we witnessed being trucked from there, are loaded onto ships here. And there is a large salt producing operation, extracting salt from sea water in enormous salt pans.

We visited these to see the various species of birds that have made the pans their home, obviously feeding on shrimp and other crustaceans that live there. The smell is strong (think combination of bird excrement, the chemical smell of the brines in the ponds, all in hot sunshine and moist sea air!) but the sights are really worth it. At times we had to compete for space with some very ‘touristy’ tourists, wielding big cameras with bazooka-like telephoto lenses, but who would nevertheless have waded out into the ponds if their guides would have permitted. I am however pleased with the pictures taken with my own little Sony DSC-HX99.