Our first day in Lüderitz was spent mainly doing check-in stuff – Health Authorities, Immigration, Customs and Port control. They are easily available right by the harbor, and with the aid of Andy, who assisted us with getting a mooring, we were done within half an hour.
As we expected another Leopard 50 owner, our neighbor boat from the marina in Cape Town, to arrive in just a few days, we decided to tour the region right away.
We rented a Ford Ranger 4×4 from B&B Car Hire on the main street, and off we went just a little more than a day after we arrived.
We started off visiting Kolmanskop, which is an abandoned mining town just 10 km outside of Lüderitz. It was quite amazing to see how the buildings are being swallowed by the sand.
After Kolmanskop, we were facing an almost 300 km drive to our final destination of the day, Betta. About 200km of these were in fact on sand and gravel roads. But, the car is totally designed for it, so we cruised along like we were on the highway!
The nature is truly beautiful here in Namibia. The mountains are as diverse as we have ever seen them in the same location. At first, we saw mountains that resembles the plateau mountains of a Norwegian island far in the North, called Svalbard. Only to make a turn in to a new valley, where the mountains resembled US canyons, Spanish coastal mountains, etc.
We also had a very close encounter with the feral Wild Horses of the Namib. They are most likely ancestors of German cavalry horses released from various farms and camps in the early 20th century. Bruse, being the horse whisperer he is, managed to even pet one of them, so we agree that the breed has been domesticated at one point.
In Betta, we had found a lovely little “oasis in the Namibian desert”, called Betta Camp. They have 13 chalets, and also camping grounds, which turns out is a very popular activity here in Namibia. A beautiful site, where we had a real “TIA” experience, as we basically had electricity in our room for a total of two hours the two nights we spent there.
Considering there is a considerable heath wave currently here, and 42 degrees Celsius was expected the day we left, it was fairly hot. But, after experiencing three months of winter in Cape Town (coming straight from Norwegian winter) and a rather chilling coastal Namibian weather in Lüderitz, we were happy with finally wearing shorts again!
The next day we drove to the desert at Soussusvlei. What a beautiful place! The sand was soooo red, and the dunes where just like you see in the movies – wavy shapes and like small mountains.
It is fairly restricted in terms of driving off the track, but Bruse did get an item checked on his bucket list, and that was desert driving.
When we got back from the desert trip, we had ordered T-bone steak, which the camp site is famous for. Little did we know that they did not have anyone onsite that could braai our steak. So, an accidental tourist, a Capetonian man bicycling from Cape Town to Windhoek was asked to make them for us! He had biked 100km that day, of his so far 1230km ride…. It is certainly true what they say – South Africans know their barbeque! We got a perfectly “braaied” steak. Thank you, Stefan!
Unfortunately, we do not have a photo from the dinner, but one of the dessert. Looks like we all were prepping for bicycling 100kms the next day 😁
We feel so fortunate to be here, and what a great location for our first landing on our first passage. We can’t wait for the continuance!
