Namibia is a beautiful country and a week there was not enough time. When I find time to go back in life I know that I will want to fly there, my peace corps budget just doesn’t allow for extravagant travel. In some ways I feel like I see and experience more by traveling by land cheaply, but for this trip I traveled across more than half of Sub-Saharan Africa. From my village it took 5 days of travel to get to the Atlantic Ocean, which was worth it, but I was also so exhausted I don’t think I fully appreciated it or all the other amazing things Namibia as a country had to offer. It took a long time to travel anywhere. Though it is very developed and the roads are well maintained, those that aren’t tarred are loose gravel, which is more like driving in snow, so traversing through the desert was quite a journey in itself.

We had a good travel experience down to Windhoek and actually made it there in one day instead of two as we had planned for. What does that mean? We got to spend a day at the mall!!! Actually, a few. Namibia is developed, so gloriously they have 6 malls in their capital city, I think we wandered around 3 of them. My favorite was an indoor/outdoor combination and it had a craft market on the outdoor promenade, it followed the contour of the land and it had sculptures of meteorites collected from the rural areas. We also explored zoo park and the parliament gardens. One night we went to a popular restaurant, Joe’s Beer Garden for dinner and I splurged on game meat, as it is very common to eat game in Namibia, they have so many game farms. The dish I ordered was called a bush fire and it had Zebra, Oryx, and Ostrich, all of which were divine. I am so privileged to travel and experience so many new things.

From Windhoek we went to the coastal town of Swakopmund. It was rather foggy there as it is still winter there. Though we saw the German influence in Windhoek, it was much more evident in Swakopmund. Something I found very interesting about Namibia, for such a small population, it is very diverse and you can’t really tell where people are from. If they are Namibian, African, Afrikaner, German, Dutch, any combination of these or just someone there for business/leisure. We bummed around, there was no swimming in the Atlantic as it was far too cold, but we did splash in the waves a bit after walking out on the jetty. We also went to see the lighthouse and state house and discovered this awesome game on the playground and decided to play with some kids, which was a lot of fun (I have pictures.) After playing in the cold we found a cute little cafe with delicious food and amazing coffee which was so warm and comforting, I almost felt like I was in America. Also while in Swakopmund we spent a morning on the sand dunes sandboarding, which was an absolute blast; it’s just like snowboarding, but sand is a softer warmer surface to fall on, which I found very forgiving of my clumsy falls. It was a fun exhilarating experience!

From Swakopmund we made the long journey into the desert camped at Sesriem. The following morning we got up at 4:30 to pack up our tents and get in line for when the opened the gates to the park of Sossusvlei. We drove 45k and climbed dune 45 (such an original name) which is the biggest dune and a popular site for viewing the sunrise. Still sleep weary, climbing a mountain of sand in the morning is more exhausting than one would imagine. It was also rather deceiving as when we thought we reached the top we discovered another curve and still had another section to climb, when we finally reached the top we plopped down to catch our breath and absorb the beauty of the scenery surrounding us. It was absolutely beautiful. Though the horizon was disappointingly cloudy, the sun did peep through the clouds enough for us to watch it rise and hide back behind the clouds, it was still magnificent. We didn’t have much time to explore as we had to get back to Windhoek and board the bus for the long journey back to Zambia. Not without stopping in Solitare for apple strudel at the famous bakery…yummy German dessert in the middle of the desert!

Back in home sweet Zambia I’m happy that I got to see Namibia, but once again I appreciate coming home to my simple hut and being with my family here. I’ve already posted pictures from my trip on my facebook page, and provided a link on the photos tab of my blog, so if you haven’t had a chance to view them please do take a look. It is the end of winter there right now so the Namib Desert is particularly dry, and it is named as the driest in the world. We traveled across so much of it that I got a little carried away with taking pictures and many of them are just landscapes, I hope you enjoy!