Luderitz to Swakopmund: Lovely Luderitz; Over and Aus; and Been There, Dune That!

Luderitz turned out to be a unique and beautiful spot. Next time, we won't be so quick to judge a place. Although we were only there for one night, we spent the following day driving along the coastal area just below Ludertiz. We saw a wide variety of birds (Greater Flamingoes, Whimbrel, Ruddy Turnstone, South African Shelduck and Hartlaubs Gulls), loads of seals and breath-taking views of the Atlantic Ocean and surrounding dunes.

It was a wildly windy day and when we had seen all that we had planned to see, we headed back inland for about 90km's, fighting against a strong side-wind to a place called Klein Aus Vista just before the town of Aus.

Set in a rocky valley, the campsites were the best we've ever stayed at with each site having a huge tree for shade, tap and dustbin right next to tree and reed fences for privacy. Despite this gem of a place, we had a terrible nights sleep. Galeforce wind blew the pegs of our tents awning out of the ground, resulting in a 1mX1m flapping piece of canvas tirelessly beating the sides of our tent. Despite Grant's numerous efforts to re-attach said flapping canvas, we had no luck and therefore not much sleep. We packed up that morning with rather grumpy faces (and moods) and drove about 400km's to Sesriem. We found a great campsite with a swimming pool and booked to stay there for two nights. The next day we woke up at 4am to pack up our tent (it's still taking us around 45 minutes- novices!) and headed off to the great Sossousvlei. We arrived at the gate just before 6am and about 4th in line. Within minutes the queue had grown to around 30 vehicles. Feeling rather chuffed with ourselves for our prime queue position, we whizzed through the gates, following the three cars ahead of us to the second gate, only to be informed that we needed a permit, which it seemed all the other 30 odd cars had prior arranged. So, very sheepishly, we turned around, got the permit and headed to Dune 45. The further you drive in the Sossousvlei Park, the more you are quietened by the huge, perfectly formed red dunes surrounding you. They really are something to behold. We parked next to Dune 45, had a quick muesli breakfast and then walked up the dune. Being on top of a huge dune feels like you are on top on the world. We had a great time just sitting in the sand, taking in the view and then ran down in big leaping steps. We then drove on to the end of the park, parked Michael and walked to Dead Vlei, a flat salt pan with dead trees, surrounded by red dunes.

Once we'd seen/walked/sweated enough we drove back to our campsite and spent the rest of the day reading by the pool and then tackled our first clothes hand-washing session. All in all, a great day. We packed up camp this morning and drove 350km's to Swakopmund. En Route we passed through the small town of  Solataire where we endulged in some of Moose McGregor’s world famous apple pie. We also crossed the Tropic of Capricorn on our pursuit north.

We will be staying in Swakopmund for two nights and plan to book our stay at Etosha, buy a few odds and ends and do some sight-seeing.

Summary:Meals- Tomato and garlic pasta, Vienna Sossousvlei (basically, a mushy mix of chopped up viennas, cous-cous and tomato and onion mix).
Road trip tunes- Jesus Culture, Johnny Clegg, Yossou Ndour and Leeland

Week One Musings:
Well, we have made it through the first week! We are settling in to this life-style quite well, but at first felt quite home-sick and bewildered.

Mwenye moyo wa furaha humzaidia raha (Swahili)
The person who has a cheerful heart will discover that joy is always on the increase.

Taking the above proverb to heart, (thanks Craig and Nads), whenever we start to grumble about some of the 'challenges' (if you could call them that), we are trying to view them positively. So here is a list of  'challenges' and our alternative approach.

'Challenge': Many, many flies. 
'Treat': Flies provide great entertainment. Counting many you can kill with fly-swat, seeing Grant fratically  occlude one nostril and blow snot and fly out of his nose, mid-mouthful of coffee... the list goes on.

'Challenge': Extreme heat

'Treat': Sweating is a great way to detox.

'Challenge': Wild wind.                                               

'Treat': Clothes dry within seconds.

Things Ange has learnt:
- To toughen up and not be such a sissie.
- Don't spend too long in the bathroom when Grant wants to move the car mid-camp-set-up. Otherwise, he will do it on his own and drive over awning poles. Result: very funny-looking squished awning poles, but very unhappy husband.
- To create edible(?) concoctions from non-perishables.
- Icy, slushy Oros is the best drink in the world (hey Ands? :-)).

Things Grant has learnt:
- The Land Cruiser is not dust-proof, in fact, i think it is able to suck dust into the cabin.
- Roof-top tents are ball-aches.
- Corrugation must be the 8th wonder of the world. Man has invented a rocket to take us into space and to the moon, but is unable to solve the problem of corrugated roads.
- Aus is German for “Very Windy”
- You eat an elephant one piece at a time.
- Ang actually likes beer.