We had another good night’s rest at our hotel in Windhoek, the Am Weinberg (heavy German influence here you know). We had a very fancy breakfast downstairs. I had some crumpets, essentially just fancy pancakes. It was by far the best breakfast of the trip so far. I then hit up an ATM since some petrol stations only take cash, and going to petrol stations is very important in Namibia for reasons you will soon understand.
If you teleported into our car and looked around at your surroundings, you might think you were in Arizona or New Mexico (other than everyone driving on the left side of the road at least). The road was in good condition, and traffic didn’t seem to have any dangerous bad habits other than taking the so-called “California stop” to a whole new level, as in they slowed a little but rarely would you see brake lights coming up to a stop sign. After about an hour on the paved, smooth, well-maintained road, we had to make a turn to something that was quite the opposite. Most guidebooks say the gravel roads of Namibia are in good condition, but I suppose that is highly subjective. One source even said one could drive around in a small sedan and be perfectly fine. I am here to tell you that we are glad to not be in aforementioned small sedan. We saw one Nissan Sentra coming the other direction at one point during our journey, but other than that, every other vehicle we encountered was at least an SUV or bigger.
The unpaved road was not inherently dangerous by any means. There were no large boulders or potholes to negotiate, it was wide enough to easily accommodate oncoming traffic, and it was mostly flat and compacted. The problems came from the vibration of every bone in my body. So confidant is Nambia in its unpaved roads that the average speed limits for them are between 80-100 kph. I can assure you that doing 100 or doing 30 is about the same in terms of vibrations and bumpiness, so most of the time we were cruising down the road just trying to get it done with. We did this for about 3.5 hours before finally reaching the Desert Quiver Camp in the Namib Desert. The final stretch of road was by far the worst, and for that I did have to drop the speed down quite a bit. Nicole, uncharacteristically, announced that she needed a drink. And so we did.
We checked in to our own personal hut and then walked over to the pool since that’s the only area that has WiFi. It’s what is called a self-service lodge where there isn’t a dedicated housekeeping service unless you specifically request it, nor are there the usual comforts such as a hair dryer, shampoo, continental breakfast etc... After sitting out by the pool for a while with a Windhoek lager in hand, we debated our next moves. We elected to go into the national park tomorrow instead of rushing things today. We’d done enough driving I think for one day. We went to the one gas station to fill up the tank and get some water and snacks for the next day. Then we went to the higher end hotel down the road that seems to cater to tour groups. Eating options are limited in the Namib desert, so we ended up at a buffet with various tour groups from France. Fortunately since there were just two of us, we were cleared to go to the buffet first, thus avoiding most of the germs. There was a bbq station where some men grilled various meats in front of us. I asked the guy what his favorites were, and he ended up throwing an impala and also oryx steak on the grill for me. Honestly, it all kind of tastes the same. I thought maybe the impala was a bit sweeter, but it’s all steak in the end. We had a pretty hearty meal and drove back the short distance to our hut with the high beams on.
It gets quite dark in the Namib as you might expect. When we pulled into our driveway, and I killed the lights, it was absolutely shocking how dark it became. When we stepped out of the car and looked up, we were even more taken aback. The milky way was stretched out above us visible for the first time in our lives to the naked eye. I’ve had it pop up on a few of my photos in the past after doing a 30 second shutter or something along those lines, but never so clearly with my own eyes. It was quite a sight to behold. We immediately grabbed our cameras and did our best to capture this unreal view. Nicole got some incredible shots, so as you look at mine below, remember that these are just “amateur” shots compared to hers.
If you teleported into our car and looked around at your surroundings, you might think you were in Arizona or New Mexico (other than everyone driving on the left side of the road at least). The road was in good condition, and traffic didn’t seem to have any dangerous bad habits other than taking the so-called “California stop” to a whole new level, as in they slowed a little but rarely would you see brake lights coming up to a stop sign. After about an hour on the paved, smooth, well-maintained road, we had to make a turn to something that was quite the opposite. Most guidebooks say the gravel roads of Namibia are in good condition, but I suppose that is highly subjective. One source even said one could drive around in a small sedan and be perfectly fine. I am here to tell you that we are glad to not be in aforementioned small sedan. We saw one Nissan Sentra coming the other direction at one point during our journey, but other than that, every other vehicle we encountered was at least an SUV or bigger.
The unpaved road was not inherently dangerous by any means. There were no large boulders or potholes to negotiate, it was wide enough to easily accommodate oncoming traffic, and it was mostly flat and compacted. The problems came from the vibration of every bone in my body. So confidant is Nambia in its unpaved roads that the average speed limits for them are between 80-100 kph. I can assure you that doing 100 or doing 30 is about the same in terms of vibrations and bumpiness, so most of the time we were cruising down the road just trying to get it done with. We did this for about 3.5 hours before finally reaching the Desert Quiver Camp in the Namib Desert. The final stretch of road was by far the worst, and for that I did have to drop the speed down quite a bit. Nicole, uncharacteristically, announced that she needed a drink. And so we did.
We checked in to our own personal hut and then walked over to the pool since that’s the only area that has WiFi. It’s what is called a self-service lodge where there isn’t a dedicated housekeeping service unless you specifically request it, nor are there the usual comforts such as a hair dryer, shampoo, continental breakfast etc... After sitting out by the pool for a while with a Windhoek lager in hand, we debated our next moves. We elected to go into the national park tomorrow instead of rushing things today. We’d done enough driving I think for one day. We went to the one gas station to fill up the tank and get some water and snacks for the next day. Then we went to the higher end hotel down the road that seems to cater to tour groups. Eating options are limited in the Namib desert, so we ended up at a buffet with various tour groups from France. Fortunately since there were just two of us, we were cleared to go to the buffet first, thus avoiding most of the germs. There was a bbq station where some men grilled various meats in front of us. I asked the guy what his favorites were, and he ended up throwing an impala and also oryx steak on the grill for me. Honestly, it all kind of tastes the same. I thought maybe the impala was a bit sweeter, but it’s all steak in the end. We had a pretty hearty meal and drove back the short distance to our hut with the high beams on.
It gets quite dark in the Namib as you might expect. When we pulled into our driveway, and I killed the lights, it was absolutely shocking how dark it became. When we stepped out of the car and looked up, we were even more taken aback. The milky way was stretched out above us visible for the first time in our lives to the naked eye. I’ve had it pop up on a few of my photos in the past after doing a 30 second shutter or something along those lines, but never so clearly with my own eyes. It was quite a sight to behold. We immediately grabbed our cameras and did our best to capture this unreal view. Nicole got some incredible shots, so as you look at mine below, remember that these are just “amateur” shots compared to hers.
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