week 96 - 97 - Morocco, our last country in Africa to explore - a diverse and beautiful place

We arrived at the campsite where Moritz and Ben were staying. It was not very busy, and we got a spot right next to them. Before we wanted to go out for dinner altogether, Tom and I wanted to plan our route through Morocco for the upcoming days. We only had ten days until we needed to be in Tangier and take the ferry back to Europe. Since Ben and Moritz had already spent several weeks in Morocco on their way south from Germany to Ghana a few months earlier, they were excellent at helping us choose some nice routes. We wanted to drive up to the Atlas mountains and also explore the desert again. Morocco has countless impressive offroad tracks; we got ourselves a guidebook and tried to select our favorite routes. After finding three beautiful tracks we would try, we were ready to go and stroll trhough town with Ben and Moritz and find a place for dinner. A small town festival was happening right next to the campsite, so we mingled with all the locals and sat down in a nice little restaurant where we enjoyed our first tajine, a famous Moroccan dish.

The next morning, we all drove to a big supermarket where we could stock up on groceries before it was time to say goodbye. Tom and I drove to Taliouine, where the first 4x4 track started. There, we left the main road onto a beautiful gravel road all the way to Foum Zguid. For three days, we were following this track, taking a break when we felt like having a snack or to take some nice pictures. We crossed some dry riverbeds drove over a very old pass roead and sometimes, the track was very narrow and in a very bad condition, but our Defender managed it well. We found two amazing spots to spend the nights and really enjoyed this time off the beaten track. Since we were mostly in the highlands, also the temperature was quite nice. This, however, was something we only realized when we arrived in Foum Zguid, the town where we filled up diesel and water before continuing on the next track through the Erg Chegaga, a part of the Sahara desert.

We started on the sand track just before noon and I was getting hungry, so we tried to find a spot with some shade, which was not very easy. There were only a few trees around us without any leaves - of course, since we were driving into the desert. Nevertheless, we stopped and ate a quick lunch, which we speeded up a lot when we stepped out of the car and stood in the heat. Without the wind from driving, the heat was brutal. We do not have an A/C, so the only cooling effect we get is when driving with our open windows. We continued into the desert and soon there were no more trees around us, just sand and more sand and then we saw the first dunes. Our initial plan was to spend the night in between the dunes, but it was waay to hot and to early to set up a camp. So we decided to go into the dunes and drive up and down, which is fun of course, but for us, it was also the only way of surviving in this heat. At least, we had a small breeze in our faces. The temperature was close to 50 degrees Celsius, almost unbearable. At around 5 pm, we were too tired to keep on driving, so we started to look for a place to spend the night. At least we now had some shade of the car to hide from the sun, but it was still boiling hot. We also didn’t feel like cooking and eating, so we were just laying around like dead flies until the sun finally went down and the air started to cool down a little. We thought it would be a good idea to take a shower in order to cool off, but the water in the water tank was literally boiling hot, there was no way for us to take a shower, we would have burnt ourselves with the water. Around midnight, it was still close to 40 degrees Celsius and therefore almost impossble to get some sleep. Our decision for the next day, therefore was an easy one, we wanted to leave the desert again. August was not the ideal time to explore this part of Morocco.

We left the desert in Tagounite and drove to Ourzazate. Our first stop was the supermarket to get an ice cream :) We then had to make new plans and decided to visit the Atlas Studios, the Hollywood of Morocco. Many famous movie sets were built there from movies like Gladiator, Cleopatra, and Passion of the Christ to name a few, and what’s special about the movie sets is, that they remain once the movies are finished. Like this, they can be reused for movies with a lower budget. We had a very interesting tour through the various film sets.

From there. we continued a few kilometers east, where we drove to a lake, it was nice to have some water around us. At Lake ‘Barrage El Mansour Eddahbi’ we spent a quiet night, the only visitors were the various street dogs from around this place, which all slept around our car.

Our last 4x4 track we had chosen was waiting for us, luckily, it led through the Atlas mountains again and therefore we were hoping for some cooler temperatures. It was a more touristy route through the Dades Gorges and over the ‘Col du Duano’, so unfortunealtey, most of the track is paved by now. On the bright side, there were almost no other tourists, since it was not the high season. To spend the night, we drove all the way to Lake Tislit, a truly breathtaking scenery with a lake up in the mountains. Hassan, a Berber who takes care of the lake, stopped by when we had set up our camp. He spoke French and some English and we had a nice chat about this place and his life up here. He invited us to visit his friend and his family the next morning for tea before we would leave again. It was a very nice experience to meet the traditional family and taste their delicious bread and have some tea altogether. We really enjoyed this stop a lot.

From Lake Tislit, we drove straight to Fès, a traditional Morrocan city in the north. These towns are mostly car free with very narrow streets, so we decided to park our Defender and treat ourselves to a nice Riad in town where we stayed for two nights. We both had our first job interviews online, so it was nice to have the possibility to have the video calls in a hotel room, and since it was the low season, we got some great promotions. We really enjoyed the two days in Fès. We went on a “Free walking tour”, something we really enjoy in every city we visit, and we learned a lot about Morocco and its culture. We also visited the Hamam and tasted delicious food in some nice restaurants, it was a real treat after the many 4x4 tracks and wild camping spots from the past days.

From Fès, we drove to Chefchaouen, our last stop in Morocco. Chefchaouen is also known as the “blue city”, since everyone started to paint their houses in all shades of blue. Now, it is a beautiful traditional city to visit. This time, we stayed on a campsite just on top of the hill of Chefchaouen, a very nice campsite, where it was easy to explore the city by foot. We also went on a “free walking tour” and enjoyed our last two days in Morocco a lot, before it was time for us to catch the ferry back to Europe. Tom went to the barber to get his last shave on African grounds, then, we chose a nice little restaurant for our last dinner and we had an amazing dish, Chicken Bastilla, we were definitely in food heaven. We then returned to the campsite to go to bed early, the next morning, we had to wake up very early to reach Tangier in time for the ferry.

We had to leave very early to reach the ferry to Spain. It was unreal and sad and exciting at the same time to be leaving Africa and go back to Europe. What a journey this has been. Our luggage is full of amazing memories and our hearts are touched from countless beautiful souls we got to know along the way.

week 95 - 96 - driving through the desert, a dream comes true

It took a couple of days until I was feeling better again. Malaria definitely knocks you out, but luckily, if you get the right treatment and medication, it also goes away rather quickly again. Until I fully recovered,we spent a few days in the Airbnb apartment in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. While I barely moved out of bed druing these days, Tom was very diligent and did a service on our Defender. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find a mechanic who had time, but he was allowed to return to the campsite where we were already helped the first day we arrived in Nouakchott, and they let him do an oil change and some work on the car in their backyard. Luckily, we had all the spare parts we needed with us. The Mauritanian people truly were very welcoming and helpful! At the campsite, Tom also met Ben and Moritz, two Overlanders from Germany who were on their way back home after traveling for six months to Ghana and back. When I finally started to feel better after three days of fever and staying in bed, we decided to go out for dinner all together before Tom and I left the city to drive into the desert the next morning.

Initially, we had planned to drive a longer route through Mauritania, but we shortened the route a little bit. Our first destination, therefore, was the Terjit Oasis, where we spent the night at “Chez Jemal”, a beautiful small auberge where you can camp as well. It was insanely hot, close to 50 degrees Celsius. After driving through the desert on the perfect tar road for a few hours, the car and everything inside of it (including us) was boiling! I had never in my life experienced such a heat. Luckily, Jemal had a small pool where we could cool down. There, we met Gabriel, a backpacker from Italy who was staying at the auberge as well and painted some very cool graffiti on the walls (of course, with the approval of Jemal). We had dinner together and Jemal’s wife cooked a very delicious couscous for us. We enjoyed the evening hours a lot. Once the sun went down, it was still well above 30 degrees, but at least there was no sun burning down on us. We sat on mats with Jemal and his family and friends and drank some Mauritanian tea, a green tea with fresh mint that is brewed three times. It is very sweet and delicious.

The next morning, Tom and I wanted to visit the actual oasis. Jemal explained where we had to walk to find it, it was only a stone’s throw away. When we arrived in the early morning, we were almost alone, but soon, it started to get busier. We spoke to some locals who explained to us that it was a special holiday and a lot of locals would come to the Oasis today to spend the day here with their families. They brought food and drinks and it was so interesting and nice to sit with them and watch what they were doing.

Next to us was a group of men, who were also staying at Jemal’s auberge. They arrived very late the night before. When they saw myself and Tom at the oasis, they invited us to join them for lunch. They had ordered a full traditional meal and wanted us to taste it as well. It was a very tasty goat stew with rice and a lot of dates and goat milk to drink and of course plenty of the Mauritanian tea. We were spoiled and spent a lovely day there.

After the big lunch, we decided to leave because we wanted to drive a bit further south to a point where the dunes “eat” the tar road. We read about this spot and found it interesting to visit. On our way out of the oasis, we met another backpacker who asked us for a lift to the next town Atar. This was also our end destination and where we wanted to sleep, but we told him that we first were driving south to see the dunes, and he happily joined us. So we went on a short trip into the desert and then back north to Atar. We spent the night again at a local auberge with lovely owners. The hospitality in Mauritania is truly amazing.

The following day in Atar, we filled up our Defender with Diesel and stocked up on some food and especially water, in order to be ready to drive along the famous train tracks through the Sahara for a few days. In Mauritania, there is an Iron Ore train, which is the longest train in the world, running on a 704-kilometer single track from the desert to the coast. There are no roads, but you can follow the track driving in the sand, an extraordinary offroad experience, so of course, this was something we didn’t want to miss. It was an amazing experience, driving through the Sahara with nothing in sight except a train track. We spent the night close to Ben Amera, the biggest monolith in Africa. It’s a beautiful huge rock, and not far from it, you can find a smaller version called Aishe, where international artists have carved objects into the rocks. We were all by ourselves; luckily, this place of the world is not yet swamped by tourists. We spent a unique night in the desert in between all the beautiful rock art and underneath a thousand stars. The only thing that kept us from a peaceful sleep was the heat, it was very very hot.

The next day, we continued along the track. From Ben Amera, we had to drive back towards the track first, and just when we arrived, the train was passing. It was perfect timing and we were super excited to see the train. We could follow it for quite a while because it is driving rather slow. We took our drone and followed it in the air and on the sand and had a lot of fun. We also passed some old carrieges spread along the tracks from an accident that happened a few years ago. It was crazy to see how the steel is bending in the heat of the Sahara desert.

We had first planned to spend another night in the desert in between some dunes, but when we arrived at the spot, it was only 4pm and it was very windy and of course still boiling. We wanted to set up our camp but the wind was blowing all the sand into our car and there was not much shade and it was just not very comfortable. Eventhough we were quite tired from driving, we decided to continue all the way to the coast, which was another 2-3 hours drive. But staying at this spot was just not a very comfortable option. Our goal was to reach Villa Maguela in Nouadhibou. We arrived just in time before dinner and it was such a lovely place to be. Right at the sea with a cool breeze, it was exactly what we had longed for. The hosts were very nice as well and there were two other travellers there, we all had dinner together and spend a wonderful evening.

The next day, it was already time to leave Mauritania. Our next destination was Morocco. Uwe, one of the other guests at Villa Maguela, joined us with his beautiful big MAN truck, so we crossed the border together. I was a bit nervous because I read a lot of stuff about the Moroccon border. They scan all the vehicles and search for illegal stuff, such as drones, for example, but luckily, they didn’t find ours and we had a rather easy crossing, except for the extra hour we had to wait because they closed the border at noon for a lunch break and everyone just had to wait until the officers continued their work :-D

After the border, we were technically in Morocco, but first, we had to cross the Western Sahara. Given its name in 1975 by the UN, it is the last African colonial state yet to achieve its independence. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and the remaining 80% of the territory is occupied and administered by Morocco; therefore, also the border post was Moroccan. The Western Sahara is the second most sparsely populated country in the world and the most sparsely populated in Africa, mainly consisting of desert. Therefore, it is rather boring to drive through Western Sahara, unless of course, you can leave the main tar road and drive off into the desert for some fun drives on the dunes. But this needs time and a lot of planning because there are no towns where you can stock up or buy water and food and some places are occupied by the military. We, therefore, decided to just drive straight on the tar road to Morocco, which took us two full days of driving. The first night, we wild camped close to Dhakla, a small town which is famous amongst kite surfers, but since neither of us kite surf, it was not a spot where we wanted to hang around because it gets very windy. Luckily, we had Uwe and his MAN truck with us. We could park behind his big truck to have shelter from the wind during the night. To eat dinner, we all sat inside his truck and enjoyed a cozy evening inside away from the wind :D The next morning, we continued north, but Uwe stayed behind since he had some more time and therefore wanted to take it slower and explore some more of the Western Sahara.

Tom and I continued all the way up to Tarfaya. It’s the place where the famous book “Petit Prince” was written and a very small town in the middle of nowhere. We found it had a bit of a strange vibe. It kind of felt like walking through a movie set, where everyone was just put there to play a role. We wanted to camp in a parking lot in town and looked for a restaurant where we could eat dinner before. We found a small place where they served Msemen, a very delicious baked Moroccan dish. Tom also got a street food kebab, which was delicious. After walking around for a bit, we found that the people were very friendly and also curious. Before returning to our car, we sat down in another small restaurant to have a tea and a guy passing by, started talking to us. He was very inspired by our travel and even invited us to spend the night at his house. We talked for a while and shared some stories. Since we wanted to visit the very small museum in town the next morning - a museum in honor of the author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who wrote the Petit Prince - we were also in contact with the owner to ask if the museum would be open the next day. He told us he would come around to open the museum for us the next morning and he assured us that it was no problem to camp right in front of the museum, which we did. After the museum, we continued our trip up north, Ben and Moritz were staying on a campsite further up the coast so we decided to join them.

week 53 - 54 - wild life, wild hikes and good-byes in Namibia

It was already the last week we spent with my parents, but a few more highlights were waiting for us. For the next night, we drove to the Hoada Camp, another campsite run by a local community. It was a nice place to chill; there was a small pool where we cooled off in the hot afternoon and met some fellow tourists. For sunset, we climbed up some hills and enjoyed the view before we returned to our cars to cook dinner. The next day, we wanted to leave very early to get to the entrance gate of the Etosha National Park before noon. The entrance gate was quite busy. While we filled in all the necessary forms and paid the entrance fees, we also prepared some coffee and a little breakfast before we were ready to go on a safari. The national park roads were surprisingly good, against everything we had heard. Unfortunately, this was only true for the first few kilometers, but at least that 😊 We spent our first night in the park at the Olifantrus Camp. When we called there to make reservations a few days earlier, they told us they were booked out. Still, after Tom played his Austrian charm and kindly asked if they had any space somewhere at the camp for us, they let us stay at the picnic site, which turned out to be an even a nicer spot than the actual campsite, which was very crowded. We had a very private place.

At the Olifantrus camp, there is a big waterhole with a hide, where the visitors can sit and enjoy the view. Since it was the dry season, many animals came to the waterhole, and we spotted a lot. We even saw a group of lions when we returned after dinner in the dark.

The next day, we had to make our way to the Okaukujejo Campsite, where we had made a booking for another two nights. The roads got worse and worse as we drove into the park. On the bright side, the rain still hadn’t started yet. It was like all the animals of the Lion King movie were meeting up at each waterhole. Never have we seen this many elephants, oryx, zebras, springboks, ostriches, jackals, giraffes, and lions in just one spot at the same time; it was spectacular! The roads, on the other hand, were very tiring, and our two cars were covered in sand inside and outside. When we finally arrived at the campsite, we had to clean our cars and then ourselves before we dared to drive inside the gate. We were delighted to get out of the car, opened a bottle of cold white wine, and sat by the waterhole to watch the animals who came to drink. None of us felt like driving around in the park again, so I suggested going on a game drive with one of the safari cars from the camp the following day. Everybody found this a good idea, so Tom and I quickly booked a tour for the next day. We cooked dinner and then went to bed because our tour was leaving very early the next morning.

Our safari guide picked us up at 6 o’clock and gave his best so we would see a lot of animals. We soon passed a pack of lions chilling right next to the road. We stayed with them for a while and learned much from our guide about these royal creatures. Unfortunately, we were not lucky to spot a leopard, but we also met some elephants, and on our way back to the camp, we came across a spotted hyena, which was very impressive as well.

After we returned to our campsite, we all felt like enjoying some time at the pool instead of driving around the park again. We got hold of four sunbeds in the shade and enjoyed our little siesta at the pool. While Tom edited a million pictures, we took on this trip, the rest of us planned how and where to spend our last couple of days together. We decided to drive to the Waterberg Lodge and campsite, a nice and historical place where my parents could return to Windhoek the day after. Tom and I would drive north towards the Angolan border, our next destination.

When we left the Etosha National Park, our cars were thoroughly checked. When we asked the guards what they were looking for, they explained that they were checking because of poaching. We would soon better understand that this is still a big issue here. We drove on the perfect tarmac road to Outjo, where we stopped at the bakery to get lunch. Tom and I tried to find a place to fill our gas bottle, which we were not able to do throughout all of Namibia. Luckily, we could use our parents’ gas bottle to cook, but since we were soon on our own again, this became an issue. We could refill our European gas bottle all over Africa, but no one seemed to have the necessary adapter in Namibia. We continued and tried our luck in the next town, Otjiwarongo. We stopped at the Afrox shop, and these guys were finally able to help us. They had the correct adapter and refilled our bottle in no time.

It was not much further to the Waterberg lodge. When we arrived, my parents booked a rhino trekking for the following day, the last highlight to end their Namibia adventure. Tom and I had already done such a trekking in Uganda and decided to go on the (cheaper) historic hiking trail instead of the rhino trekking. Unfortunately, the rangers had to inform my parents that they could not guarantee they could go on the trekking the following day. The reason was that poachers had killed one of the rhinos just a few days ago; therefore, the herd was still very upset. We couldn’t believe who would do such a thing just because of the horn. But unfortunately, people still pay lots of money for such “treasures.” What made the story even sadder was that the rhino they killed was pregnant. The rangers told us that they needed to check on the rhinos the next day to see how they behaved towards people and then would let us know if my parents could do the trekking.

We drove to the beautiful campsite with private ablutions. It was still a few kilometers to drive from the reception to the camping spots. We enjoyed a shower and started packing up our cars, my parents would give all the leftover food to us, and we gave them everything we wanted them to bring back home for us. It was unbelievable how quickly the past four weeks had passed. We wanted to enjoy dinner at the lodge restaurant for our last night. This was still a two kilometers-hike away from the campsite. We decided to walk there, and instead of walking along the street, we wanted to follow the hiking trail. This turned out to be an actual hiking trail over rocky terrain and through thick bushes; our Birkenstocks were not the well-chosen shoes for this, and by the time we reached the restaurant just before it got dark, we were all sweating again. Well, one last adventurous memory for my parents, we thought and ordered a nice bottle of wine. The restaurant was a bit more basic than we expected, and there was only one fixed menu, so there was nothing to choose from, but after our first slight disappointment about this, we had a surprisingly lovely dinner; they had a good chef.

After dinner, we still had to walk back through the dark. We followed along the road this time, which was a great idea. Trying not to think too much about the leopard that would sometimes visit the lodge, we walked back to our cars. Instead of a leopard, we spotted a few scorpions on the way, which was also worrying but at least nothing we had to run away from 😉 We made it back without being stung or eaten and fell asleep very soon.

The following day, we enjoyed breakfast altogether, and then my parents left for their rhino trekking, which took place. Tom and I packed up as well and went on the historic hiking trail, where we could read and learn a lot about the horrible battle which was fought here between the Germans and the local tribes that lived here before the German settlers arrived in Namibia. We all met again at the reception; my parents were fortunate and spotted a newborn rhino on their trekking, one which even the rangers hadn’t spotted before. They told us about their experience and showed us some pictures.

We couldn’t change anything about the fact that the time had come to say goodbye ☹ But we all spent four amazing weeks with lots of highlights and great memories to bring home and along the journey. After many hugs and kisses, we sat in our cars and drove back to the main road, where my parents continued to Windhoek, and Tom and I drove up north. Our destination was Tsumeb, a town before the border to Angola, where we also heard of a very good mechanic. It was time to recheck our car and get a service for our Defender; after all, we had driven more than 3000 kilometers in Namibia alone, and the roads were not always very smooth.

We arrived in Tsumeb and first had to bring our laundry for washing and then also had to wash our car. After everything was cleaned again, we drove to Kupferquelle, a campsite, lodge, and resort. We spent a few nights here to prepare for Angola, we had to apply for the visa, I had to catch up on a lot of writing before making new memories, and Tom wanted to work on a video from Namibia. We also could pass by Frank, the car mechanic, who was very friendly and could do a service the next day. We spent the day at a cafe next to a gym, and I joined a Cross Fit class in the afternoon. Tom couldn’t participate because he didn’t bring sneakers (some say it was on purpose). I could barely move for three days straight after this gym experience, but it was still fun.

After four nights at Kupferquelle, we had a clean car, clean laundry, a Defender that had been given all the necessary treatment, and two approved e-visas to go to Angola. Therefore, we drove to Oshikango, the border town, where we spent a night at a hotel to go straight to the border the following day. We slept at the Piscas Motel and were very surprised when we entered the gate. The place looked awful and shady from the outside, but inside the gate waited a little oasis with very friendly and helpful people. Martha, the receptionist, printed many documents we needed for the border crossing and even offered to help us if we would get stuck at the border the next day. The vibe was already very different here as well. Most people at the motel spoke Portuguese, and on the menu were many Angolan dishes we had never heard of. We were excited to cross the border and learn about a new country.

week 51 -52 - hot desert, sandy dunes and the ocean breeze

We slowly made our way north, and another big highlight was waiting for us: the Sossusvlei Dunes and the Sesriem Canyon. Unfortunately, the roads got worse the further north we came, but we still made it just in time to climb the famous Dune 45 before sunset, after we quickly checked in at the campsite. It was a bit windy, but we had lots of fun running up and down the dune and enjoyed a sundowner (sprinkled with sand) before driving back to the campsite.

We had a very short night ahead of us and quickly cooked some pasta for dinner. To get rid of the sand, we also jumped under the shower before going to bed, and soon again, our alarm clocks woke us up early the following day. We wanted to drive into the park right when the gate opened one hour before sunrise. We hoped to make it to the Big Daddy Dune for sunrise, the biggest and most famous dune in the park, which lies 65 kilometers from the entrance gate. It is about 350 meters high and the biggest dune in the world you can climb. It was nice to drive in the park (on a perfect tarmac road) while the day slowly began. We arrived shortly after sunrise for the perfect golden hour and first walked around Deadvlei, a salt and clay pan at the bottom of the dunes, which used to be an oasis with several camelthorn trees that later died due to a drought in the area. The remaining skeleton of the trees give a beautiful picture in the white contrast to the white pan in front of the dunes.

Of course, we also wanted to climb Bid Daddy, which looked very exhausting to the looks at the other tourist who directly started the climb. They looked tiny on the tip of the,dune, and it seemed like they didn’t make any progress.

Since it was still very cold when we left the camp early in the morning, we wore too many layers of clothes and almost died of a heat stroke on our way up. But it still turned out to be a lot of fun, and running down the dunes afterward was a lot easier and made up for all the struggles in the first place. We ate a small lunch back at our cars and then drove straight to the lodge outside the park, where we met Melissa, our pilot, for a scenic flight over the dunes. It was a bumpy flight but so impressive to see the dunes we just climbed up and down from a bird’s view.

After the flight, we still had to drive to our next sleeping spot, Ababis Guest Farm and campsite. Luckily, it was not too far away, and when we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by Uwe, the German owner, who showed us around the campsite and quickly heated the donkey showers so we could get rid of all the sand. We cooked dinner and chose a nice bottle of wine to go with it to celebrate a beautiful day as well as my parents’ 36th wedding anniversary 😊

The following day, we decided to leave without breakfast and directly drive to Solitaire, a small town on the way to Swakopmund. The bakery there is very famous for its delicious “Apfelstrudel.” Of course, we also wanted to taste it, and it was very yummy indeed. We then continued on a terrible gravel road (African massage included) to Swakopmund, a town on the coast of Namibia. The weather along the coast differs greatly from the hot and dry climate inland. It is mostly windy and cooler, so when we arrived at the campsite, we quickly concluded that it would be nicer to rent an apartment for the three nights we planned to stay here. We found a place on Google maps and contacted the owner, Armin, who was happy to host us for our time in Swakopmund. Armin recently bought the placesiteopened the guesthouse with his mom, who were fabulous hosts. They invited us to join them at a restaurant for dinner, where a band played live music and we enj,oyed a fun evening together. On our first day in Swakopmund, Tom and I had to sort out some things again. We wanted to check the draggling steering wheel of our Defender and therefore went to a mechanic shop while my parents went on a sightseeing tour through the city. Luckily, Swakopmund is a city where you can get everything sorted. The mechanic quickly diagnosed our problem and sent us to another shop where our wheels got adjusted, and the Defender ran as smoothly as ever again. Before we returned to our apartment, we stopped at a place where a German was building camper vans, and he’s doing a fantastic job. He showed us around his workshop, and we saw some pretty cool examples of camper cans – lots of inspiration for a future trip in another vehicle, maybe 😊 Afterwards, we met with my parents again for dinner, for which we reserved a table at the famous Jetty Restaurant, and we were not disappointed by the tasty seafood.

For the next day, we booked a tour to Sandwich Harbor, a place further south along the coast, where the dunes meet the sea. For once, we left our Defender and jumped in the back seat of another car to enjoy a tour where we did not have to drive ourselves. Unfortunately, Tom was not feeling very well and needed a day to rest, so he decided to stay home. My parents and I enjoyed the tour a lot. We spotted many flamingos and other birds saw the pink salt lakes, and got the whole rollercoaster experience while driving up and down the dunes.

When we got back, Tom felt better again, so we went out for dinner one last time before leaving Swakopmund again the following day. We got up early and drove to the grocery store to stock up again for the next couple of days. Our destination today was the Spitzkoppe, a famous rock formation in Namibia also known as the “Matterhorn of Namibia.” A local community is running a rustic camp there with very spacious sites. Before dark, we went on a short hike to see some of the old rock paintings.

The following day we continued to the Erongo Rocks, another rock formation a couple of hundred kilometers away. On the way, we visited the San Living Museum, where the San people show you how they used to and still live today. We went on a bush walk with a san warrior, who taught us many interesting things about their life and culture. From there, it was not much further to the Erongo Rock Lodge and Campsite, where we planned to stay for two nights. Once again, we were warmly welcomed by the owner, Didi, who put much effort into his place. The campsites are very spacious and beautifully built into the rocks. We enjoyed the camp a lot and hiked up to the viewpoint early the following day, before the sun got to hot. As a treat for the morning exercise, we went to the neighboring lodge, where we enjoyed the afternoon at the pool and celebrated our “travelversary” (1 year on the road!) with a bottle of bubbles. To top it off, we cooked a Swiss cheese fondue once we returned to our campsite, which my parents had brought along with them. We couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate this special day.

For the next few days, we wanted to leave the official roads and explore beautiful Damaraland off the beaten tracks on some 4x4 roads. Before we headed off, we drove to Uis, the last town in the area, where you could stock up on fuel and some basic groceries. We stayed at the Daureb Isib Campsite, a lovely campsite where we also enjoyed some delicious cake and coffee while planning the last stops on our offroad-trip for the upcoming days.