Dune 7 Revisited

S 23° 00’ 08” – E 14° 31’ 55”

After a lazy morning spent reading and relaxing, I decided to take the bike down the Coastal Highway to Walvis Bay and see what was happening down there…. Not much as it turned out, but the fishy smell I remembered from previous visits, still hung in the air as I approached the roadblock just outside the town limits. The guano platforms floating just offshore did nothing to enhance the odour of Walvis Bay…

I cruised down to the “Raft” restaurant, built on stilts out on the lagoon, ordered a scotch and sat watching the pelicans move about in flotillas, herding fish into a circle before dipping their bucket-like beaks under water and scooping the fish into them, then swallowing them. There were three or four of these fishing parties in action, and I wished that they were close enough to get a decent photograph of…

The “Raft” restaurant perched on wooden pilings, in the lagoon of Walvis Bay…

I then made my way out to Dune 7, on the C14, which leads to Windhoek and Sossusvlei. The road there was free of traffic and I watched those huge orange sand dunes get closer as I rode towards them. At the 7 mile marker, the road turns left off the C14 and a short distance later turns left again, over a railway line and then along a hard-packed sand road to the little oasis below Dune 7. This is the largest dune in the Namib Nauklauft region and if you need a strenuous workout, this is the one to climb… Needless to say, I had already been “worked out” by the wind the previous day, and was in no mood for further exertions of any kind today…

The “Big Fella” gets to play in the largest sand box he’d ever seen….

I sat watching two families who had arrived in their camper vans, using pieces of Masonite to slide down the dunes from about half way up. Had they tried it from right on top, they would have probably slid all the way into their vans, and been ready for the trip to hospital… At the bottom of the dune, there are a large number of palm trees and concrete picnic tables, which could also act as appropriate braking for those mad enough to attempt a slide from the top…

I tried encouraging the men in the group to give it a go, but they were having none of it, instead offering me their boards to show them how it was done… I had to decline their invitation, as I was not appropriately dressed for the occasion…

They left soon afterwards, and I had the dune to myself… It was awesome sitting there, neck craning to see the top, and remembering how my family and I ran up and down it just last year… A massive film set had been built a short distance to the north of us, and the filming of the epic “10 000 B.C.” was in full swing. This film has just been released onto the circuit and I am sure that seeing it will bring back poignant memories for us all… We watched the sun fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the top of the dune one evening, and then were struggling back up the spine of the same dune at 5.00am the following morning to watch the sun rise again, from out of the Khomas Hochland Mountains to the east… Magical moments burned into my brain forever…

I considered driving the 36km up the D1984, which runs behind these dunes and back all the way to the B2, joining it just before Swakopmund. In hindsight, I regret not taking the chance, but at the time I was concerned that little or no traffic went down this road, and had I encountered any problems, I would be without water….not to mention scotch…. I took a few photos and then swung back onto the bike and rode slowly back to the main road, staring up at the dunes and promising that I would be back again someday…. The combination of stark beauty and danger makes this for me, one of the most fascinating places on earth…

When attempting a slide from the top, the concrete tables and palm trees can be used to prevent one ending up in the car park …

I rode back to Walvis, mind, soul and body at peace, despite the memories that Dune 7 had flooded my mind with… It’s that kind of place…. I hardly recall the ride, just suddenly being presented with the traffic circle that either takes you into the town or back along the highway to Swakopmund. The wind had picked up again, but I ignored it, and it seemed to go away…!! About 10km’s outside town, I came across the following sign which I thought was worth taking a photo of…

No kidding….there’s lots of it!!

A group of hyperactive tourists were parasailing down the dunes a short distance to the south of Swakopmund, and I stopped to watch them for a while. They spent more time being dragged backwards down the dunes than airborne, and I decided that a sand enema could wait for my next visit to the area…

The Coastal Highway is squeezed between the cold waters of the Atlantic, and the burning sands of the Namib Desert. Could you find a greater contrast anywhere? When the offshore wind blows, sand streams across the road, the desert doing it’s best to reclaim the ground it lost when this highway was built… At the picnic and fishing spot outside Swakopmund, a deep sea trawler had managed to park itself up on the rocks, barely a hundred metres from shore, and was being battered to pieces by the waves… A sea mist was rolling in and I could not take any decent photos, but resolved to try again the next day… Result below…

A fishing trawler comes to grief on the rocks outside Swakopmund…

I decided that a sun-downer was in order to contemplate the day’s events and celebrate the beauty of the dunes, and to this end, went looking for a suitable venue. The Tug Restaurant and Pub is located right next to the Swakopmund Pier and must be a cosy place to sit out a storm. As it was, a light drizzle began to trouble us as a group of “Choiman” tourists joined me on the upper deck for a round of Windhoek and Tafel Lagers. We resolved to sit it out and the drizzle faded away and left us getting quietly sozzled while we strained our eyes to see the sunset, which was obscured by cloud, and never once gave us a “look in”….. We resolved to meet back here tomorrow night and try again… If at first you don’t succeed, and all that hooey….!!!

I went to the local SPAR, bought a few bread rolls, a small head of lettuce, sliced ham and pastrami, a tube of mustard and a block of gouda cheese, went home and made myself two monster rolls using all the cold-meats and cheese I had…. My favourite sandwich and a great meal to complete the day… If you’re travelling light and on a tight-ish budget that is!!

Photo taken the morning before the “Choimans” and I gathered to watch “the sunset”…

The “Big Fella” enjoys a sea view on the road to Walvis Bay…

© 2008 TBMH