Swakopmund, Namibia

Another country, another Lighthouse…..

I spent the next day riding around Swakopmund in shorts and T-shirt, flip-flops on feet, (or vis-plakkies, as they are known here!) seeing the sights, taking a few photographs and enjoying the “beer on terrace lifestyle” that our German friends have come to perfect. I sat on the sea wall down by the beachfront and watched a few brave souls swimming in the cold Atlantic… Needless to say, once they had strolled out to where the water was a little over knee-deep, they did an about-turn and made a bee-line back to their towels…

I also managed to make a successful trip to the Laundromat, (a first for me!), to wash the few items that were in need of it, and whilst the clothes were in the machine, noticed that they were selling various stickers at the kiosk nearby. I managed to get a few of the flags from the neighbouring countries which I would be visiting, which would reduce the time I would have to spend looking for them once I arrived in those countries…

I also visited an antique shop, situated across the road from a very impressive building where I had stopped to take a few photos. The owner of the antique shop came out while I was parking and invited me in to chat about the bike… He wanted to buy one just like it to tour the country he had lived in for thirty years, but never seem much of… Turns out he was on the border the same time I was, and we reminisced about the “old days” for awhile. You cannot escape the past for long when being here in this country. There are still tensions in the air, despite the war being over almost 15 years now… Shades of S.A, I wondered? Time will tell…

And speaking of time, seeing that I had some of it to kill, I rode back out to the dunes along the road to Walvis Bay, cruising along them for about ten kilometres, marvelling again at their shapes, colours and size, before turning back to Swakopmund and the low clouds that were beginning to roll in from the sea… These clouds came scooting in from the Atlantic at about 4.00pm every afternoon, bringing a strong smell of the sea with them… It’s just another one of those things peculiar to this part of the world… You just got to love it!!

There is no denying the German and European influence in the architecture of many of the buildings in Swakopmund… And that seems to be a German bike parked in the foreground…!! Imagine that…!!

I spent the evening updating my journal and packing all my gear in preparation for as early a start as possible the next morning. And then, I-pod plugged into my ears, I fell asleep to the soothing sounds of Def Leppard’s “Pyromania”… Soothing if you’re a “head-banger”, that is…

© 2008 TBMH