South Africa

Monday 21st December 2015 – Restful day. Weather cool and overcast. We explore Swakopmund and cook rock salmon with veggies in the evening.

Tuesday 22nd December 2015 – The Skeleton Coast! Our guide Jay, a likeable Californian who moved here in the 90’s is waiting in his van outside the hostel at 8am sharp. Taking the salt road north through the Dorob National Park we pass flamingos and pelicans before arriving at a deserted beach. There in the pounding surf sits the wreck of the Zelia, a trawler stranded in 2008 and now home to a community of cormorants who have built their nests in its lookout tower.

Further up the coast we pass through the skull and crossbones gates of the Skeleton Coast Park. About half an hour inside the park we stop for lunch at a beach where a wreck in its final stages of decay is being battered relentlessly by the waves. Alysa and I take a romantic stroll along the desolate shore, our toes sinking into the wet sand and cold seawater washing over our feet.

Jay who is turning out to be a very knowledgeable and informative guide navigates through the desert terrain to the base of a rocky escarpment where we are shown one of the most extraordinary plants on the planet. It is called the Welwitschia Mirabalis and looks like an odd, ground-dwelling sunflower. It occurs only in the Namib desert with the oldest specimens reaching 2,000 years old and the size of a small car.

On our way back down the coast we stopped at Cape Cross, the breeding location for a colony of 100,000 or so Cape fur seals. Our visit coincided with the end of the pupping season, a time when the colony’s population is at its height and females are at their most aggressive. We made our way along a fenced wooden walkway, and all around us was chaos, a cacophonous sea of fur and flippers. It is easy to imagine that nothing could be more adorable than watching thousands of newly born seal pups. Unfortunately, with a mortality rate of 30% dead and dying pups abound, often overheating while the mothers seek food. On the way home Jay regales us with stories of colourful characters populating the area including Crocodile Chris, a red bearded Scotsman who lost his forearm to a crocodile after a particularly heavy drinking session in the Okavango delta.

Wednesday 23rd December 2015 – Swakopmund to Keetmanshoop. Got a shared taxi from Swakopmund to Windhoek and then a minibus from Rhino Park in Windhoek to Keetmanshoop. Arrived after dark in Keetmanshoop but luckily the bus stop was right next to the Canyon Hotel which was large, plush and fortunately quite affordable. The hotel staff were kind enough to cook us dinner even though the restaurant was closed and so we washed down a delicious plate of stir fried chicken and rice at the bar under the watchful presence of a stuffed baboon wearing a hat.

Thursday 24th December 2015 – Keetmanshoop to Springbok. We try to hitch a lift from the petrol station opposite the hotel but after about half an hour it turns out we’re in the wrong place and need to wait at a Wimpy about 5km down the road so we take a taxi there and try to hitch a ride. After about an hour a bus pulls up about 100 yards down the road in the direction of the South African border. We grab our bags and run to catch the bus. Stepping on board we experience the unusual phenomenon of an almost empty African bus and so we travelled the 400km to the Noordoower near the South African border with the back half of the bus entirely to ourselves. A couple of kilometres hike later we reached the border where we crossed the Orange River and after navigating customs we were in South Africa!

There is no public transport from the border into South Africa so the only option is to try to hitch a lift with one of the vehicles coming across the border. After about 2 hours, with the sun getting low in the sky a lorry driver agreed to drop us at Springbok, about an hours drive into South Africa and the first decent sized place inside the border. Sadly, on the journey we passed an accident, police cars already on the scene. There were no other cars involved and the lorry driver reckoned the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. The car was pretty smashed up. Arriving at Springbok about an hour before dark we located a guesthouse and settled in for Christmas Eve.