Day 5: Sossusvlei Namib Desert - Swakopmund

2 September 2025

This morning we set off very early and head out of the desert and make our way to Swakopmund, a German heritage town located on the south-west African coast. We see blue buffalo and oryx on the plains as we drive. There are dunes all the way along west so can’t turn towards the coast until much further north.

We stop for a morning coffee at the quirky Solitaire Lodge. It is in the middle of nowhere but has an amazing bakery famed for its apple pie (which of course we have to try). When we arrived we met a CNN guy doing an item on quirky eateries in Namibia – and interviewing the chef.

We stop for a photo at the Tropic of Capricorn and with a view to the Rostock mountains. There is quite a change in rock formation as we start to drop into gorges – with limestone, mica schist, and white quartz.

At the Valley of a Thousand Hills, the mica schist layers all flow in one direction giving a ripple effect (likely formed when this area was under the ocean). We drive through the Kuiseb canyon and then wide flat open plains grass giving way to sand.

Then we have 30km (feels like 70km) of incredibly corrugated road that we have to take at speed to keep momentum up otherwise the bus will break apart. This is despite the bus being a Mercedes truck chassis with a coach body built on top.

We have been around 900m above sea level but now start descending to the coast. As we come into Walvis Bay we see lighter coloured dunes that are lateral – because they get wind from east and west versus Sossusvlei where wind comes from all directions and they look like stars from the top. At Sossusvlei the iron in the sand of the much older dunes has oxidised giving red colour. In the light dunes you can see the darker iron deposits.

We have all booked to go on a Scenic Flight that takes us back over the desert to Sossusvlei and then back up the coast. Wian is extremely conscious of the timing on our drive and is in constant communication with the airline (Eagle Eye Scenic Flights) to make sure we don’t miss our slot. We get there just in time and are all queuing up to use their bathroom and eat our lunch while we pay for our flights and get our briefing.

There are 5 of us in our plane (plus our pilot) and we all have window seats so will get amazing views. We start flying across the desert, and then in front of us we can see the remarkable contrast where the Kuiseb River runs underground but there is a band of green camel thorn trees along its path. On one side the desert sand is pale grey in colour and on the other side of the trees is the orange red sand of the Sossusvlei area of the Namib desert. It really is spectacular. We follow the river through to the Kuiseb Canyon where the river has cut down through the rocks.

Then we fly over Tsondabvlei, an ephemeral river course where we can see the paler river sand. From there, across the amazing sand dunes of Sossusvlei where we can certainly see the star-shaped lines of the ridges from above. And of course over Deadvlei – it is wonderful to be able to see so clearly where we were yesterday with the valley of white sand and dead trees.

After what seems like a very long flight over an endless sea of sand, we pass the Diamond Camps: abandoned mining settlements from the 1908 diamond rush. It was unexpected to be able to see the abandoned camps so clearly. There was even an ox-wagon abandoned out in the desert that could be seen clearly (but very difficult to photograph). In 1914, everyone in the area was requested to move to Swakopmund, as the result of an expected invasion of allied troops. There are still vast areas that are no-entry.

A bit further up is the Skeleton Coast, where numerous ships have run aground. The strange thing is that because the sands have continued building up in the area, many are now a fair distance inland. We see the Eduard Bohlen, a ship that was wrecked in 1909 in a thick fog and currently lies in the sand 800+m from the shoreline. Further north is the Shawnee, a transport tug that ran aground in mysterious circumstances in 1976 and is now wedged on a narrow stretch between the ocean and the dunes. Unfortunately the sea mist was starting to roll in by this stage so we didn’t get to see the Shawnee.

And sadly we didn’t get to see Sandwich Harbour either because of the mist. It is said to be one of Namibia’s most unique and dramatic sites, where some of the world’s highest dunes descent into the cold Atlantic Ocean to form a picturesque lagoon.

After we disembark, we drive for about half an hour to Swakopmund where we will stay a couple of nights. Established in 1892, Swakopmund is home to over 40,000 people and is the country’s largest coastal town with palm-lined streets, sandy beaches, seaside promenades and old German colonial buildings. Our hotel (the Swakopmund Hotel) is the historic train station built in 1901 that is now a hotel and entertainment centre, and is currently chaotic as it is hosting a huge event – the 2025 AFI Global Policy Forum.

We have time to relax before heading out for dinner at a traditional German restaurant, the Swakopmund Brauhaus. We are told that a specialty is Pig’s Knuckles, so a few of us decide to try the local delicacy only to discover with dismay that the pigs here must be huge! The knuckle was almost the size of my head and I certainly couldn’t do it justice. Thankfully Wian suggests we get doggy bags and give them to the guard at the gate.