Our adventure was amazing!

Tomorrow we will fly back to Belgium =(

Around 11h we arrived in Graaf Reinet where we should continue driving on the N9. But suddenly the road was closed. The police told us it was closed because of snow. This sounded unbelievable for us. But we took another road which was a detour. Soon we noticed a lot of snow everywhere next to the road. It also was very cold suddenly. It was weird to see snow in South Africa. Later we heard on the radio that a lot of roads are closed because of the snow.

We drove the whole day…

Around 18h we arrived in our guesthouse in Bloemfontein. It’s a nice guesthouse. We got a house instead of a room because we are the only people here so we have a lot of space.

On our way we did some groceries shopping. Tonight we will have our last braai in South Africa!

We decided to go to Stellenbosch before going to Mossel Bay. We both were in Stellenbosch before and we liked the place. In Stellenbosch we went to Oom Samie Se Winkel and we walked around in town.

After a hot chocolate at Mug & Bean we started our trip to Mossel Bay. It was raining a lot and it was a long trip. But the views were nice as we were following the Garden Route.

At 16h15 we arrived in Mossel Bay. The weather in Mossel Bay was horrible; rain and very cold. We put our stuff in our room in the guesthouse we booked and went to town. We went to some shops and ate something. After that we drove back to the guesthouse and went to bed early.

In the morning we walked to Long Street; the famous street in the middle of town. Long Street was very calm. There were only a few tourists. We visited a lot of craft markets where we bought some souvenirs. We also went to the Green Market Square.

After walking back to our guesthouse, we went again to Cape Town Waterfront. We ate some lunch and Jan went to the hairdresser in the big mall at Waterfront.

In the afternoon we decided to go to Simon’s Town and Table Mountain National Park. In Simon’s Town we went to look at the penguins on the beach. After that we drove into Table Mountain National Park. We went to Cape Point and the lighthouse. It was very very windy. We also went to Cape of Good Hope. It was nice to see all this for the second time. Before driving back to Cape Town, we stopped on the beach in Kommetjie.

In the evening we went back to Cape Town Waterfront for some last souvenirs shopping and some sushi at Cape Town Fish Market (delicious!).

After a hot shower (very nice after a cold and windy day) we went to bed.

Around 2h we arrived in Cape Town. We first went to our guesthouse to drop our entire luggage. Then we went to First Car Rental at the airport to swap our car.

Our guesthouse is situated in Green Point. It’s very close to the football stadium, the centre of town and Waterfront.

In the late afternoon we went to Waterfront in Cape Town. We walked around, did some shopping and ate dinner in the Belgian restaurant Den Anker (mosselen met frieten en mayonaise).

It was a nice day!

Cape Town is cold and extremely windy. We are almost back in Belgium so it’s good that we can get used to the Belgian weather again.

We are staying in a garden house at a guesthouse. It is a wooden chalet with a bathroom. It’s nice to have a bed again!

In the afternoon we visited Springbok. It’s a small cosy town. We ate lunch, walked around and did some shopping. In the evening we returned to our chalet.

Tomorrow we will drive to Cape Town. We will drive through Namaqualand and hopefully we will see a lot of flowers.

We didn’t take any pictures today as we didn’t do a lot…

Today we had to drive another 250 km on gravel and 150 km on tar. Luckily the gravel was not so bad and we arrived already around 13h at the Shark Island Camping in Lüderitz. It’s very quiet here in town and at the camping. The campsite is on an island connected to the coast, it’s very windy and the ground is hard so putting up the tent was a mission.

In the afternoon we went to the centre of Lüderitz. We ate some fish in a restaurant at the waterfront. We also booked a Kolmanskop-tour for tomorrow and did some groceries shopping. Lüderitz is a small town with a lot of German remains. It is not that cosy as Swakopmund.

Before we started our trip, we saw a documentary about Shark Island. On Shark Island there was a concentration camp from the Germans where in many Namibian black people were killed. This was before the Holocaust so concentration camps were already used in Namibia. Off course no one speaks about this in Lüderitz because it would be bad for all the German people who live here. So actually tonight we are sleeping on a place where many people were murdered.

When we got back from town, we discovered Shark Island. It’s a lovely place. We walked between the rocks, visited the lighthouse and watched the sun going down (amazing!).

It’s again going to be a very cold night!

We arrived around 14h in our camp: Sesriem camp; the only camping site within the Sossusvlei park gates. This means that we can go into the park before sunrise to look at the beautiful coloured dunes.

After putting up the tent at our huge private camp spot, we drove into the park towards Dune 45; a massive dune on the way to the actual Sossusvlei itself. We climed the dune and enjoyed the amazing views. Afterwards we also visited Sesriem canyon, a big canyon within the main gates.

Tomorrow we will try to get at Dune 45 around 7h to enjoy the sunrise. After that we will drive to Sossusvlei. The last 5km we will have to do in a 4×4 taxi because the roads there are extremely sandy. After that we will move on to Duwisib Castle; a big castle in the middle of the desert only 160km from here where will camp 1 night before heading to Lüderitz.

After breakfast we went to the centre of Swakopmund. We first went to the carwash. The car was very dirty and needed to be washed urgently. After the carwash we went to the museum of Swakopmund and the lighthouse. We also visited the market with African souvenirs. Then we went to town again. We walked around and did some shopping. 

After eating lunch in the Lighthouse Restaurant we went to Walvis Bay; a big town close to Swakopmund. On our way to Walvis Bay we saw the amazing dunes of the desert on our left side and the beautiful sea on our right side. We drove around in Walvis Bay and visited “Dune 7”; one of the biggest dunes around the area. We also went to see the lagoon.

Around 16h we went back to Swakopmund.In the evening we did a braai at our apartment and relaxed.

It is very warm in Swakopmund. Apparently that is not normal for this time of the year but of course we don’t complain. We enjoy every minute of the hot sun and the warmth because in a few days we will be in the freezing desert.

When we got at the border, we immediately saw that it was very calm. Everything went very fast and the people were very friendly. Before we knew it, we were in Namibia. In Namibia there is 1 hour difference. We are one hour ahead of South Africa (and Belgium).

The road to Windhoek (the Trans-Kalahari Highway) was amazing. The landscape of the Kalahari is beautiful and there were a lot of warthogs next to the road what we really enjoyed. Off course there were also a lot of cattle again.

Around 2h we arrived in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. We went to the ‘Cardboard Box Backpackers’ where we booked a room for 2 nights. It’s a cosy and busy place with a nice bar. We put our stuff into our room and went for a walk in town. The centre of Windhoek is very close to the backpackers. It is Sunday so it was very calm in town and everything was closed. But we found out what we want to see and visit tomorrow. We ate dinner at Spur and walked back to the backpackers. We were just back before dark. In Namibia it is even dark sooner because the hour is different.

Tonight we will have a drink in the bar of our backpackers and go to bed early. Tomorrow we will discover the rest of Windhoek.