What a hot night- was so stuffy, it started off quite nice, then as we went to bed the clouds came in & trapped the heat! Then, this morning, it has become windy, cold & starts to sprinkle as we pack up – jumpers are bought out again.

The landscape changes again, from the rocky boulder mountains & outcrops to a sandy desert. We travel through the desert till we reach the seaside town to Swakomund. Just outside of town there was an old German Fort, set in an oasis amongst the sand dunes, which looked like something out of the old French Foreign Legion films

We see the Atlantic Ocean- something none of us had seen before. This place reminds David of Surfers & me, a bit like Bali though in other areas, the architecture has a heavy German influence. We cannot book into our lodge yet, we are too early, so we find a nice little café and have some lunch, the earliest lunch we have had in weeks, before we do a bit of shopping for the coming nights we will be camping.

The Stiltz lodge is 9 separated units on stiltz with a common raised walkway joining them, we overlook a small lagoon and the ocean ,there is also a viewing platform where you can sit and admire the view, we saw 1 flamingo. We have a 2-bedroom unit, which is nicely decorated and spacious- internet, albeit slow- David is happy. We arrange and book a quad bike tour, over the sand dunes, for tomorrow. We then go for a long walk, firstly up to the jetty, where the waves are crashing in against the pylons of the jetty – this juts out about 100m over the cold angry looking ocean. Then continue further along the promenade where we came across a local craft market, people were selling their wares (there was even a Himba lady, bare breasted and all) – I ended up buying some stone leopards- can’t buy the wooden figures, due to customs. The street sellers all know about Australia’s strict quarantine rules, from the Border Force TV show, and usually stop trying to sell you wooden, plant & animal products as soon as we mention where we come from! We continued on our way, and on the way back David was looking at another, family of tourists, thinking I know you – they had the same look on their faces- we had run into them at Khwai – they were from Switzerland, we ended up talking to them for ages – they were at Spitzkoppe last night as well – stayed at camp 11 – we looked at that one! They are also travelling to Sesriem on Xmas day – same as us. What a small world.

We said bye and made our way down to the Tiger Reef bar and grill for a beer & dinner – we were a bit early for sunset (7.45), the location was right on the water and was extremely popular.