We had to make an early start as today we had to drive from Swakopmund to Etosha…roughly 600 km. Did we get an early start? No. We woke up around 8, had a nice breakfast while planning our travels and readied our music collection. We knew we had to drive north so that was a start. We found out that the C34 was our road and it took us up the Skeleton Coast. It has come to be known as the Skeleton Coast due to pirates that inhabited the area during the 15th century. You see, these pirates loved building sand castles and the coast had a ton of sand. Due to the high salt content in the sand the castles were able to withstand centuries of mother nature’s abuse. Today, some small mounds of sand remain where once whole sand castle cities used to flourish. It’s pretty amazing. Now, if you believed what I just told you then you should also know that if you donate $50 to me right now then one of your wishes will come true. For each additional $50, another wish will come true.
So the Skeleton Coast is really named that because there is nothing there. Rock and sand. It’s a bit unsettling to drive through, but nevertheless a site to see. We decided to take a detour to see the Cape Cross Seal Colony. We paid the tourist fee and arrived at the coast. Thousands and thousands of smelly, cape fur seals were there to happily greet us with their goat-like cries. It might not seem like a big deal, but this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I could have happily spent many days there just watching how their colony works, but we had some elephants and lions to see….besides, the gates to the park close at sun down and we had quite a drive ahead of us.
After a little back tracking we were on our way to Khorixas. I don’t think we could have seen more nothing if we had asked for it, however it was strangely appealing. The tricky thing with having no end is sight is trying to keep your speed down on the gravel roads. This all becomes easier when you go over 100km/h and the tail of your truck starts to swerve a bit after hitting some rough patches.
Shannon got her first taste of the real Namibia in the small town of Uis as we stopped for some much needed bread and fake cheese. You can pick up some nice colored crystals there if you were wondering what there is to do in Uis.
Outside Khorixas we stumbled upon the tar roads again and sailed smoothly to our final destination in Etosha some hours later. It was a long drive, not filled with much excitement, but sometimes that’s just the way things go.