I guess I'll start at the very beginning.
The Drive:
The drive to Swakop takes about four hours in our 12 passenger van, and we were all very ready to leave last Wednesday. Ready for the ocean and the dunes and the more humid air (Windhoek is extremely dry). On our drive we saw baboons, an ostrich (way off in the distance), and springbok, a deer like animal. I felt as though we were just jumping through different parts of the world as we started off in a rather hilly area which surrounds Windhoek, and then hit the grasslands. You can see for miles there. Then we hit the desert. Very few plants, except for tumbleweeds and little bits sprouting up here and there.
Once we got to Swakop, I was in heaven. Dunes on one side of me, Atlantic Ocean on the other.
I had my first oryx meat on our first night (google oryx.. pretty cool looking animal). I also have been enjoying the local brews here, but the Windhoek lager is my favorite.
Day 1: Gobabeb, Lagoon, and Export Processing Zone & Dune 7!!
Our first day was spent visiting Gobabeb, an environmental research center located about two hours from pretty much everything. The center is used to study climate change and environmental changes on the Namib desert (fact: the oldest desert in the world). Gobabeb is run by Namibians, but is home to a few interns and many international researchers.
This is Ollie, the almost three-year-old on our trip, and Passat, our driver who is from SwakopIt is an amazing center for environmental research, and is run mostly on solar energy.
When were at Gobabeb the winds were coming from the east across the desert, so very strong and very warm... as you can see the wind blowing off the top of the dunes.
After our picknick lunch at Gobabeb we meandered back to Walvis Bay, the town just 20k or so away from Swakopmund... Walvis Bay is more the industrial city, whereas Swakopmund is more tourist focused. We all ran around on the lagoon and had our first experiences in this side of the Atlantic Ocean... chasing away the flamingos!
After seriously dirty-ing ourselves in the sand and muck of the lagoon, we visited the Export Processing Zone (or free trade zone). We visited a factory that makes parts for many car companies. We saw many of the positives and negatives of this kind of economic zone (ask me if you wanna hear more.
Around 4 in the afternoon we headed towards the dunes, to climb Dune 7, the sand dune located 7km away from Swakop. I don't have pictures of this amazing experience yet since I took a kodak non-digital camera with me, as the sand will ruin most digitals. I felt as though I was in a dream, looking out over Namibia from the top of a hundred-something foot sand dune.
Day 2: Rossing Uranium Mine & Tour of Informal settlements (including meeting with a traditional leader)
I felt like a very small child in a very very big sandbox. The mine was about 400m deep at its deepest point, and is constantly expanding. We learned about the process is takes to make Uranium (unenriched). The factory area was HUGE! The wheels of the trucks used to carry from the mine to the factory were bigger than ME.
We visited a center that was originally set up by an American to help support motivated kids in Mondesa (a township outside of Swakop) reach their full potential. It is now run almost entirely by Namibians, and gives about 120 kids grades 4-10 the opportunity to read books, learn to play musical instruments, play sports like tennis, and have lunch after leaving school (schools end around 1pm here, start at 7 generally).
We also had a tour of the informal settlements, which included meeting with a Darama tribal leader in her home, a 70-something year old lady with many grandchildren, who acts as a representative of the Darama peoples in Namibia. This was one of the most interesting experiences I have had in my life. We then went to visit a remedial school where kids are sent if they are not in the correct grade or if there are no rooms in schools (or if they cannot pay for school fees/uniforms). Inside of this school is also where you can buy tokens for the local water pump, so many kids and their parents were hanging around.
Day 3: Free Day
Our final full day in Swakop was left for us to do our own biding. I ran along the beach with Kristen, the CGE Intern, enjoying the waves crashing just a few meters away from us, smelling the sweet salty air. We all went into town and looked at some shops, ate some fish, and sat on the beach. I swam in the Atlantic and convinced a young Namibian girl to come swim with me. She asked me if I could "learn her how to swim". She was adorable, and we ran around chasing waves. As a group, many of my classmates and I did yoga on the beach, instructed by our professor.
We topped off this productive yet busy day with eating sushi (pretty sure i had 22 pieces....)
Day 4: Last day-swimming-ride home (giraffes!)
On our last day in Swakop Kristen and I went running again, and I took one last dip into the frigid Atlantic before packing our stuff up and climbing back into the van. It was sad to leave the sunshine and the fresh air, but I was exhausted from vacation. The coolest part of our ride home was seeing giraffes along the side of the road eating off of trees.
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