Day 9: Swakopmund to Brandburg
We left an overcast and chilly Swakop after breakfast at the hotel. I was sad to leave Swakop, I love the town but we had fully explored it and most of Walvis.
We headed north along the coast to Henties Bay. There are lots of gravel roads leading down to the sea, with really creative names like; Mile 9, Mile 11 and so on – we decided to try Mile 17. The beach was stoney, the sea looked cold and miserable but appears to be a paradise for fishermen because that’s all you see along the stretch of sea. We did come across a few other names like – Tolle se Gat, think they should stick to the miles.
Along the way we passed the small holiday town of Wlotzbaken and the Zoila wreck, that was stranded in 2008 south of Henties. At the Jakkalsputz camp site, miles of camp demarcations, with no campers, we took the beach road into Henties Bay.
We normally drive past Henties, fobbing it off as a sleepy holiday town, but we’re surprised to find it was much larger than expected with some large houses, a shopping centre, a university campus, a golf course and of course fishermen. Ju
Travelling north from Henties, on a great salt road, we came across more salt mines. our destination was the Cape Cross Seal Reserve. This is a remote headland along the Skeleton Coast and is home to one of the largest Cape fur seal colonies in the world, possibly also the smelliest.
I remember the stench from a previous visit but I don’t remember it being this bad. It was also particularly noisy with the woeful and plaintive cries of the seals, possibly because they will be going into breeding season. These monsters were all over the place, they had even taken over the picnic site, not that anyone could consider eating with the smell there. It was awesome to see the swarms of terns in the sky.
It is thought that the first Europeans arrived at this site in the 15 century, attracted to land because of the seal activity, I’m surprised the smell didn’t send them straight back to Portugal.
It was the Portuguese explorer, Diogo Cão who landed in 1486, his expedition was to find a sea route around Africa to India. Cão staked his claim for Portugal with the construction of a stone cross. This was removed by the Germans in 1893 but replicas have been erected at the site.
As we headed inland towards Brandberg, our destination for the night, the sun came out, and moving away from the Atlantic, the temperature began to soar. Today we started at a chilly 8 degrees and by mid afternoon we were experiencing a dry heat of 33 degrees.
We was lots of roadworks along the way, salt crystals for sale (we bought one, leaving money in an honesty box), the first Himba villages and the beautiful Brandberg Mountain range in the distance.
We set up camp at the White Lady Lodge and camp site. Fortunately, they had a pool and I went for a swim to cool off. Gray promised me a lodge on my birthday today, I got tent lodgings, it wasn’t exactly the spoil of last year’s Londolozi trip but the sunset was spectacular and made for a special birthday braai.
Pandas in Africa 