Day 11: Brandberg to Uis
The sunsets around 7:30 pm and darkness descends quickly in the Namib. We usually head into the roof top tent early and read by head light for a while. The night sounds that lull us to sleep are those of the local people singing in the distance, the barking geckos and the last crackling of the fire.
The sun rises just as quickly, around 6am. This morning after our favourite hit of condensed milk coffee, it was time to pack up and move on. We bid farewell to the friendly people of Brandberg and their cute pets.
This was not after some confusion about the time, Gray said we were leaving early as it was only 8am, I differed saying it was 9am. Upon investigation we discovered some of our watches and clocks differed by an hour. The only logical conclusion was day light saving – an initial Google investigation said they stopped DLS in 2017 but it appears they reinstated it in September this year, so problem solved.
We retraced our path back along the foothills of the Brandberg, which is Namibia’s highest mountain, for about 40km to the mining settlement of Uis. We are staying at the Uis Elephant Guesthouse for 2 nights.
Not planning or booking accommodation has had it’s challenges, we thought European tourist season was over, it appears the Italians have left but the Germans do September, so Southern Namibia was certainly busier than expected.
We also had not planned to spend so long in this area and thought we would be further north by now. The reason is two fold, firstly Uis would normally be a drive past town, but Kirsty works for a mining company, Afritin, and they own the tin mine here. She travels to Uis regularly on business and had always said if we are in the area we have to visit, so here we are. The second reason for our lengthy stay, we arrived on a Friday afternoon and so have to wait for Monday to visit the mine.
As it turns out the town is bigger than expected, clean and boasts a wonderful restaurant, called the Cactus and Coffee, we had a great brunch and admired our quirky surroundings of cacti and succulents.
Being Sunday, there wasn’t much happening in the town. Also it is unseasonally windy and overcast, I decided rather a swim and chill around the pool to read my book and watch the birds in the garden.
The guesthouse was surprisingly busy with a German tourist group. We chatted to a nice couple around the boma fire before a delicious dinner of gemsbok casserole and some nice red wine.
When road tripping, it’s good to have a super chilled day every so often.
Pandas in Africa 