Thursday, September 15, 2011

Life in Botswana: Safari, Skeleton Coast

Another short excerpt from my parent's memoirs, Life in Botswana.




We had long wanted to visit the new country of Namibia, and so in March, 1991, we flew to Windhoek, rented a car, and the next day drove across the northern edge of the Namib Desert, said to be the oldest desert in the world. The Namib is noted for its large sand dunes going down to the Atlantic ocean. 









The gravel road was good and we passed through some small mountains before the Namib. We arrived in Walvis Bay and cleared immigration with South African soldiers. After passing through Walvis Bay, clearing with the troops again, we re-entered Namibia at Swakopmund, a quaint old German town. We stayed at the Strand Hotel. After breakfast we walked through a small street fair and bumped into the two wildlife men, writer and photographer, whom we had met at Selinda camp the year before. They had set up a tent in the Namib, about which the photographer, David Coulson, had just published a book.





We drove back to Walvis Bay to see flamingos and pelicans and other interesting birds. At the docks we saw the four Spanish fishing trawlers which the Namibian government had confiscated because of illegal fishing. Dinner in Hotel Europa - old German hotel and cuisine. In the morning we drove north up the coast for a while before driving back to Windhoek on a good, paved road. Flew back the next day.



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