This morning we intended to get up a little later, but there had been so many early mornings in the past few days, we still got up fairly early. Ah well, that gave us an early start for our long drive today.

When we went downtown to the restaurant for breakfast, I was greeted with a lovely treat to celebrate Mother’s Day!

After a good breakfast we packed up the car to get an early start. Swakopmund was an interesting small city, very modern, very cosmopolitan. Our dinner last night at the Ocean Cellar was located in the Stand Hotel on the beach front, and the meal was superb from start to finish! Here’s a few pics on our way out of town this am.

Heading out of town, the landscape quickly became extremely stark! It’s no wonder that they call this stretch of coastline the Skeleton Coast!

As we drove out of town, we made a quick stop to see the shipwreck of the Zeila, an old fishing trawler being towed to India for scrap. Unfortunately in 2008, it broke its tow line and became a photo opt along this coastline.

A very quick stop and we hopped back in the car and headed north to Hentes Bay, and then inland towards Damaraland. At first we drove on a paved road (luxury!!!) through a desolate landscape. After about an hour, this turned into a mountainous terrain and then through the boulders hills known in this region. Here we are hoping to see desert elephants and ancient rock paintings.

The paved road let us make good time to our new lodge for the next couple of days, the Twyfelfontein Adventure Camp. And now for something completely different! We’ve gone from cool windy and sunny weather next to the ocean to hot desert like conditions once again as we traveled inland. It was 34C when we got in… and as you can see…very sunny!

Once in our room we had a rare opportunity to just put our feet up and relax. It was hot and as much as I would have like to go for a hike, there was just no energy! Plus the fact that our lodging is run on solar power and has no air conditioning, there was really no reprieve but to stay out of the sun…at least until sunset!

This hotel features a stairway that take you to the top of the granite hill behind the buildings. From there they set up a bar and have seats situated where you can watch the sun go down over the Savanah. Just so beautiful and peaceful.

We made it back down and had a lovely BBQ dinner this evening. We can already feel the temperature dropping…hopefully hitting a low of 17C before heading back up tomorrow for a forecast high of 36C. We have a morning safari planned to look for the desert elephants. Wish us luck!

In the meantime, we wish you all the best for the rest of your day. Looking forward to chatting again tomorrow!