Namibia Visa Woes

June 2, 2010

We are now in Swakopmund, Namibia after spending time with Will’s Aunt Barbara in Windhoek then heading out to Spitzkopf, Brandberg, and the Twyfelfontein area before heading into the Skeleton Coast Park at Torra Bay.  The scenery was dry and dusty with great reddish boulder formations piled in improbable heaps in the more southern areas around Spitzkopf.  We spent extra days hiking and photographing the beautiful views.  The scenery then changed to colorful scrub, grasslands and more traditional mountains in the Brandberg mountain area.  We had great campsites and really enjoyed ourselves, though the camping in these areas was the most rugged we’ve experienced so far. 

Then the inevitable happened – we broke down.  It was an electrical problem, the alternator, we were in the middle of nowhere trying to head from Twyfelfontain into Torra Bay.  Luckily we were on a route that is traveled by folks instead of one of the more scenic tracks that we’d been taking.  We had to wait a couple of hours. A nice couple stopped and helped us get the Range Rover to a good place off the road, in case we had to camp for the night.  Then more cars came including a driver from a resort nearby and a great man from Namibia Road Products and Services who is working on the Torra to Terrace Bay road.  These two guys gave us jumps repeatedly to get us to the only mechanic in the area – a donkey cart repairman.  We slept in the junkyard next to his home that night and the mechanic and Namibia Road Products and Services gentleman worked with Will to diagnose the problem.  Amazingly, the donkey cart repairman happened to have a working Land Rover alternator and we were able to head to the coast the next morning. 

The Skeleton Coast is amazingly desolate and rugged.  It was very cold and windy, which was a welcome change as we were fairly well coated in dust.  We stayed at the park B&B and took many long hot showers.  The main activity here seems to be surf fishing but the weather was so bad when we arrived, we decided not to try our luck.  However, most visitors were avid fishermen and talking to them made us regret not trying the sport, especially if we were spending time with these great folk.   We did walk to the dunes from the coast, like shipwrecked sailors and it’s true that distances are deceiving.  We ended up going for a 3 hour hike just to see the dunes. 

After two days at Skeleton Coast Park we headed down to Swakopmund to get the Land Rover checked out, shop, get cleaned up proper and do some adventure sports.  We’ve found some great guys to look over the Land Rover and we’re hoping to hit the dunes in some dune buggies before moving on.  Next on the agenda is to get our tourist visas straightened out.  Americans are allowed 90 day visas but we were only given a one month visa at the border. 

June 3, 2010

We found out that we either need to take our chances with Home Affairs to get a visa extension or head across the border and return.  Lesson learned – always ask for the maximum tourist visa possible when entering a country to avoid any hassles later on – TIA (This is Africa).  So we’re off to Caprivi Strip! 

We did a great nature drive on the dunes today with Outback Orange and our guide was Earnst.  We saw 4 of the little 5 and we did a little crazy driving so an all around winner.  Also we tried the sandboarding and it was like sledding but on good snow.  Stupid sports accomplished!