The morning dawned on the last full day of our Namibia Travels, with Erika bruised from her sand boarding falls, and Brennan bruised from being thrown repeatedly by his horse. Yeah! Seems like his horse was particularly cranky, and actually threw him twice. I know you’re supposed to “get back up on the horse” and all that, but I’m pretty confident I will never be thrown by a horse twice.

Day 9

After a wonderful day of barely being in the car, Day 9 was going to be car heavy once again, as we drove back to Windhoek. Albeit, by the scenic route.

The drive directly to Windhoek is fairly quick, on account of the paved B2, so we decided to add a little bit of driving up the Skeleton Coast, to the nearby town of Hentiesbaai. The Skeleton Coast is famous for the excessive number of shipwrecks it has caused, many of which can still be seen. Most of the more impressive shipwrecks–the kind you may see on Nat Geo specials–are not easily accessible. One, though, is easily accessible, just off the road to Hentiesbaai, and we planned to stop there to check it out.

Our plan was simply drive to Hentiesbaai, then back to Swakopmund, and on to Windhoek, to keep us on paved roads all day. However, somehow we let the proprietor of the restaurant we ate at in Hentiesbaai talk us into taking the more direct, but dirt, road which would take us past Spitzkoppe mountain. Why in the hell did we listen to him?! We were free!

The Zeila’s Final Resting Spot

The road to Hentiesbaai was a combination of paved road and packed salt road, like we’d had a few days earlier coming to Walvis Bay, so it was very comfortable and easy driving.

Just outside Hentiesbaai is the shipwreck we were looking for, the Zeila. The Zeila was stranded, and abandoned, just off the coast in 2008–a testament to the fact that the Skeleton Coast is still incredibly dangerous. It’s very easy to visit, as it’s only 100 meters or so off the road. Being so easy to access, though, also means that it’s a hot-spot for touts.

We parked our cars and waded through the salesmen, to walk down to the shore and check out the wreck.

We politely declined all of the trinkets we were quite familiar with from touts elsewhere, and loaded back up to finish the short drive to Hentiesbaai.

Hentiesbaai

Hentiesbaai is a little seaside fishing village, that we spent just enough time in to drive through and eat. Appropriately, we stopped somewhere we could get some fish. Everything was going just great, until we started talking to the restaurant owner, who talked us into enduring one more dirt road, so that we could see Spitzkoppe.

Spitzkoppe

I dunno. Obviously, we just drove by, so maybe there’s more to do, but… yeah, it’s some mountains. We’re probably just spoiled, but with so much ridiculous scenery in Namibia, this just didn’t seem to stand out to me. It’d probably be cool to visit more up-close, which we didn’t have time for. As it was, this didn’t seem worth suffering through a few more hours of dirt road.

On the road to Spitzkoppe, though, you go through an area where, supposedly, gemstones can be found just off the roads. So, hilariously, we stopped at one point for photos, and turned it into 20 minutes of hunting for gemstones. There were the four of us, walking in separate directions, combing the desert for pretty rocks.

One Lap Complete

After the drive-by of Spitzkoppe, we just had a short stretch left on the dirt before we were done with dirt roads for good. From there, the drive to Windhoek was easy, though boring. We settled in, listened to some music, got our last views of Namibian scenery, and before long we were back in Windhoek, and our lap of southern Namibia was complete.

In all, we drove about 3000 kilometers during our adventure–about 1800 miles. Just a ridiculous amount of time to be in the car in 9 days!

For one last hurrah together, our last night there, the four of us went to Joe’s Beerhouse, which is something of a Windhoek institution. It’s a huge place, sort of in the style of a German beer hall. There, we were able to get decent beer, as well as eat all the animals we’d seen on our trip. Springbok, gemsbok, zebra, and more. Namibia is delicious!

We spent the night with our friend Peter again, as we had on the first night in country. Then, sadly, it was time for the band to break up, and we had to say goodbye to Brennan and Sarah.

Auf Wiedersehen

We took our wonderful camping trucks back to their home, to say goodbye to them first, then took a cab that would drop Erika and I off at the shopping center near Peter’s place, before taking Brennan and Sarah to the airport.

We had an amazing time with them, and though I was so ready to slow down some, I wasn’t ready for them to go. Traveling with them was funny, though, in showing the differences in our travel styles. Quite reasonably, they largely wanted to go-go-go. Which makes sense! If you only have a two week vacation, to see somewhere like Namibia, you want to get as much into those weeks as possible.

Erika and I are so fortunate with our trip that we don’t have to do that. Oh today is a little busy and we can’t get to that? No problem, we’ll go tomorrow. We’re definitely not going to get up early for it! But if we just had a two week vacation, we’d probably do just the same.

Saying goodbye was sad, both in seeing them go, as well as in contemplating the end of our own trip. But as they left, and we remained behind, I was also overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude about our fortune in having this opportunity. We just had an epic safari adventure in Namibia. For Brennan and Sarah, it was an incredible vacation. For us, it was merely a small piece of the overall trip. I can never be thankful enough!

What’s Next?

Namibia Travels may have been over, but the grand adventure was not! Erika and I were on our own again, and would first be spending a little more time in Windhoek, to slow down and to hang out with Peter. Erika and I walked all over downtown Windhoek, we climbed up a hill to get views of the city, we made dinner for the three of us and had wine and sang Frozen songs. It was a pretty good slowing down!

But Peter had to leave town for work, and we had to get back underway ourselves. So after saying goodbye, Erika and I were off to the Mother City–Cape Town!