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namibia

Over Dust (Part Two)

By Carolyn Chon

June 29^th, 2019

"Why are you traveling alone?" seemed to be the knee-jerk reaction most locals would have for me upon discovering that I was indeed traveling solo.

I found that to be rather surprising though, seeing that while I was doing my due diligence on the safety aspect of things in Namibia, I had plentiful of material from fellow solo female travellers. Perhaps, we're not showing up in droves?

Namibia was an easy decision because of two reasons :

I had never set foot in the African continent.
Jess, my old buddy from college had visited a few years back and the photos did the job. My itinerary was largely based on her recommendations. It's always good to have well-travelled friends!

Swakopmund

Driving from Windhoek to Swakopmund was easy. It took me about 2-3 hrs and the best part about the drive was that it was on regular tarred road. Yup, it's the best part because most of the roads I would be driving after Swakopmund was to be gravel and dirt road.

Just a few kilometres before I would arrive in Swakopmund, it felt like I was driving in a movie. I don't mean that in a beautiful epic landscape way though.

It looked like it was cloudy, with a chance of mother-freaking meatballs. Literally!

I've never experienced such a stark contrast of a sky in my life. I really wished I shot a time-lapse of my drive just so I could share it visually, instead of trying to describe it with words. As most of the drive was sunny and bright, the gloom and doom looking sky that hovered over Swakopmund somehow really just puzzled me.

Swakopmund is a coastal city that was founded by the Germans. You'll see how German it is when you walk into stores and even bookshops. Ignorant me who knows mostly nothing about African history got my kindergarten introduction in Namibia.

Jess had recommended that I go for the 4x4 drive on the dunes in Swakopmund. As you see in the photo above, the sand dunes go right into The Atlantic Ocean, which is pretty damn awesome. Seeing that I had only one full day to spend in Swakopmund, I opted for something a bit over the top instead of the 4x4 tour.

sosussflyyyyy

I had been browsing for something new I could do in Namibia for a while, it was either a hot air balloon ride, paragliding by the dunes, helicopter ride over the dunes, flying over the dunes or to skydive. Skydive was out of the list cos it wouldn't really be my first time, though it would've been a first time with sand dunes for a view, plus it would've ended too quickly. Not a wise choice said the Chinese in me. Heh

Initially I wanted to do the helicopter ride, but I couldn't find the prices online somehow. So, I started looking at flying over instead, not to mention the countless photos I saw of the dunes from a bird's eye view. While debating with myself to part ways with the money or not, my agent who helped arranged for my rental and my accommodations told me I could get a 10% off if I wanted to do the flight. The Chinese in me obviously said yes please!

Here are a mix of photos shot both from my camera and my phone. So, please pardon the inconsistent white balance.

The flight lasted for approximately two hours, the route took us down south back to Sossusvlei which is the photo that you see above. Looking at sand dunes from above is pretty damn phenomenal if you ask me.

On our way to Sossusvlei, we flew over Kuiseb Canyon, which are the first couple of shots above that you'd have seen that has random vegetation. The other random thing we saw while flying over the desert were desert Zebras! That was pretty nice too, until the pilot decided to bring us closer for a better view.

I'll be up front and tell you that I puked three times on this flight. No, I don't usually get air sick, but this was a combo of heat and stuffiness. Thing is though because in town it was rather cold, and the evening when I first arrived in Swakopmund, it was super cold! So, paranoid me wore a thermal as a base layer. I know, dumb move. So, don't be put off by me saying that it was hot and stuffy, it wouldn't have been that bad had I not wore my thermal.

I think when I started taking photos with the camera, that's when that damn queasy feeling came over me. Mind you, I'm one of those who actually can read in a moving car. Towards the end of the flight, the Spanish seated next to me puked as well. Though... I wonder if it's an empathetic puke effect. You know, like the empathetic yawn. Ha.

We flew back towards Swakopmund along the coast, so we had view of dunes meet sea for days! It was sweet as heck, not to mention the golden hour that complimented the aesthetics of our view. We flew over colonies of seals and flamingoes. I remember seeing a few flamingoes flying in a straight line, that was my "Nat Geo" moment I suppose.

To sum up this post, I guess it's more about the flight rather than Swakopmund. Honestly the town was mediocre for me, but hey if you're headed to Swakopmund, make sure you look out for those activities I mentioned above.