A long drive on the C14 from Tsauchab to the Zeila Shipwreck, then overnight in Swakopmund on the Atlantic coast.
We haven’t driven more than 20 kilometers this morning before we see a figure in the road up ahead. I’m squinting through my sunglasses as we slow down until I can finally tell that it’s a large male baboon sitting in the middle of D854. What’s going on with this guy? He’s just sitting there looking cool as a cucumber, looking my way.
Then I start noticing movement in the trees and on the side of the road. Turns out this big gray male is keeping watch over his clan, which has got to consist of 30 or 40 other individuals.
We turn off the engine and sit for twenty minutes to watch the scene. Two young males have a standoff in a tree.
When one backs down, the winner surveys the landscape, victorious.
Females sit on the ground together, some with tiny babies on their backs.
It’s utterly fascinating to watch this family of primates go about their day.
Eventually we continue along down the road toward Solitaire, the last stop on the C14 until Walvis Bay.
We get a slice of the famous apple pie at McGregor’s Bakery, which is more of a traveler tradition than particularly good pastry. Old cars and junk decorate the grounds, the ubiquitous Namibian aesthetic.
After Solitaire, the C14 is long, empty and dusty. We cross the Tropic of Capricorn again; this time the sign is adorned with hundreds of stickers.
Around noon we fly by a group of bare asses squatting down to pee.
A few miles down the road we pull over near a camel thorn tree and spread out a picnic blanket for lunch. A lone Pied crow must smell our food and turns up to investigate. He hangs out on a dead tree a short distance away and watches us carefully, occasionally making clicks and whooping sounds. As soon as we drive away, he’s checking our picnic spot.
We’ve still got plenty of light left in the day by the time we get to Swakopmund, so instead of stopping we keep driving north toward Hentiesbaai.
This is Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, named for the dozens of shipwrecks scattered along this stretch of inhospitable coastline. The dense fog that rolls off the dunes, combined with the rough seas have claimed both large and small ships for centuries. Sailors who survived the initial wrecks arrived onto a water-less landscape of shifting sand. Their skeletons are here too.
The coastal road is torn up and under construction for most of the way to Hentiesbaai. We can see that the equipment is all Chinese and learn that China is working on improving the road from Swakopmund to their spacecraft tracking station just south of Hentiesbaai.
Our destination, however, is the Zeila shipwreck, a fishing trawler that became stranded in 2008. When we arrive, we’re the only ones there except for a man sitting on a ground with a box. We walk by him and out to the beach to take a look at the ship. This is the best and most accessible shipwreck on the Skeleton Coast for road-trippers. The boat itself is small and tilted into the surf. But dozens of birds have decorated it with their nests and guano. Several are perched on the rusty railings making for an atmospheric scene.
Walking back to the truck, we see that the man is now standing up looking out at the beach. He’s got his box in his hands and a smile on his face. “Look the captain’s skeleton!” he calls, and we walk over to take a peak. In the sand are seal bones that he’s arranged in the shape of a human skeleton, he explains, looking delighted.
This is so weird, but I like it.
We take some photos and poke around in the box of rocks he’s carrying with him. I choose some fluorite and turquoise to buy. He tells us that he came south from Damaraland to get a job working on the road crew but was not successful, so now he’s staying in a tent nearby. He asks if we have any spare food so we dig out some snacks and fruit, plus a beer which he’s pumped about, and say goodbye.
Once back in Swakopmund, we check in to the Meerkat Guesthouse, which has secure gated parking and clean private rooms. It’s located on a residential street and certainly not a fancy hotel, but staff are all friendly and helpful, and breakfast includes a buffet as well as a small a la carte menu. Plus, the price was perfect at $121 a night when we stayed.
My initial impression of Swakopmund is that it’s a sad and still very segregated town. The downtown is dusty and bland, with construction projects half finished here and there. In the northeastern part of the city is Mondesa, the township where the black population of Swakopmund were required to live during apartheid. Mondesa is the most impoverished part of the city, as well as the fastest growing, and there are several companies in Swak that offer tours there.
My thoughts on Township tours in post-apartheid cities
Tourists can visit Mondesa on a “cultural tour”, which is a common offering in South African townships as well. Townships, as mentioned above, are the places where people of color in South Africa and Namibia (formerly a part of South Africa) were required to live during apartheid. These are the poorest parts of cities and are densely-populated with a range of housing – from tin shacks to government-subsidized single family homes.
These are also places rich in unique customs, creative arts, food, music and important history.
I took a tour of Soweto in Johannesburg a few years ago and it was absolutely fascinating, but it also felt exploitative and uncomfortable. On the one hand I like to see what daily life is like and bring money to a place where it’s needed, but on the other hand I am not comfortable, as a white woman, with gawking at people living in poverty, especially considering the specific racially-charged history.
It comes down to an issue with consent, which you can never really have from everyone you come into contact with on a Township tour. Some people are happy to see you and show you their lives in exchange for your tourist dollars. But others don’t want you in their space, observing them like it’s a human zoo. I can only assume that both of these perspectives would be encountered during a tour of Mondesa. Something to think about when deciding on whether to take a “cultural tour” or not.
The loveliest part of Swakopmund is the portion of downtown that lines the waterfront, and this is where Swakopmund shines. Take a walk out on the jetty during sunset and choose one of the many great seafood restaurants to have dinner at.
The Jetty 1905 is probably the most popular restaurant in Swakopmund but it’s full our first night in Swak so we eat at The Tug, which turns out to be one of our favorite meals in Namibia (even after eating at the Jetty the next evening). Order whatever is fresh – we had Walvis Bay oysters and locally-caught hake, both excellent!
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