8:45 Bruno Nebe from Turnstone Tours picked us up at the Desert Sky Backpackers. He didn't even bother asking which language we prefer. When I answered his greeting in English he said "Oh, English ... do you understand German? It would make it much easier for everybody". I was wondering how he exactly defined "everybody", but let him know that we indeed do understand German (in fact that's my mother tongue), but would prefer to speak English.

There was another couple (from Hamburg) in the Land Rover already which ment the front seat was taken - unfortunately we never rotated during the rest of the day. That, and maybe the price of NAD 800 per person, is about all I can criticise about the tour. The rest was perfect (and if you do the math the price is actually ok as well).

It didn't take long before we had understood that Bruno has a big passion for this region. He could answer every question. For instance "What's the definition of a desert?". It's an area where you either have less than 25mm of precipitation per year on average or where the potential annual evaporation exceeds the annual precipitation by a factor of four.

First major stop was Walvis Bay. We took a walk along the beach- front to discover lot's of different birds and flamingoes.

Then Bruno took us to the salt refinery south of Walvis Bay, where about 400'000 tons of salt are produced every year. The processing of the salt is ecologically a disaster for the fragile marine life in the lagoon. Bruno supposes this is also the reason that the south africans built the plant here instead of in South Africa (Walvis Bay remained a South African enclave until 1994).

Through the dunes we then headed for Sandwich Harbour. It is easy to tell that Bruno likes driving his 4x4 up and down the dunes at high speed. We did enjoy it as well. Amazing at which angles a skilled driver can drive a Land Rover. If you get stuck in the dunes there is nothing you can do but go and get help - that has happened a couple of times to Bruno in the past.

Bruno is actually responsible for making this area accessible to the public. In order to get to Sandwich Harbour, you first have to drive through a rather large area of quicksand. It is Bruno who pegged out a route by years of trial and error. So far he hasn't lost any cars to the quicksand, but many others have. In particular those tourists that think they can do it by themselves and thus save the money for a guide. But also several locals have stood and watched their vehicles disappear slowely without them being able to do anything about it. The worst you can do, once you are stuck, is to try to get out by yourself. Each movement makes matters worse. The one and only solution is to quickly get somebody else to pull you out. Bruno told us many interesting stories on this subject. For instance about the problem the victims are facing when the insurances demands proof that the car actually has sunk into the ground.

When we reached Sandwich Harbour we got out of the car and went for a hike up the dunes and down again to the fresh water lakes that have made this area so famous. It's the only place along the coast where there is drinkable water which is the reason many ships stopped here to stock up in the old days.

It looks quite strange with the ocean, a short strech of beach, some puddles of fresh water and then huge sand dunes for something like 100 kilometers.

On return to the Land Rover Bruno served a delecious lunch. The pâté was magnificent I tell you!

The Namib Desert

The Namib (Nama for "enourmours") desert stretches not only along the entire Atlantic coastline of Namibia but actually beyond it into both Angola in the north and South Africa in the south. It totals almost 1500km in length and averages about 100km inland which makes up for an area more than three times the size of Denmark or Switzerland (both are about 44,000 m2).

It is a very cold and dry desert, considered one of the oldest in the world.