Namib Desert.

This (New Year's Day), was the drive through hell...  We left Swakopmund at dawn for a 570km drive across dirt roads to our next stop outside Dune 45.  About 30 miles south of Swakopmund, is a little town called Walvis Bay which until Namibia became independent in 1990, was actually part of South Africa.  Not a heck of a lot to see in Walvis Bay and frankly, it looked like South Africa's contribution to Namibia was not a very beautiful one.  Even the houses were a lot more run down.

We stopped there at a grocery store to stock up on supplies since we'd be back in the desert again for a few days and then it was on to the dirt track for the rest of it.  Gerti called it our African Massage... but after 20 minutes, you were screaming uncle!  The scenery was dead boring as well...  until about 2 hours from the end when we crossed into the mountains.

My hand/arm was taking a real beating on these roads so I was suffering a bit and relished a 2 hour stop where Jen and the kids went off on a bush walk with a white Namibian farmer (Boisman).  Turns out he was quite a naturalist and showed them how to tell the various bug tracks in the desert for about 2 hours in 40 degree heat.  He'd given up wearing shoes and his last pair were hanging on the mail box at the turn into his farm.  Meanwhile back at the ranch, Brent was enjoying the hammock in the shade although with 40 degree heat, I wasn't sleeping much.  They did learn a lot and enjoyed the trip.  One of the key things they learned was that 2011 was an unusually wet year.  They had twice as much rain as usual (although not a drop since last March) and therefore the desert had lots of brown scrub... this was very harmful to the environment according to Boisman.  They got about 300mm of rain in 2011 compared to 120mm in 2010.  

Then it was back into the truck for another 2 hours to our camp.

The Namib dune field south of Swakopmund on the way to Walvis Bay.

Typical Namib Desert shot

The drive was a bit tedious at times... :-)

Mountains!

Wow...  where did the water go that made these canyons?

Heading back south through the Tropic of Capricorn... the point where the Sun is directly overhead at 12 noon (local time) on December 21st before it starts heading North again.

Jen couldn't be bothered getting out of the truck for this one... it was so hot.  You can tell the kids only got out with my encouragement!  It was by far the hardest day of our trip.

On to Dune 45 tomorrow.