Day 6, Swakopmund and Township Tour

Sunday December 19th. Up at 4:00, loaded and gone by 5:30. Long drive today on a very bumpy dirt road and I was in the backseat with my buddy Edward. We stopped at a tiny town called Solitaire that had a post office, a general store, a bakery and gas station and not much else. Later we stopped at the sign that said we were at the Tropic of Capricorn and we took a bunch of group photos. The third stop was at a canyon lookout that was quite nice.

We saw some ostriches and a couple of gemsbok, or oryk, along the road. The land is getting drier and drier as we headed north and then west. By the end of the ride we were in true desert with virtually nothing growing and lots of sand dunes. We arrived at Swokomund on the Atlantic (Skeleton) coast by noon.

We were immediately taken to a tour activity place where we could sign up for activities. John and I signed up for another township tour for this afternoon, and to go sandboarding tomorrow.

Then we were given our hamburger lunch in the activity shop and brought to our new home for two nights. It's an A-frame complex. John, Richard, Leland, Edward and I are rooming together.

After we got settled in our rooms some of us (John, myself and about six others) were picked up for a tour of the townships. It was the same type of miserable surroundings with happy smiling children everywhere. We were taken to the homes of three women, including a woman who was chief of her tribe) from three different tribes and given an insight into their lives. At the end of the tour we were taken to a local bar in the township where we had a beer and then taken out behind to a hut where the served us a traditional meal. This included a paste type bread, beans, some nuts and fried caterpillars! I tried it all, including the caterpillars (I ate three, I think the beer helped!).

In the evening the whole group had a reservation for dinner at a local Italian restaurant. We had a few drinks and some really good game meat. I had a platter of sprinkbok, oryx and kudu, all farm raised or culled from herds. I have to say it was the best red meat I've had in years.

Then we went to a local club and had a couple more drinks. John and I challenged Retif and Vernon at pool and won two out of three games. Fun evening and then back to the A frames to sleep.