Polished and shiny Lipstick left Swakopmund driving along the coast towards Walvis Bay along the coastal road when Lipstick passed the 200000km mark – Happy birthday Lipstick!
On route team Lipstick saw Tourists riding on Camels and about halfway towards Walvis Bay the team spotted a man-made island which serves to collect bird droppings – called Guano. Apparently this is sold as super fertiliser to the European market- that’s how money is made out of shit…285USD / ton!
Money making island
Andre with Namibian curio seller…
Walvis Bay is the biggest harbour of Namibia and as such surrounded by Container depots but it also boasts amazing Flamingo spots…
Whilst originally planning to stay over in Walvis Bay the team decided rather to push through to Windhoek and gain some extra time to be spend at the Fish River Canyon later in the week.
Important stop however was what is to be believed the biggest Dune in the world – Dune No7 a few kilometres out of Windhoek. An attempt by Lipstick to drive to the top of the dune however stopped some 20m in soft sand and team Lipstick aborted this effort as it would have meant to deflate the tyres and offload all Luggage to reduce weight 🙂
It would require more than one Oliphanti to pus Lipstick up to the top of Dune 7
..so the plan was abandoned..
The road to Windhoek consists of a beautiful gravel road with driving conditions very similar to those experienced on the long and straight tar roads of Namibia. Due to a wrong turn being taking about90 km from Walvis Bay the team did not take the more direct road to Windhoek but instead headed towards the Naukluft Mountain Zebra Park though the Gaub pass( the team first read this as Gauss pass ) towards Solitaire and in doing so crossed the Tropic of Capricorn.
The tropic of Capricorn
..and the Gaub ( Gauss?) pass
The team corrected the wrong turn and turned left after Buellsport to approach Windhoek via Rehoboth and arrived in Windhoek in the late afternoon after driving through very scenic areas.
After having some nice german food in a close by Restaurant – Wirtshaus- the team went to Joe’s Bierhaus which is a well-known eating and drinking place in Windhoek and provided the team with a great setting to end the day…
Sundowners at Joe’s Bierhaus in Windhoek…
