Next morning we got up early ready for another long drive down the Skeleton coast. Lots more gravel roads which slows us down a lot unlike those in there 4 wheel drives whizzing past. On our drive through the Skeleton Coast National park we saw lots of animals wandering around including some Gemsboks and some Nyala different types of antelopes. Running across the road we saw what looked like Hunting Dogs but they never hang around long enough to be captured on film. We arrived at the gate to the Skeleton Coast early we were the firstto head through that day. Very beautiful lots of sand and huge waves but fairly cold and windy when you stepped out the car to take photos. Proved not to be a bad road as we expected to get stuck in sand at one point with our luck so far but seemed it was are day for a break. At Henties Bay we had our first stop for the day at the Seal colony. We were not prepared for the actual shere mass of seals that we saw. The whole beach was covered in them and lots having fun in the surf. As promised it was smelly and noisy but capturvating also, it was mesmerizing watching them play.

We arrived at Swakopmund and set up camp then headed to the supermarket for supplies unfortunately from Saturday at 1.00 untill monday you cannnot buy an alcohol from shops and everywhere is very much deserted except for the pubs. I think every resident of the town was in the pub watching the rugby and the noise could be heard from a mile off when anything happened in the game. We spent the evening making the most out of the kitchen after cooking on one gas ring during the rest of our trip and actually managed to find a bottle of wine to accompany it thatthe owner let us buy off her from her personal stash. That night we looked at what we wanted to do in Swakopmund b ut anything interesting was not open on a Sunday so we had no choice but to head off the next day seeing and doing very little there.

Our next destination was the Naukluft mountains for some walking and much needed exercise. On the way we saw a mountain Zebra wandering along the road and got some nice photos. The road to the campsite was a little tricky in a two wheel and on a few occasions I had to get out and move some big boulders off the road to clear a path. We decided to do the Olive trail that afternoon a 10km hike up to the top of a plateau which gave us great views of the gorge and then through the valley along a river. Lots of scrambling over rocks of a variety of colours that shone when the sun hit them and then a narrow gorge that had to be crossed holding onto chains. Aaron chose the wrong side to cross at at one point was dangling holding onto the chain, glad I chose the simpler side as that freaked me out enough! We saw lots of Rock Hyraxs climbing around and lots of Social Weavers flying in and out of their communal nests. Feeling hungry and tired we got back to camp and starting cooking but without a torch it proved tricky as the night drew in, it was pretty hard to see what we were eating so after cleaning up we got an early night.

The next morning Aaron was woken up with a scare when he lifted up the tent back and a huge Scorpion was string back at him. He said it had huge pincers and a tail and a very illiminous body. Don't think it was happy about being rudely woken up and it scurried off to sleep again under the rocks beneath our tent. Decided I would not be going out of the tent in the middle of the night to go to the toilet as soon as darkness hits! Feeling energetic again we decided to do the other day hike the Waterkloof trail this time a little longer as it was 17km. The only problem was that it was a lot more walking along the river and with a few blisters each it proved more tiresome than yesterday. After an hour we arrived at a lot of pools that were full of huge tadpoles that were in the late stages they looked prehestoric and there were also huge groups of beetles swimming at the surface. Stopped to cool our feet down then carried on feeling a little bit cooler.We followed the millions of yellow footprints that we thought were a little excessive until we got lost a few times. Saw lots of baboons around I think we disturbed a fair few doing the path who disgruntled headed off in a nother direction. As we found out later they probally headed to our camp to disturb our shelter instead as pay back. When we got to the highest point there was beautiful views but feeling tired and thirsty not sure we fully appreciated them and then it was back to following the river for many more kilometres. Near the end of the walk we arrived at some more pools not as clear but deeper so Aaron soon stripped off and had a soak to cool himself down. I splashed lots of water over myself and then thought about the hour we had left to go starting to get a bit fed up of walking along the river. Nearly back at our camp we were informed by our neighbours that baboons had tried to get in our tent and in our boxes outside it. He made it seem really bad so spent tha last half hour panicking our rented tent was ruined. It turned out they had thrown our plates and pans around and theived our salt and BBQ sauce that for somereason we had forgot to pack in the car. Not sure it is the best diet for a baboon. No holes in the tent though just a few footprints so worrying for nothing. This time we managed to cook and eat before it was dark and then another night of laying on hard gravel for a bed.