We left Etosha and headed to Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia (tarmac roads - a treat!). We had very little time there so there was no sightseeing - just an hour in the shopping centre to buy some more memory cards for my camera and go to the internet cafe to catch up on emails then to the campsite to put up our tents. We went out for dinner to Joe's Beerhouse - a great restaurant/bar, decorated with all sorts of knick knacks and with amusing signs around th...

The bus had to brake suddenly a couple of times on the journey from Spitzkoppe to Etosha - for a cow and a lizard crossing the road! Just before we arrived at Etosha, we stopped at town of Outjo to pick up some snacks. Along the roadside in the town there were some people from the Himba tribe - they traditionally don't wash after they reach puberty (so they smell pretty bad!), they cover their bodies in a reddy/orange powder which acts as a sunscreen and they co...

The landscape at Spitzkoppe is bizarre - flat desert for miles then a clump of hills spring up, made up of huge orange lumps that look smooth from afar but when viewed up close they're actually spiky, made up of tightly packed crystalline pieces. We made our camp among the hills - there is no running water or permanent buildings anywhere on the campsite though a couple of long-drop toilets had recently been set up as the place was apparently getting 'messy'. I s...

We took a trip out to see the seal colony at Cape Cross, where tens of thousands of seals hang out on the coast. Before we went lots of people had told us about how smelly they are but experiencing it was something else - it was an overwhelming, revolting fishy smell! I was surprised by the noise they make (I've never noticed it when I've seen seals before) - they bleat like sheep! It was the start of the pupping season and we saw quite a few babies. Apparently t...

Leaving Sossusvlei, we made our way to Swakopmund with a few stops along the way. Firstly we stopped at the tiny but pretty town of Solitaire for apple pie, then at the Tropic of Capricorn marker, which I was particularly pleased to see since my original inspiration for travelling to Southern Africa was the episode of the TV show 'Tropic of Capricorn' in which the presenter was in Namibia As we neared Swakopmund we passed through Walvis Bay and stopped there fo...