We awoke at 7.30am, feeling absolutely amazing & wanting to hang onto those first moments of realization when you know you're waking up.
Once awake we had things to do.
The washing was first on the agenda. Reception have given us a large bag each to fill with clothes that they will machine wash & tumble dry for us, at a cost of 100 Namibian dollars. This is a great bargain & means less work for us & cleaner clothes.
We also have breakfast due at 8am at the truck, our only meal ATC will provide today.
I take the bandage off my foot & can see overnight the cut has been discharging & pushed a heap of dirt & a tiny piece of glass out. A lot of the swelling & pain has gone down, thank goodness!
I'm still going to continue bandaging, applying antiseptic cream & taking panadol until it's no longer a problem.
After breakfast outside in the 9 degree gloom of Swakopmund, we make friends with the resident macaws. I suspect there is a female & a male due to their size. The bigger one, that I'm guessing is the male is very friendly & comes over for a cuddle. The smaller one is not very nice & once I pick up her mate she races across the table, stops at the edge, where I am sitting & hisses at me.
I try to win her over with peanuts, but she throws them on the ground.
When Tom comes over & sits down, I am amazed that she goes over to him & wants to be held. She doesn't try to bite or hiss, accepts the food he gives her & then starts bobbing her head like she's dancing. She must have a thing for men.
The head bobbing inspires the bigger one who is still on me to start head bobbing as well.
They are undeniably beautiful, individual & full of personality. Once we have finished with the birds we go back to the shipping container room for more time in the beds & to attempt to use the wifi.
In everyday life we proudly call ourselves vegetarians. While travelling we decided that on rare occasions we would eat meat so as not to miss out on a cultural experience. Eating African game meat in Swakopmund was one of those places.
While travelling, this has been the longest that Tom has been without meat, the counter ticks over at 104 days today.
While walking along the beach & trying to see if there's any obvious differences in the Atlantic ocean, we stumble across a jetty & a restaurant on the end of the jetty. It looks really fancy & we decide to have lunch here.
The restaurant is precariously perched at the end of the jetty, it almost feels like the building sways with the tide. It's far enough out on the water that the waves aren't crashing against the windows. We are seated next to the windows half in the sunlight. On the outside of the glass is a great view of the ocean & some sea birds who sit preening in the sun.
We start of with local beer, wine & jalapeno poppers.
The main courses are; springbok medallions with fancy sweet potato wedges, caramelized onion & radish with a mustard gravy. A oryx steak with creamy mash, wok fried beans in nuts & a sweet rhubarb puree.
We ate half of each dish before swapping plates & left feeling extremely full & happy with the meals, if a bit contrite. It definitely matched the price.
After lunch we walked through the streets commenting on how non African the town feels. Namibia & Swakopmund are known for it's German settlements.
We go in & out of craft, souvenir & art shops, never knowing what we might find. I'm hoping to find some wooven baskets to send home.
We take a street near the lighthouse & find a local craft market with lots of carved wood, stone, material & a few places selling baskets.
At 1 store we buy 5 for $50US. They are all slightly different sizes & patterns.
At another store we find 2 more of a larger size, colour, pattern & weave. They are much better quality & I love the way they have been woven. We pay $500 Namibian dollars for 2, which is a lot more than what we paid for the others but the quality of the weave is definitely worth it.
When we get back to Australia & get a house of our own, I've got a plan to hang the baskets on the wall in a nice pattern. I'm hoping to find more in Central America & South East Asia along the way.
After basket shopping we stop at a cool looking bar that specializes in local, craft beer or cider & gin. They also have a whole wall dedicated to expensive wine bottles.
We stop in here for a craft beer & cider to warm us up.
The rest of the day goes by really quickly as we slowly make our way back to the accommodation, exploring as we go.
Once we arrive back it's time to go out for dinner with most of the tour group. We walk to a place called ocean basket where the 13 of us sit at a table & drool over the amazing menu.
It has a huge selection of fresh seafood platters, mains & even sushi.
Tom & I order a sushi platter to share, a jug of ginger beer to share & then desert. The desert page was irresistible & it was a very hard decision. Tom ordered vanilla ice cream with a crumble & toffee, caramel sauce. I ordered vanilla ice cream with Turkish delight. Neither of us shared our desert.
After this it was time to head back to the accommodation where we told ourselves we would pack & organize our things.
We lied! The packing & organising was done the next morning.
A great day was finished with more great sleep!
- Alli
While travelling, this has been the longest that Tom has been without meat, the counter ticks over at 104 days today.
While walking along the beach & trying to see if there's any obvious differences in the Atlantic ocean, we stumble across a jetty & a restaurant on the end of the jetty. It looks really fancy & we decide to have lunch here.
The restaurant is precariously perched at the end of the jetty, it almost feels like the building sways with the tide. It's far enough out on the water that the waves aren't crashing against the windows. We are seated next to the windows half in the sunlight. On the outside of the glass is a great view of the ocean & some sea birds who sit preening in the sun.
We start of with local beer, wine & jalapeno poppers.
The main courses are; springbok medallions with fancy sweet potato wedges, caramelized onion & radish with a mustard gravy. A oryx steak with creamy mash, wok fried beans in nuts & a sweet rhubarb puree.
We ate half of each dish before swapping plates & left feeling extremely full & happy with the meals, if a bit contrite. It definitely matched the price.
After lunch we walked through the streets commenting on how non African the town feels. Namibia & Swakopmund are known for it's German settlements.
We go in & out of craft, souvenir & art shops, never knowing what we might find. I'm hoping to find some wooven baskets to send home.
We take a street near the lighthouse & find a local craft market with lots of carved wood, stone, material & a few places selling baskets.
At 1 store we buy 5 for $50US. They are all slightly different sizes & patterns.
At another store we find 2 more of a larger size, colour, pattern & weave. They are much better quality & I love the way they have been woven. We pay $500 Namibian dollars for 2, which is a lot more than what we paid for the others but the quality of the weave is definitely worth it.
When we get back to Australia & get a house of our own, I've got a plan to hang the baskets on the wall in a nice pattern. I'm hoping to find more in Central America & South East Asia along the way.
After basket shopping we stop at a cool looking bar that specializes in local, craft beer or cider & gin. They also have a whole wall dedicated to expensive wine bottles.
We stop in here for a craft beer & cider to warm us up.
Once we arrive back it's time to go out for dinner with most of the tour group. We walk to a place called ocean basket where the 13 of us sit at a table & drool over the amazing menu.
It has a huge selection of fresh seafood platters, mains & even sushi.
Tom & I order a sushi platter to share, a jug of ginger beer to share & then desert. The desert page was irresistible & it was a very hard decision. Tom ordered vanilla ice cream with a crumble & toffee, caramel sauce. I ordered vanilla ice cream with Turkish delight. Neither of us shared our desert.
After this it was time to head back to the accommodation where we told ourselves we would pack & organize our things.
We lied! The packing & organising was done the next morning.
A great day was finished with more great sleep!
- Alli
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