The Skeleton Coast. Seals, Flamingos, and Locals

On Friday, we drive south along the seaside road lined with sand dunes. We visit the saltworks complex on the outskirts of Walvis Bay, where salt is extracted from seawater and where it’s possible to admire salt ponds in various shades of color. Along the shore, we also see seals and flamingos.

Afterwards, we head north from Swakopmund toward the Skeleton Coast, famous for its numerous shipwrecks. However, most of the wrecks have been removed (a controversial decision, since they were a well-known tourist attraction), and we manage to see only one remaining wreck.

We then drive back to Swakopmund, where in the evening we explore the local nightlife. In one bar, we chat with a middle-aged group of lighter-skinned people who tell us they are actually South Africans who stayed here after Namibia gained independence from South Africa in 1990. Among themselves, they speak Afrikaans — a language that developed in South Africa from Dutch. In their opinion, Swakopmund is the best place in the world, and they wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.