Spitzkoppenidylle

Dinner last night was very good and, like everything here, very cheap by our standards. This can be well illustrated by the dinner:

We had 1 butternut soup as a starter and pastry rolls filled with game meat. For the main course, we both had a tropical-style fish fillet with a deliciously seasoned sauce and rice, along with some salad. We drank a good bottle of dry white wine, from which we took almost half back because we couldn't finish it all. The portions were large – we were more than full. For all of this, we paid 600 Namibian dollars, which is about 30€! A large freshly tapped beer costs 1.50 €! And this is in a city with a fair amount of package tourism! You can also tell the lower prices in the supermarket. With about 20€, you have quite a bit to carry!

How is it possible that a country can still offer goods and services at such prices today? Quite simply! The workforce (mostly Black) earns very little. Thus, despite the low prices, the mostly white entrepreneurs still make good profits, and they benefit additionally from the low cost of living, as even luxury goods and services are extremely cheap. A relatively well-earning white person can afford much more luxury here than back home. It’s no wonder that the white people living here no longer feel comfortable in Europe and don’t want to go back. The black Namibians are very rarely destitute. They mostly live in solid houses, and there is also a theoretical school attendance requirement, but if someone doesn’t send their children to school, nothing happens. Thus, you often see children who were obviously sent by their parents to beg to supplement the household income.

So much for the little excursion into the living conditions here.

This morning we are driving along the coast from Swakopmund. It's cold and there is a fine drizzle coming down from the fog – not very inviting. Then we turn back into the Namib Desert, and after a few kilometers, the fog clears, and the African sun makes it hot and dry again.

We are heading towards Spitzkoppe, the highest mountain in Namibia, which rises 1700m out of the desert.

Directly beneath the impressive orange-colored mountain massif lies Spitzkoppe Village, a small place that operates a community-owned camp. We paid the entrance fee to Spitzkoppe National Park (without which one is not allowed to move about here) and the campsite, which amounts to about 25€. The sites are spread out over a vast area among the mountains and consist of a shaded area, a fire pit, and a dry toilet. Everything is very clean and situated in a very idyllic location.

We choose site 1 and take a little break from the journey through the desert on some rather bad roads. We will barbecue tonight. We bought Oryx fillet... that will be a treat!

Oryx are gazelles with long, straight horns. Sturdy animals with good meat. We will sleep here again in complete silence and darkness. I sleep so deeply here that I often don't even notice when Wilfried opens the loud zipper of our rooftop tent and climbs down!

We are still traveling alone for two more days. Then we will meet our travel companions again who will be coming from the sea inland.