Lomography

Swakopmund The X-treme Spot
written by disdis on July 12th, 2009 , 6 comments (3 votes)

Please activate JavaScript to see this gallery.

Swakopmund, Namibia’s second biggest town and traditional “summer capital”, is one of the most surreal and unique destinations in the country, a sort of central Europe meets the African desert next to the ocean kind of place. With palm-lined streets, seaside promenades and its pleasant summer climate and decent beaches attract surfers, anglers and beach lovers from al over Southern Africa. This is the place if you are x-treme sports lover. Sorry I’m not now.

Thanks to its mild temperatures and negligible rainfall, Swakopmund generally enjoys grit in the oyster. When an easterly wind blows, the town gets a good sand-blasting, and almost perpetual drizzle. The fog rolls up to 30km inland and provides moisture for desert-dwelling plants and animals, including 80 species of lichen. I was lucky and the sun came out during the days I stayed there.

For better or worse, Swakopmund feels overwhelmingly Teutonic indeed, it has Germany but for visitors, it’s a Namibia’s adrenalin capital, and offers a wide range of gut-curdling activities from sand boarding and quad-biking to skydiving and camel riding.

But I liked most of this city was it looks like being in a Hopper’s picture. The light is so bright and the color of the buildings so pastel… You can walk to the pier and get an excellent view from there. An then take some Windhoek lagers in some of the wonderful German pubs there, full of surfers. Maybe its not the most African place but the pictures will be great.