Our first impression of the Namibian Atlantic coast was a pretty cold, grey and hazy one. When we arrived at the coastal town of Hentiesbaai, there was this grey mist around 3km from the sea inwards. Strange experience, as one drives under blue sky and suddenly just before reaching the sea, fog comes up. As we learned this is a very typical phenomena, actually happening around 300 days a year and particularly in wintertime, when the cold Benguela ocean current meets the warm desert air. This is also, why so many ships stranded and thousand wrecks litter the enormous Namibian “Skeleton Coast”..

However- the next two days we were incredibly lucky, as the wind changed and therefore the weather..:-) yes, blue sky and sunshine again..

In Cape Cross we visited a reserve which is home to one of the largest seal colonies in the world. There are in number more than 100.000 seals! An impressive image, but also incredibly smelly (due to the stinky seal poo)..

As our next destination we drove to Swakopmund (German for ‘Mouth of the river Swakop’), Namibia’s most developed seaside town- which all in all is a very German city with a very nice coastal flair. We really like it.

Here, we joined today an interesting organised 4×4 excursion call ‘Living Desert Tour’ driving into the adjacent Namib Desert. During the tour we understood that the so unpleasant fog is actually responsible for a very unusual vital desert life..our hilarious guide Chris showed us that the dunes in fact are not lifeless, but are home to many small creatures hidden in the sand – the Namibia’s “Little 5”..as for instance the ‘dancing white lady spider’, the ‘legless lizards’ or desert chameleons and geckos…cool.