On our last morning in the desert, we woke up around 5 am as we had to pack up the truck again and head into the park to climb Dune 45 for sunrise. Our campsite was special in that it was the only campsite technically within the National Park limits so we got to enter the park 1-hour before anyone else that slept outside. They had a secondary gate, though, that didn’t open until 5:45 for us. We were about the 3rd or 4th car that headed into the park once the gates had opened and made it to the foot of the dune. Tim had decided to stay in the truck while Grant and I made our way up the dune. Unlike the previous day, we knew we should take our shoes off and climb barefoot. A lot easier to walk in. And I didn’t mentally struggle with the edges of the dune since I knew falling would be a little softer in the sand rather than down the side of a mountain – though the overall height to climb was incredible.

We ran into our South African neighbors mentioned in previous post so we walked up with some of them. We parted ways as they stopped at the first ledge while we continued the hike towards the peak (or whatever you call the top of a dune). The walk was definitely challenging as you kept sliding back for every 1-2 steps forward, but at least we didn’t have the wind whipping us again during the climb. The hike was worth it once we reached the top to rest and enjoy the sunrise.

After enjoying the sunrise, we could hear several cars driving in below as the main gate to the park opened around 6:45 am. The number of cars that drove in was pretty impressive. Most would stop for a quick second to look at the dune and then head on to make it to Sossusvlei/Deadvlei before the heat starts to climb. We headed back down the dune (much easier than the ascent) and passed a couple of groups on their way up. Most would stop at the first ledge and then head back down. Since we had done the drive through the park the night before, we headed back to our campsite to grab a quick breakfast and pack up to head to Swakopmund for some cooler beach weather.

Our drive to Swakopmund was about 4.5 hours through mostly desert areas. There was little to observe, especially once we reached 100km from the city. We saw a car with another flat tire on our drive and made a quick stop. The family was from Botswana and told us they had someone coming in from Swakopmund with help since their rental didn’t come with a spare tire. We felt bad leaving them there alone but felt a little reassurance once we saw a car speeding past us in their direction. We’d like to think they received the help they needed!

Arriving in Swakopmund, we were all hungry and decided to find a restaurant to grab some food. It took a lot of work to know where the restaurants were as the signs pointed in different directions. Tim took us down to the water and found two restaurants by the jetty. We decided to do the one on the jetty, and when we got inside, they told us they were fully booked (though no one was at any tables) and could only seat us outside. I wasn’t the biggest fan of that, so I may have made a small scene, but they were able to sit us down at a table inside. We noticed this a few times in restaurants – we’re not sure if feigning full reservations is somehow a way to drive demand or make the customer feel special once you “figure out how to get the customer in.” It’s always a bit comical though because every time we were told a restaurant was fully booked, it was literally completely empty minus one or two tables with people. Anyways, the food was good, although Grant struck out again on a steak in Namibia.

Since we arrived a day early, our Airbnb had already booked the night with someone else, so we asked our waitress for the best hotel. She gave us a couple of listings, one of which was the hotel we passed on the walk down. Since it was closer, we checked into that hotel and grabbed our room keys. We grabbed some things we needed for the rest of the week and moved our car into the hotel garage. With both tents on the top, it’s hard to tell if we’ll make the clearance, but it always worked out. We dropped our stuff off in the rooms and enjoyed our bottle of MCC (champagne) from South Africa while we figured out the activities we wanted to do during our time in Swakopmund.