Lamberto cruising with dolphins and seals

Many times during long week-ends we would escape from Windhoek and run to Swakopmund for a different kind of sun.

It is strange but the sun in Windhoek is hard, strong on your skin, harsh-dry. In Swakopmund you can actually lay in the sun and allow your skin to tan.

It takes us only about four hours to reach Swakopmund and the road is nice and as always, when you drive the same way many times, you have your pit-stops which get to be a “habit” and you look for it in many different ways.

In Okahandjia we always stopped a few moments, to refill but also for a cup of coffee.  In the past, in the late 80’s, there was a small place to stop for coffee…. Now it is great ! Now they have croissant and cappuccino!

The other “important” stop was at Karibib just after the bridge. A small hut giving sandwiches and drinks. Also this one now has gotten “sophisticated”:  has a restaurant, a small market, a gift-market, some huts to sit outside (although the sun there is hot), a vegetable garden with hens and goats.

But as the air cooled off and you could feel the breeze, you knew, Swakopmund was not that far!

Over the bridge, following palm trees, the smell of the Atlantic Ocean was strong.

Dolphin Cruise

The first thing my children wanted to do the morning after, was going on a cruise in Walvis Bay Lagoon with dolphins, seals, whales and penguins even if early morning the weather was chilly and umid, but coming from Windhoek that umidity was great !

The first years, when Charlotte was small, quad-bikes were still not there to ruin the untouched sand of the dunes and sandboarding was done with your own carton box. But afterwards when Lamberto was born, for "his pleasure and wilderness", a quad-bike run on the dunes, since then and up to still now that he is 15, it's a must!

Charlotte always had Caitlin along with her and Lamberto followed them anywhere…. except when on the boat there was a nice blondie girl….