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  • Day 179

    Dead Sea and Spitzkoppe

    March 12, 2020 in Namibia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Today, we're heading to Spitzkoppe, via a stop off at the Dead Sea. The hotel tells us that we'll need a permit for the Dead Sea, and we can get one at the Seal Reserve reception. However, the ranger at the seal reserve seems a little surprised at our request. She doesn't have any permits, but gives us a permit for the Seal Reserve, but with "Seal Reserve" crossed out and "Dead Sea" written above it in red pen. Legit.

    It's not so far to the Dead Sea, but the drive takes a while due to the terrible road conditions. The gravel road is so bad that it's like driving over big rumble strips for 17 kilometres. It is the pinnacle of the African Massage.

    The Dead Sea is definitely worth the drive though. It's an old tin mine that was abandoned and flooded. Because of the high salt content, the water is so soluble that you float on the top. It's great fun, and we're the only ones in the water. At the car park (just a flat bit of ground with a Braai pit) there's a group of Afrikaaners who, at 11.30am, are incredibly drunk and enjoying a Braai. They lend us a bucket with a shower head to rinse the salt off ourselves, and offer Chris some Braai to put "some more fat on him". The guy manning the Braai grabs his ginormous belly and jiggles it, to drive home the point. No thank you!

    Leaving the Dead Sea (and after getting a little lost in the salt pans), we head to Spitzkoppe, a large rock outcrop where you can camp. We drive through the desert, and after a few hours of nothing but flat ground all around us, Spitzkoppe rises up from the horizon.

    The campsite consists of different pitches, each at different spots at the base of the rock. They're all secluded, at least 100 metres away from each other, so we have a little spot of desert all to ourselves for the evening.

    After a spot of lunch, which featured some Hornbills stealing our crisps, Chris climbs up the rock, clambering over boulders to the base of the sheer rock face. The views up there are incredible, with desert as far as the eye can see.

    Sundown turns the red rocks and even more stunning shade of red, and we have some beers and cook a meal. The silence is astounding, and the stars light up the dark. Out here, in the desert, with a roof of stars and perfect silence, we wonder if this is the perfect camping spot.
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