The friendly man at the reception desk certainly hadn’t exaggerated — our room was remarkably quiet. No city noise, no background hum, nothing but pure silence. After a much-needed and almost unbelievable 10 hours of sleep, we were finally back to full energy.
Before we could hit the road for our next leg, we needed to stock up on groceries — and, more importantly, finally put our stylish cooler bag to use. It had been waiting patiently in the car trunk, already plugged into the cigarette lighter. This time, we stopped at a Superspar supermarket, conveniently along our route. To our surprise, stepping inside felt like a little slice of home: shelves packed with German brands, including exports from Edeka, Rewe, and others.
The bakery even offered a “Vollkorn small” loaf and “Brötchen egg/mayo” sandwiches — which, of course, we couldn’t resist. Add in some beer sausage, Sacher slices, Clausthaler non-alcoholic beer, plenty of water, and daily essentials, and we were all set. Cooler packed — mission accomplished!
And then it was finally time to get going.
Our destination for the day: Sossusvlei Lodge, about 303 kilometers (roughly 188 miles) southwest of Windhoek, nestled deep in the Namib Desert.
We first followed city roads before merging onto the C26 highway. Initially, the road remained paved and smooth, but the further we drove, the sparser the traffic became. The urban landscape gradually gave way to open, untamed terrain. At one point, we were startled by a group of baboons crossing the road — or rather, they were more startled by us! They scattered quickly, but we managed to catch a few of them on camera through the windshield, perched on the guardrail.
Eventually, we came across a rather unique road sign warning of the end of the paved road and the beginning of a gravel track.
Time to stop and switch from 2-wheel drive to 4WD — just like we were taught at the car rental counter. The speed limit on gravel roads here is 70 km/h (about 43 mph). At first, we approached that limit cautiously, inching upwards. The car rocked gently, a few stones clinked against the undercarriage, but we had full faith in the engineers at Toyota. They knew what they were doing.
The scenery at first changed only subtly — open savannah land, filled with grasses, scattered bushes, and trees. Ideal cattle country. We passed signs and gates marking ranches, where neighboring farms could be kilometers apart. No surprise, really — Namibia is the second least densely populated country in the world after Mongolia. We spotted a few cattle along the way, but they weren’t exactly photogenic — at least not for our phone cameras.
And then there were the road signs — uniquely Namibian. One warned of crossing baboons (understandable), and another indicated the approach of a “Rivier”, a dry riverbed that can fill during the rainy season. Thankfully, it was winter and dry during our trip. Still, one sign stood out — a posted speed limit of 100 km/h (62 mph) on gravel. Hard to believe!
We were still driving through Namibia’s central highlands, which stretch across much of the country. To the east lies the Kalahari Desert, and to the west — where we were headed — the vast Namib Desert. A quick glance at our GPS showed an elevation of nearly 2,000 meters (over 6,560 feet). Looking back through the rearview mirror, we saw the long, dusty plume trailing behind us.
These gravel roads and their billowing dust clouds are only practical because of how little traffic Namibia sees. But that also means more wildlife. We saw massive crickets — easily 5 cm (about 2 inches) long — hopping across the road. And there were weaverbird nests everywhere: massive grass-woven colonies dangling from trees or power poles, filled with chirping, sparrow-sized residents.
A special milestone on today’s journey: The Tropic of Capricorn — 23.5° south of the equator. This is where the sun stands directly overhead at noon on December 21st — our winter solstice in Germany, when the sun barely rises above the horizon.
As we neared the edge of the highlands, the terrain shifted dramatically. The high plateau suddenly dropped off into the lower-lying Namib Desert. We made a quick stop at the Spreetshoogte View Point, a must-see spot. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to capture the breathtaking vastness of the view with a phone camera — but we tried, and we’re sharing the results with you anyway.
Then came a very steep descent along a paved stretch of road — no way gravel would’ve been safe here.
After reaching the bottom, we pushed through the last 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) toward the lodge, increasing our speed slightly beyond the usual gravel-road limit.
The final section was paved again — a smooth, welcome change — and finally, we arrived.
After a delicious buffet dinner (more on that tomorrow!) and a bottle of wine, we were ready to call it a night.