Namibia: Food, Sand, and Surf

Namibia is located on the west side of africa below the northern hump and above South Africa. It is bordered by Angola in the north, Botswana and Zimbabwe in the east, and South Africa in the south. Most of the country is desert and dunes and star-gazing here is amazing. It was colonized by Germany and recently got independence in 92'. The abolishment of apartheid is still very recent to Namibia and the remnants of its racism is still apparent. We docked in big shipping harbor in the middle of the coast called Walvis Bay. Just north of Walvis is a resort town called Swakopmund which literally means "shit river" in native tongues, although I found the place to be really nice. Swakopmund or Swakop for short is the extreme sports capital of Namibia, where you can skydive, sandboard the dunes, atv, and whatnot. They even have a skate ramp and some surf, though its cold.

Heavily influenced by German and Afrikaans culture, Namibia is a peaceful country with spectacular desert and ocean landscapes. This port started with a trip to an Oyster farm. Namibia is famous worldwide for its oysters. This happened to be the same farm that Anthony Bourdain, from the travel channel's food show No Reservations, visited. Our guide for the day was the featured on the show as well. The oyster farm was cool but it makes you weary of eating oysters. We tried some fresh oysters at the end of the tour and they were delicious but salty.




The rest of the Namibia trip was spent eating delicious free range steaks, kudu, croc, zebra, onyx, and pork, As well as enjoying South African wines. Colin and I aquired some surf boards from a local surfer named Rod who grew up in Durban with Shaun Tomson. He showed us some pics of the waves that Namibia has to offer. Lets just say this, Namibia has a plethora of unexplored points and gets pounded by the same swells that hit S. Africa. This place has the potential to go off, and Rod said it does. Rod is an environmentalist and is working with the diamond companies that own mush of the coastline and make it off-limits. He is trying to open up some spots to tourists but it is hard because the diamond company runs the economy here and holds much power. He showed us a secret spot at the tip of Walvis Bay where Cory Lopez and his friends come once a year to ride 18 second barrels. Unfortunately the surf is fickle and wasn't firing while we were there. Nevertheless Colin and I surfed a mushy little wave that broke off the pier in Swakop. Colin named it Wet Dog Pier as that is what I looked like sloshing around in the foamy water paddling on Rod's 6'10. Remember the scene in Endless Summer II when they drive up from S. Africa along the Skeleton Coast to surf a foamy spot off the dunes that they call number 27 because there are 27 other spots just like it. That is Namibia. The foam is insane but it was fun to get out in the water and try to surf Africa. Colin ended up flying out to J-Bay when we got to South Africa and got the best surf of his life, but more on that later.

Colin, Michael, and I along with a bunch of other SAS kids stayed at a hostel in Swakop and ate the best food of our lives. Oh Yea did I mention that the exchange rate here is 8.1 Namibian dollars to our 1 dollar. We ate like kings and paid in Monopoly money. A liter of beer costs $N8 which is 1 dollar. We chilled with some poor local kids and I bought them all beers and food, and got a glimpse at real Namib culture. I would later as well when I visit the township on the last day. We watched a rugby game at the bar, and had a huge bonfire on the beach with lots of SASers there.

The visit to the township was very interesting. Townships, I learned, are what most of the world's people live in. This particular township hosted half of the population of Walvis Bay, some 30,000 people. Most people there live on less than two dollars a day. In S. Africa one township many people visited hosts upwards of 2 million. We first visited a market in the township where we sampled the local milk tea, most poor people use a lot of dairy product, it tasted like gym socks but we drank it anyway. I decided to wander off in the market and try the local food. I bought some sort of meat from a guy BBQing and proceeded to dip it in a mulash of onions and peppers as the locals around me were. It tasted good. It is usually a bad sign when you buy questionable meat from a poor man and the rest of the market points at you giggling and laughing. I got nervous that I may be eating cat or worse, and went to ask my guide if I was going to be sick from eating it. He ate a piece and said it was alright. Delish!


Next we visited a school and an aids clinic. The school children were so stoked to see us. It was really awesome we couldn't get them to stop singing us songs. They sung the Namibian national anthem with pride and we donated some money to the school and community center. Visiting these kinds of places is very enlightening and some people got very emotional. The people are all very friendly and giving, even though they have little and we arrived in an air conditioned tour bus. The aids clinic was interesting and informative but saddening as well.

We drove through the most poor parts of the township and learned some native languages where you click your tongue to make words. We went to a market and saw some dancing and ate fried worms, along with other township delicacies. A bought a beer at the store and shared it with a local. We ended the tour at the home of our guide who had grown up there and has family there. We met his family and then left the township to go back to the "real world".