The road from Windhoek to the coast is a slow unravelling, and I felt it in my chest long before the sea appeared. Three hours and a bit on the tar, west on the B1 and then the B2, through the Khomas Hochland where the mountains fold into themselves and the road finds its way between them. The land drains of colour as you go — the red dust of the capital gives way to gravel plains, to scrub, to a kind of grey-green that feels like it's holding its breath. And then, suddenly, the fog. Not a distant haze, but a wall of it, rolling in off the Atlantic like a tide of air. I rolled down the window and the cold hit me, that raw, mineral cold of the Benguela current. I knew I was close.
Swakopmund sits where the desert simply gives up and hands itself to the ocean. The town is spread low along the coast, its streets wide and straight, and the buildings are a strange, ornate echo of a German seaside resort — gables and turrets and verandas, all painted in pale yellows and greens that seem to glow in the grey light. I parked near the centre and just stood there for a moment, letting the noise of the engine fade. What I heard instead was the foghorn, low and distant, and the cry of gulls. It's a sound that gets into you, if you let it.
I'd booked a room at the Hansa Hotel, one of the old places on Bismarck Street, and the room is simple, high-ceilinged, with a window that opens onto the street. The cost is about twelve hundred Namibian dollars for a night, which is on the higher side, but this is the season for it, and I wanted a base that felt solid. The hotel has that old colonial charm, dark wood and heavy curtains, and the staff are unhurried in a way that puts you at ease. I dropped my bags and went straight back out, because the town was waiting, and I had a feeling that the light would not last.
I walked down to the waterfront, past the lighthouse and the Swakopmund Museum, and out onto the wooden jetty that stretches over the cold water. The Jetty 1905, they call it — a long, narrow walkway with a restaurant at the end, and you can feel the sea moving beneath you, the whole structure creaking and shifting. Seals were barking somewhere below, and the cormorants stood on the rails like they owned the place. The fog was still thick, so the horizon was a suggestion rather than a line, and the water was a grey that seemed to absorb all the light. I stood there for a long time, my hands in my pockets, and thought about how far I'd come. Not just from Windhoek, but from everything before it.
The town has a museum, the Swakopmund Museum, and I was told it's the largest private museum in the country, founded by a dentist back in 1951. I went in the afternoon, and it's a sprawling, slightly chaotic collection — old photographs, minerals, taxidermy, shipwreck relics — that somehow makes sense as a whole. The entry fee was about sixty dollars, I think, and it's worth every cent if you want to understand this place. There's a room on the ocean and the Namib, and another on the colonial period, and you can't help but feel the weight of what happened here, the violence that built these streets. It's not a comfortable history, and the museum doesn't pretend it is.
There's also the Swakopmund Genocide Museum, which is different, smaller, and I think more urgent. It was founded by an artist, Laidlaw Peringanda, and it documents the 1904 to 1908 genocide of the Herero and Nama people. I walked through it slowly, reading the panels, looking at the photographs. It's the kind of place that makes you sit with things. And then you step outside and the town is still there, the cake shops and the souvenir stores, and the fog is still rolling in, and you have to hold both of those truths at once. That's the thing about this country — it asks you to look, and then it asks you to keep looking.
I had dinner at the Swakopmund Brauhaus, which does a solid German-style meal, and I sat at the bar with a local beer — about twenty-five dollars for a half litre, which is a good deal. The place was quiet for a winter weeknight, but there was a warmth to it, the wood and the brass and the low murmur of conversation. I ordered a schnitzel, which I was told is a house special, and it was exactly what you'd want after a long drive: crisp, comforting, no pretension. The cost was around two hundred and fifty dollars for the meal, which felt reasonable for the setting.
Afterwards, I walked back along the seafront, and the fog had cleared just enough for the stars to show through. The air was cold and clean, and I could hear the waves pulling at the shore. There's a construction project on the approach to town, a pipeline replacement that apparently broke ground recently, and I could see the lights of the machinery blinking in the distance. It's a reminder that this town is not just a postcard; it's a working place, with water mains and roadworks and people trying to make a living. The dual carriageway between here and Walvis Bay is being upgraded too, which means the road down the coast is patchy in places, but the drive is only about twenty minutes if you take it slow.
I woke early the next morning, before the light, and walked down to the Mole, the old harbour wall that shelters the town from the sea. The fog was in again, thick and cold, and I could barely see the water, but I could hear it, the thick slap of waves against rock. There were people already at the shoreline, a couple of locals with fishing lines, and they nodded at me as I passed. I've learned that in Namibia, the nod is a language of its own. It says: you're here, and that's fine, and we don't need to say more.
I drove the short distance south to Walvis Bay, along that road that's being upgraded, and the fog began to lift as the sun climbed. Walvis Bay is a working port, the kind of place where ships queue at the horizon and the air smells of salt and diesel. The lagoon is just south of the town, and it's famous for its birdlife. I pulled off the road at a viewing point, and there they were — hundreds of flamingos, standing in the shallow water, their pink a strange and beautiful shock against the grey sand. A pelican drifted past, unconcerned, and I watched the birds for a long time, the world reduced to the sound of their calls and the soft lap of the water.
The town of Walvis Bay itself is less ornate than Swakopmund — it has more of a frontier feel, like a place that grew up around work rather than leisure. I drove through the docks, past the warehouses and the cranes, and then out to Dune 7, which is just on the edge of town. It's the tallest dune in the area, and you can climb it if you want, or take a sandboarding trip, but I just stood at the bottom and looked up. The contrast was stark: the dark blue of the ocean behind me, the pale gold of the dune in front, and the desert stretching away to the east, all the way to Sossusvlei, which I still owe myself a visit to. Soon, I think. The dunes are calling, even if they don't use words.
I drove back to Swakopmund in the late afternoon, and the light was turning soft and gold, the fog finally gone. I stopped for a coffee at a place called Slowtown Coffee Roasters, which does a decent flat white, and I sat by the window and watched the town settle into the evening. A cappuccino was about thirty dollars, which is a small luxury, and I let it last. The streets were filling with people — not tourists, mostly, but locals, doing their evening errands, walking dogs, sitting on benches. There's a rhythm to this town, a slow, coastal pulse, and I think I could get used to it.
I have a list of things I want to do while I'm here. The aquarium, the desert tours, the drive north to the Skeleton Coast, which everyone tells me is the most desolate and beautiful place in the country. But I also want to just live here, to let the days form their own shape. The Dinosaur World Festival is apparently on at the seafront this week, and there's a beach soccer festival too, which sounds like a noisy, cheerful counterpoint to the fog. The town is gearing up for the Heroes' Day holiday on the 26th, and I can already feel a kind of gathering energy. For now, though, I'm happy to be still.
I went back to the Hansa for dinner — a light meal, some fish, a glass of wine — and then I walked out along the jetty one more time, in the dark. The restaurant at the end was glowing warm, and I could hear laughter and the clink of glasses. The sea was calm, the fog was gone, and the stars were out, a whole sky of them, and I found myself thinking about the word for this feeling, in Oshiwambo or in any language. Moro. It's a greeting, but it's also an acknowledgment, a way of saying I see you, and I'm here. I think that's what this episode is about for me. Being here, truly here, in this strange and beautiful place where the desert meets the sea.
Tomorrow, I'll start looking at longer-term housing, probably in Vineta or maybe in the centre, and I'll begin planning the drive north to Damaraland and Etosha. But tonight, the fog is rolling in again, soft and silent, and the lighthouse is blinking its slow, patient rhythm. I'm in Swakopmund. I'm in Namibia. And that, right now, feels like enough.