We rode out from Swakopmund to Walvis Bay. It’s a strategically important very small port, and you can read about it here
Discovered by the Portuguese, it was British, then German, a war, then British again, then South African and now Namibian.
It’s a nice ride out the coast road. Swakopmund is always moderately windy, I forgot to mention. This and the mild temperature made it a great break, refreshing
Coastline
Inland a bit is Dune 7, a tourist climb
People at the top
Went to check out the yacht club, wondering who would own a boat here, given the distant destinations
This is the graveyard, every club has one. The bigger of those two boats, despite the lousy photo was a 50 footer, with a nice flush deck to the structure at the stern and a beautiful sheer line, set up for heavy air. And hadn’t seen the water or maintenance for maybe 10 years
A little further along, this. Have a look at the background, in the water
Flamingoes!
The two different birds below, one smaller and pinker than the other, are the 2 African species
There are 2 more in South America (I’ve seen them both) and one sort of in Central America and the Caribbean
Here’s short walking video, which is cool
Topic change
In the paper this morning was a piece on the sale of a uranium mine from Rio Tinto to the Chinese
And the other day I rode by these two water pipelines. The big one on the left is coming from a huge desalination plant to what, when finished, will be the biggest uranium mine in the world. So with the acquisition of the competition, they now have a monopoly here
Why is this important? Because this is just a small example of the vast Chinese investment in Africa right now. Most people, the people you meet, are scared of the huge deals being done with their resources and ports.
Another change of subject
You know when you got out to get new bike gloves, all the good brands and size large are sold out? How depressing to have to buy the junk $39 gloves and wait.
So about 18 months ago, back in BC, I had to do that, buy the junk, and here they are, still going strong, a record for any glove
I started with them from BC in Myanmar because they were still fine, lol. I have a nice pair of expensive Held’s waiting for them to blow up in a pannier.