Swakopmund - what a town! Imagine sitting in a café at the seaside, around you people eat Apfelkuchen, Currywurst of Gulaschsuppe, most of the time you hear German, there are pensioners, some young people. Swakopmund has Fachwerkhäuser and other rather European looking buildings. We liked the town, it gave us our 'comfort zone' back because it resembles Europe so much. Then again - we travel now for three weeks in Africa and we are getting used to this country, our 'travel comfort zone' starts to build up!

Namibia is such a beautiful country and it is just the desert with its emptiness that makes it so special. Swakopmund is surrounded by sand and gravel desert and we treated ourselves to a 'living desert tour'. Our guide could read the desert and just a small trail in the sand was sufficient and he would jump out of his car, run up the dune and come back with a snake or a lizard. Magic! We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Some 800 km further north - Opuwo, town of the Himba. Our comfort zone is challenged again. Peter and Claudia are fine, but Lasse and Sil had an exhausting day. The Himba are a half nomadic tribe in Northwestern Namibia. They still lead their traditional life, obviously mixed with some modern aspects here in town (like buying food in a supermarket). The women cover their body with a mixture of ochre, cow butter and herbs, giving their skin a red colour; they just wear a kind of skirt and lots of jewelry, it is an unusual sight. Together with their children they try to sell self-made stuff, rather relentlessly. First Sil locked himself in the car, but after 10 minutes curiosity grew stronger than his fear and he came out. Later, Lasse declared that by now he was used to the topless ladies.... It's great to travel with kids. Today they sleep with mama in a tent to give them back some of their comfort zone.

Before Opuwo we stayed some days on a nice camping in Uis, near Brandberg (with 2.573 m the highest mountain of Namibia). Uis is a funny little village, quite remote and ‘discovered' by white people in the nineties, after the tin-mine run by South Africa was closed down. Unmistakably a mixed village, but when we asked how many people live in Uis, the answer was '60, but usually only 40 are here'. Black people obviously weren't part of the count. It appears as if the two worlds remain two worlds.

When we told the owner of the camping in Uis, that we were headed to Opuwo, she said: 'Opuwo is a filthy town', and showed a similar face to prove it. When asked what makes it dirty, she said: 'The local people', again showing a dirty face with it. With local people she obviously meant the Himba. Well, Opuwo is dusty, not so much filthy, but this is merely due to the fact that the country is dry and dusty. The Himba are also not filthy, they're just different. We think it is great to see these proud people in their own fashion, in their town. Opuwo really is their town, there are little white people here, and our camping site here actually is the first one to be run by black people. But we feel very welcome here and find it rather easy to connect to the locals. Although real communication is most of the time difficult due to the language-barrier, there is no problem in sharing a friendly joke and having some fun together.