22nd to 23rd of October, 2018.
A truck with two very simple but friendly guys stops and they offer me a lift until next town, where supposedly, it would be much easier to get a lift to Swakpomund. One of them were Namibian, the other, Angolan. That day I actually meet a few people from Angola.
So they drop me at a taxi point. I quickly tell the taxi drives my story and why I am going a little further to hitchhike. One of them offer to drive me to Swakop for free. I accept.
In Swakpomund, I spend a long time just sit in front of the sea. And also cleaning my bag because of an “oat flakes explosion”.
I have plans to camping on the beach but the signs about how is forbidden are everywhere. So I see this camping site, just beside the beach and I decide to ask them if its possible to put my tent for free just for the night. They allow me! I cook, I eat, I offer the left overs to a nice security guard, I start to watch Lucky Number Slevin, and I go to sleep.
With the sunrise I start to walk. I want to see a bit of the town in the morning and leave to Terrace Bay before twelve o’clock.
Swakop is one of the most tourist towns in Namibia, if not the most, but I do not see exactly why. Maybe because of the tourist activities. Tourists love that! I do not see anything too excite in town, though. Apart of some beautiful old buildings and the beaches (which are clean and with blue and turquoise sea), there is not too much to see. But maybe is just my opinion. Maybe I did not walk enough.
So now I’m waiting in front one of the tourist information, to try figure out if I need a permit to going to the Skeleton Cost. Unfortunately, it is not the most popular place and is together with a biltong shop. It is after eight in the morning already and the shop is still closed.
I decide to check in the next shop what time they might open. The lovely girl working in there, called Marilyn, decides to help me and call her brother to ask for information. He says that I need to go to a place called NWR, in town, and ask them about it. While we are talking, the owner of the biltong shop arrive and quickly offer to drive me there. Also a lovely lady called Gwen.
At NWR, I am told that since I do not have a car, I do not need a permit. I will just need to pay a fee to get inside the Skeleton Park, that to foreigners it cost N$ 80. But you do not need to cross the gate to visit and to see the cost until get in there, so you can decided not to cross. Besides, Marilyn’s brothers said that sometimes the gate is just opened and you can just pass. Take your chances!
I have to walk a lot out of town to get a good point to hitchhike. When somebody stops, he is going just until Henties Bay but I decide to take my chances. He is a nice guy, a family guy, and he sounds concern about my security. So after drops me at the road and go to town, he says he will come back later to check if I am still in there.
Hours pass and nobody stops. It is because I am not holding any signs? My lift pass by around three o’clock in the afternoon and says that will be back around six and then can help me to find a place to stay in town.
After half past six I decide to move to town by my own. The decision is if I will look for a church or ask to put my tent for free in the first camping site I see. I choose the second option.
The lady owner of the place does not look very happy in help me, but she allows me to stay anyway. The best thing is a tiny white puppy, who plays with me during the whole time I am making my camping. The place is full equipped with a toilet for each “plot” and a place to cook.
Next morning I decide to stay on the road to Terrace Bay until 12 o’clock. If nobody pick me up, I take my way in the opposite direction.
Nearly midday, two guys in a pick up stop just to pissed me off. They start to say that I cannot hitchhike to there because when I have to come back, it will be forbidden to hitchhike in the National Park. And they reinforce the fact that I cannot camping outside in Namibia. Fuck off, man! Stop wasting my time and make me lose some possible lifts just to piss me off! I hate when people do that! They say they just want to help but they are not actually offering you a solution, they are just saying how fuck up you are!
Anyway, since nobody stops, I make another plan: take a lift to just a few kilometers back, where there is the only abandoned ship in the way I came yesterday, take my pictures, camp on the beach, and leave next day to Walvis Bay. I actually had planned this last afternoon, because you see, the position of Namibia on the Globe it makes the sunset to happen on the beach, so I though that the picture of the ship with a nice sunset as background would be awesome! Unfortunately, the guy who gave me a lift and supposedly would come back, warned me about some local stone’s sculptors, who stay at the ship point, trying to sell their stuffs to the tourists. According to him, they stay their until late evening, so it could be quite dangerous for me to go and camping there at sunset. But now is noon and I decided to go and check.
Pelé gives me a ride. Laugh. I do not know what exactly is his name, but he tells me that because he loves our most famous Brazilian footballer, everybody calls him Pelé. He has a big truck and he stops when I am not even making a sign. He drops me at the abandoned ship.
It is a pretty view that you can see: that old ship, all rusty, just showing half of its magnificence. And the colors of the sea and the sky contribute also a lot. It is a bright day but not too much to damage the picture. It is a nice picture but nothing compare with what could be during the sunset. And at least you do not have to pay. Yet.
Unfortunately the seller guys are there. Five or six or seven of them. They actually do not offer their products to me. Would them have realized that I simply could not buy anything?
So I decide go back to the road, take another lift to just a few kilometers ahead, explain to the person, you know, that I just want to make my camping on the beach, but here I cannot because of the guys, and have a nice picture of the sunset. Even if is without the ship. Simple, hãm? It would be. If it is the life of anybody else in the world, it would be. But it is me! We are talking about my life, my dear readers, so how could be any simple?