There's plenty of interesting places around Swakopmund that you can drive to in a car. 35 Kilometers South of Swakopmund is Walvis Bay the main harbor town and center of the Fishing Industry. On the South-West side of Walvis Bay you will find one of the largest Wet-Land Bird sanctuaries in the World. It is home to tens of thousands of Flamingos, Pelicans, and a variety of birds too large to mention here. If you visit in our peak summer months you will even find Arctic-Terns that have migrated in from Siberia.

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 Salt Mining at the Coast. The sea-salt 'Mining' operations near Swakopmund and Walvis Bay are amongst the largest in the World. Massive lagoons are built and flooded with sea water and left to dry in the hot sun. The water turns a beautiful pink before the salt crystallizes out. What is shown here is a pink crust of salt. You can see the pink hue of the water just in front of the crust edge.
Kilometers of Salt. This vast lagoon area has nearly dried out. The salt fields look just like snow. Soon it will be loaded and trucked to the processing works.

 A Salt Mountain dwarfs a large mechanized front-loading shovel.
   

Welwitschia and Moon Valley Landscape Drive approx 140kms round trip. Time 3-4hrs.These plants are unique, prehistoric, and only found in the Namib, with a few in the south of Angola. The largest specimens are located on the barren gravel Welwitschia Plains approx 60 kms East of Swakopmund. It's well worth a visit . You'll have an Arakkis (Dune Planet) experience. With slight rains they can grow up to 2mm a year in leaf diameter, so have some respect for their age. You'll need a permit that will cost about N$50 to go out there.

The C28 Gravel road. 330Kms to Windhoek

Good signs & Permit required

Moon-Scape 1

Moon-Scape 2

Goanikontes Oasis

The Arid Welwitschia Plains

A Large Male Welwitschia

A 'Younger' Female Welwitschia

The Big Welwitschia 1500years Plus.

A 'Baby' plant 50 years plus

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