This is like a so-called "Kneipp Kur" - if you know what I mean. Within only a few days we have moved from hot to cold to hot and back to cold again. Hot being about 40 degress and cold more something like 15 - mid day temperature that is of course. When we left Sossusvlei this morning it was already well above 30 degrees and here in Lüderitz it probably didn't even reach 20 at any point during the day. We are actually freezing.

The start of the day was a bit of a disaster. Josef, the manager from the camp site, had promissed to drive us to the air strip at 6 in the morning. By 6.20 he still haden't showed up (which really pissed us of, because we had gotten up extremely early again in order to fly over the dunes at the crack of dawn). The first couple of knocks on his door didn't wake him up - only when I got impatient and hammered the door badly I finally got his attention. He hadn't even got up yet. That's Africa I guess. But this camp-site was particularily bad and unfriendly.

By 7 we finally had made it to the air strip. Nobody was there. Ulrich and Johan, the two pilots living there, had left for scenic flights earlier that morning.

Shortly after take-off Johan told me on the radio, that the coast was completely fogged up. The bad thing about our destination Lüderitz, apart from being close to the coast, is that there are no alternate aerodromes nearby. We decided to return back to the Sossusvlei Lodge air strip - even though this would put us in a tight spot with respect to fuel. Few minutes after touch-down Johan landed as well. He called Ulrich, who had gone to Lü,deritz the same morning, and got first hand confirmation, that Lüderitz was clear of fog. Luckily he had some extra drum fuel he was willing to sell us at a very reasonable price. We got an extra hour worth of fuel and took of a second time. The fog had been pushed back by the hot desert air, but the coast itself was still closed. A shame, because it ment we couldn't get to see the shipwreck at Spencer Bay. Anyway, we've seen the most important wreck, the "Eduard Bohlen".

There is amazingly much traffic over the Namib Desert. On the flight to Lüderitz I had several planes visual and was in radio contact with multiple planes most of the time.

The welcome committee at Lüderitz was unexpected. Linda noticed the first military car at the threshold of the runway (we flew right over it). Another guy with a machine-gun was standing a bit further down and on the right. The second we touched down we saw a convoy approaching the airport. It consisting of about 20 police, military and civil cars. A big official looking jet was parked on the apron - surrounded by lot's of serious looking people - many with machine-guns. At first we thought this would be a diamond transport or something like that - we are in the middle of the 'Sperrgebiet' after all. It turned out that we were the last plane to land before the President of Namibia and some of his staff (Minister of Defence for instance) were leaving Lüderitz. This of course ment no fuel, no parking, no nothing until the president had left. Interesting situation, so we didn't really mind the wait. It even had a positive side to it, because it ment there were a lot of people at the airport which would make it easier to get a lift into town.

By the time we had fueled, parked (re-parked and re-re-parked), tied the plane down and gotten ready to leave all cars but one had vanished. But one car can be enough, if there is space in it and the person driving it is of the kind type.

We actually got a bit of a sight-seeing tour around Lüderitz and insider tips on where to go for lunch and dinner. The friendly lady also helped us find accommodation. It's funny, she was born and raised in Namibia but spoke with a kind of german accent. When I finally had a heart for it I asked her wherther she would prefer to speak German - she indeed did. A lot.

After check in at the 'Kratzplatz' we had lunch in the local 'Yacht Club' which only seems to be open for white people - there weren't any blacks anyway. In fact the races seem to be pretty separated in this town. It may not be in the law books anymore, but it certainly is most people minds still.

We walked a bit around the town, had a coffee at the 'Nest Hotel' where we met the local harbour manager, a Norwegian. Dinner was taken early at a coffee shop near our hotel.