African Wings: Part 5 - Sandwich Harbour & Conception Bay

AFRICAN WINGS: PART 5: SANDWICH HABOUR & CONCEPTION BAY

Join us on a 6500km flying adventure through Namibia starting at Rundu on the Angolan border and ending at Oranjemund;  the quirky mining town of the Sperrgebiet

  

The dramatic coastline between Henties Bay and Sandwich harbour must be hands down, one of the most beautiful flights in the world...

We did a lazy take off into a shimmering haze of heat and dust late one afternoon and droned along the coast parallel to the desert highway between Henties Bay and Swakopmund. The heat was tremendous; 32 degrees on the ground and 32 degrees 2000ft above ground level. Now for non-aviators hot air means less lift for aircraft and on this particular day the air was so heavy with heat that it felt like we were flying through transparent jelly.

Following the desert highway between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay

The Desert road between Henties Bay and Walvis Bay

We flew over the bizarre little village of Vlotskasbaken which consists of extremely industrious and eccentric individuals that live “off the grid” and provide their own water and electricity in an exceptionally inhospitable environment. Each house is brightly coloured and themed, which gives the village a kind of fairground feel

The strange little village of Vlotskasbaken

The Ziela wreck just south of Henties Bay

Cargo ships in Walvis Bay harbour

Salt farming south of Walvis Bay



Where the dunes meet the sea



En-route to Sandwich Harbour

The landscape between Henties Bay and Swakopmund is characterised by barren salt pans, vegetation covered hummock dunes and endless dune fields that swirl along the coast kissing the sapphire blue Atlantic with their ever shifting sands.

The Kuiseb River Delta - a Wetland of International Importance

A Landrover negotiates its way over the dunes near Sandwich Harbour



Sandwich harbour is a shallow lagoon that lies about 80km south of Walvis Bay. It is a wilderness paradise that is virtually inaccessible by land due to spring tides and shifting sands. Historically Sandwich harbour served as a commercial fishing and trading port, however all that remains of these efforts is an early-to mid-1900s hut used for guano collection, a rusting barge, a graveyard and some wooden beams.

As we approached the towering, wind-sculptured dunes at the edge of the harbour; we felt like we had entered a land of enchantment, a place of sacred significance. Tumultuous, wild and unforgiving it stole our heart in a second. This visit to Sandwich harbour is one that we will keep locked away in our treasure chest of memories forever.

The surreal colours of Sandwich Harbour

Flamingo on the turquoise expanse of Sandwich Harbour



Flying over Sandwich harbour is something I am sure Dali would enjoy as its colours and shapes are so surreal in nature that you have to pinch yourself to make sure you’re really awake and not in some strange dream.

Further south at Conception Bay the famous ship wreck of the Eduard Bohlen came into view. She was a cargo ship that ran aground off the coast of Namibia's Skeleton Coast in 1909, due to thick fog. The wreck lies in the sand a quarter mile from the shoreline and epitomises the loneliness and savagery of the Skeleton Coast.

Dunefields south of Sandwich Harbour

The wreck of the Eduard Bohlen - her shadow the only memory of her former glory

The coastline between Sandwhich Harbour and Walvis Bay

The warm afternoon light had turned the dunes into molten gold as we flew back to Henties Bay. Jan and I sat in silence as we droned over the dune fields and the psychedelic lagoons,

humbled by the magnificence of it all……