07.42 I've woken up before the wakeup signals from our mobile phones and I feel refreshed. Now it will be a morning shower. It's time to see more of Swakopmund in Namibia.

08.38 A life-sustaining effort has been made. Christer's radio stopped abruptly. New batteries are installed. The old ones are being charged by my battery charger and now everything is fine. It's time for another life-sustaining effort. We'll go and have breakfast here at Amanpuri Travellers Lodge.

09.24 After breakfast, we met a young man from Lesotho who had his car parked outside our room. He and his comrades had driven here and wondered if we knew what the town had to offer. We told him what we knew and wished him a pleasant stay.

09.48 Our day here is planned and structured. Soon we will lock the door and leave our home. What will happen today?

11.02 Before leaving the place, we have written postcards to people living abroad. This was done by a table outside the entrance. The sun is shining and it seems to be a really nice day today.

Swakopmund has wide streets.

German houses in the African sand.

The sand dunes of the Namibian desert wait south of Swakopmund.

Christer is walking around close to the stables and horses in southern Swakopmund.

11.19 We are standing and can see a sea some distance away, a sea of dunes, a sea of sand. We are on the edge, end or beginning of a desert, the Namib Desert. Behind me a dog is barking and a horse whinnies. The desert looks dry and desolate. We'll see if we will move closer. Between us and the desert is the dry river bed of the Swakopmund River.

11.28 We stood for a moment and gazed out over the majestic landscape. The Atlantic and the highway south towards Walvis Bay were seen and it felt unreal that a river flows here in other parts of the year. Now you can barely see that it was a river bed. Behind us we have a stable area and paddocks. Two horses have been visited by an attendant and seem happy. Now we wander away from the sand and into town again.

11.57 We have reached the Sam Nujoma Avenue, the main street, and walked to the old German railway station Otavi Bahnhof. Inside there are snakes and other reptiles. The railroad stopped working many years ago and the house is now home of The Living Desert Snake Park. Here we will look at a variety of snakes, lizards and scorpions. Last year we saw snakes in Costa Rica and now here in Namibia, it is time for more of these long creatures.

The old railway station Otavi Bahnhof is filled with snakes these days.

Lunch for the chameleons.

A green chameleon hiding in a bush.

An Angolan cobra winds.

Black Mamba is not the most poisonous but is still counted as Namibia's most dangerous snake.

Christer and an old copper ore wagon.

12.11 Snakes are really interesting. In addition to the snakes there is some information on how to treat snakebites, which snakes that kill the most people in Namibia, how different snake venoms work etc.

12.35 It was beautiful, powerful but a bit lethargic reptiles. Now we are back in the mall Stadtmitte and at Café Treffpunkt. Christer has just ordered what we did not have time to order yesterday, mashed potatoes and German sausages (bratwurst). We've done some of the planned things today and are well located according to our time schedule.

12.59 It was a perfect lunch, hearty but still a light meal. Drinking beer and eating German sausage in Africa feels odd but this town is remarkable.

Our lunch, German sausages at Café Treffpunkt.

Nedbank Arcade, Swakopmund

13.39 We strolled around a bit in the town center and eventually found the post office and sent our postcards after a lot of queuing. Once out from the post Christer discovered that he had didn´t get enough change back from the post office man. Getting past the queue to talk to him about it just felt a waste of time so we decided to continue the urban walk instead.

14.33 We left the post office and have now walked down to the windy boardwalk. The paved walkway is surrounded by date palms. Some branches are lying on the ground, can the wind be the cause?

14.51 We arrived at Swakopmund beach which is lovely during the right season. Today, however, it is windy, cold, and the waves from the sea throw itself aggressively against the shores. We have taken some photos of the sea. In the sea there is, besides frothy waves, a raft full of birds and two swimming, German-speaking women in colorful bathing caps. One cannot help but be impressed by these hardliners. The water is cold here!

15.09 On the road from the beach area, we walked towards the beautiful red and white striped lighthouse. There, we found a bunch of birds in a stairwell. They were guinea fowl. Now it's time for afternoon coffee at Café Bojos on Daniel Tjongarero Street. Recently we saw a car with license plates from Australia, New South Wales.

German women are not afraid of cold water.

Birds resting on a raft.

Beautiful beachflowers.

Peter and some local art on Swakopmund beach.

The attack of the Atlantic.

The beautiful lighthouse in Swakopmund was built 1903.

Guineafowl in Swakopmund.

16.01 No sooner had we left the cozy cafe when a lady came out from a house and spoke to us in German. She explained that she was working in one of the shops nearby and waited for two people. She wondered if we were these two. We explained what we weren’t the ones and left. Now we are back in our room for well-deserved rest, siesta, lurking.

17.59 After having gathered strength here in the semi-cold room we have come to the decision that we should go and eat dinner. I have put on my jeans, socks and a jacket. You have to be respectably dressed if you want to eat at nice places. Before dinner, I sent an email about a possible meeting when we get back to Windhoek.

The green and yellow town hall in Swaklopmund

The Lutheran-evangelical church in Swakopmund.

Christer is reading in our room at Amanpuri Travellers Lodge

19.05 I checked internet at Swakopmund Internet Cafe (http://www.swakop.com/icafe/), the person in Windhoek will text message me. After that, we had planned to have a German dinner, maybe game meat, at the Swakopmund Brauhaus. Unfortunately others had also planned to go there. It was fully booked. All tables were pre-booked. Instead we are at Napolitana Pizzeria & Grill and will order pizza, Hawaii and Swakopmund Special. We can’t have grilled meat every night. We sit on sturdy wooden benches in a large hall.

19.39 The waitress just came and announced that it is only six minutes until the pizzas come. There are many who want food tonight. We sit and remember the restaurants from the past while we wait.

20.59 It took six minutes and then some more minutes as well. The pizzas which arrived were big, full of fillings and tasty. We have just returned to the room and have begun to prepare for tomorrow.

22.05 Life is strange. At home when I work, I sleep less, wake up earlier than now and am not as tired at this time of the day as I am now. Am I getting old or are we moving along more intensely on the trips? Maybe it's all the new impressions to a fatigue brain. What about the return trip tomorrow? Will it be with a small bus? Was the size of the bus due to the fact that few had booked? Tomorrow, we know the answer.

Wednesday 4th of July

09.27 We have eaten our second breakfast here at Amanpuri. Soon all what we have unpacked will be returned to our backpacks again. We will soon once again walk away carrying our belongings.

09.48 We have checked out. A middle-aged lady who seemed to be the manager commented on our clothing and wondered how we could be so lightly dressed in the cold weather. She also wondered if we had been hiding because she had not been given the chance to greet us until now. Payment, $ N600, is made. We said thanks and walked out onto the sidewalk. Christer is now in the shop Chunky's to buy some travel beverages for both of us. Outside the shop is a dog faithfully waiting for someone, oops it just went inside!

A faithful dog is waiting for its owner.

Peter is waiting for the Intercape bus.

10.36 The small bus from Intercape just got here. The luggage has been loaded and we have been ticked off on the bus hostess list. The hostess and driver are old friends to us. They were the ones who brought us here the other day. It is probably the same bus as well. The driver asked if we were going to South Africa and the hostess asked if we had had a good stay here in Swakopmund. We have had a great time, but I don’t know if it is more German than Germany though.

10.51 The journey started and we reached the area where the town and desert meet. Here the driver stopped at an Engen petrol station to refuel. The windows of the bus are also washed.

11.13 Sand, sand, sand and more sand. The only variation is some mountains in the distance. We are moving rapidly eastward. Our driver is not shy on the accelerator.

12.46 After a quick break, we´re getting ready to leave Usakos. Here we met a strange man who talked loudly about God in the men's room. Today it's hot, really hot. The climate is changing rapidly as one move away from the sea with its cold mist. What waits in Windhoek? Will it be colder or warmer than here?

Public transport in Namibia.

Who hasn´t asked that question?

14.37 The bumping of the bus is restricting my writing. We have just left Okahandja. We have taken the opportunity to relieve the pressure. At the entrance to the toilet she was standing, the toilet lady, an old woman who wanted to have some money as an entry fee. I do not know if it was official or not. What I do know is that we have seen termite mounds by the side of the road.

15.52 The bus stopped where it left the other day, right next to the railway station. We walked from there. Now we have checked into the room Waldorf Astoria at the accommodation The Cardboard Box Backpackers (http://www.cardboardbox.com.na). Our room and the rooms next door are named after famous hotel chains. We will remain in this accommodation for two nights but only one night in this room. We must change room tomorrow. It is a simple room with four beds and a small garbage can. The entrance code to the accommodation is 8585# and the code to access the internet is led zeppelin. We live on Johann Albrecht Street one block closer to the center compared to Rivendell, the last place we stayed in the city.

Peter is sitting in the Waldorf Astoria room.

17.07 We've been down to the center of Windhoek and withdrew money from an ATM. It's busy traffic today. Why did we not withdraw money already in Swakopmund? Who knows? We have also bought soft drinks and some candy at a Puma petrol station.

17.55 I received a message from my local contact here. She is busy tomorrow so we will not be able to meet. Now we prepare ourselves to go out and have dinner.

19.10 We're back at Fusion Restaurant. I have ordered kudu meat and Christer will have the chef's favorite, a fish dish from Zanzibar, made of kingklip.

20.10 Once again, it was really great food here at Fusion. Now we are back at The Cardboard Box and Christer is trying to surf the internet, but it is a slow computer. I've been to the bar and bought a cup of coffee. I fear I'm getting old. I didn’t see any point to order any alcohol with my coffee, sing along to the music, or any other bar behaviour.

21.41 We have been thinking about what we've done on this date during our previous trips. We have concluded that we have been here and there. Last time we were on Swedish soil on this date was in 2000. Now it is time to wrap up this rather uneventful day.

Thursday 5th of July

07.58 The sun is shining in through one of our windows. I have had a shower. A new day has begun.

08.53 This day could have started better. Both showers are busy and they have been so for quite a while. There is no chance for Christer to get a shower at the moment.

09.21 The shower was vacant for a short time and then became busy again, by Christer. Now we have ordered our breakfast. We met a three-legged dog, a boxer, at the pool area. The lost leg doesn’t stop it from running happily around here at the accommodation.

09.50 A cup of coffee and two pancakes with cinnamon and sugar have been consumed. That is the breakfast which is included here. Now we are preparing to leave the Waldorf Astoria and move to the next room. It will apparently be on the back.

The Cardboard Box, a popular backpacker accomodation in Windhoek.

An old Volkswagen bus has been converted into a room.

Here is our new room, Moulin Rouge.

10.19 We're right now sitting down with our luggage in the lobby, waiting for our room to be ready. Outside, life continues as normal. It would be good if we got the room soon. We have some things to take care of today.

10.49 We finally got a new home. Now we stay in the Moulin Rouge. It's a bit more space here and we also have other furniture other than the beds. However there is a smell of new paint in here. The room is farthest in, in a stone house just by a rebuilt cool VW bus.

11.12 Things are not good today. The key and the lock don’t fit together. We had wanted to get to the Embassy of Zimbabwe to find out about a visa for later this summer. We are waiting for the caretaker to arrange this with the lock.

11.34 The caretaker has proceeded to work. It sounded like he said something about "changing the lock" or "changed the locks". I don’t know which is right. The accommodation dogs, the three legged boxer and its friend run happily around with the caretaker.

11.45 The lock which was broken is changed and I have locked with the new key. Now we will get outdoors.

12.28 We walked at a brisk pace for about 20 minutes to Grimm Street and the Zimbabwean Embassy. We came to the embassy office five minutes after they should be closing. We signed in at a guard and entered. The woman at the embassy told us that a visa will take seven working days to arrange. It can also be bought by the border though, at least for us Swedes. Now we have left the embassy, walked past some happy hairdressers who shouted after us, passed the railway station and ordered lunch inside the Portuguese-Angolan Restaurant O Pensador.

Our lunch restaurant, "O Pensador".

12.47 The restaurant was completely empty when we arrived. Now the number of guests has expanded with a group of Africans who speak Portuguese. It's a reasonable guess that they are from Angola. This since their language, the restaurant's theme and that Angola is a neighbouring country of Namibia.

13.08 It was two perfect sized portions which tasted heavenly. It is time to get to the center.

13.47 At the moment are we updating ourselves and the world at MAAS Internet cafe in the shopping mall Wernhil Park.

14.12 We finished surfing the internet and wandered on to look at the sights we missed when we were in town last weekend. Diagonally to the left of us is a beautiful church, the German Christuskirche. Before us is Fidel Castro Street with its intense traffic. Along the way here a young man came up, calling himself Andreas and called out to us in German. That we would not be Germans seemed unthinkable to him. We also passed the place where bare-breasted women from the Himba people are sitting in traditional clothing and sell souvenirs. Can women from certain ethnic groups walk around bare-breasted in the streets without breaking the law while others go in for disorderly conduct?

14.24 We are sitting by a wall below the church and are thinking. Now Christer got up. It's time to move on. The taxis signal their horns so often that you become jaded by all the cars honking.

Christuskirche, Windhoek.

Christer is having coffee and cake at the Cafe Balalaika in Zoo Park.

14.29 Matilde the waitress laughed when she realized that Christer had ordered the only cake, carrot cake, which was not available to order here at the Cafe Balalaika @ the Zoo. It is a lovely café amidst the greenery of Windhoek's city center. Here we are now, and taking it easy before we go home again.

15.32 We have bought something to drink at the Puma petrol station we passed on the way back. The cashier's behind glass. All purchases is done through a gap. The goods are placed in a basket which is slid in, the items are scanned, money is placed on the sliding disk above where the basket just went in, goods and any change is returned to the customer. This is safety at a high level. Crime is not so common here in Namibia but things work as in South Africa where people are on guard to protect themselves against crime in major cities. Now we are back in our newly painted smelling/stinking room.

16.06 We are now sitting by the pool here at The Cardboard Box and read in our books by Ian Rankin and Carin Gerhardsen. At a table behind me sits the Dutch woman we met on Monday. She got back from Swakopmund one day after us and turned up here just like us.

17.50 We have left the pool area after we had learned that our Dutch friend also travel north tomorrow. She continues all the way to Zambia. Here in the room just Christer just discovered that his newly purchased backpack had a big tear. It has now been patched and repaired. Now we rest and prepare for the braai (barbecue) in about an hour.

The three-legged dog at The Cardboard Box runs smoothly up the stairs.

19.39 The barbecue was supposed to start at 19.00 but things didn’t seem like that so we waited a while. Now we are in the bar/restaurant area. It seems as they are getting ready for the evening braai. Reggae or is it ska-music is played. I'm hungry.

19.48 Now we've got some oryx meat, a springbok sausage and a lamb chop. We are about to season and barbecue to our own liking. A large grill is laid out over a bed of coal which is embedded in the ground. We were so lucky and got the last pieces of meat. The price is not to complain about. The raw materials we had for about US$7.

20.11 The oryx meat and the springbok sausage grilled to perfection. The chop will remain on the grill for a while. It need more time to get grilled.

Christer is grilling meat. It is "braai-night" tonight.

20.41 Grilled meat is delicious but a real challenge if the knife is closer to a butter knife than a barbecue cutlery. In addition, its might have been smart if we had bought something to eat together with meat. Now our dinner was just meat and beer. Axl Rose from Guns'n'Roses can be heard singing "Paradise City" in the speakers.

20.47 We're back in the room and we both smell like a smokehouse. Speaking of the smokehouse, outside our door a man stood with a glass in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He seemed really fuzzy and babbled about something as we wanted to pass by and get into the room. We have just taken the first malaria pill. Now only 35 of them remain.

22.30 Christer has unsuccessfully waited for the hostel's computer. It was busy all the time. In the lobby sat the smoking man, Malik. Malik that appears to be from Malaysia was not exactly sober and talked incoherently with the girl at the front desk and another guest. Now it is time to round up another day. We are thinking about the cities we slept several nights in. This is the fourth Windhoek night in a single trip. In which cities have we slept more nights than that?

Peter eats meat in a tremendous speed.

Friday 6th of July

08.03 The sky above Windhoek is actually cloudy. We had to look at it more than once to believe it but it is actually so. Earlier it has been clear blue sky all day on the trip except when the fog rolled in from the sea in Swakopmund. We are ready for a new day. We hear birds sing and the sound of cars.

09.13 The breakfast pancakes are eaten though they were difficult to cut due to the blunt knives. No wonder we had problems with the grilled meat yesterday. BBC News reports about the crisis in Syria and that two elderly men are to stand trial for the disappeared children in Argentina in the 1970s. "Ordinary" people's children were given to families who were faithful to the regime.

Breakfast by the swimming pool.

09.46 Everything is packed up. We are about to check out and find out if we can leave the backpacks in the lobby. We have a few hours before the bus departs from Windhoek. It was this bus trip that got a new departure time and was phoned about on the trip on the 11th of April.

10.49 Down in the center we have surfed a bit on the internet. Now we are sitting in the mall that is adjacent to the hotel Kalahari Sands. We are in front of Checkers Liquor Shop and Lana Dry Cleaners. A man in a green hat seems to be talking about this and that, spreading welcome greetings and so. Right now, he tries to initiate a conversation with Christer. His breath smells of strong products but he converses politely. He asked for some money for food and thought we should get us some women from the Oshiwambo people. Now, he said goodbye and trotted away.

11.08 After a lot of sitting on a bench and philosophizing, we have now walked out of the mall.

11.24 It's time for the last lunch here in Windhoek. We are at The Gourmet Restaurant and Beer Garden (http://www.thegourmet-restaurant.com). It is cozy and comfortable here. We are in a courtyard that is shaded by large trees. The restaurant is located in a complex called Kaiserkrone. A polite waiter has just brought us the menus.

12.50 Our lunch was hearty and tasty. We have, after purchasing sweets and drinks to the bus trip in a Shell station, returned to The Cardboard Box to cool off. In addition, we will pick up our backpacks.

Inside the Kalahari Sands Shopping Mall.

Christer is having an excellent lunch at The Gourmet Restaurant.

13.24 We walked down to Intercape’s new stop by the train station where we arrived on Saturday. They switched to this station on July 1, the day after we arrived in town for the first time. They also have their office here.

13.54 Now we're on board Intercape’s Mainliner. Christer and I will "only" go to Tsumeb in northern Namibia. Our friend from the Netherlands will go all the way to Livingstone in Zambia, a journey which will take her almost 24 hours. We will go there on Monday. It is unfortunately a lack of legroom on the bus.

14.21 Finally we are on our way. It was chaotic before everyone had found their seat. We should really have started 14:00. That’s life! We are not in a hurry.

15.30 First it was a stop just to drop off some passengers. It has now been upgraded to a five-minute stop for refreshments. I hope the passengers will be back in time. We are in Okahandja. Christer has walked out to stretch his legs.

15.46 The planned five minutes stop grew to fifteen before we left. This trip will take time! I just ordered coffee but will have to wait. The water is not hot yet.

16.34 I've just finished reading the book "Watchman" by Ian Rankin. Outside the bus, the sun is setting behind the clouds. The landscape is flat and overgrown by bushy trees. There is a shortage of legroom. Still no coffee!

18.05 We are about half an hour late and in Otjiwarongo. It has become dark. Christer has been offered to sponsor the local football team. A guy came up with a list and told him that the team was "champions" but needed money to travel to get to the away games. We have also supplied with a little more food for the journey at the petrol station here. The bus hostess has promised to bring me some coffee after this stop. They usually do not serve coffee when there are so many on board. She will, however, make an exception for me. Do I look that desperate?

The sun prepares for night.

19.41 It is totally black outside. The bus movie, shown on TV, "Forgiven" is finished. The trip on the other hand isn’t. So far no coffee but now I mostly just want to arrive.

20.28 We said goodbye/see you again to our Dutch friend before we got off the bus in the outskirts of Tsumeb. Now we are at the fast food restaurant Wimpy and are waiting for our cheeseburgers. One of the waitresses has showed us the way towards the center. This place will be a good base for us as we travel further on Monday. We were never told where we were when the bus stopped. The only thing that was said was that the stop was for alighting and boarding. Despite this, some Brazilian passengers from our bus are here at Wimpy ordering food. I just offered Christer a malaria pill. My pills were easily accessible. Now, the bus attendant is here, she tells the Brazilians that the bus must go on.

21.11 We have, after a walk through a deserted Tsumeb, arrived at Etosha Cafe (http://www.etoshacafe.com) where we booked a room. Here we are all alone and the door is locked. Christer rang a phone number but it just went to a phone behind the locked door. Right now he is calling 081-306 8106 and I hope there will be a reply. OK, someone answered, that's good!

21.24 A door opened and out came a dark-skinned German-speaking man in a bathrobe. He showed us first to a room and said, for one of you. Then he showed us to another room and said that this was for the other one. In that room there were two beds. We seem to be double-booked. This has happened before, in Klagenfurt 2010. We said that one room was enough. We just met a cat.

22.22 We have washed our clothes and heard the song "The Big Blue" on the radio. It was in Swedish. A dog is barking outside.

22.40 Things have happened. We have heard more singing in Swedish on the radio and the shower curtain rod that we thought would hold for our laundry did not. Now the laundry is hung on another place and the rod and curtain are in place. This sint the first time that laundry and interior have crashed for us. It also happened on the 3rd of July 2001 in Olomouc in the Czech Republic.

23.22 It is nice to get some sleep, nice with a really good place. Tomorrow we'll see what's outside the room. Tonight all is dark.