When you approach Swakopmund on the tarred road from the interior, its quaint assemblage of towers and turrets rise mysteriously from the mist, creating a mirage of an ancient city in a faraway land. These atmospheric conditions are generated by the dense bank of coastal fog that hangs over the cold Atlantic Ocean on most mornings, dissipating as the sun rises higher in the sky. Sometimes the sea is a sleek silver mirror; other times it is grey and stormy, with waves breaking onto the shore in rollers of thick white froth.

Germany's annexation of the territory of Deutsch-Südwestafrika became reality in August 1884 when the German flag and wooden notice boards were planted at various points along the south-west African coast, proclaiming the protection of the Reich, and supplanting, after 400 years, Portugal's claims to sovereignty over the territory. There was only one really viable natural harbour along the coast, namely Walvis Bay, but it was still in British hands. The new German colony's need for a port of its own led to the founding of Swakopmund in 1892, and it served as the territory's main harbour for many years.

Today the coastal town is Namibia's main seaside resort, and locals descend on it from the interior in large numbers to escape the heat of the summer (December/ January). The town has a cool and bracing climate, and its large number of restaurants, carefully tended public gardens, wide choice of pensions and hotels, coffee shops selling traditional German cakes and pastries make it an enjoyable holiday destination. Many of the old colonial buildings with their distinct German architecture have been preserved, such as Woermann House, built in 1905, which houses the Swakopmund Arts Association and the Public Library; Die Alte Kaserne (1905), today a youth hostel based on the concept of the International Youth Hostel Federation; the privately owned Hohenzollern-Haus (1905); and the Prinzessin Ruprecht Heim, built in 1902 as a hospital, today serving as a pension.

The Old Iron Jetty, originally built in 1911, is a well-known landmark that was closed for repairs for many years and was re-opened to the public in 2006. The Swakopmund Museum is a small but comprehensive institution with displays ranging from natural history, botany and mineralogy to ethnological and historical displays. On the beachfront is the Swakopmund Aquarium, a favourite among children with its transparent oval-shaped tank and glass walk-through tunnel. An interesting shop to visit is the Kristall Galerie with its specialist mineral displays, including gigantic quartz crystal clusters. And a visit to Swakopmund would not be complete without enjoying coffee and cake at Caf? Anton, famous for delectable classics such as Schwarzw?lder Kirschtorte, Florentiners and Apfelstrudel.

Inland from Swakopmund, like huge bundles of tangled wool, the ancient welwitschias of the central Namib sprawl randomly across the well-known Welwitschia Plains in the Namib-Naukluft Park. This intriguing stand of plants can be viewed when travelling through the proclaimed road in the northern section of the park.

The Welwitschia mirabilis is a botanical curiosity endemic to the Namib Desert. The plants grow in a narrow belt that lies between 30 to 40 kilometres inland, from the Kuiseb River in the central Namib more or less all the way up to Mossamedes in Angola. The best specimens grow amongst the hills of the Messum Crater south-west of the Brandberg. Here, sheltered from the winds, they grow relatively luxuriantly, with less of the desiccated and wind-shredded look of the welwitschias of the plains.

The welwitschia is actually a tree that has been dwarfed by the rigours of the desert, the major portion of its stem having been driven underground. The fibrous taproot is quite shallow, with many lateral roots just below the surface. The crown of the stem is flattened and shaped like a saucer, dark brown, hard and woody. The plant produces only two leaves throughout its lifetime. They grow opposite each other from the base outwards and are up to three metres long. The tough and leathery leaf-blades, torn into long, thong-like shreds by the searing winds, are constantly blackened and worn away by the scorching desert sun.

The welwitschia is dioecious, that is the male and female flowers are on separate plants. The flowers are often brightly coloured, the male cones salmon pink and the female ones much larger and of a greenish-yellow colour, banded with reddish-brown, sometimes dark pink. A conspicuous red beetle with the impressive scientific name of Probergrothius sexpunctatis inhabits these plants. This insect is associated only with welwitschias and is therefore also endemic to the Namib.

Welwitschias are not only of ancient origin, but are also extremely long-lived. The age of one of the larger specimens has been estimated at about 2 000 years, while carbon-14 dating indicates that average specimens such as those seen on the Welwitschia Plains are between 500 and 600 years old.  A magnificent specimen, known as the Great Welwitschia and estimated to be 1 500 years old, can be seen along the Welwitschia Trail, which runs across the plain.

In 1486, before there were clear maps of the Southern African coast, the Portuguese navigator, Diego C?o, on one of his journeys in search of a sea route to the Far East, landed at Cape Cross, about 130 kilometres north of Swakopmund. Here he planted a stone cross or padr?o, to mark being the first European of his time to reach this far down the west coast of Africa. His cross remained in place until the 1890s, when it was removed and taken to the Oceanographical Museum in Berlin. In 1974 the whole area was landscaped and a replica cross was erected.

Today Cape Cross is visited primarily for its seal reserve, which is one of the easiest to reach along the Namibian coast. With its surrounding area of 60 square kilometres, the seal reserve was proclaimed in 1968 to protect the largest of the 23 colonies of Cape fur seals, Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus, which breed along the coast of South Africa and Namibia. At any one time the colony numbers from 200 000 to as many as 340 000 animals. The large bull seals arrive in mid- to late October, staking their territorial claims and defending them from other males. In late November or early December the females give birth to their pups, which remain in and around the colony, continuing to suckle for the next ten to eleven months. At any time of the year visitors are greeted with the spectacle of tens of thousands of heads bobbing on land and in the water.  

Also of interest in the vicinity is the Cape Cross lichen reserve, where visitors are requested to stay on the existing roads and to inspect these interesting organisms on foot. If a little water is sprinkled on them, they come to life magically, displaying interesting colours and becoming soft and leathery to the touch.

One of Namibia's most magical places is undoubtedly Sandwich Harbour, a saltwater lagoon surrounded by extensive mud flats and reed-lined pools fed by freshwater springs. Sandwich is one of Southern Africa's most important wetland areas, providing refuge to thousands of birds, including pelicans and flamingos, at any one given time, and giving shelter to countless thousands of migrants every year. It is also an important breeding ground for several fish species.

Situated some 48 kilometres south of Walvis Bay at the foot of massive ivory-coloured dunes, Sandwich Harbour is much sought after by photographers and artists for its singular beauty and grandeur. Its inaccessibility -- it can be reached only by four-wheel-drive vehicle -- enhances its allure and mystique. This is augmented by the legend that buried in the sands above the high-water mark are the remains of a ship that carried in its hold a rich cargo of gold, precious stones and ivory. Over the years these treasures have been sought by fortune hunters and adventurers, but no traces of the ship or its cargo have ever been found.

Referred to in old texts as Sandfisch Haven, the lagoon was once an open bay at its northern end, which became silted up over the years. The changing shoreline of the bay is indicated on some of the older maps with dots rather than solid lines. In the past Sandwich served several purposes, for instance as a shelter for whalers during storms. In the mid-1900s a trading station was established here for curing fish, producing shark-liver oil and sealskins, which were transported down the coast to Cape Town and Mauritius.  

Today it's visited primarily by tourists, anglers and bird watchers. About 115 species have been recorded here, including 18 Palaearctic waders, 20 seabirds, 34 water birds and 18 land birds. Because it lies in the Namib-Naukluft Park, permits are required from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. These can be obtained at several service stations and through tour operators in Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.    

                         

The Walvis Bay Lagoon is regarded as the most important wetland for coastal birds along the west coast of Southern Africa, not only for the numerous resident species it harbours, but especially for the vast numbers of intra-African and Palaearctic migrants that frequent its tranquil waters. Because of its value nationally and internationally as a wetland area, it was declared a RAMSAR site, RAMSAR being the convention on wetlands held in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, and is listed as a Natural Heritage Site.

The lagoon area is especially known for the large numbers of lesser and greater flamingos it attracts to its rich feeding grounds. Black-necked grebes are seen in rafts of up to 800 individuals. Populations of migratory waders supported by the lagoon include curlew sandpipers, sanderlings, red knots, bar-tailed godwits, white-fronted plovers and tens of thousands of Caspian and swift terns. A good time to visit the lagoon is between October and April when Damara terns and chestnut-banded plovers breed.

Habitats additional to the tidal lagoon are the sewage works wetland, salt works with extensive evaporation pans, open ocean and shoreline and the Kuiseb River bed and dune area. The Bird Sanctuary is a series of ponds with emergent reed beds formed by the runoff from the sewage works. The Rooibank area with the Kuiseb riverbed, narra-vegetated hummock dunes and larger dune area is home to the only true Namibian endemic, the dune lark, which can be seen at the base of the main dunes on the southern bank, between the hummocks and tussocks.

A late afternoon visit to the guano platform about nine kilometres from Walvis Bay can be rewarding, as large numbers of Cape cormorant return here to roost. Other birds seen here are black terns, Eurasian and African black oystercatchers and white-breasted and crowned cormorants. This is thought to be the only place in Namibia where the great white pelican breeds.