We're heading out of the Kuiseb and heading through the Namib proper to Walvis Bay and Swakopmund on the Atlantic coast.
	Here you can see how the flat monotony of the desert is broken by this stretch of trees. There must be at some point a river here, but the rivers here are often dry for years at a time. Still, the trees manage to survive. The top picture is the view to the right of the road, and the bottom is the view to the left.
	This was very exciting -- a bunch of ostriches went running by. I took three pictures. On the first one, I let photoshop set the levels automatically, but I think the second two are more true to how I remember the scene.
	Another shot showing how empty the place is.
	Likewise, here's the road, cutting through a vast plain of nothing.
	A rock formation near the road, as we drew near to Walvis Bay.
	This is Dune 7. I was not able to find out why it's called Dune 7. Either it's because it's 7 km from Walvis Bay, or it's because Dunes 1-5 were destroyed, and Dune 6 vanished without a trace 24 hours after completion. (in-joke). We'll be back tomorrow to climb this.
	Some more shots of the sand near the coast. As you'll see in some later pictures, the dune desert comes right down to the ocean shore.
	Walvis Bay is the primary port for Namibia, and here you see a bunch of ships waiting around the port.
	Here you can see the dunes coming right down to the Atlantic.
	This is Swakopmund, an unlikely resort town. We weren't here very long, but it seemed like an interesting place. Certainly a lot safer than Windhoek.
	A rather unusual sight for an American: the sun setting over the Atlantic Ocean.
	The town has this long jetty, which was condemned once, then they raised a bunch of money to fix it, and now it's falling apart again. Still, I liked this shot of a mom and kids looking out at the sunset.
	The beach beyond the jetty. Our hotel was just a block or two away to the left. We could see glimpses of the water through the palm trees.
	We had to walk up some steps to get to the restaurant where we ate dinner, and this was the view across the top of the steps. The steel grey of the evening water made a nice contrast to the deepening purple sky.
	The next morning, I woke up pretty early and decided to go for a walk. I found out later this is called the Hohenzoller House, and it's one of the tourist attractions in town.
	A little shopping district in Swakopmund behind our hotel. Here you can really see the German influence on the town.
	This is the town lighthouse, which dates back to when this was actually a port city -- an attempt by the Germans to counteract the South-African-held Walvis Bay. Swakopmund is no longer a port city, but the lighthouse remains (and it's functional). The building in front is the district court house.
	The courtyard of our hotel. I was sitting in a chair right outside the door of my room when I took this.
	This is the "Schad Promenade", which does rhyme, but it's a weird name, given that "Schade" means something like "grief" or "damage". But it runs parallel to the beach, separating the waterfront road into a boulevard.
	This is the restaurant we had dinner at last night. Apparently the building was made out of the wreck of a ship. The coast north of here is so forbidding they call it "Skeleton Coast", and you often see evocative pictures of shattered and rusting hulks of ships beached against the shifting sands.
	Someone walking along the beach.
	This is the aquarium. A small, but very nice presentation of the marine life off the coast of Namibia, the fishing industry's relationship with it, and the attempts of scientists and companies to work out a sustainable approach to the biosystem.
	The main exhibit of the aquarium was a big walk-through tank. They had lots of fish, some sharks, a couple turtles... the signs mentioned an eel, but I never saw it. Here's Eli, Carol and Carl as we walked through the tank.
	When we went up to check out the upstairs, we found that all there was to see was the top of the big tank, but just as we got up there, the big turtle came up to take a few breaths. A fascinating creature. You can't help projecting human emotions onto that inhuman face.
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