Turning off the airport road between Walvis Bay and Rooikop, after some twenty kilometres, you reach the water-extraction station of Rooibank, where Walvis Bay and Swakopmund obtain their drinking water. About one kilometre before Rooibank, on the top of a hill on the right side of the road, is a small church. What is the story of this church that was built right in the middle of the desert?

It’s hard to believe that more than five centuries ago Portuguese sailors caught sight of the empty sands of Namibia's coast and sailed away, never to return. Today visiting Europeans, who can’t find a single metre of beach at home that is not occupied by an oiled compatriot baking under a beach umbrella, will think they are either time travelling, already in heaven… or holidaying on Namibia's Atlantic coast.

Change is a constant. This inescapable fact illustrates itself vividly on Namibia’s desert coastline where the sea advances, swallowing lagoons, and retreats, leaving shipwrecks stranded in the desert.

Endless expanses of dunes that are virtually impenetrable to man are a common misconception of what makes up a desert. In reality dunes globally occupy only around 20% of the area of deserts.

To well-heeled SUV warriors travelling along a sandy windswept coastal road between Swakopmund and Henties Bay, Wlotzkasbaken might seem abandoned and a trifle austere or primeval, but slowing down to savour this stilted reservoir-adorned settlement will reveal its appeal.

When whizzing downhill at 80 kilometres an hour strapped to a plank, it's best to keep your mouth shut. The alternative, if you fall, is grinding paste in your intestines for the next week.

Namibia will have its own version of a South African West Coast town in the near future, where bungalows and houses will be the main feature.

Facts on Walvis Bay, Namibia's main seaport

Several hundred years of shipping have seen some weird and wonderful visitors docking in the port of Walvis Bay. One of few as well as one of the earliest ports on the west coast of Africa, Walvis Bay attracted the first Portuguese explorers, and today remains a port of call for many outlandish vessels

The harbour town has a well-established and thriving marine tour industry. Crafts from several companies - ski-boats, catamarans and kayaks - take hundreds of tourists on marine cruises every year. As in land-based tourism, the marine component also has its Big Five. These are whales, dolphins, seals, leather-back turtles and sunfish.

The coastal town of Swakopmund has an aura entirely of its own. Surrounded by desert and edged by a chilly ocean, the town with its palm trees, wide streets and old German architecture seems to be out of place and out of time. Yet, imbued with mystique and individuality, it provides a holiday hub for overseas visitors as well as for Namibian locals who flock to its cooler climes in the summer heat.