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Who are we?

This travel blog is created by me, Lars Aldman, a Swedish journalist and traveller, always in the company of my wonderful wife V. who is also a journalist and a fantastic photographer.

I worked for many years for the Swedish National Radio and Television, as a reporter/producer/studio host and a bunch of other roles.but now I’m retired and do whatever I like.

We love to visit foreign countries and cultures and meet people all over the globe. So far we have been to Asia, Africa, South America and the Caribbean and of course Europe. And we’d like to share with You, dear reader, what we have experienced and seen. We hope You want to join us and possibly find ideas for Your own adventures.

PS. To see more of my photos from journeys far and near, head over to aldmangallery.com

To contact us via mail: info@resormedv.se

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Travels with V

Namibia

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The loneliest place in the desert

Solitaire

Before us now awaites the most strenuous part of our journey i Namibia. We drive east from from Walvis Bay, miles and miles of endless and unchanging empty desert. And when that ends the road winds and turns in a roller-coaster ride through ancient mountains. The roads are so bad we have to drive as slow as possible through rubble and broken asphalt.

ÄNTLIGEN PÅ VÄG MOT SLÄTTLANDET — FINALLY COMING DOWN AGAIN

We feel like ice cubes in a coctail shaker when we finally leave the mountains behind and drive out on to the plains again. And we pass the Tropic of Capricorn, which isn’t something you do every day!

After about two hours of driving on flat land again we spot a few houses clustered together in the middle of nowhere. Like a god forsaken village in a western movie, with a wind pump whirring and rusty broken down cars strewn around. We have reached our destination, just a tiny dot on the map aptly named “Solitaire”.

Solitaire is quite unlikely, an oasis with a wild western feel right in a sea of sand and dry bushes. A gas station, a garage, a café and a guesthouse with a restaurant. Oh yes, and an old church. This is perfect.

BILVRAK BLIR KONST I SOLITAIRE — CAR WRECKS TURNED INTO ART IN SOLITAIRE

BAGERIET/CAFÉET TILL VÄNSTER — THE BAKERY/CAFÉ TO THE LEFT

EN GÅNG KYRKAN FÖR FOLK I TRAKTEN. NUMERA FÖRRÅD — ONCE THE NEIGHBOURHOOD CHURCH. NOW A STORAGE.

EN GUL MUNGO PÅ ORMJAKT! — A YELLOW MONGOOSE HUNTING SERPENTS!

There’s an exciting story about this place, and you can read about it in a book by Ton van der Lee, a duthchman who came here on a ride to nowhere in search of himself. He had an idea that this could be found in the solitude of Africa’s wilderness, which there was plenty of in Solitude. So he stayed.

There were already two men living here at the time, trying to survive selling petrol to passing cars. But they were so poor they could’nt afford to fill the pump tanks. Ton however was an entrepeneur and started to developed the place. He cleared a camping site and fixed the delivery of petrol. More and more tourists were taking this route to the sand dunes at Soussisvlei, and Solitaire was the perfect stop-over.

But the business grew to the extent that Ton felt he could no longer fulfil his dream here. So he had to leave Solitaire in order to find what he set out to do. As a farewell he wrote this book:

Even in this barren desert we spot some animals. There’s a yellow mongoose hunting for snakes by the guest house, and there’s chipmunks behind the garage. And flies, madly irritating, fast flyers, for some reason aiming for your nostrils. “It’s that season now”, the locals say, “the rest of the year we don’t see them”. Everyone in Solitare walks around beating the air in front of them.

One of the pioneers that was here when Ton arrived was Percy Cross McGregor, called “Moose”, a big, friendly fellow who started the bakery and who allegedly made the best apple pie in southern Africa. Moose died in 2014 but his picture hangs on the wall in the café, where they make the best coffee in Namibia.

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Who are we?

Travels with V

Namibia

The loneliest place in the desert

Solitaire

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