Dessert in the Desert

If you ever thought of going to Africa but you are afraid of malaria or other illnesses, criminality and lack of comfort, there is good news for you: there is an “Africa for beginners”.

That’s the unofficial nickname of Namibia, one of the safest, most developed, healthiest and most fascinating countries in Africa. There are so many natural wonders in Namibia that surely more posts about this amazing place will come in the future.

Among all that nature, also human can create something peculiar, and that’s Solitaire.

As the name indicates, it’s quite an isolated and remote place, right in the middle of the oldest desert in the World: the Namib, which also gives the name to the whole country.

Moving around in Namibia is not easy: being home to two of the largest deserts in Africa (the other one is the Kalahari), distances between settlements are huge and chances to find people small: Namibia is the second least populated country per density, after Mongolia.

On the south of the Namib Desert lies probably the most amazing, and most visited, landmark of Namibia, Deadvlei (there will be a post about it as well). Thousands of visitors in the last decades have tried to reach this natural beauty driving a car in the desert, but not always with success.

Besides the mechanical troubles that can strike at all time, there is also fuel to consider. Both Swakopmund and Windhoek, the two major cities and starting point for desert adventures towards the south, are over 400km far from Deadvlei. With no gas station in between.

That’s what Solitaire was born for: this small village 40km below the Tropic of Capricorn features a gas station and a resting area to break the long journey towards the south.

Until a few years ago, before the smartphone era, Solitaire was also the only place in the Namib with a Radio Antenna, so people stopped there to hear about the latest news and sport results. A board with the main headlines used to be displayed every morning at the entrance of the village.

But the most important thing people came for was and still is the famous Solitaire apple pie!

The story of the Solitaire Pastry Shop is indeed linked to its founder, Moose McGregor, a Scottish traveller that like many stopped in solitaire while crossing the desert, at the end of the 80s. He fell in love with the place and decided to turn it into a tourist attraction, serving the most unlikely food you can find in a desert: his famous Apple Pie.

Moose McGregor ended up living all his life in Solitaire and died in 2014, at the age of 57. The legacy goes on as still today thousands of visitors stop in this resting area for the cake, and decide to sleep in one of the two lodges to enjoy a night in the desert.

Oh, I almost forgot. If you still want to cross the Namib with a normal car and you find yourself stranded in the middle of the desert, you can call Solitaire. They have tools and expertise to fix your car and, in case this will not be possible, they will be more than happy to add your vehicle to their already huge car cemetery. The village is in fact surrounded by dozens of cars and motorbikes that lost the challenge with Namib, and are now having their eternal rest in Solitaire.