Safari Holidays to South Africa and Namibia for independent travellers.

The first Europeans to encounter this part of the coastline were the Portuguese, but apart from leaving markers to say they had ventured ashore, they made no attempt to settle here.

Well before the Europeans arrived, however, the first inhabitants of the area situated at the mouth of the river Swakop were the semi-nomadic Nama people. 

They knew the river as Tsoa xoub, meaning 'excrement', after the mud and debris that sometimes flowed down the river after a flood.

As Swakop is the Germanised version of the original Nama word, the town's literal name means "excrement mouth" ...

Under German rule the town developed into an important port, however at the end of WWI the Treaty of Versailles placed German South-West Africa under South African rule.

The harbour was allowed to fall into disuse as nearby Walvis Bay, which had been the British port in the area, flourished.

Ultimately Swakopmund has benefited greatly from the decline of it's own port: it was able to retain it's character whilst Walvis Bay became more developed, and after a period of decline the town has reinvented itself as a tourist destination.