It was an early Sunday morning, in the early 1990s, when I first came to Henties Bay. There were four of us and we were traveling with a Mercedes G, which was made available to us in a very kindly manner. Back then – it was shortly after Namibia’s independence – we made a trip through the country. We passed Henties Bay on the way from the Etosha Pan to the coast. And this first visit will be remembered indelibly …

Henties Bay was «founded» in 1950 by Henty van der Merve, a major in the South African Army, who came here to fish. Over the years, a collection of wooden shacks developed into a village that today bears the name of the founder. In the meantime, it has become a small Namibian town with a Spar supermarket and a golf course. (Almost 5,000 people now live here; on festive days it is three times as many!)

Back then, 1991, we found a single hotel/restaurant that was open and wanted to have breakfast there. It didn’t get that far when we saw that the first alcoholics were already tasting their brandy. We turned on our heel and left Henties Bay to drive to Swakopmund, seventy kilometers away.

PS. My friend, Roland, said at the time: «Don’t you think that the place should better be renamed Hennessy Bay!» Since then, this expression stuck with me …