The trailhead
Start here. Where do you want to go?
Every trail below is Swakopmund right now — this month's fish, this week's soil and frost, what's ready in the woods, tonight's sky. Tap a place on the map to see what's waiting there, or let us plan a trail for today.
Tap a place on the map to see what’s there — tap it again to go.Point at a place on the map, or tap it, to see what’s there.
The map faces south, like you at midday: the sun comes up on your left, in the east, and goes down on your right, in the west.
Pick your trail for today
Who's coming?
How long have you got?
What do you feel like?
Answer any of these and we’ll draw you a trail on the map — one stop for an hour, two for half a day, three for all day.
Today at the trailhead
Peak photosynthesis and peak water loss. Beds dry fast and transplants sulk.
- Ground beetlebest now — Running the soil surface after dark, taking slugs, cutworms and larvae. One of the best predators a garden has.
- Earthwormbest now — At the surface after dark and in wet weather, pulling leaves down into the burrow.
Right now
13°C / 56°F
Clear · wind 9 km/h · 95% RH
Soil (6 cm)
22°C / 71°F
Warm-season seeds go
Hardiness zone
11a
est. from 9-yr extreme low 5°C
Frost window
Jul 5 – Rare
~363 frost-free days (avg)
Sun
06:36 – 19:02
sunrise – sunset today
Moon
Waning Crescent
15% lit · anglers' solunar: good · full 2026-10-26
7-day forecast
Africa/Windhoek
Wed
Overcast
18° / 11°
dry
Thu
Overcast
18° / 10°
dry
Fri
Overcast
19° / 11°
dry
Sat
Partly cloudy
21° / 11°
dry
Sun
Partly cloudy
23° / 14°
dry
Mon
Overcast
22° / 16°
dry
Tue
Overcast
19° / 15°
dry
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
Overhead · Swakopmund, Namibia
The sky over the garden
The two clocks nothing on the ground can argue with: the length of the day, and the phase of the moon.
The sun
12h 25m of light
Sunrise
06:37
Solar noon
12:50
Sunset
19:02
A month from now the day will be 0h 37m longer. Enough light for steady growth.
The moon
Waning Crescent
15% lit · waning · day 26 of 29.5
- Next full
- Oct 26 · 20d
- Hunter's Moon
- Next new
- Oct 10 · 4d
- Darkest nights
Planting by the moon: Last quarter to new: a resting phase — weed, prune, harvest, turn compost and prepare beds.
Anglers' solunar rating: good — the tradition says fish feed hardest in the days either side of new and full, and around moonrise and moonset. The evidence is mixed; light and weather matter more.
Turn of the season
Summer solstice
Dec 21 · 76 days away
Frost is rare here — most years see none, or a night or two at most.
Next moons
- New MoonOct 10
- First QuarterOct 18
- Full Moon · Hunter's MoonOct 26
- Last QuarterNov 1
Right now · Swakopmund, Namibia
Forces at work right now
Frost, soil warmth, light, rain and the moon set the pace for the garden, the water and the woods alike. Every reading below comes from this location's own forecast and climate record.
- Quiet right now
Frost
363 frost-free days
Frost is rare here. Coldest night in the next week: 9.9 °C.
The hard edge of the growing season. Ice inside a leaf ruptures its cells — one night ends a tomato and sweetens a parsnip.
- Working for you
Soil warmth
21.7 °C
Warm enough for beans, corn, squash, cucumber and transplanted tomato and pepper. Roots run hard at this temperature.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
- Working for you
Day length
12h 25m
Gaining about 1 minutes of daylight a day. Every extra minute is growth you don't have to pay for.
The one thing weather can't change. Plants count photoperiod to decide when to bolt, bulb, flower and go dormant.
- Worth watching
Heat units
44 GDD / 7 days
Slow accumulation — cool-season crops are happy, corn and melons are waiting.
Growing degree days: the running total of warmth above 10 °C. Crops and insects both run on this clock rather than on dates.
- Holding things back
Rain
0.0 mm / 7 days
Only 0.0 mm over seven days. A garden wants roughly 25 mm a week — water deeply twice rather than lightly every day.
Sets the pace for everything: germination, fungal fruiting, slug nights, and how a river runs for the next three days.
- Working for you
Pollination
7 of 7 flying days
7 good flying days ahead. Open flowers will get worked — leave a shallow water dish out and hold off on any spray until dusk.
A third of what you eat needs an insect to have visited first. Bees fly on temperature and wind, not on your schedule.
In season now · October
What you can pick right now
5 wild edibles typically ready in October near Swakopmund, Namibia. Seasons shift a week or two with the weather — check each one before you go.
FruitMay – OctoberMonkey orange (green monkey orange)
Strychnos spinosa
A small, often spiny tree with opposite, rounded, glossy leaves showing three to five veins running from the base. The fruit is large, round and hard, with a woody shell that turns from green (often speckled) to yellow as it ripens; inside, many hard brown seeds packed in sweet-sour, brown, edible pulp.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Shaun Swanepoel · CC BY 4.0
GreenOctober – MarchSpider plant (cat's whiskers)
Cleome gynandra
An upright, branching annual up to about 1.5 m with a sticky, glandular stem and a strong smell. Leaves are hand-shaped, of three to seven (usually five) finely toothed leaflets. The flowers are white or purple-tinged with four clawed petals, and the purple stamens and the ovary are held out on a long stalk well beyond the petals — the cat's whiskers. Pods are long, thin and beaked.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Arturo Benavides Mendoza · CC BY 4.0
FruitJanuary – DecemberSycamore fig
Ficus sycomorus
A big, spreading tree with yellowish to orange bark that peels in papery strips, and rough, heart-shaped leaves with prominent yellow veins beneath. The figs, 2–3 cm (about 1 in) across, grow in thick clusters on short leafless branchlets from the trunk and main branches and ripen from greenish-buff to yellow or reddish. Broken twigs bleed milky latex.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Alan Manson · CC BY 4.0
GreenOctober – MarchSheep sorrel
Rumex acetosella
Small arrow-shaped leaves with two backward-pointing lobes at the base, on a wiry reddish stem. Sharply lemony taste.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Kieran Hanrahan · CC BY 4.0
GreenApril – NovemberChickweed
Stellaria media
Sprawling mats with small opposite oval leaves and a single line of fine hairs running up one side of the stem, switching sides at each leaf pair. Stretch the stem: an elastic inner core.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Douglas Goldman · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. They show a typical specimen, not every variation — never identify from a photo alone. Confirm with a regional field guide or an experienced forager before you eat anything wild.
In the water now · October
What's biting
The sport fish active near Swakopmund, Namibia in October — where they hold, how to know one on the line, and the tactic that usually works. Check your licence and the current limits before you go.
FishSep–AprMozambique tilapia (blue kurper)
Oreochromis mossambicus
Deep-bodied and dull silvery-olive with a few dark blotches along the side and no regular stripes on the tail. Breeding males turn black with a white throat, red-edged fins and a pointed, duck-bill snout.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Wynand Uys · CC BY 4.0
FishSep–AprSharptooth catfish (barbel)
Clarias gariepinus
A long, eel-like body, a flat bony head, four pairs of whiskers, and one very long dorsal fin with no small fatty fin behind it. Dark grey to olive above, white below.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Lukas Zangl · CC BY 4.0
FishMar–May, Sep–NovSmallmouth yellowfish
Labeobarbus aeneus
A big, streamlined, bronze-gold barb with large scales, golden fins and a small mouth.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Brian du Preez · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
In the garden now · October
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out near Swakopmund, Namibia in October. Most of them are on your side — learn the few that aren't before you reach for anything.
PollinatorSep–AprHoney bee
Apis mellifera
Golden-brown, banded, furry thorax, and pollen packed onto the hind legs in visible baskets.
What it does in the garden →
PollinatorOct–MarHoverfly
Syrphidae
Wasp-striped but a true fly: two wings not four, huge eyes, and it hovers dead still in mid-air.
What it does in the garden →Photo: Anne Parker · CC BY 4.0
BeneficialOct–AprLady beetle
Coccinellidae
The adult everyone knows; the larva is the useful one — a spiky, alligator-shaped grey-and-orange creature that looks like a pest.
What it does in the garden →
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
Your ecological region
Namib, Kalahari & Karoo
The dry west of southern Africa: the fog desert of the Namib, the red sands of the Kalahari and the vast, quiet Karoo.
Regional guide →Your hardiness zone
Zone 11a
Estimated from a 9-year average extreme low of 5°C. What grows, what bites and what to forage across your zone.
Zone guide →Get this guide for Swakopmund every week
Frost warnings, what's biting, what's ripening. One email, Sunday evening.