Have you ever thought to find a bakery in the middle of the desert?
Many tourists use Solitaire as a stopover en route to or from Sesriem and the Sossusvlei. It is situated in a sparsely populated area close to the Namib Naukluft Park (80 km) at the crossing of two important roads: the C14 from Walvis Bay to Bethanien and the C24 Rehoboth to Sossusvlei. Here you’ll find a petrol station, a shop, a chapel and the most famous bakery in Namibia: Moose McGregor Desert’s bakery. It is well known for its sweet goods, but especially for its apple pie, arguably “the best in the whole of Namibia“.
The first thing to catch the visitor’s attention when arriving at Solitaire is the abundance of car wrecks that have been picturesquely draped along the road as if they were part of a desert movie set. Thanks to a Scottish adventurer named Percival George Cross, called “Moose” McGregor, this place has become a “not to be missed” stop instead of being just a dusty gas station in the middle of the desert. McGregor, in the 1990s, decided to settle here and open a bakery where its” strong point” was the German apple pie, made with an old family recipe. This apple pie was so good that the rumour spread and gave Moose McGregor international fame. Unfortunately, he died in 2014 and was buried at Solitaire in a tomb just before the patio outside his bakery.
During our drive from Sesriem to Swakopmund, we stopped here to taste this “famous” pie. Without a doubt, the cake is tasty, thick with the apples cooked in the middle and crumble on top. Probably is not the most delicious of the African continent but surely the most surprising because it’s very crazy to think about eating a cake in the middle of the desert!!
If you’d like to spend a night in Solitaire, there are 2 accommodations: Solitaire Lodge (created by McGregor) and Solitaire Desert farm (1 km from the filling station). Leaving Solitaire, driving north on the C14 for 45 km, you’ll find two signs, each for one side of the road that marks the crossing of the Tropic of Capricorn.
