The port of call for today was Walvis Bay, Namibia. The population is 2,109,000 of English-speaking people. The capital is Windhoek. This country is far different from South Africa, since we have sailed to the west coast of the continent. The best way to describe what we see is unmerciful harshness. A feeling of life and death. Gone are the cool breezes and green mountaintops. They are replaced with a sea of sand, with dunes unmatched anywhere else. You can find rocky canyons, the Skeleton Coast, and a desert that houses adapting elephants, rhinos, lions, and rare mountain zebra. In the surrounding waters, there are great white sharks, seals, and at one time, whales. “Walvis” means whales. Besides cart-wheeling spiders and desert side-winder snakes, you will discover a hardy native people.
This was a thriving place for the whaling industry in the past. The town became part of English Cape Colony, until WW I, when Namibia gained independence. The area remained in limbo until it was given back to Namibia by South Africa in 1994. Today, the locals thrive on shipping, salt processing, and fishing. Although we learned from Captain Jonathon at lunch, that all of the smaller fish have been depleted by the Chinese and Japanese, who over-fished the waters. As for the salt industry, they produce over 400,000 tons a year. We could see the mountains of this coarse grain salt being loaded into big rigs for delivery to the port area.
Lucky for us, Namibia is a bird paradise, specifically flamingos, terns, pelicans, egrets, herons, and waders year round. If you had patience, you can spot sea lions and even dolphins in the lagoon. The Walvis Bay Lagoon is one of the most important wetlands in southwest Africa. During the peak of the migration, the number of flamingos is stunning, creating a sea of more pink and white than the color of the water.
Shore excursions offered here include tours to see the desert up close and personal. They began at $140 to $270 for 5 to 7 hours in duration. The highlight of these tours include a visit at Dune 7, a 426 foot high sand dune that has become a popular place for sandboarding. We have seen many energetic folks even rolling down the steep slope, oblivious of the gritty sand in the hair and clothing. Better to take photos of this, than do it yourself, we say.
A drive through the surrounding desert is interesting. We had done this trip more than once. A most unusual “tree” grows here – the Welwitschia mirabilis plant, the world’s smallest and oldest tree. They have been judged to be over 1500 years old. The root system is deep, but the top is minimal, and ugly. They exist near the dry bed of the Swakop River, which runs only during the wet season in the mountains. Here you might find sidewinder adders, springbok, palmetto geckos, sand-diving lizards, chameleons, and beetles.
A short drive out of Walvis Bay is Swakopmund, founded in 1892 near the Swakop River. It has been dubbed the “slice of Germany”, since that is who settled here after the war years. It is basically built in the art nouveau-style with a small community of people that offer museums, galleries, and shopping. There is a huge craft market in the streets, where you can find Namibian treasures. However, we think they are more expensive compared to the souvenirs that can be bought at the port gate.
There is a dolphin and seal boat cruise in the lagoon. We heard that the fur seals actually follow the boats, because they are being fed. Sightings of bottlenose dolphins is common. Of course, you can see the multitude of birds from this boat, mostly at Pelican Point.
Lastly, there was a flight over Sossuslei for a 2 hour 10 minute journey. That would take you over the tallest shifting sand dunes in the world with shades of apricot, orange, and red sands. Two ship wrecks from the turn of the century can be spotted on the Skeleton Coast. Probably a fun flight, but it would set you back $1700 per person. Not sure how many passengers did this one.
Getting clearance to get off the ship today was complicated. The Namibian immigration officials arrived late to have a face-to-face meeting with each and every passenger and crew member. Yesterday, we had received our pre-printed entrance and exit papers, along with a letter with our group stamped on it. Being that we are President Club members, we had an “S”, which meant that we had priority with the suite folks. It really annoys most people that these letters or numbers are not always checked. There are always those who sneak into the long line to get off first. Different if you are on an organized tour with others, we guess, but without having some plan, it is chaos. Hotel director Henk and Christel know most of us, so the letter check was not necessary. Later in the morning, we heard they did indeed look at those numbers. By the time we were getting ready to leave the ship, they were calling # 8 group. So it took until near noon before the folks were cleared. Later in the day, we would have to do this once again before the ship left port.
All aboard was 10:30pm. We figured that we were here that late to give the overland tour groups a chance to arrive here on time. Many 2 night and 3 day tours had left from Cape Town, and ended here.
With no rush to leave, we left about 10:30am. There was a free shuttle bus that was dropping folks off at a shopping mall and the lagoon. Assuming that the first stop was in the center of town, we were surprised to see that our destination was at a brand new mall called the Dune Mall on the outskirts of town. Since we did not need anything, we stayed on the bus with four other guests looking for the lagoon. However, if you wished to find anything, there was a Woolworth’s and a supermarket here, as well as many other mall shops and some restaurants. And besides, it was air-conditioned.
So we back-tracked passing the riding stables and new housing tracks along the way to the Lagoon Waterfront. The driver said he would be back on the half hour for a pick-up, but heard later on, that this stop had been eliminated. Didn’t matter to us, as we planned to walk back to the ship anyway.
The lagoon area has a wide walkway along the water’s edge for a couple of miles, we estimated. Our main purpose to come here was two-fold. This is a most wonderful place to see the birds that use this lagoon during their migration from the north…even as far as the Arctic. The most numerous are the flamingos, which are the greater variety (roseus). They eat small shrimp and crustaceans that are sifted from the mud in their beaks. It has been reported that during the peak of the season, up to 7,791 flamingos have been spotted in each square kilometer, which computes to less than ½ square mile. Incredible. Especially when viewed from the air.
The next migrater are flocks of the great white pelicans, which can measure up to 69 inches from beak to tail. They are huge, but consume only about 2 ½ pounds of fish daily. Intensely gregarious, they fish in groups. These groups can comprise of 30,000 pairs during the peak season. Although we saw fewer today, they are most unusual birds to watch.
During our leisurely hike, we spotted ruddy turnstones, pied avocets, red knots and blacksmith plovers. All of these birds are waders, which prefer sifting through the mudflats at low tide. Cape cormorants and cape boobys also are here. We were in “photo” heaven, and will have fun sorting through all of these pictures later on.
Walking back, we watched as some families began to arrive for the afternoon picnics with their kids. At sunset, this whole grassy area will be full of locals cooling off in the evening breeze. Lunch was on our minds, specifically pizza. There is an over-the –water restaurant we always go to, so we headed there as it is located at the end of the lagoon.
It was already full of customers, but only the bar side. The formal dining room was being saved for dinner folks only. Seeing a spot become available in the corner by the window was perfect. Turned out a couple we knew was also sitting there…..Captain Jonathon and his wife, Karen, were just finishing their meal. Not intending to crash their party, they welcomed us, even ordering more wine to extend their lunchtime. Since Jonathon cannot be away for more than two hours, they maximized their time here. Also spent some bargaining time for Namibian carvings at the gate. Both of them are regular folks, and you realize that even more when you are one-on-one. They were on their way to check out the kayak race that was happening at the nearby small boat marina.
Of course, we ordered the ham and cheese pizza with two large local draft beers, Hansa. Sure was good, especially after such a long hike. What was more unbelievable was the price of our meal. Adding a shared dessert of berry-topped cheesecake, the bill came to less than $19 USD. Hard to beat that.
The walk back to the port gate was short. There was a fence full of vendors with mostly the same stuff. We have many of their items in the way of wooden bowls, salad forks, masks, animal carvings, baskets, and costume jewelry. All of these items were placed on blankets on the ground. Most of the vendors were high-pressure salespeople, pressing us to bargain for anything…interested or not. We did purchase two necklaces made from small round pieces of ostrich eggs. Two sets of bone earrings also caught our eye….a small reminder of our time here. And easy to pack. Hundreds of tall wooden carvings were purchased by the passengers, because we saw them packing the newspaper wrapped giraffes, elephants, and Namib warriors back to the gangway.
Starting at 4pm, the departure immigration procedure started in the Explorer’s Lounge. A mandatory inspection, we went around 5pm, and found the line very short. We turned in the last form we had, then our passports were stamped next to the morning’s entrance stamp. At the end of the line, our passports were collected to be kept for the next port.
The lido featured an African Braai Dinner with an assortment of African cuisine. We prefer to dine at our table, which usually has some of the same items on the menu. Except in the dining room, we don’t have to wait in line, and the food is piping hot.
At 9:30pm, there was a one showing by the Namibian Locals. There was a choir-singing group with old folk songs, and a presentation highlighting the customs of harvesting. Once again, our dinner ran overtime, and we missed it.
Taking our usual walk on the outside deck, we spotted several debris bins full of the decorations they used for the Mariner Appreciation Days. The colorful tubing used as fencing and the extra-large PVC piping all was being discarded. We always thought these props would be saved for another occasion. Guess we were wrong.
The ship ended up leaving the pier at 11:45pm, obviously waiting for the last of the overland folks to arrive.
We will have two day at sea to rest up for a new port for most of us……Angola.
Bill & Mary Ann
The great white pelican
Checkers is the grocery chain
Looking for a place to land
Eat small shrimp and crustaceans
Have to run to gain altitude
Mudflats hide food for the birds
