Namibia Day 5: Chillin’in Walvis Bay

​One of the popular activities in Walvis Bay is to book a boat tour of the harbor, which our driver arranged. We weren’t exactly sure where it was going (we had thought we were going to Sandwich Harbor, but evidently that tour is on land not by boat).  After watching many fancy new catamarans load up with tourists, we were a little concerned to see that our boat was neither fancy nor a catamaran. However, the staff  were all pleasant and solicitous, so we went with the flow and  got on the “Lady Victoria”, along with 33 South African tourists. The South Africans were mostly elaborately and somewhat provocatively dressed women who were intent on having a good time. 

As we were boarding, there were several seals in the water and on the dock that very interested in joining us. Two of them had a little contest about boarding rights that created some interest. One of them even got on the boat, hoping for a fish handout and the crew obliged before luring him off the boat. 

As soon as we set off, the South Africans started playing music and singing and dancing and enjoying adult beverages. It got so loud Ruth’s watch sounded an alarm about a dangerously loud environment. 

There was a tour guide on the boat who quickly realized most of the passengers were not interested in listening to her. She suggested we go outside to the front of the boat where it was much quieter. We enjoyed talking with her about Walvis Bay and the wild life in the area for most of the trip. From time to time some of the larger group came out to chat with us as well. As the only two white people on the boat, we clearly generated a lot of curiosity. 

Our first destination in the tour was “Bird Island”, a man-made dock where evidently birds congregate.  The owner periodically collects the guano and sells it.  We only saw a few gulls on the dock, but under it were hundreds of greater and lesser flamingos.  It was cool seeing a sea of pink legs from a distance.

There were several oil drilling rigs in the bay, but none of them are operating because the new president, a woman, is not sure it would be a good thing for the people in the community.  As mentioned yesterday, Walvis Bay is a huge shipping port, and we saw many cargo ships lined up waiting to get into the docks or waiting for supplies, repairs or cargo. 

As we neared the point at the end of the peninsula that creates the bay, we saw many seals swimming around, a very few dolphins (the tour was billed as a dolphin cruise) and sand dunes on the shore. There were also many colonies of seals dotting the sandy shore (and one black-backed jackal waiting to eat vulnerable pups).

The dancing and singing inside abated when the crew put out a substantial display of finger foods. We noted that many of the women in their fancy but light weight dresses now had jackets and blankets wrapped around them.  After the light lunch the music started again, and the crowd was delighted when one of the young women urged Cheryl to dance with her. She was the subject of many photos! And we all ended the tour as a happy group.

Before returning to the hotel we went to a large shopping mall where we checked out many stores and made a few purchases.  It was fun seeing all the South African stores - not a single American or European store.  Cheryl bought a rain jacket to replace the one she accidentally left in Morocco.

Later in the afternoon we drove out past the salt processing plant to see the pink lakes created by the salt evaporation process, and also saw a few more birds in the shallow waters at the edges of the bay in the way back to the hotel.

Namibia Day 4: To the Coast

​We had a leisurely morning today, and spent almost an hour relaxing at the hotel, enjoying the wildlife and the views of the dunes from our room.  

We left the hotel around 9:30, and stopped at the “pink fridge” for final photos of the Gondwana sites. The pink fridge is a landmark for the Desert Grace Resort, which really focused on pink, purportedly because of the reddish color of the dunes that rise up behind the resort. Whatever the reason, bright pink was featured throughout the lodge. The Pink fridge, complete with complimentary  bottles of cold water inside, was on top of a little hill and was accompanied by two chairs and a table, and a pink frame for taking framed photos.  These frames are all over the place in Namibia. The little hill was also a great spot for photos of the mountains and dunes that surrounded the area. 

We made another stop about 30 minutes later at the town/ roadhouse of Solitaire.  This tiny town that was devolving into oblivion has reinvented itself as a tourist stop. There were lots of antique abandoned cars and farm equipment, often with flowers planted nearby,  a bakery and general store, gas station and even lodgings. We got some post cards and a few provisions and hit the road with clean windows. 

Our destination was Walvis Bay on the Atlantic Coast.  The first part of the journey was driving through an incredible variety of mountains and sand dunes.  We enjoyed the windy roads and spectacular rock formations. Much  of the topography was unlike anything we had ever seen before. Many of the mountains looked like a giant dump truck had unloaded a pile of rocks and they all stuck together in a big heap. There were also miles of jagged trenches in the rolling hills, and many more unusual geological formations. 

The last hour of the journey was just flat sand - so unremarkable and unchanging that we both dozed off. As we approached the coast, we started seeing miles of dunes, and as we neared Walvis Bay, the road was lined with large palm trees, planted to break the wind that carried sand into the road. 

Later in the afternoon we had a little tour of Walvis Bay. The most interesting thing we did was drive out on along the coast where there were salt pans on both sides of the road in which hundreds of flamingos and a variety of other birds were feeding. There was also a big salt processing plant out there. 

Walvis Bay is a huge port that handles shipping into and out of the southern part of Africa. There were miles of industrial and shipping buildings and equipment along the roads near the coast. As such, it isn’t a  particularly attractive town. 

So we drove to Swakopmund, which is a very attractive and charming seaside resort town founded by the Germans in the late nineteenth century.  We walked around in an elegant hotel that used to be the railroad station.  

There was also a lot of interesting 19th century architecture, an iconic old lighthouse, a long jetty, and a lovely  view of the town strung out along the Atlantic Coast. 

Then we returned to Walvis Bay for dinner and bed.