June 6 – Walvis Bay, Namibia

Weather – 19º

Steps – 10,503

soooo salty

Humidity – 35%

Country #95!

Today was another one of those half sea days. We arrived in Walvis Bay, Namibia at 12:30. We had to go through another face-to-face immigration where they needed to see our passports and visas. I’m not sure they really needed to see these at all. We had our $130CAD visas, and an exact same copy given to us by the ship that we filled in by hand on behalf of Namabia. Chris actually gave his paid for visa to the agent, I gave my handwritten one to my agent while she

admiring the flamingos

was on the phone…she was very friendly, but on the phone the entire time. We could have saved everyone on the ship and in Namibia a whole lot of time and effort if we just passed some cash on the way out…sheesh! It’s an experience though of travelling.

Today’s tour was called “Birding Tour”. Chris and I teamed up with Carol and Gary, from Vegas in one of 60 4x4 driven by Yanni, a third generation Namibian with ancestors hailing from Belgium. 7% of Namibians are white…I think all of them were our 4x4 drivers today.

We met another couple going on the tour who asked us if we were birders…nope, we’re not, neither were they, but we all agreed it was one of the 2 included Regent tours and it would give us a taste of Namibia.

pink salt ponds

salt factory

Our first stop was at a wetland not far outside of Walvis Bay, the actual city we are in. Walvis Bay named for a natural bay, just north of the Tropic of Capricorn, of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the second largest city in Namibia, pop 102,000. Namibia is a large country by area, but small by population – 3 million. There are 12 official languages – English is one, and 88% are Christian. There is little to no water here…all fresh water is from desalination.

all salt

30 minutes into the tour we were significantly underwhelmed and figured this would be one of the dud tours you encounter now and again on the road to the great tours. However…after 30 minutes things looked up…waaaay up! Yanni took us straight up a 10-meter sand dune! It was tense going up, but downright scary going down, especially cresting the

pink salt lake

top being able to see nothing.

Yanni knows nothing about birds, he flat out told us…what on earth is he doing guiding a BIRDING tour??? Apparently, the cruise ship originally asked for 30 guides, then 50 and in the end wanted 60 guides, and there just weren’t enough knowledgeable ones.

What Yanni didn’t know about birds, he made up for with everything else. The dunes weren’t part of the tour, but he added them. He also added a stop at

sand that looks like gems

Namibia’s salt pans or salt flats. These salt pans are a vibrant pink, due to salt loving microorganisms. There is one type of microalgae that love salt and produces a high amount of beta-carotene. Salt water is pumped into the pans and left for nature to do its thing…evaporation and wind take most of the moisture out of the salt. Yanni encouraged us to taste the water…WOW, we expected salt, but WOW. The water is about 30% salt.

driving right on the beach

All of the land around the salt pans is also salt – the road, path, shore of the salt pans. The roads are gravel sprayed with salt water. The moisture eventually evaporates, leaving only salt which makes the surface of the road hard –any moisture can leave the road slick, good thing here in the Namib Desert there is less than 2cm of annual rainfall, some years getting none…most of the moisture comes from fog. This spot was super fascinating.

Understandably, the salt pans were right next to the coast so we weren’t far from

pelicans

the convoy of 4x4s. Once we caught up, we were driving on sand, right along the bay…wild! There was no road, so much of the time Carol, Chris and I were being thrown around in the back seat. We were looking for seals, Yanni told us they typically played in the surf, cool, but even cooler to see were WHALES!!! Unexpected WHALES – ever better. The convoy stopped and we just watched, and watched…spouts, spouting here and there.

Yanni then showed us the beach’s multicoloured sand - multicoloured due to a high composition of quartz and other minerals.

we went to the end

lighthouse and seals...many seals

He also proved to us the high iron content of the sand using a magnet. He placed
sand in my hand, removed much of the actual sand leaving iron. Then he moved the iron pieces in my palm using the magnet UNDER my hand…very cool.

We then moved on to see the flamingos and pelicans. Not only are the flamingos pink, so are the pelicans. There were many, many flamingos and lots of pelicans.

MORE seals!

Then we were on to the 50,000 seals! Some were in the water, and some were

checking out the seals

on the shore – barking, playing, fighting, stinking...they were quite stinky. As we approached the area where the seals were, all we could see was black. As we got closer, we realized they were seals.

there were also jackals on the beach

In the end the tour was great, a birding tour made great by a guide who knew nothing about birds. He really did know about birds, just not about the birds we saw at the wetland.

After dinner we went to the ship's dance party - a good way to get our steps over 10,000...it's been a while!

Anonymous – Good question about being back on the boat after the safari – yes, it does feel surreal, it also seems soooo long ago! Will definitely never forget!

Dave – thanks for reading!

Lori – feeding the ostriches was so fun! and messy.