Walvis Bay, Namibia 5/30/24

 Walvis Bay, Namibia

Not knowing what to expect from Walvis Bay, we booked on a tour with some of the friends we have made on the ship.  Each of us has taken ports and come up with suggestions that you can choose to join, or not, depending on what we wanted to do.  This one seemed interesting to us so off we went on another boat trip - as if we aren't on the water enough!  The morning took us to the harbor where we could see our docked ship, and we jumped on our charter catamaran.

 Before we even hit the open water, our guide called "incoming" and lo and behold, in came pelicans.  As you will see in the pictures, we had lots of visitors during our journey that morning.  Talk about getting close and personal with the wildlife. 

And of course, the seals had to join us.

Next, we sailed to an area that there were some local dolphins called Heavisides dolphins. This small dolphin grows up to 1.2 meters, or 4 ft. long and attains a mass of up to 40 kilograms, or 88 lbs. It was Captain Heaviside, an employee of the British East India Company, who discovered the dolphins and is their namesake. The Heaviside dolphins that we saw were extremely fast and very difficult to photograph as they rarely broke the surface of the water. The best pictures I got of them was actually while they were swimming by the catamaran underwater. 

These were taken by Matti Chan, our resident nature photographer on the ship.  His dolphins cooperated and he caught them in action.  If it had been me, I would have been saying, oh, darn, I missed them!

And a few shots of the birds and pelicans coming and going.

We sailed out to the peninsula and couldn’t believe our eyes (or ears)! There were thousands of sea lions and seals!! The noise was really funny. It sounded like lambs and angry old men. The younger seals made the noises like lambs and the older, bigger sea lions made noises like angry old men. The seals were playing, swimming, leaping and eating in the water. It was really amazing and a sight that we will probably never see again. Tried to capture them leaping in the air but by the time I pushed the photo button, they were in the water. They seemed to like chasing the catamaran and playing next to us, it really was an amazing experience.

On our way back, we were served a wonderful brunch with adult beverages!   Mickey was in heaven with the oysters that were served.  Every time we head to new experiences, we are blown away by what we have gotten to see on this trip.

And so, we say goodbye to our catamaran cruise that morning, and now head to our afternoon adventures, the highlights being the dunes.

Walvis Bay has anywhere from 80,000 to 100,000 flamingos, which is the largest population of flamingos in the world. They were everywhere - maybe Mickey will finally start liking flamingos - we have certainly seen a lot on this incredible journey.

Before heading to the dunes, we stopped at the Red Beach to check out nature's artwork on the sands.  Amazing to see, and if you look at the second collage, it shows the grains of the sands, and how they sparkle.  Rumor has it that it is diamond dust from the diamond mines, and that on occasion, diamonds wash up on the beach.  We didn't find diamonds, but we did get some really interesting shells and rocks to bring back to the grandkids.

And finally heading to the Sandwich Harbour located in Namib-Naukluft National Park, commonly referred to Sandwich Harbour National Park, to see the only place in the world where the phenomenon of sand dunes meeting the ocean can be seen!  Very different from Abu Dhabi, but magnificent.  They were so exotic, with ripples on their sides formed by the caress of a constant breeze blowing over their surfaces. The dunes have embraced the sand breezes and developed flowing curves and waves that defined their beautiful landscape.  And we climbed to the top to enjoy the spectacular views.  

After the obligatory group photos, we had a picnic lunch with adult beverages to get ready for our return trip from the dunes.  

And our return out of the dunes. The dunes were 100 feet or more in height, and we were driving to the tops and then down the other side. With the dunes being so steep, it felt that you were going to go a tumbling down the hill, but we made it.  It was exhilarating!  Check out the video!

We drove by some salt mines that was really interesting. There were “pans” where they capture and store the water for processing for salt. The pans were red (see pictures) and the edges were full of salt already. The water gets its distinctive pink coloration due to the presence of Dunaliella salina, a type of micro-algae that thrives in the saline-rich environment of the pans. The unique blend of these algae, coupled with the high salt concentration and specific weather conditions, create the perfect recipe for a breathtaking display of the salt mine pans and also for a lake in Walvis Bay called the “Pink Lake”.  It was an unexpected sight for us to see. This was our last stop before heading back to the ship.  As always, not enough time to see everything.  Our guide tried to get us back in enough time to do a quick tour of the city, but fates were against us, and we missed seeing the town, except from a distance.

And so, we headed back to our ship, getting to relax for 2 cruising days, and then on to Luanda, Angola for our next stop.