Walvis Bay Adventure

We had already had our Easter service on Saturday because Sunday was to be our stop in Luderitz, Namibia, but it never happened because the seas were too rough for tendering. So we had a brief glance at the shore at dawn and then drowned our disappointment in the chocolate which Viking surprised us with in our room.

We have all learned to be disappointed quietly because there’s nothing anyone can do about the weather anyway. But, in reality we have had wonderful weather and we certainly can’t complain. The day after Luderitz was a prime example. Yes, it was overcast in the morning but it wasn’t windy at all, as it usually is, and that was a real blessing out there in the dunes. The day dawned beautifully and Bob, Brenda and I headed out on what proved to be one of our very best adventures.

We didn’t see much of the city but what we did see was neat and clean — where the very wealthy live, the guide said. But all of our impressions of the country, from the several guides we talked with, were positive.

We boarded 4x4s by the lagoon where we viewed the dead but still beautiful jelly fish and the almost pink flamingoes.

What really was pink was the water in some of the salt company’s evaporation ponds which we passed as we rode out of town. It’s the algae. I’m glad their salt is used for melting snow (in other countries, of course, as this area hasn’t had rain in ten years, much less snow!) because I wouldn’t like to think people were eating salt from ponds where flamingoes waded.

We were told that the particular vehicle in which we were riding had been used in the third Transformer movie. Having never seen any Transformer movie I have no idea how old that would necessitate it being but I can tell you it was looking quite old and very rusty. So we liked it. And almost had an adventure on top of an adventure when it had two bouts of trouble out in the dunes.

We were in a caravan of 4x4s and all of the guides contributed to our education about the area. We had no idea that this was to be a safari of sorts but we actually saw lots of animals spotted by the eagle eyes of the guides.

This little ghost gecko hides in the sand but the guides saw his telltale hole and dug him out for us. His coloring was like nothing I have seen before.

We drove right along the water line of the Atlantic and the seals were numerous — both alive and dead. We hear that there are just too many of them for the food supply and so some starve.

We saw the jackals, who undoubtedly eat some of them. Their tracks were everywhere and we followed one as he ran up a dune out of sight. This one looked quite healthy and contented.

Springbok antelope were beautiful, as always, and a delight to see in the wild setting.

I know you can’t see the two black male ostriches very well here but I wanted you to notice the small bumps of dunes in the background. It seems that the dunes start where a bush grows and the sand piles up around it. But the really beautiful dunes, to me, are the ones where the bushes no longer show and it’s just sand, sand, sand. Brenda liked to take pictures of me wandering off into them to get a better shot.

And Ruth enjoyed watching us try to shoot the ripples in the sand.

The dunes go right down to the ocean. In some places the dunes seem to be filling in the ocean and in others the ocean seems to be gnawing at the dunes.

We had a simple but tasty lunch which the guides set up on the beach at the foot of a dune which some people walked down. Not me this time, though.

The most interesting vegetation that we saw was this  desert “lemon” which is a good source of moisture for animals and men and which is protected so that only certain native peoples may harvest it. Looks to me like you’d have to know what you were doing when harvesting it, anyway. Ouch!

And the most beautiful vegetation, to me anyway, was this old tree which is sitting there reminding passers by that once someone lived in that almost buried home.

The ride through the dunes was exhilarating to say the least! You could tell that the drivers loved what they were doing and they did it well. As soon as our driver knew that we were OK with fast and rough he pulled out all the stops. Perhaps you can imagine what it was like if I remind you that all four of us in our vehicle are experienced off road drivers and have taken many frightening rides but that in some parts of this ride we were all screaming — out of fear or joy was not exactly clear at the time.

It was truly a delightful day of riding and watching for animals but for me the sand falls were a highlight. I guess I’m odd but I could have watched them forever, they were so fascinating. No one started the sand falling. It just started and stopped for no seeming reason and one had to keep looking to see where it was active. The dunes are creeping their way toward the ocean in this way, at this snail’s pace.