Walvis Bay

There were no additional chocolate bunnies in our room in the morning. This could be related to the fact that one of the large bunnies mysteriously disappeared during the night.

Despite leaving Cape Town 5 hours late, we were able to make up most of the lost time, and we arrived in Walvis Bay in good time for our tour. That’s one of the things I love about Mary – she has that extra power when needed.

The weather didn’t look too promising, but the forecast was for the fog to lift by midmorning. They apparently get a lot of fog here. That’s partly why the coastline is called the skeleton coast.

There is a lot of iron in sand, so in the past the ship’s compass would become inaccurate, and with the fog it would be impossible to see how close your ship was to the shallow waters along the shore. Then bang, you suddenly found out that you were way too close to the shore, and that was the end of your lovely ship. Not good.

We had to do face to face immigration clearance before we could disembark, but it went very smoothly, and we were off the ship in good time to find our driver for the tour.

The port in Walvis Bay is a very busy cargo port. There is no cruise terminal, or in fact any buildings near to where we were docked. However, it was a very short walk to find our driver, and the 2 Italian gentlemen who were joining us on our tour.

It was a bit of a squeeze to get the 4 of us and our driver, Leroy, into the small Toyota SUV, but we were finally all buckled in and off to see flamingos and sand dunes.

Our first stop was on the waterfront near to the port. There were quite a few flamingos in the ocean there, I must admit I had expected there to be more, but it was certainly a lovely sight. I used to have a boss who was crazy about flamingos. She would wear long, exotic, pink scarves and had a giant cardboard flamingo in her office. She would have loved it here.

Whilst we were watching the bird life, Leroy was busy letting the air out of the tires of the car. I thought that this was rather strange behavior, but Brian explained that he was getting the car ready for driving on sand. Wow, who knew that you needed lower tire pressure for sand. You learn something every day.

Our next stop was to see a salt mine – salt is one of Namibia’s important exports. Sea water is pumped into shallow pans, and over the course of about 18 months the water evaporates, leaving the salt behind. I’m not sure why they call it a salt mine – there certainly isn’t anything like mining going on there, there are just acres of water filled pans, and salt. The fun thing is that because of the high levels of algae in the water (which is why the flamingoes are pink) sometimes the water is pink, so the salt is pink. Leroy showed us the canal that is being used to pump the water into the pans – and yes it is certainly the pinkest sea water I have ever seen.

We then drove along the coast towards Sandwich Harbour. There is no road as such, you just drive on the sand between the ocean and the dunes. This can only be done at low tide because at high tide the water meets the dunes, and there is no space between them. The tide was coming in, and I hoped we would get back to Walvis Bay before we were engulfed in sea water. I noticed that Leroy had a radio. Maybe it was for that eventuality. I do hope he doesn’t need to use it.

Along the way we made several stops to look at the bird life and the towering dunes. The dunes really are amazing, I have never seen anything quite like this coastline.

The sand also has very pretty colors.

Just as I was contemplating our options should the tide come in, Leroy turned a sharp left and drove straight up a dune. I mean it was totally vertical. Then when we reached the top, all of a sudden we plummeted down the other side. All this is a seemingly ordinary Toyota. There were more dunes to be scaled and we went up and down until we finally came to a stop on the top of a very high dune overlooking Sandwich Harbor. Our roller coaster ride had come to an end thank goodness. I had hoped that we would be going to sandwich Harbor itself, but alas, we only got to get a good look at it.

From the car we climbed up to the very top of the dune. I was of course wearing totally inappropriate shoes (nothing in the description of the tour mentioned anything about foot wear), so I just had to remove my shoes and conquer the summit in bare feet.

I must say that they warm sand felt very soothing between my toes, sort of like a mobile pedicure, and I thought I was having the best experience of anyone there.

The ridge on top of the dune was very narrow, and one misplaced step could send you plummeting down the dune. I felt much more secure in my bare feet than I would have in high heels.

After marveling at the sight around us and taking photos, we walked back to the car, and braced ourselves for the ride back down to the water.

It was even more scary than the ride up, and I noticed the gentleman next to me crossing himself and mumbling religious epithets. He seemed so invested in doing this, that I assumed that his prayers for safety would include the whole car, and that we were safe.

Eventually we reached the beach again, and sped off across the sand to our picnic site for lunch

It’s one thing when you take a break on a game drive and you can dive behind the closest bush if nature calls, but when you are in a valley surrounded by high sand dunes, this is a challenge.

After a delicious lunch we packed up the car and headed back to the beach for our sandy drive back to Walvis Bay. We saw a springbok along the way.

In Walvis Bay, Leroy stopped at a supermarket for us to stock up on Cokes for the stateroom, so all is well with the world once more.

I was sorry that we didn’t actually go to Sandwich Harbour as was advertised in our booking, but I still really enjoyed the tour, and it was certainly a worthwhile experience.

Back on the ship we had to meet with an immigration officer to receive the exit stamp in our passports. It was all very efficient. Immigration in Singapore seemed like a nightmare, and getting back on the ship in Cape Town was a challenge, but the Namibian authorities made it look easy. Despite the fact it was a public holiday (Easter Monday) there was enough staff there to deal with the onslaught of passengers, and they were very pleasant and efficient.

This was my first real visit to Namibia. I had been to the transit lounge at Windhoek airport several times in the past, when planes needed to stop there to refuel, but this was my first opportunity to really experience a small bit of what the country was like.

Namibia certainly has its problems, but it’s like the little African country that could. It tries it’s best to get by in a very difficult economic environment. We resolved that we should help the economy out by thinking about a safari there next year. I always have to be planning a safari, and currently we are planning a visit to go back to Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, but maybe we can go for 2 safaris next year. Fingers crossed.

Once on board we headed to the Commodore Club to access the wifi there. We usually try to sit near an outlet in case we have to charge our computers, and guess who was sitting near by? None other than the one and only Stephan Payne. Here was my perfect chance to talk with him, but could I do it? No, I just couldn’t think what to say that wouldn’t sound like the ridiculous fan that I am.  So I just sat obsessing about how I was going to communicate with him.

We like to have predinner snacks in our stateroom while we are getting dressed for dinner, so when we returned to our stateroom to get changed, it was time to bring out the sparkling wine that was our embarkation gift from Cunard.

Pre COVID when you arrived in your stateroom, there on the little table, taking up way too much space, was a large ice bucket containing a bottle of Pol Acker, 2 champagne glasses, a white napkin, and a card welcoming you back. More recently instead of this warm welcome, there has been a half bottle of Pol Acker and 2 champagne glasses in the fridge. Definitely a downgrade. Well in my opinion the Pol Acker should be drunk while one is unpacking. Brian unpacked alone, so we hadn’t had the chance to drink it yet.

I went to the fridge, and instead of the Pol Acker there was a Novantina prosecco. Now I am a fan of prosecco, so I was happy with what I thought was an upgrade. It is not. Actually, I think that it is worse than Pol Acker. I had heard that the world voyage passengers were signing a petition. I am yet to discover what this petition is all about (enquiring minds do need to know, but the opportunity has not arisen as yet), but could it be to bring Pol Acker back? I would sign that.

Well, worse than the prosecco taste, it has a screw top lid. No lovely sound of a popping cork as you prepare to imbibe the liquid – but a regular screw top cap. There are actually some very pleasant wines that have a screw top cap, so I am in favor of them in principle. But not for prosecco. This is definitely a mistake.

After getting all dressed up, we joined our friends for dinner in Coriander, tonight’s specialty restaurant at the Kings Court. The food at Coriander is always good, and we had a great evening. The only issue is that we were asked to leave the restaurant as they wanted to close down for the night. This keeps on happening to us unfortunately. Maybe we just talk too much.

It was too late to go to the show, and both of us had work we needed to do. Because we can’t connect to the internet in our stateroom, we went down to the game tables at the front of the ship so we could catch up.  Also catching up with their work was a very outgoing English teenager, in the middle of A level studies. We had been very impressed with their ability to engage with everyone in the Commodore Club earlier today, and now to charm all the  passengers who walked by. Definitely someone who is going to go far. I love it!

By that time it was way too late for the Commodore Club. Probably too late for dancing in G32, so we decided to call it a night.

We have now left 2 ports with no sail away parties. I do hope we have a good sail away from Tenerife. I love dancing by the pool on deck 8. Fingers crossed.