Swakopmund - Day 3

I got up at 5.30am for our early sea kayaking trip. After a warm shower and cooked breakfast, we were picked up by a taxi and 7am and driven for around half an hour along the coast into a town with large container port. We were dropped off by a cafe and were met by our guide. Leon, with a 4x4 vehicle with three kayaks on top. Leon then drove us out of the very nice bay resort by the sea and along the coast. He was very informative about the local wildlife and stopped the vehicle to show us the greater and lesser flamingos feeding along the water's edge. This was the closest I had come to flamingos on the journey and it great to watch them feed and take flight by running along the water. They seem like larger birds when you're close to them. We saw many large pelicans in the water which were Leon's favourite bird. We also saw avocets feeding that migrate from as far away as Siberia. We travelled along the coast for another 30 minutes and entered a more industrial area with large sea lakes processing salt through a process of evaporation. Flamingos fed in the lakes that were early in the salination process and not too salty. We then turned off the road and onto a long area of sand. We stopped to view several jackals who lived in that area and prosper by scavenging dead birds and seal pups. Leon said that they've also learned how to hunt and kill live flamingos. After another 10 minute drive we neared the shore by an old German lighthouse and started to pass large numbers of fur seals and many pups by the shoreline. Apparently, an elephant seal was a lone visitor from Antarctica, but we didn't see it this time.
We parked by the shoreline in between two large seal colonies and prepared the kayaks and ourselves to go out on the sea water. I shared a kayak with Lauren and English Brian paddled the other kayak. We followed Leon out towards one of the seal colonies. Very soon we were paddling among large numbers of seals both in the water and on the shore. They were very curious about us and playful with us, swimming up close to our kayak and sniffing thr air. They seemed to enjoy following our kayak as we paddled. We paddled close to shore to view the large number of seals and the many small black seal pups on the shore and swimming in the shallows as they lack buoyancy when young and can't swim in deeper water. We then paddled across the water to another seal colony. After paddling along the shore we paddled out to slightly deeper water where the seals swam around our kayaks, sometimes leaping acrobatically in the air near the kayak and splashing us in the process. On Leon's advice I put my paddle in the water and several of the seals curiously investigated it and even chewed it. It was such a wonderful experience to see these animals twist and turn in the water around us, raise their head to sniff us, and be so playful with us. The guide then returned to the shore to prepare us drinks. Lauren and I also returned so that we could swap places and I could go in the front of the kayak. When we paddled back out to the seals, I really enjoyed having the unhindered view at the front of the boat. The seals had seemed to gain in confidence to approach the boat and came very close and chewed my paddle for longer. We watched the seals swimming and leaping all around us for some time. It was a wonderful experience to be this close to so many seals for so long. We didn't want to leave this amazing scene but eventually we knew that we had to return to the shore and have a hot drink before changing.Read more