Henties Bay, Namibia by Kev and Mel

Hello from Henties Bay,
We are on the coast of Namibia, in a small town called Henties Bay. The town has around 8000 inhabitants (10 000 in high tourist season). This is a nice lovely stop to relax.
We drove here from Etosha on the 28th of May. It took around 5 hours. Again the landscapes are incredible. On that side of the country is the Namib desert. We crossed some massive flat landscapes with very little on it. Kilometres of open flat land. Despite looking empty, it still captures the imagination and I spent the drive just looking around admiring the view passing by.
Just before arriving in the town, Kev was looking at the exterior temperature dropping pretty quickly. We could see big cloud in front of us. I read later that when the cold air of the sea and the warm air of the desert meet, it creates a kind of rolling cloud. We saw that and it was pretty impressive. The temperature went from around 30 to 14 degrees in a few minutes. When we arrived, it was cold and humid! That is ok, we all have jumpers… We might need to buy some clothes at some point!!!
We arrive a Henties Bay, set up the camp, went to do a bit of shopping. Back at the camp for some blogging and dinner around the fire, as it is cold (I think I mentioned that already)!!!
The next day we went to one of the biggest fur seal colony. This is why we came here. I read some bad comments about this place but also some great one. I think it depends what time of the year you come here. The bad comments were about lots of dead seal pups. Pups are born around November, December in that colony, so at the moment they are all around 5 to 6 months of age which is pass the riskier time for them. I can imagine that in December January, seeing lots of dead baby seal would be hard. Alos the smell was mentioned. Yes I won’t lie, it doesn’t smell like roses, we are looking at seal after all! But again, at this time of the year it is very bearable. January again, the smell might be harder to deal with.
Anyway we very much enjoy this visit.
A bit of information about fur seal. Fur seals and sea lions are closely related and commonly known together as the "eared seals". There are several species of fur seal, which I didn’t quite understand all the differences, so I won’t bore you with it! The main characteristics are: the male fur seal is much bigger than the female, they have a lot of underfur, hunt small prey and go away on foraging trip for a longer time than sea lions do.
Female can go on foraging trip for up to 7 days when their pups are a couple of months old, leaving their pups on land. The pups stick together waiting for their mum to come back. When they come back, they found each other by sound and smell. We did see small seals coming back from the water and calling out, sniffing bigger seal to see if it was their mum.
We drove for around 40 minutes north of Henties Bay to arrive at Cape Cross Fur Seal colony. You pay you entry fee and off you go. You can get out of your car, which is nice!!! (we are used to national park where you can not!). There is a wooden path for human to walk on without disturbing the seal to much.
There are thousands of seals!!! It is amazing! They are very noisy as they keep calling each other, arguing about who is sitting on that rock, or just making noise for fun it seems! Their activities are: laying down on a rock to warm up under the sun; if they can’t be on a rock, they’ll find a nice place on the sand. They also as mentioned before like to argue with each other, but we haven’t seen any proper fight (it is probably different at mating season). Another thing they seem to like is ‘running’ down toward the beach to go for a swim. The younger ones also love to suckle on their mums, who when they are there and not our looking for fish, are trying to relax on the sand. We spent 3 hours watching them. It was amazing. I always say that I am a city person, but I do love watching wildlife. The pups are adorable, the seals laying against each other and hugging were super nice to see. The kids had a laugh watching the seal running down to get to the water.
After that we came back to the town to have lunch at a little pub, where they had nothing vegetarian, so I had a plate of chips…I miss India (for all the vegetarian options if you haven’t read my previous blogs)!!!
Anyway after that, we drove 10 minutes south to look at a shipwreck and walk on the beach for a bit. The beaches are massive here with nobody on it (It is too cold for a swim!) The ocean is beautiful. The sand is white with a tinge of green where the water hits it.
The coast is apparently very treacherous, hence was there are several shipwrecks all along the coast. But this one, is one of the best preserved for the moment. It is called the Zeila shipwreck. It is laying on its side and waiting for the ocean to finish it as it seems nobody is taking the responsibility to move it away from the water. Too expansive I guess.
We walked along the big empty beach, while the kids run around and draw in the sand. After a while we came back to the camp for a relaxing rest of the afternoon.
On the 30th of May we waited for a driver to get us another renting car as the one we have, has a tent which is about to break down (screws extremely loose and metal bits which move every time we move; I didn’t feel to safe in that tent!). After getting the new car with much better tents, we went back to the beach. There was a massive drop which the kids love running down (Kev and I took the stairs!). There are a few people fishing from the beach with long fishing rode, so we watch them for a bit. We walked along the windy but beautiful beach for a while. The kids going up and down the big dune (they have strong legs those two!) Emma is becoming a lot more confident in her body and it is good to see.
Afternoon was school work and dinner at a local restaurant (no vegetarian, so I got fish which I am assuming/hoping is fished locally…)
The next day, we’ll be on the move again. A bientot!
Mel

28.5.2025. We woke up and packed up. We had loved our time here at Etosha, but it was time to leave. Our next stop is Buck's Camping Lodge in Henties Bay, around a 5hr drive. We set off, saying goodbye to a great park and campsite. We arrived at Henties bay in the early afternoon. As we approached, there was a strange cloud formation on the horizon. As if we were driving into an immense, long cloud. Turns out, the warmer desert air mixes with the cooler ocean air and creates fog. Was a bit eerie. We checked in and set up the car. This camp is alot less frills, and packs people in tighter, but everything works. The shower is hot, can't complain. It's bloody freezing here tho, windy and cold. We need a few supplies, so we went for a walk and found a small supermarket. We got bread and eggs and some veges. Most importantly, we got more matches. We walked back, noticed the power socket doesn't fit the universal adaptor we have, so we went for another walk. We were headed back to the supermarket, but it was now shut. It's only 3:30pm! On a Wednesday! Hey look, that service station looks like it has some stuff. Yay it had an adaptor for our adaptor, we can charge stuff again! We spent some time reading, blogging, mucking around and eventually, cooking dinner. I started a fire, and we sat around it eating dinner. Teeth were brushed, and beds became occupied. Goodnight.
29.5.2025. Late start, sun gets up later here and it's friggin freezing. Breakfast was had and we got ready to head out. About an hour's drive away is one of the largest fur seal colonies. Let's go and have a look. Seals everywhere! 80,000-100,000 at anytime and up to 210,000 during mating season. You think there's heaps on land, then you look out into the ocean and there's heaps more. It smells, but not as bad as some described. Apparently the highest mortality time for pups is just after birth, we were here when they were 6-7 months old. I guess it could smell a lot worse in a different season. Constant noise, constant movement. Seals going into the water or coming out. We read the only time an entire demographic was on land at the same time was newborns. Also that mother's could spend up to 7 days at sea feeding, in order to provide milk for their pup, which was left on land. They usually hang around other pups. It was fun watching them “run” down to the ocean, sometimes struggling to get back up. There was a built boardwalk for visitors, I think you used to be allowed to walk among the seals, but no longer. If something happened it would no doubt be the fault of people. We weren't sure how long we'd be here, it is “just” looking at seals after all. Turns out 3hrs, and that's only because we were getting hungry. We didn't really want to leave, but it was agreed for everyone's safety, certain people were fed. We headed back to Henties Bay, found a cafe and ordered lunch. It was not spectacular, but we got fed. Mel is having trouble with restaurants here, there is not many vegetarian options, if any. So they had a bowl of chips. Andrew and I on the other hand are having no problems, there's meat everywhere! Afterwards, we headed a short distance to a ship wreck. A bottom trawler that was being towed somewhere for repairs, when the tow rope snapped and it ran aground. There are shipwrecks all up and down the coast, earning the name, “skeleton coast”. We had a bit of a walk along the beach, then headed back to the campsite. We carried out the usual around camp business, ya know, blog, poke Andrew with something, schoolwork, make dinner, poke Andrew again, set up the tents for the night. It's bloody cold, so we are utilising both blankets and hot water bottles. Goodnight.
30.5.2025. We had to wait around a bit this morning, we found one of our tents was falling apart a bit. Mel contacted the hire company yesterday, and they sent a replacement vehicle this morning. After that we drove down to the beach front in town, to have a look around. We stopped and parked, then strolled off towards the beach. Was further away than we thought it would be. There was a pretty big drop down at the start, then a stretch of beach for 50m or so, then another, smaller drop down to the ocean. We watched some people fishing, they caught nothing but it was interesting. We had a walk along the beach, before long the kids were running down the first big drop. I thought for sure there would be a stack, we even videod it a few times, but alas, the kids always made it down upright. The kids drew some stuff in the sand, and would have stayed for a lot longer. Mel and I had had enough tho, and we headed back. We had lunch, and researched about the seals and other stuff. Later we went out to a different restaurant for dinner. This was cheaper than yesterday's, but way better. Good burgers and Mel had some local fish(only thing close to vegetarian), a few beers and wines, throw in some dessert and it was a nice meal. Walked back, read a bit and went to bed.
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