Valentine's Day in Walvis Bay

We did not get back to the ship from our around the world event until after midnight, then had an 8:45 meeting time for our excursion, so the boys did not get a full night of sleep. But they rallied and we were off on what was ostensibly a birding tour but wound up being more of a general nature exploration. We started off at the lagoon to see the flamingos, both greater (larger, lighter colored) and lesser (smaller, darker pink, almost orange). Then it was off to the salt pans, a huge operation where sea salt is “mined” – “collected” might be a better term, but it’s called a salt mine. The huge conical piles of salt glistened in the sun and looked like snow. The shallow waters of the lagoon alongside the salt pans attract many birds, and I collected several lifers here.

After the salt pans we continued out along the beach to Pelican Point. It was great to drive along the beach as it was totally deserted, which was such a contrast to our beaches at home. Again, the emptiness of Namibia was really striking. We made a quick stop to take a close look at the sand, which is composed of pulverized gems such as rubies, along with magnetite and the usual silica. Thomas was sure that there must be some way to extract these bits from the sand and turn a profit. As we approached the seal colony (which I think were actually sea lions, but the guide referred to them as seals, so OK) we saw more and more dead seals scattered along the beach, mostly small ones. When we reached the colony, which was quite large, we saw many dead seals. This bothered DJ quite a bit, which was too bad as the colony itself was fun to watch as they swam in the shallow water.

Leaving the point, we drove back along the beach for one final stop atop a dune for a panoramic view. The 4x4 required a good running start to get to the top of the steep dune and a couple of the wheels were spinning in the loose sand, but we made it. We enjoyed the view and then had a roller coaster ride back over the crest of the dune and down the steep face. We actually did this twice as one of the vehicles in our group got stuck on the top and needed help getting repositioned, so we went back around.

Once back to the ship we had lunch, then left the boys for some free time on their own while Liz and I did a quick walk back to some shops located near the dock. Liz found a nice sweater that she purchased as we have found we’re a bit light on long-sleeved things to wear during the cool evenings.

We capped the day off with a nice Valentine’s Day dinner at Toscana.Read more