On Walvis Bay

Friday morning was designated as a self guided section of our safari package. Near and around Swakopmund there were plenty of adventure activities/excursions including sandboarding, quadbiking, horseback riding, skydiving, hot air ballooning, and the like. The safari guides had contact information and were available to make suggestions and set up arrangements including transportation. Time was limited however as our new group departed from Swakopmund at 11:00. We chose a boat ride out into Walvis Bay, which was about 45 minutes south of Swakopmund. This worked well, as the safari traveled through Walvis Bay on the way to Sussessvlei, which was our next stop.

We enjoyed the warmer sleeping quarters a little too much, and ended up sleeping in a bit more than we should have. The result was another made rush to get all of our stuff packed up in our suitcases, and only about 10 minutes to grab breakfast before we were picked up for the boat ride. Its always even more difficult to rush when you are in a place like Namibia, where many people are very friendly and laid back. Everyone likes to wish you a good morning, ask you how you are, and the breakfast serving staff at the hotel, wanted to explain everything available for breakfast. We tried our best to smile politely and exchange pleasantries, but continue to move fast.

Half way through breakfast, Oeckert let us know that our ride had arrived. We rushed to finish our breakfast and get out to the van which was full of about 8 other tourists waiting for us. After a quick stop at the office to arrange payment, we jumped on the road for a 45 minute drive between the coast and the large golden dunes along the coast to the town of Walvis Bay.

  

Sand Dunes Between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay

Once we arrived, we were met with approximately 8 more people, and we boarded the boat. At this point, our group was made up of some Germans, Italians, Canadians, and ourselves. The bay that we were going to be navigating was a very large bay in the Atlantic ocean, and had tremendously calm waters compared to the rough seas we watched hitting the open shore line the evening before.



Beachfront Homes Near Walvis Bay





Our Boat Guide With Junior



As soon as we boarded the boat, a seal jumped out of the water on to the back of the boat. One of the guides for the boat tour, a very enthusiastic Namibian of German heritage played with him a bit and gave him pieces of fish. He asked us not to touch this one (named Junior) as he was not very friendly. As we pushed out to sea, the seal followed us, and would occasionally jump on and off the boat. As we got a bit further, there was a second seal that began following us, and who jumped up on the boat. The guide told us that he had raised this seal from a pup. This seal was very friendly, and he invited us to feel his fur, and pet him. At that point, he invoited the different families to pose for pictures with the seal. Each family would sit down, and he would lure the seal behind the family and then up on to their shoulders to take a family picture with them. While all this was going on, we looked into the front window of the boat, and there sitting next to the captain looking out the window was the seal named Junior, copiloting. When the friendly seal (we can’t remember his name but it started with a P, so I’ll call him that) saw him through the window, P became irritated and snapped at and slapped at the window a couple times. The guide explained that P doesn’t like Junior, and if they get together he will bite him.






Family Picture (find the imposter!)



After photos and playtime with P, we travelled quite a distance out into the bay, towards the edge of a low elevation sand peninsula, where there was a colony of 60,000 seals. P and Junior followed us quite a ways out to the peninsuala (a distance that had to be several miles). As we neared the cosat, the two things you noticed where the overpowering smell of seal droppings, and some dead seals, as well as the sounds which sounded like hundreds of sheep bleating with a few hundred old men mingling between gurgling and clearing their throats. The entire coast was just covered in seals, either lying in the sand, or hopping around.



Kalyssa Holding a Jelly Fish





Seal Colony



After seeing the seals, we went to head out to see the dolphins. While we were travelling, the guide pulled out shotglasses, and a bottle of “Old Brown” South African sherry. This was approximately 10:00 in the morning…. Oooh its going to be a long day…. I looked at Natalie, shrugged and said “It’s 5:00 somewhere” and we each had a glass….or two.

Our guide had tempered our expectations on the dolphins explaining that we would need to be lucky to see them. As we got further out in the middle of the bay, and a little closer to the open waters, we did begin to see some dolphin fins occasionally. However everytime one caught your eye and you turned to look, it would slip back into the water away from view. The guide tried to navigated from the front of the boat, asking the driver to meander various directions to try and find a school that we could follow, but we weren’t having much luck.

Suddenly, the captain began knocking on the window to alert the guide, and then made frantic parting motions with his arms, apparently trying to communicate for all of us to get off the front of the boat and back inside. Once we were safely inside, he opened up the throttle and we headed out for the edge of the bay to the open waters. Apparently there was a large school of bottlenose dolphins that had been sighted. As we were flying out jumping over the growing waves, I noticed there were several other small boats that must have gotten the same information, as they were flying in the same direction we were. After we navigated the ocean at full speed for about 15 minutes, ahead of us in the distance the smooth waves were broken up by a large amount of activity in one area. As we got closer, we could see dolphin fins everywhere, and the occasional head pop up as they came up for air.



Dolphin!



The closer we got, the more excited our guide got. Suddenly, all around the boat everywhere you looked were dolphins swimming along side the boat. Hundreds if not thousands of them. I noticed our guide run down give the captain a celebratory clap on his shoulders, and the captain turned around with amazed excitement. The guide later told me that it had been four years since he had seen anything like this, and that usually schools of bottlenose such as this stay way out in the very deep open water. It really was quite an amazing sight.





After 20 minutes of following the dolphins, it was time to head back to harbor. We all headed into the boat, and were served up some fresh oysters from Walvis Bay, as well as some finger sandwiches, and other snacks. The guide also popped open several bottles of champagne and passed around glasses, and we enjoyed that as well. I turned to Natalie and said that our new guide, Monet, is going to be dealing with a couple drunks for the afternoon, as it was still only about 11:00am.



After we had our snacks, and we neared the harbor, several large pelicans began swirling about us. Apparently, our guide had some of these named and trained as well. These birds were much larger than I expected with wingspangs that were 5-6 feet. There wer a group of 4 of them, that were out in the distance, and saw us coming, and began to fly directly at us, just over the top of the water in perfect formation. Our guide in his typical enthusiastic German accent, said “Look, here comes the Namibian Airforce, look, look, look.”



JJ the Pelican



He began calling to one of them: “J. J., Set! Set! Set!”, The pelican obeyed, and came and landed on the boat. We noticed this particular pelican had a tag on his legs with his name J.J. on it. Our guide grabbed a cooler which J. J. recognized right away, and from this point, would do just about anything our guide asked him to. Many of the other passengers pet, posed with, and took pictures of the bird. Oddly enough, he seemed to like all the men, but when women would come near, he would try and bite their head. As he continued to mingle with the crowd, our guide would toss him bits of fish to keep him happy. J.J. stayed with the boat until we docked, and then followed us all on shore as if to wish us all a goodbye.

At this point, we sat and waited approximately 20 minutes for our safari group to pick us up. Once they arrived, we boarded, and introduced ourselves to the new companions we’d have for the next few days. In addition to Margret from New Orleans (but living in Zambia) whom we met the prior evening, there was a couple from Canada, and 2 older gentlemen: one from the UK, and one from Australia.



The rest of the afternoon was spent on a long ride in the same truck we’d been in for the last three days though now with our new guide Monet. Leaving Walvis Bay, we began to move away from the coast, and on either side of us were immense golden sand dunes that reached like mountains into the sky. Gradually over the next couple hours, the empty sand began to have more and more vegetation, and the land gradually went from sady to rocky, until we were back in open fields of brush with the occasional mountain in the distance.

Driving Through Namibia

The final hour of driving was in the dark, and we eventually made it to our lodge in Sesriem: Desert Camp.

Sunset Near Sesriem, Namibia

After disembarking from our truck, we each made it through the pitch dark to our individual cabins. Each one was partially permanent tent, and partially cement building. We had running water, indoor toilet and shower…but no heat. And now that we are quite a ways from the coast, the nights are very cold again.

Alexandra and Kalyssa jumped right into bed as soon as we arrived, and said they were not getting up for dinner, a promise they kept. Most of the rest of us gathered at the outdoor bar by the reception area and enjoyed some Namibian beer while watching the Sweden/France Football (soccer) game, and traded stories about our travels. While we were enjoying our cocktails, we could see Monet off in the darkness busily cooking our dinner for us around a wood fire. The smell began to waft over to us between the scents of some of the fragrant native plants making us eager to head over and eat.

 

Dinner was similar to our first night with Oeckert: salad, lamb chops, chicken, and game sausage. Additionally he had something I think he called “pop” (or something that sounded like it) which tasted just like Italian polenta. We all ate quite a bit, and at this point Natalie and I were exhausted and headed back to our cabin and turned in for the night.