20250202 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 69/96 - Walvis Bay, Namibia Day #2

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 69/96 - Walvis Bay, Namibia - 4x4ing to Sandwich Harbor, Where the Dunes Meet the Ocean

Today began with room service since we didn't have time to eat in The Colonnade before we needed to leave for our excursion. We booked an excursion through GetYourGuide to see Sandwich Harbor where the dunes meet the ocean.

We walked to the tour office and checked in. A cape fur seal the locals call Bob was on the pier, looking for fish handouts to allow folks to pass.

They are called cape fur seals, but technically, they are sea lions

Seals have ear holes but sea lions have ear flaps, like Bob does

Bob didn't see his shadow so it looks like an early Spring - which would be weird since we're in the Southern Hemisphere

We were paired with a Portuguese couple who lived in Angola and were on holiday in Namibia. The four of us along with our guide and driver, Mike, piled into his Toyota Land Cruiser and hit the road.

Our first stop was a short way down the waterfront to the Walvis Bay Lagoon to check out the flamingos. Flamingos come to Namibia to live before flying to other locations to breed. With little rain the last two years, the flamingos didn't leave so there are a lot of them here, but they haven't been breeding. They are hoping for a good rainy year so the flamingos can leave and breed, and come back stronger.

The smaller, pink ones are lesser flamingos

The larger, white ones are greater flamingos - they have some pink feathers but they are generally white

Mike said that we would stop on the way back as it would be low tide and the flamingos would be closer

We found jackals patrolling the rocks

Namibia is a huge exporter of salt. We saw the salt works. They flood reservoirs and let the water evaporate to a point, increasing the salinity of the water. That water is moved to another pool and the process is repeated. They keep doing this until the salt solidifies under the water. It is then harvested, rinsed, and exported to Europe and The United States, mainly for winter road use.

A runoff area where salt has collected

An area where water escaped - the water trapped was bright pink

It almost looks like snow

We moved off the roads and into the old river delta to head toward the dunes.

Dunes in the making

A bush grows and traps airborne sand - that sand eventually covers the bush and the bush becomes an anchor for the dune to grow

Arlona, inspecting the dune's progress

A pool in the desert area with flamingos galore

We saw tracks that took us to a herd of springboks

Entering the Sandwich Harbor area - it is named for Lord Sandwich of England

We found more springboks

Babies!

The dunes come right to the ocean - at high tide, the water goes to the bottom of the dunes

Our ride for the morning

Making tracks

Those peaks are 150m or higher

More jackals

They didn't seem to care about us at all

The old lagoon at Sandwich Harbor - we drove to the top of a dune to catch this view

At the peak

We drove down and made a refreshment stop.

There I am, breaking the rules

We had two trucks - eight people - and they put out this incredible spread for us

They had a local beer available, so of course, I tried it - it was nice

On the way back

Jackals again

Snoozing at low tide

Mike said that they can send 100 vehicles a day out here - tourism is working in Namibia

It's hard to get a perspective here, but we were just about to tip nearly straight down a huge dune

The other truck and ours are going down at perhaps 60 degrees

Look at how deep that front wheel is digging in

We found a gemsbok, better known as an oryx

Its horns were impressive

The facial markings were also cool

Nara melon - a favorite food for oryx

We found a cape fur seal that had been in a fight and was healing on the sand

Back at the pond in the desert - more flamingos were there

Out in the open water, there were more flamingos than we had ever seen in one place

This went on for miles

Back at the salt factory and a curing pond - they appear pink due to a microbe that lives in highly salinated water

We stopped back at the Walvis Bay Lagoon and sure enough, the flamingos were much closer

A greater flamingo

Those eyes

We also saw pink pelicans - wow!

That wrapped up a fantastic tour. We stopped on the waterfront and I enjoyed yet another local beer.

We did a little shopping and returned to the ship. We did our exit immigration from Namibia and grabbed lunch.

After lunch, we hung out for a couple of hours before hitting the Observation Bar for pre-dinner drinks. We met up with our friends, Michael and Margaret. We mentioned that we had dinner scheduled at Solis tonight at 6:45. They said they had dinner tonight at 7:00. We went down at 6:50 and asked if we could get a four-person table together. They were able to accommodate us and we had a very nice dinner with friends.

Tonight's entertainment was a dance party on deck. It was cool and windy, and we'd seen that show already, so we returned to the room. We have a week until our next port in Benin. That means six days at sea and day #1 starts tomorrow.