We docked in Walvis Bay in Namibia at 6.30 in the morning on Wednesday, 4 December. We were to be here for a day and a half and what a full-on experience it turned out to be. 

We set off on our first afternoon on a private 4x4 experience along Namibia's coastal sand dunes with two lovely people from Glasgow, David and Aileen, who we spent quite a bit of time with on the cruise, particularly at the quiz sessions. 

Namibia has wide streets near the Port but the road soon became narrow and the tarmac disappeared. Namibia is the biggest salt producer in South Saharan Africa with pink salt lakes beside the road. The roads are made of salt and sand and water, and this causes the second highest corrosion in the world. In addition to salt, the sand contains a wealth of different minerals, which creates a very colourful appearance in places.

There are 50 different bird species in Walvis Bay and we saw heaps including gannets, a great white pelican, the second largest, and many of the approximate number of 70-80 thousand flamingos. The greater flamingos are carnivorous and gets their food from the sea bed so usually have their heads under water. The lesser flamingos are surface feeders looking for algae which means that both species can coexist happily as they are not competing for food. There are more than 4 million cape fur seals but only 30% of baby seals survive and the only ones we saw were dead.  

We entered the Namib National Park and were stunned by the size and extent of the sand dunes. Once we were in the Park, there was nothing to see but sand and sea, the occasional animal, and a small amount of vegetation. The experience was mind-blowing, like nothing we had seen before nor could have imagined and we spent a very happy time, driving up the sides of massive dunes and down the other side, a veritable roller-coaster of a ride. We got a perspective of the enormous height of the dunes when we stopped for lunch on the shoreline and saw another group at the top of the dune (see if you can spot the tiny speck at the top of the photo!)

Our guide had brought along a lovely lunch and took our photo to commemorate a lovely day with our friends in the vast expanse of sand, sea, and sky and sea. 

Lunch over, he drove us where we were likely to see Springbok, which we did. Looking at the photos now, I can't help but feel that the light caused them to look more like paintings than photos, but photos they are. It was delightful that the animals were fearless and stayed quite still as we drove around. We also saw a prickly plant that grows in the Namib Desert which is a water-rich food source for both humans and animals. The fruit is spiny and green on the outside but the flesh inside is orange, sweet and aromatic. The plant itself – which really deserves its name of Acanthosicyos Horridus (because it does look horrid!) - has a thick tap root system that can extend more than 50 metres underground which helps it to survive for many years without rain and is therefore constantly available to animals like the Springbok and the other native animals of the region which are many.

e were sorry when the day came to an end. It had been a breathtaking experience and our driver/guide had given us plenty of exciting things to see with thrills - but no spills - as he drove up and down the dunes.

The next morning, Thursday 5 December, we were up for breakfast at 6.30, ready for our second adventure that began at 7.15. The ship was leaving at 1.00 pm and we had a lot to cover. We had a very joyful Namibian guide who filled in some of the more urban aspects of Namibia than we had seen the day before and took us to Swakopmund, a seaside resort to the north of the port. 

The port of Walvis Bay is very important and can accommodate 83 vessels. It’s huge. We found out that there are 3 mines producing uranium only. The sand is not suitable for building until the iron has been extracted from it because it is very magnetic. Many ships have been shipwrecked here in the past because compasses didn't work, and this is why it is called the Skeleton Coast. 

Although it doesn’t rain much, there is often a thick fog that produces so much water that the roads look as if it has rained. After we had stopped to look at the flamingos (again), we set off for Swakopmund, a very German city that emerged from the desert. There was one area that looked almost like an English beach resort!  The roads in the city were built very wide so that oxen could do U-turns with 8 oxen front and back. Disease finally killed all the oxen so the Germans built a train for transporting materials but it did not sustain. The buildings are very old, and changes can only be made to the interiors with upkeep only on the outsides. We saw a memorial commissioned in 1907 to commemorate the German First Marine Expedition Corps that helped beat back the Herero uprisings of 1904. We wandered around the town and checked out the museum, and visited the Kristall Gallery and saw some amazing precious rocks and stones. 

We passed an oil rig that has apparently not yet been commissioned, and a township that appeared to have been dumped in the middle of the desert.

And, we got another view of the size of the dunes as we watched the military personnel training by way of climbing the dunes with their packs on their backs.  

We were actually a bit late returning to the ship and we had barely boarded when we set off at 1.00 pm, this time bound for Luderitz.