Walvis Bay
9th April 2014: The more I saw of Namibia the more I liked it…don’t know why but something about a desert is just awe-inspiring and magical. Take these plants above (Welwitschia Mirabilis) which grow out in the desert. They live nowhere else, have separate male and female plants with just two leaves that split up as they get older, have a symbiotic fungus that lives in the centre and can stay alive for 2000 years. There are no relatives in the plant kingdom on the planet….so it MUST have come from outer space!!
Today’s temperature in the desert was hot and reached 48’C where we were in the Namib Nauhluft park off-roading to go and see the plant!
The rocks and hills of the Black Mountains were granite and had a marbling effect due to deposits of Iron Ore running though which made it look like the hills had black stripes!
Riding up a dry river bed which last saw water in 2010,one could only wonder what would make the early German settlers try to cross it in the first place. However, we did and eventually arrived at the Goanikontes Oasis where we had lunch and where 100 years ago food was grown for the settlers in Walvis Bay.
Namibia is empty with 1.7 people per square kilometre compared with 241 for the UK. The Namib Desert is possibly the oldest desert in the world, don’t ask me how they know this, I’m only quoting the guide book.
Back on the coast and between Walvis bay and Swakopmund there is a sand dune, yes I know, a sand dune in a desert….however every tour from the boat stopped at this “Dune No.7” so we could take a picture of it. I never really found out what happened to the other 6 or why indeed number 7 was so special, apart from being big, but being a dutiful tourist, I took a picture.
A lot of South African money seems to be coming into this area with new homes, apartments, hotels and such going up along the coast, which seems odd as there is nothing here…except sand. But they said that about Las Vegas in the beginning I suppose. Time will tell.
Finally, we arrived back at the ship across the bay from the flamingos, pelicans, waders and terns and set sail northwards and towards home.
