Cruise Port 8 – Walvis Bay, Namibia

by Ed · May 10, 2023

Greetings!

On April 30th, 2023, we arrive at Walvis Bay. We are here for two days.

We come in quietly through the fog. In the fog the seals dance for us! Hundreds of them! It is glorious to watch, but unfortunate that they disappear in the mist.

A short while later we enter the Walvis Bay harbor.

This is another working harbor so we have no terminal, but the pier is clean!

I am going on a tour today, but Joy is not joining me. I am going “Soaring Over Sossusvlei”! This is our shuttle. I am surprised to find that there are only three of us on this tour!

We drive north from Walvis Bay to the airport in Swakopmund. Lucky, our driver, tells us the locals call the town “Swakop” and the Germans renamed it “Swakopmund”.

On the way we see a company offering 4-wheel tours through the sand dunes. Their marks persist through the day, but the tracks should disappear quickly with a little wind!

A short while later, we see some of the 4-wheel buggies, but also 4-legged ships of the desert – camels!

I love the fence around this school!

But I am saddened by the shanty homes that so many people must live in.

We finally arrive at our tour location! (Please accept my apologies for the quality of this image – it is taken through the van’s windshield.)

Inside we see the path our flight is to take. There are ten scenic sites to visit!

We go outside to wait for our pilot. I see this endearing little monument! The airport had a mascot – a cat named Cessna!

The ramp is lightly populated. There is this plane, clearly not ready to fly as it still has all the covers and Remove Before Flight flags. One other plane is unloading around the corner behind some bushes.

The pilot of that plane walks over and tells us he is our pilot for the tour. But he says we need to talk. Inland the clouds are breaking, but along the coast they are getting thicker. Seven of our sites are along the coast, and the airport is going to close within the hour. We all agree it is not worth taking the time to fly and only see the inside of clouds. He calls his office and they tell him there are openings tomorrow if we want to come back. We head back to the ship.

An hour and a half later we arrive at the Walvis Bay pier. We are greeted by a line of seagulls lined up on the mooring line.

I decide I’m not going to rebook for tomorrow, as Joy and I have another tour booked, and I don’t have any confidence the skies will be any more cooperative then. Ken and Elma, the other two on the tour, might rebook, but they also have a conflicting tour that they want to do.

Fast forward. It is now May 1st, 2023! We have a tour titled “Walvis Bay & Swakopmund.”

The tour begins with a tour around the Walvis Bay lagoon. We see pink flamingos! There are a handful where we start at the lagoon, but we drive all the way around to the far side, and there are hundreds of flamingos – they are much brighter and deeper pink than the first set! We get out of the bus and take more than a few pictures!

I can see myself painting these in an upcoming watercolor class!

Along the lagoon path I see this colorful bench. The plaque says, in German, “In loving memory Margrit Ilse Egert.” But the colors are confusing as they are not the colors of the German or Namibian flags! Time to head north to Swakopmund.

On the north side of Walvis Bay Dashi, our tour guide, points out this minimum-security prison. She tells us that stealing a cow is more severe than committing murder! Here, a cow supports a household and has a legal value of over $1M!

We stop for a photo op at Dune 7. This is the highest dune in Namibia and is a well-known stop for visitors!

While taking pictures of Dune 7 I notice the railroad tracks extending past us. The rails are close together – this is a narrow-gauge system! I ask Dashi and she confirms the entire rail system is narrow gauge. This may help explain the train wrecks we saw in Luderitz – not a lot of stability for heavily-laden mining cars.

As we approach Swakopmund we swing by the airport I was at yesterday. The clouds do not look much better today than they did yesterday. I’m glad I didn’t rebook the Soaring Over Sossusvlei tour!

Dashi points out the taxi stands in Swakopmund. If you need a ride somewhere, you show up here, wait your turn, and catch a taxi. It only costs about $4 to go from here back to Walvis Bay!

We pass this corner with this resourceful man selling tires and fishing gear – nets, lines, boots, poles, buckets!

Then we’re at our first stop – the Kristall Galerie.

This is a jewelry store that specializes in tourmaline in all shapes and colors! Massive rocks full of huge crystals of quartz dominate the floor.

There is a “playroom” full of small stones that have been smoothed and polished and cover the area!

Displays focus on specific types of crystals and their colors.

Dozens of these windows are present! The colors are fantastic!

Back on the bus we find Dashi has changed into a traditional dress! But 68 degree F is chilly for her so the coat is not very traditional!

We pass a Catholic Church built by the Germans in 1907.

And the building that was the government building is now a Chinese restaurant!

Some brilliant artists have found a place to practice their skills! Beautiful!

Other artists have their wares on display. We go see them on our way back to the bus – they all want to know Joy’s name so they can show her how they carve designs into nuts! A gimmick, of course. Joy is really interested in the fabrics. We don’t buy anything here.

There are women here who have a heritage of raising cattle. They wear hats that resemble the cow horns, and generally live their lives topless, with hair braided and matted with a clay to protect it – they say to save the water for the cattle. They carefully eye our bus as we pass by. When we get off the bus they remove their robes, exposing their breasts. They want us to take their picture and pay them money, holding their hands up like they are holding a smartphone with one hand, and rubbing their fingers together as a sign of money with their other. We don’t do it, and back on the bus Dashi lets us know they come from the same area she does and she is disgusted and embarrassed by them.

As we walk to the Swakopmund Museum, I notice this monument bears the year of the two World Wars. The flags are long gone, and no plaques explain the monument.

Across the street from the World War monument, the lighthouse stands on the hill next to the President’s House (greenish white on the right).

There is a nice boardwalk along the coastline, lined with shops and restaurants.

And the Swakopmund Museum is here! Let’s go in!

The displays begin with German artifacts from the wars. But the floor is dominated by a large display of the animals of the country. Up front are the springbok antelope with their heart-shaped antlers, and the ostrich.

As a coastal town that made a living from fishing, part of the museum houses maritime and travel items. This one catches my eye – it is a basket used to hoist people onto or off a ship so they don’t have to climb a rope ladder!

Crude instruments are on display. The “can” guitar is fascinating, and with the bending reeds the stringed “lute” at the back must have been impossible to keep tuned!

The rest of the museum pays homage to the wealthy German families who traveled and lived here. They hauled kitchens (stoves, iceboxes, pots, pans, china, silverware, crystal glasses), fabric and sewing equipment, musical instruments (pianos, guitars, timpani drums!), medical equipment (dentist chair and instruments, and operating instruments). There is even a collection of over 2,000 model cars, including boxed sets of all of the James Bond cars used in every movie! The car collection is not very historic. I’m not adding any of those pictures to the blog because, to me, they are mundane and not fascinating, but want you to know a little more about the museum than I have shown above.

Taking a walk outside I find this interesting memorial. It is a remembrance for German Marine Expeditionary Force during the early 20th century. The plaque at the bottom states, in German: “With God for Emperor and Empire, members of the Marine Expeditionary Force fought in the following battles” and then it lists 15 battles between February and December 1904 during colonization quests. I did not walk around the monument to see if there were plaques for other campaigns.

Our Swakop city tour complete, we return to Walvis Bay. I snap this picture of the interesting landscape out to the surf, and I am pleasantly surprised to see I capture about a dozen wild camel roaming in the field!

Dashi tells us this oil derrick is not operational. It was being towed to another location in a different country to begin operations, but when they were denied the permits and licenses to drill they cut the rig loose, and weeks later it ran aground here. It has been a decoration and eyesore for 15 years!

Back at the harbor we pay a visit to the Waterfront – a set of local shops that the ship’s shuttle bus services. Joy is looking for some fabric. I find this wonderful little sign!

We have a late departure, and this local youth choir is brought on board to perform a pre-dinner show for us! The gentleman to the far right is Theodore Cookson – he is the leader of the Moscato Youth Choir. He was once one of the youth singers, and took over as director about 10 years ago when the previous director retired. The choir is energetic and entertaining, and because of what they have to go through at home, at school, and to get to rehearsals, their eyes show they are far older and wiser than their years! They sing multiple-part harmonies, solos, and one young man in the back is a marvel at bird whistles and sound effects! Their songs represent preserved folk songs as well as new songs about life – one was about an old car (Scoroscoro), another about an alcoholic liquor, one about wooing a girlfriend, and another about riding a bicycle! You can find them on YouTube. They sing and dance for over an hour – it is marvelous! We buy a CD and look forward to listening to it when we get home!