Day 17 – Walvis Bay, Namibia

Formerly known as Southwest Africa, Namibia gained independence from South Africa in 1989. With an area of 318,772 square miles, it is the 34th largest country in the world, but has one of the lowest populations with only 3.1 million residents. It has the lowest rainfall of any country in sub Saharan Africa. Most of it comprises the vast expanses of the Namib desert to the west and the Kalahari desert to the east. The Namib desert stretches along the entire coastline and varies between 60 and 120 miles in width. It is generally regarded as the oldest desert in the world and its colossal sand dunes are the highest in the world. The capital and largest city is Windhoek with a population of 490,000. Walvis Bay, which we visited today, is the third largest city with a population of around 100,000.

Since gaining independence, Namibia has maintained a fairly strong democracy and upholds some of the highest standards of human rights in all of Africa. The economy is weak however and heavily favours the minority white upper class. Unemployment is high at approximately 30% and poverty and inequality are major issues. 40% of the population is affected by poverty, and income disparity remains very high. Sanitation is poor and 2/3 of the population still draw their water from traditional wells. Life expectancy, at 64 years, is one of the lowest in the world, HIV/AIDS remains a significant problem, as is waterborne disease transmitted by poor sanitation. Mining (uranium) is Namibia‘s biggest economic activity, accounting for approximately 25% of its revenue. Tourism accounts for approximately 14% of revenue.

Namibia is statistically one of the safest countries in Africa for tourists and we certainly felt completely comfortable at all times today. The vast landscapes are stunning, surreal even, and are home to desert-adapted elephants, lions, white rhinos, leopards cheetah, giraffes zebras, vast colonies of seals and penguins as well as the worlds biggest population of the critically endangered black rhino. Life in this vast, empty, inhospitable country is hard however with severe droughts and extreme weather conditions. Almost all but intercity roads are little more than dirt tracks at best and thick sand troughs at worst.

Today we went out on a full day excursion with Mola Mola Tours. This morning we embarked on a three hour boat ride to Pelican Point sand bank to visit the Cape Fur Seal colony there – the third biggest in Namibia – with a population of around 60,000 seals. It was a delight to see so many playful babies scampering and playing in the surf and heartwarming to find a colony of any type of animal not suffering from habitat loss, poaching, pollution or decline. On the contrary, Cape Fur seals have no predators in Namibia and their numbers are actually in danger of becoming problematic.

This afternoon we jumped in a very battered old Land Rover for an extremely bumpy 60 km journey through roads carved entirely out of the thick ever-moving sands to Sandwich Harbour, an extensive desert coastal region located south of Walvis Bay, where the ocean meets the hundreds of metres high sand dunes with just a narrow strip of beach (which also seems to serve as the coastal highway) in between. After a picnic on the beach, we took to the mountainous sand dunes for a fairly hair raising 4×4 safari, roaring up one dune before pitching over the top into a precipitous slide down the other side. Within a very short time it felt a bit like being stuck in a washing machine spin cycle and most of us ‘mature’ travellers were probably secretly relieved when the time came to head back to the ship! Our guides Mandela and Andreas were unbelievably fun, personable, caring, and passionate about their roles and we felt entirely safe and looked after from start to finish. We were very tired when we got back to the ship at 4:45 for a well-deserved rest and a glass of wine!