Around the World Again

Walvis Bay, Namibia – April 7, 2018

Today’s tour was not the best one I have ever been on. I chose to take the tour that went to Swakopmund through my travel agency. We did all the items described in the write-up but I would have liked to have some time to walk along the main street and look into the shops.

Namibia came as a complete surprise to me. Only a few blocks from the port at Walvis Bay is the Namib Desert (for which the country is named and is the oldest in the world). In the two cities we saw, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, there were lots of neat homes (very few with bars in the windows), much new building, no graffiti, and no poverty to be seen. I know it is there but it was strange that we could not see any of it. The two cities were also eerily deserted. The streets are wide but seeing three moving cars at one time was unusual. Very few people were seen walking while you would expect a great deal of hustle and bustle on a Saturday. It was almost like being on a film set.

We had to go through immigration on the ship. The travel agency had arranged to get us in the second group (and the first two were called together). Many people lined up regardless of the number they were giving but Christel was checking the numbers and made people get out of line if their’s had not been called. It did not take too long but our tour scheduled to leave at 8:15 did not take off until closer to 9:30.

It was about a 30 minute drive to Swakopmund. It was founded in 1892 as the main harbor for the colony of German South West Africa. The colony was taken over by the Union of South Africa in 1915. Today it is a popular holiday resort that retains some of the original buildings.

Our first stop was at a rug weaving store that had a leather factory next door. I felt it was a fairly wasted half hour and I did not see anyone buy anything big (I bought a magnet from a vendor in front of the factory).

We then went to the museum. We had an hour to look at the museum, see the craft vendors across the street, and/or walk into town. Far too short a period of time in my estimation. The museum was started by a dentist in 1951 and had a little bit of everything – stuffed animals, trophy heads on the walls, collections of all kinds of things (such as beer bottles and toy cars), rooms set up with various antique items, and even some old carts and wagons.

Looked through the craft vendors and would have loved to buy some wooden objects but there was no way I could get them home without buying another suitcase.

We then had a very short stop at the Crystal Gallery before heading back to Walvis Bay by way of Dune 7, the tallest sand dune in the country evidently. We saw some people climbing it.

Our last stop was at the lagoon which is a Ramsar site (wetlands of importance) where there were hundreds of flamingos.

I decided to take the shuttle to the new (less than a year old) Dunes Mall. It was a wasted trip as I did not need any clothing, shoes, housewares, electronics, toiletries, or groceries. I heard they had fantastic free wi-fi but I had not brought my iPad.

When I returned to the ship (just after 4) I had to go through immigration again and then had lunch at the Taco Bar. I missed the presentation by the charity for which we had the silent auction but will watch it on TV.

Since there was no 5 pm trivia, I sat and finished my asymmetrical shawl that I have been working on with the hand-dyed alpaca I purchased in the terminal in Hobart. About 7, I had dinner and tried the springbok that was on the menu in the Lido. It was fairly good and not gamey.

Came back and worked on the blog before going to the local cultural show at 9:30 (the reason I ate in the Lido). The group was called “Black Melody” and they performed a number of traditional songs based on the daily lives of their ancestors.

Sea day tomorrow.

Street scenes…