SUNDAY, APR 18TH--WALVIS BAY CONTINUED

Sunday afternoon and evening was action packed! My 5 hour tour, “Treasures of the Nimib Desert by Off-Road Vehicle”, began shortly after noon and departed pier in vans with only 4 people in each one. We left the industrial, port city of Walvis Bay (also a smelly port city) on the coastal road towards the old German city of Swakopmund. There are huge sand dunes all along the coast line of Namibia here. The dunes are up to 500 feet high and extends up to 10 miles inland from the ocean. We’re talking A LOT of sand. When the dunes ends then starts a rolling flat desert with a compact sand and small rock surface. This desert extends up to 100 miles inland. From Swakopmund we turned easterly into the Namib-Naukluft National Park following gravel roads in the desert. The Namib desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world and home to the world’s highest-shifting sand dunes. We were traveling in a 7 van convoy of vehicles through the desert. The tour guide was in the lead vehicle so the convoy would stop at various sights and he would explain things to the group. Our first stop was to look at the tiny plant life, called lichen, that was growing on many small rocks throughout the desert. If it rained these small plants would change colors and this was demonstrated by the guide pouring bottled water on them. So the desert would change colors following a rare rain. Next we drove through the Swakop River valley and on to an area called the Moon Landscape. It was created over millions of years by the winds that reduced mountains to spectacular rock formations and sand and now it resembles the moon’s surface. There were also black rock formations adding a color contrast to the rugged terrain. There were dolorite rocks which are basically iron rock. Our guide banged a small dolorite stone on a big boulder and it sounded like a hammer hitting an anvil. Hopefully, my photos will show you what I am trying to describe in words. Hope to get them uploaded tomorrow as we have 4 days at sea after leaving Walvis Bay. Our next stop was to see a small area where some pre-historic plants, called Welvitschia Mirabilis, were growing. They are only found growing in Namibia and thousands of these plants grow in some areas of the Namib desert. Some of these plants live 2500 years. They are of no value as you cannot eat them and there is no medicinal value with them. They are fascinating plants however. There are male plants and female plants and tiny red bugs pollinate the female flowers. They appear to have many long leaves that lie on the ground out from the low trunk but actually they only have 2 leaves. These two leaves split to form the others. They get moisture to live from the desert fog that the leaves absorb. There are some animals that live in the desert. On our drive back we saw small “Spring Buck” (small deer-like animals), ostriches, and some jackals. There were no watering holes. The spring buck at leaves from the “dollar shrub”. These round silver dollar shaped leaves were full of water. Next we made a stop at a kind of oasis for a glass or two of champagne, raw oysters, cheese, and crackers. A pickup pulling a port-a-potty showed up right after we stopped. How convenient!! Our last stop was at Dune 7. It use to be the highest sand dune in the world but no longer holds the title. Here we had the opportunity to climb to the top of it. Not me! I got back to the ship with just enough time to take a quick shower and change for our Regent event, “Dinner under the Desert Stars”. We all were bused out into the sand dunes to a place with beautiful huge white tents, open pit fires, local kids singing, locals dancing , and other entertainment. We had a wonderful buffet dinner with wines, beer, or soft drinks. There were 4 camels that we were suppose to be able to ride but their handlers said not after dark, and of course we arrived after dark. It was a very nice evening under a new moon and lots of stars. It is Monday evening now as I write this, as we had another wonderful day and tour here in Namibia. Will discuss that tomorrow as well as try to get some photos uploaded for you. Tonight we are dining with our next door neighbors, Caroline and Don.