Fun in the Sand in Namibia

We take a tour excursion around Walvis Bay and to the sand dunes nearby.

Namibia appears to be one big desert. Its population is barely 3 million. There’s the Namib desert, and the Kalahari desert. We had a lecture on that yesterday. Here are some slides before I share today’s adventure:

Lorenso, today’s guide, said they get 20 mm of rain per year. That’s 0.79 inches. However, they get lots of fog, which we saw this morning, and the fog can extend 200 km inland, where this beetle knows how have the fog condense on its body and drip into its mouth:

Although we didn’t see any indigenous people on today’s excursion, they do exist inland. This is the home of the San people, who were the subject of the film “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”

By the way, Namibia used to be part of South Africa, but gained its independence in 1990. South Africa had won it from Germany during World War I. English is the primary and official language, followed by Afrikaans and German, then native languages.

Now, about today’s excursion. First we were driven to a nearby esplanade where flamingos are abundant. Here are a few pictures.

Pink jellyfish filled the ocean next to the Viking Sky. On the esplanade, dead ones littered the beach. Lorenso said they are stingers.

From there, we traveled along the coast to a place where we could climb a tall sand dune or pay $30 to take a motorized tour of the dunes. A big surprise was that the Viking dining crew had gotten there before us and set up a cooking operation, serving delicious native sausages (beef + pork), with soft drinks and local beer. Delicious!

Rita took a video of me as I followed our leader (also named Lorenso) and another couple passengers taking off on our 4-wheel adventure:

We went as fast as 25 mph, but mostly slower, up and down the dunes. Lorenso offered to shoot this video of me going down one of the bigger dunes.

Here’s a 360-degree video I shot at one viewpoint:

And here’s a short video Lorenso shot of me demonstrating the machine at the same viewpoint:

From there, after Rita and I had some more of those delicious sausages, the bus we were on returned to the ship. As we entered the port, we passed a collection of vendors, probably hoping we’d come back after getting off the bus. We didn’t, but others did and told me that there were women in native attire but topless urging them to take their picture. I was shown one such picture.

There was another lecture last night, this time about the Huguenots, who were expelled from Catholic France in two waves, depleting that country of talent, but enriching other countries in Europe and around the world with people driven by the Protestant Work Ethic of Calvinism. Here are some key slides from new lecturer Viv Lawes’ presentation:

South Africa was one of the beneficiaries, because the Huguenots brought viticulture to the area. Here’s a monument celebrating that:

At 6 p.m. or so, we depart Namibia for the 8-day transit to Senegal — 2,988 nautical miles, which equates to 3,400 statute miles. We also pass through 2 time zones, so we’ll be only 6 hours ahead of Denver, instead of 8. Of course, I’ll post every day. Remember, this is my diary — I’m just inviting you to read it!

We do have a 6:30 lecture tonight on “South Africa in the Contemporary Economic World, Paying Its Way.” I’ll dispatch this post now, and share what I learn tomorrow.

Bye for now.