Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Already super frustrated that I was a day behind with my travel diary after the Cape Town debacle here I am on Sunday night writing up what we did on Wednesday for the THIRD TIME. I first wrote about Wednesday’s activities before we went down to dinner on Thursday. When I picked up my iPad again after dinner I was dismayed to find that what I had written earlier was GONE. I had another go at catching up with the travel diary on Saturday and just about got there – thousands of words written for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – and AGAIN, all my work disappeared during dinner.
I enjoy reflecting on our activities and writing our travel diary at the end of each day to cement our memories but I am finding the instability of the tools that I am using an absolute trial. It’s tedious trying to re-write what I’ve already written because I feel that my words are never as good the second time around. And as for going for the three-peat, that’s just agonizing and sucks the joy out of keeping a travel diary. Bernie is still processing photos though for the blog and has asked me to persevere with producing the words.
Wian wanted wheels on the road at 8.00am this morning. We were all at the truck in good time and drove back to Walvis Bay, this time between the golden dunes and the Atlantic Ocean … not that we could see either with thick fog clinging to the coast line!
Arriving at Sun Sail Catamarans on the Walvis Bay Waterfront we were allocated to the Silver Sun catamaran. Our host, Billy, introduced himself and his colleague, Jackson. In search of the Namibian Marine Big Five – whales, dolphins, mola, leatherback tortoises and seals – we motored out of the harbour. A cheeky Cape Fur Seal came up over the transom to join us and took a liking to Bernie, leaning against his leg and resting is chin on his thigh! You are not allowed to touch the wildlife so we were asked to stand up to make room for our hitch hiker.
Our route took us past oyster farms as we made our way to Pelican Point, a remote peninsula in the Erongo region of the Namibian coast. With 60,000 playful Cape Fur Seals calling this area home we didn’t have any trouble spotting seals! We were also treated to some dolphins surfing the wake in front of the twin hulls of the catamaran. Then the call went up that a whale had been spotted, so we motored over to join the other watercraft watching the humpback whale feeding.
As we headed back towards the harbour food was laid out for us to enjoy. The spread included some of the local oysters but, since they were being served ‘natural’, I passed on those. The fog was finally burning off so our return to the harbour was much warmer than our outward bound journey. The crew called a pelican to join us and it was happy to pose for photos with people … if they were inclined to get that close to a bird with a very big beak!
Wian met us back at the waterfront and drove us back to Swakopmund where we had the rest of the day to ourselves to explore this lovely German colonial town. We went for a walk past some of the lovely old buildings and then took a turn out the rickety old jetty. We walked along the waterfront to the sheltered swimming beach that Wian pointed out to us yesterday. The flags were out and people (OK, children) were swimming. Tempted as we were to dip our toes in the Atlantic Ocean (not at all) we settled instead on eating ice-creams by the sea. A quick visit to the lighthouse and then it was back to the hotel.
Dinner tonight was at a German restaurant, Altstadt. Featuring very traditional German fare we all enjoyed one of our best meals to date.
Steps: 12,832 (8.67kms)
