Steve and Cathy's Blog

Cathy at Dune 7

We sail into the protected and important harbor of Walvis Bay right on time around 8:00am to begin a 32-hour stay, the first port of call where we actually get to go ashore for two days.   Even without docking, we can see that this is going to be different than the three previous West African ports. There are several huge dry docks, some with small ships in them being repaired, a large car carrier ship, and numerous bulk freighters, with dozens anchored offshore. Because, like other places we’ve visited, visits from cruise ships is not all that regular, we are docked smack dab in the middle of an industrial port area, with piles of coal and other minerals as our scenery.

We are due to embark on the Swakopmund Sightseeing excursion at 9:00am, one of seven excursions leaving between 8:45 and 9:30am. So hundreds of people will be leaving the ship during this short period of time. I mention that because the first thing we must do is go through a “mandatory face-to-face inspection” by Namibian immigration authorities, including passport and Namibian immigrations paperwork examination. The only place left to hold such a large event is Horizons on Deck 10.

The event starts badly. Namibian immigration personnel don’t show up at the appointed 8:00am, and are fifteen or twenty minutes late. When we are all advised to proceed to Horizons for the inspection, we soon all clog the stairways and elevators. Cathy and I make it as far as Deck 9 where the line to even get on the stairs to Deck 10 winds down the hall of Deck 9 all the way to the bow.

There is some complaining and harrumphing, but by and large everyone is resigned to this. However, as more people arrive, are confused by the jumble of people and attempt to circumvent the long Deck 9 line, we all firmly, and in no uncertain terms, acquaint them with where the back of the line is and point the way. The “me-first-ers,” of which there are far too many on board this ship, do not pull this stunt this morning. Eventually, we all begin to inch up the stairs one step at a time. The mood improves as people assess the situation and see that Oceania had no other choice but to conduct this inspection this way and on Deck 10.

In about twenty minutes, we have progressed to Horizons, but see that we have a long way to go yet. There is a long serpentine line wending its way around the entire lounge area with chairs strategically located to create this long, winding route to the officials. The crew is as pleasant and cheerful as always, and we see that this isn’t exactly their idea of a good time either. Eventually, they begin calling for members of specific excursions to step to the head of the line, ours included.

We have already filled out our Namibian immigrations paperwork. A crew member hands us our passport, which we must keep with us while on shore, [Cathy: our friend Margie said’ “imagine all these people wandering around Namibia with their passports…?”] and we eventually step up to the desk for the inspection. The Namibian official hardly looks at us, looks for an open page in the passport, stamps it, takes their own paperwork and waves us on. Some inspection.   Whatever, after the fifty-minute cattle call, now we are free to go, and it appears that Oceania staff has so well anticipated this bureaucratic delay that we are within fifteen minutes of the correct starting time when we get on the bus.

We are on Bus 14, and it is gorgeous … and huge. We must be sitting at least ten feet off the ground, and besides the door at the front of the bus, there is another one half way back for those of us who end up in the rear. Enrichment lecturer Peter Croyle is one of our guides, as is the driver.

Before continuing with the description of the tour, I will give the very briefest of histories of Walvis Bay and Namibia. Brief because the only point of doing to is to explain why certain things are the way they are in present-day Namibia in general and Walvis Bay in particular.

Let me start with the people that were there before the Europeans showed up. The Bantu people had been migrating south from central Africa since the 14^th century, as well as the Oorlam from the east. There were several other tribes involved eventually, resulting in a conflict between the Nama and the Herero in 1880, in which the Germans interceded. To this day, there are two distinct languages in Namibia spoken by almost everybody, and neither of them is English, or German.

Speaking of those, the official language is English in Namibia because South Africa controlled Namibia after they defeated the German troops there in 1915. German troops, you say? Yes, the Germans colonized the territory in 1884 (remember the Berlin Conference where 14 European countries divided up the entire continent of Africa?), except for Walvis Bay. The Brits wanted this excellent harbor as a port and managed to hold on to it.

30,000 Namibians are descendants of the original German settlers, and the communities of Swakopmund (German for ‘mouth of the river Swakop’) and the capital of Namibia, Windhoek certainly has vestiges of the German colonization.

Oh my, I see myself falling down a Namibian-history rabbit hole, and my recounting of the country’s history is getting more disjointed and confusing with each paragraph, so let’s see if I can regroup and push on about the tour.

Our impressions about Walvis Bay being far more prosperous than the other West African ports we have visited was confirmed shortly after we left the port area. Within ten minutes, we are passing through a very upscale neighborhood full of beautiful small homes, mostly one-story concrete structures, with small manicured yards and surrounded by four- to six-foot walls.

We stop by a bay not fifteen minutes away from the very industrial port to view flamingoes. In the distance are hundred if not thousands, but we are treated to enough of them to get some nice photos of the two species that flock to this area.

We head north and in about a half hour find ourselves at Dune 7, which is a good place to discuss the climate of western Namibia where we are.   Dune 7 is one of hundreds of dunes, but its proximity to Walvis Bay and Swakopmund make it a huge tourist destination. It is not the largest dune in the world (though the highest are in Namibia) but it’s up there, as it is 1,000 feet high. The prevailing winds in the country originate in the Indian Ocean. In crossing over the continent, virtually all the moisture is squeezed out of the air, such that western Namibia receives an average of 2 inches of rain per year.

Several of the most important rivers in Namibia that originate in the eastern part of the country are “ephemeral,” meaning they only flow when there is enough rainfall in the west, which is not often, hence they are intermittent and often run dry by the time they reach western Namibia. The rivers, when they do flow, have brought a great deal of sand, and this sand becomes the basis for the dunes. The winds from the west meet up with the Atlantic Ocean, and intermittent winds from there combine with the prevailing winds from the east to create these dunes, which continue to grow and move.

So we visit Dune 7 (so named because it is 7 kilometers from Walvis Bay). It is an astounding sight, and is crawling with people attempting to climb it, which is quite doable. We opt to watch, not wanting to fill our shoes, socks and underwear with sand. In other places, these dunes attract many aficionados of extreme sports. Quads safaris traverse some, parasailing off the top of them is popular, and sandboarding (like snowboarding except it’s sand) takes place elsewhere.

After we leave Dune 7, we head for Swakopmund (our guide tells us that the locals refer to it in a shortened version as “Swakop,” pronounced “swahk’ up.” On the way, we get tons of info about the country, so here is Steve’s patented Random Facts recitation:

• We are traveling on a ‘salt road.’ A popular road building technique in the country is to lay down a hard surface of packed sand and then spray salt water on it in sufficient quantities that, when the water evaporates, the salt on top provides a smooth enough surface to drive on. When the road gets rough from use, they just scrape it and apply more salt water. However, the guide also points out that, parallel to the salt road we are on, a conventional asphalt road is under construction. There is an ambitious road building program going on all over the country as a result of the improving economy and growing mineral extraction industry.
• Mineral extraction: Since achieving independence in 1990 and having a very stable, pluralistic and free government, the economy has begun to grow, with considerable foreign investment, especially in this industry. For some time, Namibia has been one of the largest sources of yellowcake uranium in the world. Underneath the sand of the Namib Desert, the land is granite and marble. Gold has been discovered is mineable quantities inland, and copper has become an important export, especially since there is now a smelter in the country that can produce the copper anodes to ship rather than the ore itself.  The growth of this sector, as well as tourism, has led to a reduction of unemployment from 58% at the time of independence (i.e., getting out from under the foot of South Africa) to 28% presently.
• The country is quite large for the population that inhabits it. It is 318,772 square miles in size, with a population of only 2.3 million, making it the second least densely populated country in Africa.
• The three economic drivers are Mining, Meat and Fish. Mining we’ve discussed. There is a large cattle industry, especially in the north, part of the Bantu and other tribal heritage. Meat is exported to South Africa, Japan, China, the EU and even the US. The fishing industry is also a viable exporter.
• Running fourth but growing fast is the tourist industry. We are only in the western area, and the rest of the country hosts guests there for safaris and all sort of other adventures. Tourism grew by 16% in 2017 and they expect another double-digit growth in this area.
• Road building: there is need to connect the coast with the northeastern areas of the country and the countries east of Namibia. This is driven by tourism and mining.
• Although maize is grown and cattle are raised, agriculture in general is a gamble because of the inconsistent rainfall. Droughts are frequent, and infrastraucture to move water to the areas it’s needed is lacking. There is one large desalinization plant on the Atlantic just north of Swakopmund that supplies that city and a huge uranium mine about 40 miles east of there.

We arrive in Swakopmund. It is clean, modern, prosperous, loaded with shops, and large stores of every kind, large gas station/convenience stores (a la Cumberland Farms), car washes…. and the primary language is English, with some German and native languages thrown in. I will confess that we all felt right at home. Cathy even spots the Kaiser Wilhelm Holiday Suites, and notes “You don’t see that everywhere.” It does have a Bavarian-Village-meets-the-Atlantic-Ocean feel to it.

The first stop was the Karakulia Weavery, where the wool of Karekul sheep is spun, dyed and woven into spectacularly beautiful rugs and wall hangings, all quite affordable given the amount of labor and artistry that goes into them. It is fun to see the employees actually spinning the wool into coarse yarn, observe the beautiful selection of colors the yarn is dyed, and actually watch one of the weavers at work. They ship all over the world, and have a website where you can order their products. You can even supply them with a photo out of which you would like a wall hanging custom-made. Very impressive.

Next we head for the local museum, a very well laid out one with an impressive variety of interesting things to see. After about forty-five minutes, however, our appetite gets the best of us and we head across the street to a small German hotel with a nice small restaurant, where we split a delicious sandwich. Cathy has a cappuccino to reenergize, and Steve has a Shandy, a British concoction that is ginger ale (I think) with some kind of orange concentrate put on top. It is very, very refreshing.

At 1:30, it’s time to head for the ship. We take the coastal route that runs between the Atlantic Ocean and a long series of dunes. Our guide notes that there is a huge amount of condo development, condos that are purchased by Europeans and Africans as summer/winter retreats (just like in Florida for us). We also see parasailing, quad-riding and even a camel-riding attraction.

We arrive back to the ship just in time for lunch and a nap. What we did the rest of the day and evening is, at this point (three days later), lost. That means that it must have been either routine or unexceptional. Time to end this first day in Namibia.   We learned a lot about an up and coming country that we are sure to hear more about in the future, and there’s more tomorrow.