Namibia – Walvis Bay, Dune 7 and Swakopmund

We took potluck and hired an SUV at the port gate for our visit to Namibia. This is a large country with the land area being some four times that of GB but a population of only 2.5M. I suspect this population may be exceeded by the numerous flamingos that were ever visible from QM2. When we got up close the numbers defied imagination. There were hundreds of thousands. Everywhere along the waterfront was alive with a pink morass.

They contrasted well with the blue sky and unusually speckled cloud formation.

As we travelled down the coast a core industry for the country came into view – the production of salt. This 60 year old industry every year pumps 100 million cubic metres of sea water into 5,000 Hectares of evaporation ponds to produce over a million Tonnes of crude salt.

The salt goes through a series of evaporation and washing cycles to increase concentration and remove impurities. It is then stockpiled and trucked or bagged and sent to the port.

What was interesting was that many of the ponds were pink. This is due to Halophiles which are extreme salt-loving microorganisms that have a unique pigment resulting in the pinkish colour. These in turn colour the small shrimp that Flamingoes eat.

Fortunately rain is limited to about 2 days a year so stockpiles such as these are unlikely to be dissolved.

We then headed inland for a few kilometres. It quickly became apparent that sand plays a major role to the coast’s geography. As we headed away from the coast sand dunes increased in number culminating in our next stop – Dune 7. This is apparently the largest in Namibia although the reason for its name is less certain. It is certainly much larger that any on Australia’s Fraser island. Our enquiry as to its height met with a bemused comment that it is changing all the time - an approximation would have done me!

It is vast and hard to get a comparative scale although hopefully these posts help.

Our final stop was Swakopmund. This German heritage town has some wonderful architecture. The earliest date I spotted was 1902.

The nearby museum park was a pleasantly cool spot to wonder through.

After some lunch and a wonder through town it was time to head back to the ship via the coast road. The range of dunes continued but take note of this unique shot as it will all change with the next bout of wind! 

We are now off for our longest continuous period of sea days – 7 – should be relaxing….!