We arranged a pre-dawn breakfast, then headed out of town. Dan only bumped two curbs and ended up in the wrong lane once in our first 50 meters of left-side driving, followed by a fairly uneventful 30km drive to Walvis Bay. We met Jeanne, proprietor of Eco-Marine Adventures, at the Dolphin Café, to SEAL the deal for our kayak tour of Walvis Bay. By the way, Walvis is Afrikaans for whale fish which, as you may know, is a misnomer, because whales are mammals. We hopped into Jeanne’s vehicle, met her colleague Franchot and five other oarsmen, and were briefed on the protocol during our ride along the beach, past the lighthouse, two jackals, flocks of sea gulls and terns, and two large seal colonies to Pelican Point.
We disembarked while the seals barked and boarded our kayaks on the bay side while the surfers mounted their boards on the ocean side of the sandy spit.
Five minutes into our rowing, Anne caught the first glimpse of a very cute Walvis Bay mini-dolphin, as they arced periodically and unexpectedly around us for around 20 minutes.
The clear waters were littered with hundreds of large red (and harmless) jellies (they ain’t fish either) wiggling their jello-y selves like a pre-Jenny Craig Fergie doing the Hula.
Finally, we headed in the direction of our primary morning target—a colony of 80,000 sea lions.
For the next hour, they simply flippered out all around us--dancing, leaping, barking, grunting, winking, cuddling, floating on their backs,
nibbling on our oars, occasionally giving the kayak a nudge, and rubbing their whiskers on our fingertips.
On shore, lazy, obese bulls occasionally snorted and bumped for dominance, but in the water, the seals were all fun and games.
On our way back to Swakop, we stopped very briefly at the pier in Walvis Bay, to see the pelicans, but were disappointed to find four of them rather domesticated and begging for food. Our only other Swak disappointment was the informal housing development segregated 3km outside of the quaint city limits.
After some blogging and napping at the Villa, we enjoyed Anne’s BAG (Blond African Guided) Lady Tour of the very civilized city of Swakopmund, and its German church, former town hall-turned hotel/casino/Chinese restaurant complex, and flea market (mercifully skipping the maritime museum). We strolled along the Moll (seaside promenade), stopping to admire two kayak surfers riding the waves,
fisherman working for their dinner, and two very handsome YOUNG couples
being photographed in the glow of a colorful sunset.
We feasted on a very traditional German meal at Swakop’s favorite dining establishment, Kucki’s, whose decorations (including a half-airplane sticking out of the wall) proved more interesting than the cuisine.
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