April 13th, 2024

Sorry for the delay in posting. I was having trouble getting pictures loaded.

As we said in the end of our last post the Captain said we would miss Luderitz, Namibia due to the late departure out of Cape Town. The first day at sea after Cape Town the Captain announced that we would have an abbreviated stop in Wallis Bay and not actually dock until 3pm. The problem was that most of the tours offered could no longer be done due to the late docking. We were supposed to take a catamaran ride around the bay to see seals, dolphins and flamingoes. We were torn between that excursion and the one that went out into the desert.

Viking came through and said that they had arranged for a special event out in the desert for us. We did not need to sign up just get off the boat and head to one of the many vehicles that would transport us on an hour drive into the desert. They did not have a lot of specifics since they had never done this before. One thing they did say was that there would be no place to sit so if you ha mobility issues they recommended you not go.

While we were disappointed we could not do the catamaran we were excited to go out into the desert. Since the two Micheals we hang out with were sick they were not going to go and Jeff has mobility issues so he opted out. We decided to make it a girls night out and the 5 of us got off together once we went through face-to-face immigration in the Star theatre. I have to say we have never gotten so many passport stamps on any trip. While most countries have gone electronic and don’t actually stamp the passport the 3rd world countries still do and we have been to a lot of 3rd world countries recently.

The entrance into Wallis port. You can see all the sand

When we excited the port there were 2 different groups singing for us. One was a girls group and the other was a guys group. One group would sing a song and then the other would. It was almost like a competition of who could do better.

The boys were selling a CD of their music

There were all manner of vehicles that we could get on for the ride to the desert. They had buses, vans and 4 x 4s. We were loaded on a bus since most of the smaller vehicles were already taken.

The first stop was off to the bay to see the large flock of flamingoes that live there.

They were a little pink but also it was cloudy

Close-ups of the flamingoes

You can see the pink when the sun is out.

Our bus driver was just that, a bus driver, so we got no information except to tell us how long we could stop at each photo stop.

After the lagoon we drove out of town about 20 minutes and made our first stop in the desert. It was to Dune 7 which is actually the 7th dune one encounters after crossing the river Tsauchab. It is all the highest dune in Namibia measuring 1256 feet tall.

Dune 7

It is possible to climb dune 7 and they say it only takes about 15 minutes. We did not have enough time to try it but we are guessing it is strenuous. Also there was a fatal dune buggy accident on the dune in December when 1 flipped over and rolled down the hill several times.

The people in it give you the idea of the size.

Here are our shadows from girls night out.

Kathy and I in front of Dune 7. It was chilly and we were warned that when the sun went down in the desert it would get colder.

The sand had lots of mica in it so it glittered and it also kept any designs you made in it.

You can see a group of people on top and also walking down.

After Dune 7 we drove farther into the desert which is a national park. There are nice roads going out to the desert and we saw very few other cars.

We turned off on a dirt road and had another photo stop

It was perfect weather

Pristine landscape

You can see some buses and 4 x 4s in the distance stopped at another view point.

After about 90 minutes we made it to our destination and they had the event set up in a nice valley.

They had tables with champagne, juice, water and local beers set up and also cheese and crackers and port-a-potties.

They also had a mens choir for our entertainment singing traditional African music.

There we hills all around us and no one seemed to carry where you went or what you climbed up to so Kathy and I got a drink and headed up for a nice vantage point for the sunset.

Yup we hiked up with my champagne flute and Kathy’s beer.

Our shipmates were everywhere

Tons of photos were taken

You can see the road we came in on and the 4 x 4 vehicles

Kathy and I at a high vantage point waiting for sunset.

Our view Looking down on Kathy

Our vantage point

Amazing colors

We had climbed down a little ways so we were not going back down in the pitch dark

The moon

What was really great was all the stars since there was so little light pollution. They were spectacular and probably our last good view of the southern cross since we will be crossing the equator in the next few days.

We managed to get in a 4×4 for the ride back to the boat and our driver was from Namibia and liked to talk so he told us a lot about the country and that crime was very high. He explained that it did not pay to have nice things because people came in and stole them. Almost all the communities we saw had walls around them to slow the burglars down. It was interesting hearing his perspective. He also told us that the Queen Victoria was supposed to dock in Wallis Bay the next day but they had canceled due to a very late arrival into Cape Town. We apologized and explained that it was our fault because we could not get out of port.

When we got back to the ship around 8:30 they had left World Cafe open for people to grab a bite to eat.

The whole excursion was a nice save for Viking since so many people disappointed in no Victoria Falls and not being able to get off the boat the second day in Cape Town.

We now have a 7 day stretch to Dakar, Senegal and as I write this we are finishing up our 3rd day at sea. The trip is winding down and towards the end we have 10 ports in a row which will probably exhaust us all since we get lax on all the sea days.