Another highlight today – a boat trip to the Lagoon, Pelican Point and then further out to sea looking for dolphins and if we were very lucky whales (unlikely as it’s a bit early in the season).
The weather in Swakopmund was clearer this morning and we drove south through, basically, a desert. I tried to find out what these structures were but without success - my best guess would be some kind of shell fish farm.
And a bridge or oil pipeline maybe.
The country is certainly never going to run out of building sand.
Unfortunately as we got closer to Walvis Bay the mist thickened. The houses look like Monopoly houses, just little square boxes with different colour roofs.
I think we'll be lucky to spot the end of the boat, never mind whales!
Luckily it soon began to brighten up and we were entertained royally by Andreas and his pelicans and fur seals which kept coming aboard hoping to be fed (and they were).
It's really hard to photograph the pelicans at such close quarters as their beaks are very long and they think nothing of barging you out of the way or whacking you with their very strong wings.
Like this chap, at one point I was selected by one enormous pelican except it landed on my head, rather heavy and very sharp claws – luckily Andreas rescued me pretty quickly.
The pelicans and fur seals came and went as they pleased even after the food had run out. The pelicans loved to fly off, circle, then land on the roof of the catamaran and peer down at you hoping for food - quite disconcerting especially if you've previously been chosen as a landing post!
We were well wrapped up for a morning at sea but the Namibian coffee (actually rum) was very welcome and warming.
Before too long we had blue skies and glorious sunshine and I took way too many photos of these handsome and comical birds.
This gull was very handsome too - I think it's a juvenile Kelp Gull.
We then saw a couple of dolphins swimming alongside but getting decent pictures of them was practically impossible – at the back of the catamaran are two trampoline type things so hard to stand still on – I ended up taking my shoes off, sitting down and hanging my feet over the edge but I never did get a shot of them "breaching".
The long stretch of treacherous shoreline, flanked by bleachingly white sand is known as the Skeleton Coast for the number of ships wrecked there and for the many sailors who perished from lack of fresh water. We sailed past a few of them.
The oysters in these waters really are huge.
And so are the jelly fish!
And then on to view a colony of Cape fur seals. Namibia is home to approx. 1/3rd of the world’s 1.5-2m Cape fur seals and there are even bigger colonies further north at Cape Cross Seal Reserve where about 60,000 pups are born each year.
The fur seals nearest to the boat were mostly youngsters and it was fun to watch them playing in the water.
Once we were back in calmer waters we were all invited inside for some oysters, other fish, snacks, sandwiches and copious glasses of sparkling wine – once again Namibians do things with style.
A few shots on the way back in.
A really enjoyable morning :)