Adventures in Namibia

This particular cruise isn’t very port heavy at all!  We only had 4 cities including our beginning and ending points over a four-week period.  We honestly didn’t know what to expect for these ports, either, because they were basically whatever stops were there along our crossing across the Atlantic Ocean.  After leaving Cape Town we headed north along the coast of Africa to Namibia, a country that has many different landscapes.  We stopped in the coastal city of Walvis Bay.  It is a really interesting environment here, as I later learned.

This piece of coast is known as the “Skeleton Coast” because of its extremely harsh conditions and the frequency of shipwrecks and whale skeletons that are washed up onto the shore each and every year to this day.  The port of Walvis Bay is known for many dolphins and seals as well, but inland only a bit you find complete desert.  When you picture the most remote, barren desert you can think of with nothing but enormous sand dunes reaching for miles in any direction, that is what you can find here in Walvis Bay. 

When we arrived Laura and I decided to head out to try and get some insight into what we could do in the area to occupy our day.  We started by talking to some tourist info people from town, but hey were extremely unhelpful and didn’t seem to understand that I wanted prices and times of things.  They couldn’t give me many answers, but I really wanted to try to get out to the desert!  When the Ballroom Couple, Olena and Sasha, came along and said they wanted to pitch in to ride to the desert we decided to go ahead and get a move on.  We soon drove out into the barren land and drove up to a small shack on the edge of the road, overlooking a Dune 7, the largest sand dune in the world, which multiplied into a huge area of sandy mountains.  Upon arrival we learned that we could get 4-wheelers (or ATV’s or quad-bikes…whatever you want to call them) and have a guide take us into the desert to go riding all along the dunes.  We thought this sounded pretty awesome, so we paid up, got suited into helmets and glasses and got acquainted with our vehicles.  They were actually manually able to shift gears for a stronger ride with a foot pedal. 

Our guide, Joanie, was a guy who clearly knew this land like the back of his hand.  After getting ready, we headed out to the dunes where our 4-wheelers slid around a bit, but mainly gripped well onto the solid ground that was formed by the mountains of sand before us.  Joanie was showing off, doing wheelie’s and driving barefoot.  We laughed as both Laura and I got stuck at different points going up hills because we didn’t properly shift gears, but we pretty much had the hang of it and quickly began having the time of our lives!  It was seriously amazing.  We would drive up HUGE hills and stop at the peak where our guide would pull us over and explain how to safely go down the extremely steep hills.  We are talking hundreds of feet down and we would go one by one or all together, screaming and feeling like we were on top of the world.  It was truly one of the most incredible experiences of my life.  I will NEVER forget riding up and down dune after dune and looking around to the ever-changing, smooth formations made by the fine, glittering sand.  It was unbelievable.

After a bit over an hour we headed back to the shack and turned in our ATV’s and decided to head over to the large dune right there and try to climb it.  We had seen people walking along the rim of the dunes after climbing their steep face, so we thought we would give it a go.  After about 10 tough strides up the hill that only left us about 5 feet off the ground, we knew this was no easy task.  We kept going and going, huffing and puffing our way up the dune, but it was AWFUL!!!  I have never had so much sand in my shoes in my life and we just kept sinking further and further back down the hill.  We made it about halfway up, but gave up there, knowing we had no shot at reaching the top.  We couldn’t help but laugh our heads off at our pitiful attempt, though!  Ha ha!

When we headed back to the ship we found out that we had been put on the evening full-ship tour that was a dinner out in the dunes.  We headed out that evening in a small van to the same area where we had been 4-wheeling.  This time, though, the vans kept driving and driving and driving!  It seemed like we would never get off the horribly bumpy roads, but we finally turned onto the soft sand of the dunes where there were small lanterns lighting our way between hundreds of feet of sand into a small valley where we parked. 

I was BLOWN AWAY by the setup of the whole event.  On every side of us were dunes climbing about 300 feet high, there were 4 camels that were there giving little rides around the dunes, and 50 lanterns sat in the sand, giving a special ambiance to the whole area.  There was, of course, a red carpet that led to the main area of three large tents and a courtyard kind of setup.  There was a tree lit with twinkle lights sitting in front of the main entertainment for the night, a Namibian youth choir, drummers, and some guys playing xylophones and things.  They literally sang the most amazing music ALL NIGHT LONG!  To start, Laura and I climbed up one of the dunes (on a much more shallow incline) to a peak with an awesome view.  Then we headed down for pictures riding camels before going in for dinner.  I couldn’t believe all the food!  There were 3 or 4 buffets set up with oxtail, chicken, lamb, and antelope for dinner along with lots of veggies and desserts.  We ate our weight in African food and finished up enjoying more music from the choir.  As a grand finale to this magical night they had fire breathers and flame throwers perform for the crowd.  I was definitely on sensory overload by this point, but what a great experience. 

Namibia was a wonderfully full, exciting day on the trip and I couldn’t have asked for any more adventures.  What a FANTASTIC day to share with Laura and really give her an idea of how great the experience has been for me.  It’s been so good to have her here visiting and hanging out with me, especially with all the sea days we are going through.  I can’t wait to finish telling you all about the trip when I get home, but until then…

See you in 4 days!

Tripp