West Africa Cruise: Desert of Namibia (12.6.24)

Namibia was quite the contrast to tropical Sao Tome, which we visited just days earlier.  Walvis Bay, Namibia, where our ship docked on December 6 and 7, 2024, is known for the vast deserts nearby.  

 
David lived in Utah's West Desert as a boy, in Dugway, and today's shore excursion was one of his favorites of the trip.  We ventured into the Namibian desert in 4 x 4 land cruisers, with guides and trackers, searching for desert animals hiding beneath the sand.

Our guide was excellent at identifying the many desert creatures and explaining to us how they thrived in this harsh environment.  His tracker (background of this photo) went ahead, searching for tracks of snakes and toads and lizards, and then beckoning to our guide when he found something promising.

This dune covered with bushes looked desolate to us, but it housed a hive of creatures.

Our guide knelt in the sand, examined the tracks of the desert creatures, and then scooped then out of the sand with his hand or with a metal hook.

The first creature was a little lizard, with big eyes and a pale skin that blended into the sand.  When our tour had taken a look, the guide placed each creature back, gently, on the sand and it quickly burrowed back into the earth.

The next creature was a snake.

It slithered into a green bush.

Our guide located another variety of lizard.

The prize of the day was a toad with bulging eyes and scaly skin.

Our guide also showed us a dried up seed that, with a bit of water or mist and a bit of wind, could blow to another spot in the desert and start a new bush.  There is virtually never rain in the Namibian desert, but cold mists blow in from the sea, providing water for animals and plants.  One beetle raises its high end high, so that drops of mist will roll down its back and into its mouth!  It was actually chilly on this day in the desert.

Our tour group consisted of three land cruisers, which followed each other into the desert.

The driver of our land cruiser owned his own tour company.  When a cruise ship docks, one large tour company hires guides from other tour companies to serve the large cruise ship group.  I sat in the front seat of our land cruiser and talked throughout our ride to the driver.  He was a fourth generation descendant of German colonizers of Namibia, but said that Namibia is such an egalitarian place that he feels no discrimination for being white.  He said that Namibia has a love/hate relationship with South Africa.  South Africa is its largest trading partner and supplies the tourists for Namibia's coastal resorts, but South Africa was also a United Nations-appointed overlord for Namibia for many years, and ruled harshly and with racism.

The next part of our tour included dashing up and down and around the sand dunes, in our land cruiser.  

Other tours in this magical place involved riding camels or racing ATVs up and down the dunes.

At the end of our tour, we drove to the seashore and ate chunks of cheese and olives, washed down with champagne or (for us) orange juice.  The water in the ocean had never looked so refreshing!

Normally, our ship cast anchor and headed for another port in the late afternoon.  Since the ship was staying in Namibia for two days, the cruise director arranged for Namibian singers and dancers to entertain us.