Our second tour from Swakopmund was an excursion by boat, to visit the animals which live in the lagoon of Walvis Bay, a big natural bay with calm sea. Pelicans and seals are used to the boats and visit them to get their share of fish. A pleasure for the guests to get to see them so close!
Further out at sea we could watch some dolphins and drove past the seal colony on the tip of the sandy headland.
The boat trip included a snack of oysters and sparkling wine, and trays of other treats. We learned that oysters would not propagate in the cold water, so they do it on land with warmer water. But as soon as they are big enough they grow very fast, as Namibia’s cold Benguela Current is among the most fertile marine habitats in the world. It contains extraordinary volumes of oxygen and plankton, which greatly speeds up the time it takes the oysters to reach market size.
After our boat tour, we drove along the bay, looking for flamingos, which live here in big numbers, up to 43,000 were counted in Walvis Bay. There are actually 2 kinds to be seen, and while standing next to each other, they are easy to distinguish: the Greater Flamingo and the Lesser Flamingo.
Our next tour will take us to Sandwich Harbour, a lagoon south of Walvis Bay. We were curious what we would experience, as we had seen incredible photos about this tour – more on the next post!