We made it!  Yay.  Only so worse for wear (well, me, of course, not Ed!).  We have our own private 4X4 Dunes tour today at 9:30, so our morning proceeds as normal.  Then, because we are a tad leery due to our previous Senegal and The Gambia challenges with finding the tour guide, we call our tour guide through WhatsApp just to confirm he will be there at 9:30.  He is a little surprised we are confirming, but says yep, he’ll be there.  So – off we go around 9am to stand outside the port gates. 

As promised, Marius is there along with another guide corralling his passengers. We thought this was going to be private, but turns out there are 8 of us altogether, 4 in each car.  Oh well, it is still a small group and much cheaper than the ship’s tour.  Off we go with our group – including Peter and Linda from the UK who are very sweet – and Marius, the tour company owner, as our guide. 

Our first stop is the viewing area for the Flamingo Lagoon.  A huge shallow lagoon filled with thousands of flamingoes. two varieties – a smaller pink (eats more of the brine shrimp which consume the pink algae) and a larger version of the lighter pink variety.  Marius points out the flamingoes that are doing a “dance”, turning around in circles to stir up the sediment on the bottom of the lagoon to get more algae and food (thus the name of the Spanish flamenco dance).  When the tide goes out you can see circles in the sand on the lagoon bed.  Cool.

Next up we head to the Salt mine, through this incredible field of Asparagus seaweed.  Never heard of that!  It is beautiful, green and deep, deep maroon (not a good picture – wrong side of the car) – like a huge, thick field of moss.  And it is edible.  Namibians make a juice with it, and cook with it like an herb. 

We continue along a hard packed road, which looks like tarmac, but is actually hard packed salt.  It is an easy and cheap way to build the roads here, considering this is the largest salt mine in Namibia producing 1 million tons of salt annually.  You would have never known the road was salt!  Although Marius says that when it rains (which it hardly ever does) the road is a muddy mess.  On the way we pass through empty fields of sand and salt, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Arriving at the salt mine there are mountains of salt and thousands of huge bags of salt being loaded onto trucks.  The bags are to be refined into table salt, the rest will be exported bulk on ships.  It is a colossal operation, just huge in scope. 

And then our fun begins!  We turn away from the mine and head out into the open sand fields, to our first dune ride.  Marius starts by trying to go up this huge sand dune but is foiled by his tires – he hasn’t let the air out of them yet so he can’t make it up the hill.  After a couple of valiant attempts, we go the long way around, arriving at the top of the dune with the other vehicle who were able to make the steep climb.  It is stunning up here!  You can see for miles – out across landscape that looks like the moon – and then over to the other side with the salt flats and the factory in the distance. 

Now we have to go back down.  Ay yi yi.  All I can tell you is that I am very glad that I am sitting in the back and can’t really see what is ahead of us!  The side view is quite lovely and peaceful, looking out over the dunes and across to the salt mine.  And best yet, I don’t have to freak out knowing what is coming!  But Ed can and happily takes videos of our approach and our descent!  OMG! 

Back down at sea level, we take a more leisurely drive through the completely manmade Pink Lake, with plenty more flamingoes, across a causeway built out of sand/salt and onto the sandy beach where we get a lesson on the seals.  There are 1.6 million seals along the coastline here – their population doubling in 30 years.  Sadly, we are also told we will see a lot of dead seals as well as living.  They either wash up here or just die here – from natural causes, be it age or lack of food because there are so many of them out there in the waters.  Fortunately we aren’t seeing any yet, but we do come upon a flock of cormorants, sunning by the water.

Arriving at Sandwich Harbor National park, we get a bathroom break – well Ed takes a bathroom break – I didn’t have to which turns out to be an excellent decision on my part (confirmed by Linda who did need said break).  Besides the rest stop, we get to stretch our legs and wander around looking at the scenery, the beach which stretches for miles upon miles, little bird tracks in the sand and here sadly, the beginning of the seal carcasses.  Some fresher than others – as is indicated by the desiccated, buried one right by the 4×4.  Cycle of life.

Moving along down the beach, are more gorgeous vistas.  Sand and beach for as far as the eye can see.  More cormorants.  Gulls in flight.  The tracks of a jackal (there are hyenas out here too – both scavengers, feeding off the dead seals) until finally we start seeing the dunes rising up in the distance, coming closer and closer to us.

We catch sight of a Springbok and stop atop a dune for a closer look.  The springbok isn’t too terribly cooperative – even though Marius says they are pretty acclimated to people.  He turns around and wanders away, and we are left with simply gazing out at the stunning views.  Not really too much of a problem.  It is gorgeous out here.

And then we’re off – atop the dunes, riding through deep sand where very few other vehicles have been.   The views just get better and better – it is like being out in the middle of the desert all alone.  I still just marvel at how these guys know where to go and how to drive – of course they’ve been doing it forever so it is rote to them – but to us it is simply amazing.  And the views, they just never stop!

After another pit stop, we head down to the beach, where the tide is going out so we can drive along the narrow shore toward our final destination at the protected bay area of Sandwich Harbor.  Along the way we find a young seal resting on the sand, exhausted from swimming in the water.  This is one of the few places in the world where the sand dunes run right into the ocean.  While making for great photos, they also make the beach so narrow in places, we have to time our drive to the tides.  Totally fun!   

We stop for a sand “waterfall” – the winds pushing the sand over the dunes looking like a waterfall. Then we are off again for more tide racing, stopping once more to get a close up look at a seal who is having none of it! The closer we get – the faster he races to the water!

Arriving at Sandwich Harbor, we have time to wander and explore – as Captain Antonio (the Star Trek fan) always says “Where no one has gone before.”

It is a beautiful place – with a thick field of asparagus seaweed all green and deep maroon running next to the shallow lagoon-like bay where more flamingoes are feeding, they too wanting no part of us.  As our 4×4 companion Peter finds out trying to get closer for photos while they run further into the water.  Because the tide is going out, we can also see close up the flamingo sand circles Marius was telling us about earlier. That is just fascinating. 

It is here we have our lunch – or finger food – as they call it.  A wonderful spread of quiche, samosa, vegetable wraps, chicken schnitzel, and various other delicacies.  Oh – and fresh oysters, shucked right there on the beach.  I am traditionally not a fan of raw oysters, but I can’t turn these down – and they are excellent.  A little lemon juice on top, and a perfect snack to go with an excellent sparkling wine.  Lovely.  There is also local beer for those who prefer (yes, we are talking about Ed!) and then dessert too – chocolate covered figs and dense rich chocolate brownies.  Perfect.

Now it is time to head back, but not before dune riding.  Oh my.  Up, up, up we go to the top of this steep dune with an excellent view across Sandwich harbor where we just had our lunch.  Then it is down, down, down – yikes!  I am once again thankful I am in the back seat!   Marius tells us that the dunes are always a 57% incline, never more due to the properties of the sand – which is somewhat reassuring, but still!  The best way to describe the next hour or so is just to say it was both terrifying and exhilarating – with the 4×4 vehicles deep in the sand and gorgeous views and vistas across the miles and miles of sand dunes.  We’ll let the pictures and videos speak for themselves!

Back down at sea level, we make one final stop at the pink lagoon where you can clearly see the pink color in the channels running along the salt flats. 

And then it is back to the ship – a fantastic tour and day!

After our normal evening schedule, we go to the Cabaret for a Destination Celebration – which, to be honest, was not all that great.  The overview said there would be traditional African music, the choir, an Oompah band and dancers.  A little odd with the Oompah band, but Namibia was a German colony, no matter how brutalized, and those traditions do still exist.  However, what ensued was anything but German, at least in our mind.  The show started with a great Indigenous rhythm band who are excellent on the drums and xylophone-type instrument, but then the “oompah” band came on – 2 old white guys playing American rock and country, and oddly chosen songs, and not playing or singing them very well at that.  Plus, they literally had to be told to get off the stage!  Emily came out to introduce the next act, and they ignored her and kept playing. Then what we assumed to be the local stage manager had to come up on stage and tell them to stop.  To add insult to injury, the next group to appear were 5 beefy white girls doing a poor imitation of the Rockettes, dancing to songs like Cotton Eye Joe.  Really?  A little tone deaf, don’t you think?

We suffered through all that, fortunately sticking it out, because the next two acts were the acapella group who were excellent dancers and singers and put on a fabulous high octane show.  The final act was the choir, also fabulous, with the first song imitating the sounds of the wild and a second more upbeat song. Then the finale with the acapella group and choir together.  Incredible performances by those two groups.  But overall?  Definitely a fail in terms of highlighting local culture.  There are multiple tribes of indigenous living in Namibia, with a lot more and different cultural entertainment than was exhibited here.  If Germany is still a big influence, which it apparently is, even though less than 3% of the population is German, then better examples could have been brought forward to display it than what we saw tonight.  At least we weren’t bused out somewhere crazy to go see this – that would have made it even worse! 

Oh well – can’t win them all!  It is off to bed with us, which is fortunately just a quick stroll and one set of stairs away.