Having fun and getting ready to go
12 February 2016 | Walvis Bay, Namibia
Bill/Cloudy and cool
With luck, we may be out of Walvis Bay by sometime this afternoon to catch the afternoon winds. Mornings are pretty much windless.
It's been a very busy few days here sightseeing all over the place. We rented a car along with Dick and Tricia on Geramar and hit the road every day. Shopping(of course) for provisions and seeing the sights. Down south of here is a huge salt plant with massive salt flats where the salt water dries and then gets harvested and processed for export. It goes on for miles and miles. With there being huge mud flats near by, we also saw huge flocks of flamingos, literally thousands of them wading in the water or flying over head. Nothing seems more un flyable than a flamingo in flight. All legs and neck and a round body in between.
While shopping, we finally found a couple of water jerry cans to replace the poor leak ridden ones we've been using for years. Nice collapsable ones from Colman but over the years and with lots of lifting with the handle, the seams are beginning to go. While these are nice ridged cans that will make storage harder, they should last a while.
On Wednesday, the four of us took an ATV(All Terrain Vehicle) tour of the huge sand dunes all around us. They extend for hundreds of miles. The guide took us quite a ways into them stopping from time to time to teach us how to use the ATVs and to show and tell us about life on the dunes. From the natives to wild animals. A fascinating four hour tour. Lots of fun for all of us "old" folks zipping up and down the dunes.
In the afternoon, we took off for Swakopmund, a nice city a bit north of here with an huge German influence since they settled here a long time ago. Still going strong with lots of restaurants and bars to match. Out side of town is a back road(Welwitschia Drive) that takes you to Goanikontes Oasis, a wide spot on a river bed that's been built up into a nice small resort/retreat. Along the road, it's almost like being on what we see as the moon surface. Long rolling dark hills going off in the distance. Dark and seemingly lifeless hills as far as the eye can see. We'd heard about them from the local dry cleaners about places to visit. A really nice drive.
Yesterday, we got all the diesel we needed so we are well topped up. We found out that diesel on St. Helena runs $1.30 pounds per liter so we got all the tanks on board filled to the brim and then all our four spare tanks filled as well.
Today, we have a few more errands to run as well as getting the new water tanks filled and getting checked out of Namibia for St. Helena. It's about 1250 miles so a good 10-12 days. Winds are supposed to be good(so the forecasters say) so we should be out of here and on our way again continuing our trip from South Africa.
It's currently just 64 degrees outside so we are still bundled up in long pants and socks to stay warm at least till about 1100 when the fog burns off and the Sun comes out in force warming it up into the high 70-80s. Then off come the socks and back into shorts. Not used to fog just about every morning.
Last night as the wind was howling around us, I went on deck to check everything and saw a French catamaran up on the rocks where they are building a new break water. Two people were working to try and get it off though it looked as though it was just at the rocks and not in any really danger. I called the Port Control to let them know just in case no one had. About 30 minutes later, a tow boat showed up and pulled then off. We'd have gone but with a small outboard and a lightweight dinghy there wasn't much we could have done in the 20+ knot winds. They are now anchored about 50 yards off our starboard side safe and sound.